PSALM 80

Oh Lord, open my lips and my mouth will declare your praise.

 

I’m not sure any of you have noticed, but when I preach I always open with the Psalm 51, verse 15 rather than with the Pauline greeting. I’ve always loved the Psalms and consider them a treasure that Christians far too often overlook. This doesn’t mean I’m an expert on them, but that I value them and how they fit into our heritage. Jesus was very intimately acquainted with the Psalms as were the writers of the Gospels. They are woven into the New Testament in ways most people don’t notice or realize.

I’ve chosen to use today’s Psalm as the text for my reflections this morning. I’m going to read you a modern language paraphrase of Psalm 80 from “Psalms/Now”. It will help to bring the ancient words into a more familiar context for you.

O God, You are the Creator

and the Sustainer of Your church.

You have protected and prospered

Your faithful followers

throughout the stormy and tumultuous past.

Today we are in trouble.

Listen to our cries of consternation, O God.

We are confused and confounded.

We don’t know where to turn,

in what direction to go.

We have prayed, O God.

We have sung Your praises.

We have proclaimed Your love to the world.

But today our power Is slipping away,

our prestige is wearing thin.

People seem to have little respect for us anymore.

Those who have been brought up

within our structures

and have embraced our doctrines

are leaving the fold.

They say we are no longer meeting their needs

or the needs of the world.

You were with us in the beginning, Lord.

You planted us in the midst

of this world’s turmoil.

You nurtured us and watched over us.

In spite of Your enemies,

who sought to destroy us,

we grew until we encircled the earth.

Great shrines were built in Your honor, Lord.

Magnificent institutions were established

to carry out Your purposes

Men dedicated their many skills

to perpetuate Your teachings.

Multitudes gathered to declare Your praises

Today we are in trouble, Lord.

The walls are crumbling.

Our sanctuaries no longer attract the masses.

Men’s skills are dedicated to other purposes.

We no longer are making much of an impression

on this world of ours.

Renew Your church, O God.

We know You will never turn away

those who come to you

and will forever sustain

those who trust in You.

Fan the dying embers, Lord.

Stir us up, and restore us to the position

of power and effectiveness.

Give us new life and new vision

that we may advance Your kingdom

in our disjointed world.

Renew Your church, O God

and revive Your servants,

so that the whole earth may know of Your love.

 

The psalm is a lament, a community lament. We get so focused at this time of year on the Baby Jesus, parties, gift giving, spending time with people we see as much as we’d like. Most people are happy and full of anticipation. The parties, goodies and good will are paramount. We all know that the season also brings stress and depression to others but we tend to want to ignore that aspect. It’s something we don’t talk about.

We also don’t talk about the things that would cause either an individual or a community to cry out to God with words of lament. Somehow Christianity has become this religion that only talks about salvation and glory and triumph. Yes, we are an Easter people and those things have their place. But pain is as much a part of life as laughter. It is a part of the human experience.

I don’t know about you, but I like knowing that the God to whom I pray is a God of accompaniment, not a God of vengeance or distance. I always thought that the Bette Middler song, “From a Distance” was really bad theology. My personal prayer life is what my spiritual director once called the ongoing conversation. It’s informal and intimate. I’m talking to a trusted friend and companion and I talk freely about everything.

That does mean I sometimes lament what’s going on. We, like the ancient Israelites, still live in a world where humans try to dominate one another. This country doesn’t know what it Is to live under someone else’s rule, but the Middle East remains a hotbed of rivalries and contention. Jerusalem is supposed to be the center of faith for Jews, Muslims and Christians alike. Because of that it is a place that is always being fought over. Christians still living in the Holy Land are a dwindling population. They’re being squeezed by two bitter enemies. But we all trace our roots back to Abraham. That’s something to cry out to God about in pain, anger and frustration. Let your face shine on us, oh God.

In the last few years we’ve seen so very many lives devastated or lost due to natural disasters; what the insurance companies call “acts of God”. I don’t, for one single second, believe that such things are an act of God. They are the result of the natural working of the world we live in and human frailties. The earth still shifts and shakes as it continues to transform itself. Sometimes the atmosphere and oceans experience conditions that bring us huge amounts of wind, precipitation and tidal fluctuations. That’s just how our world works and I’m not going to get into how human actions might be involved. Be with us, oh God.

My point is that when suffering happens the rest of us, as part of the human community, ought to be crying out to God in lament. God didn’t make all that suffering happen as proof of power. It isn’t punishment for bad behavior or sins known and unknown. God is the first one crying, before the rest of us even know that we should be crying. God and the heavenly host is there helping as many as they can to survive and to go on with life. The same thing applies to an auto accident, cancer and all the other senseless and often brutal things that happen to us.

The world as God created it was meant to be a Garden of Eden. Because God gave us the gift of self-awareness and autonomy the world is as we see it. That doesn’t mean God has abandoned us. When bad things happen, whether to an individual or to a community, lament is the right response. Let’s own it. Let’s embrace it. It is an appropriate response. We need to find a way to offer the ministry of presence for the person next to us who is in pain. God is there, too. God has always been there. God will always be there. Open up to God and to one another. Be a part of the community as we are all called to be. Let your face shine on us, oh God.

How can we say God doesn’t listen to our cries of pain? How can we say God doesn’t know what it’s like? How can we say to one another, pain isn’t appropriate? If you’re experiencing it then please hide it because I don’t want to know about it or deal with it. That isn’t a full relationship. Let’s drop the superficiality, hard as that might be to do. But it is the very communal thing to do. We need one another for comfort, strength and survival. Walk with us, oh God.

We’re gathered here today because each of us has heard the story of what God has been done for us. This is the season of Advent, a season of anticipation and hope. The Psalmist knew what it was to hope, because to cry out to God in pain is to anticipate and hope for the relief only God can provide.

God heard the people of Israel in their cries. God did the only thing possible to fully enter into accompaniment with us. God broke into our world in physical human form. The baby whose birth we now anticipate is the child of God, the Savior, God with us, Emmanuel. God still hears us in our cries. God knows our cities are broken, our children seek answers and life elsewhere. God knows how brutal humans can be to one another. God continues to walk with us in accompaniment and sends angels to help guide us – just realize that on any given day you might be the one who is called to be an angel. It’s part of what living in community means, and Ascension is a Christian community.

God created the heavens and the earth. God created all the creatures of the earth. God created humans in his own image. When humans cry out, God hears us. God sent his only begotten Son into the world to be in full accompaniment with us from birth to death to rebirth. We have been ransomed because God is with us.

Right now we are anticipating God coming into the world as the baby Jesus. I’m about to sit down and we’ll sing the hymn I’ve requested for today. I know you’ve sung it already this Advent season. Today I’m going to ask that you don’t just sing it, but that you pray it… O come, o come Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel…  Amen