A Song For The Journey Lectionary 29C (Proper 24C) October 20, 2013 Calvary Lutheran Church Grand Forks, ND Pastor Roger Dykstra

Transcription

1 A Song For The Journey Lectionary 29C (Proper 24C) October 20, 2013 Calvary Lutheran Church Grand Forks, ND Pastor Roger Dykstra The Bible s book of Psalms. We don t formally here at worship read them a lot, but informally we use them all the time because many, many of the words of songs that we sing here at worship as well as many of the songs our kids sing in Sunday School are based on the Psalms. I will call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised. So shall I be saved from my enemies. (Psalm 18:3) Fill my cup and let it overflow (Psalm 23:5) To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul; in you I trust, O God. (Psalm 25:1-2) Higher than the mountains, wider than the sea, deeper than the ocean is your love for me. (Psalm 25) Your love, O Lord, reaches to the heavens. (Psalm 36:5) Every move I make (Psalm 69:34) Blessed be the name of the LORD, blessed be his glorious name. (Psalm 72:19) Better is one day in your house than thousands elsewhere. (Psalm 84:10) How great is our God (Psalms 145:3)

2 - 2 - I grew up on the Psalms Back in the day, when I was growing up, my family did what, unfortunately, Kathi and I with Melissa weren t nearly as able to do we ate our meals together. And we always had devotions before leaving the table. And often for devotions, my dad would pick up the Bible and say, We ll hear a Psalm, and then he d hand the Bible to one of us, who then chose one of the Psalms and read it, after which my dad would close with a prayer. Way back in the day in Bible times the Psalms were the nation of Israel s hymn book and liturgy book, although of course there weren t such things as actual books, and so the only way people were able to participate in the songs and the liturgies of worship was by memorizing the Psalms, which people back then did. To make thateasier, the Psalms were all set to music and sung; and a worship leader maybe with a good Jewish name like David (maybe they called him Dave?) led the singing, and people who knew the songs sang along, just like you know and can sing along when I sing a Psalm, for example, like Psalm 145:2: Lord, I lift your name on high; Lord, I love to sing your praises. Psalm 121 It s called a Song of Ascent (or song of going up ) because this Psalm was used as a liturgy a devotional when someone was getting ready to leave on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem the holy city. Jerusalem is located in the mountainous high country of Israel, and so no matter where else you were in the country if you were going to Jerusalem you were, literally, going to go up. We ve all had times like maybe when we re on a plane and it starts to speed up for takeoff and then lift up and as it does we think to ourselves, I hopes it s a safe trip; and we maybe even say a quick prayer at a time like that: God, watch over me and keep me safe on this trip. Psalm 121 was a liturgy a devotional; a quick prayer like that for someone who was taking off on a trip up to Jerusalem. And there was no worry about plane crashes, of course, but there were plenty of other things for a person to worry about: it was rugged country a physically demanding journey; and it was also wilderness country with plenty of places for wild animals, or groups of robbers, to hide and pounce on you as you went by on your journey. And thinking of the journey and its potential dangers people would gather around the one who was leaving on the journey for Psalm 121 s liturgy, devotional, quick prayer. -And the one who was setting out on the journey would begin the liturgy by looking at the hills around him, and thinking of the mountains beyond them, through which he would have to travel, and the traveler would then say (actually, probably sing) Psalm 121, verses 1-2: I lift up my eyes to the hills from where will my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. Many of us have traveled to gaze upon lofty mountain grandeur and found that to be a spiritual experience as we pondered, and praised, a God as grand as lofty mountains. But that s actually not what s going on here; because for this traveler the mountains are a barrier for the journey and the mountains hold dangers for the journey. And so, looking to the hills and thinking of the mountains, he doesn t say I place my trust in a God is as grand as the hills and mountains; no, he says, I place my trust in the One who is grander still: My help from the LORD, who made heaven and earth. To paraphrase something I heard someone else say once: Don t look at God and tell him how big the mountains in your life are ; look at the mountains in your life and tell them how big your God is! -That s what the first two verses in Psalm 121 invite a traveler at the beginning of his journey to do. -The Message translation of the Bible captures that beautifully with this translation of Psalm 121: I look up to the mountains; does my strength come from mountains? No, my strength comes from God, who made the heavens, and the earth, and the mountains. And then this Psalm this liturgy, this devotional, this quick prayer before setting out on a journey goes on, and as it does there is a change which you could so easily not notice, but it s important and worth noticing. -Psalm 121:3 He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber.

3 Do you notice the change? (Think grammar ) -Verses 1 and 2; I lift up my eyes to the hills; from where is my help to come? My help comes from the Lord. -Verse 3: He (i.e. the Lord) will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber. -Now do you notice the change? -Verses 1 and 2, grammatically, are in the first person i.e. they are spoken by the traveler himself. -Starting in verse 3, on the other hand, and continuing for the rest of the Psalm, the words, grammatically, are in the second person i.e. they are spoken to the traveler by others; others who gathered with him and around him, speak to him not about the greatness of mountains before him, but about the greatness of the promises of God that are promises for him. - He, they sang, (the one who made the mountains) is your keeper, your shade at your right hand, protecting you, watching over you, never sleeping, not only on just this one leg of the to Jerusalem, but on your entire journey of life. -For he, they sang, (the one who made the mountains) will watch over your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forever. -It wasn t the traveler himself, but others gathered around him the church, if you will perhaps led by their song leader David (Dave), who led the people of God in singing to the traveler the promises of God, and in doing so, blessing him for the journey. Confirmation Sunday is next week. And this year we reinstated the practice of having individual interviews with each of our confirmands with one of their pastors, or Dave, or Jackie. For those interviews, we asked them to write a personal statement of faith a personal creed a personal paragraph that begins I believe, and then, in their own words, shares what it is they ve personally come to believe about God at this point in their journeys. -As part of those interviews that I ve done, I ve talked to the kids about church, and in what ways they think coming to church after they re confirmed is, or isn t, important. It s a good question, because of course there are no shortage of people in the world who would say that yes, they do believe, but they don t know that coming to church is all that important for a believer. -Are they right? -Here s what I tell the confirmands if someone doesn t come to church, except maybe on Christmas and Easter, that doesn t make them a bad person with no faith or weak faith But church (I tell them) and coming to church, (I tell them) is nevertheless incredibly important! -Because why? -Because faith to be strong with the difference-in-lives-making strength that it can have and is meant to have isn t an Individual Event It s a Team Sport I asked most of the confirmands in their interviews, When you, at this point on your journey, say I believe, are there any people other believers whose faith is a part of why you are able to say that? -And every single one I asked said, Well, yeah!...and then with smiles on their faces, and in a few cases, tears in their eyes they told me about a mom or a dad or a grandpa or a grandma, whose faith like patchwork on a quilt is sown to the very fabric of their faith. -Because why? -Because those folks, each in their own ways, have been singing the faith to them since as far back as they can remember! -I say to them: do you think you d be a believer if you hadn t been blessed with people like that in your life? -They say, Maybe not or maybe but it sure would have been a lot harder. -And then I say, When you talk about other believers who made it possible or at least easier for you to believe because they believed with you, what you re talking about is the importance of church, because faith is a team sport, and teammates on any team need each other. On faith s team, we need others singing the faith around us and to us, and even on the days when we re personally just doing great in our faith and think maybe we don t need that, on those days, others still need us singing the faith around and to them.

4 - 4 - I told one of the confirmands a story I ve probably told some of you before; the story of the time when the journey of my faith was a walk through the rugged mountains of grief after my father had died way too young of pancreatic cancer. And my dad was a man of deep faith, whose faith is absolutely sown on to the fabric of every single personal statement of faith I ve ever spoken! But after he died and suffered mightily before dying for a while, I wondered if I believed. -One Sunday, several months after my dad had died, I journeyed back home to see my mom and Sunday came... and of course we went to church -And when we got there to the church my dad had taken me to every single Sunday for years the worship began with some of my dad s favorite songs, all the folks around me singing And the worship service also included the Apostles Creed something my dad had countless times stood beside me and said with me but this one time I didn t say it I listened as all those folks around me said, I believe in God the Father Almighty; I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son my Lord -And in one of those times when I m pretty sure the whisper I heard within me was God whispering within me, a voice within me said to me: Roger I know you re hurting and even doubting wondering if you believe after what your dad went through It s OK It s OK because for now, these people around you many of whom you know looking around have gone through their own hard times for now, while you struggle some on the journey, they ll believe for you. Is church important? Oh my, yes! Cause faith is a team sport. First person singular faith I believe isn t enough. On the journey, we all have times when we need faith that is second person; we need others others with us, others around us, others for us reminding us of what there is to believe And likewise, others on some of the legs of their journeys need us too. We baptized a little one today a little one who, here at the very beginning of his faith journey, can t yet say I believe, so his parents, and his godparents, and we the church said it for him. Together we said what one day we do pray he can say for himself; together we said I believe in God the Father Almighty I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord. And then, in baptism, the promises of the Father and the Son were poured out on that little one, after which, what? We together like those worshipers gathered around that traveler on the beginning of his journey to Jerusalem sang the promises of God to that little one at the beginning of his journey: Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so -What those confirmands I interviewed all told me most with smiles on their faces, some with tears in their eyes is how important they do realize it is that there were people in their lives who kept singing Jesus to them on their journeys all the way to their confirmation day. Who sang to you? Who are those whose faith is sown to the fabric of your faith? Be grateful for them! But be more than grateful! Be the church and come to church Because faith is a team sport, and we need others saying and singing the faith with us, and around us, and once in a while when the mountains in our lives are tall even saying and singing the faith for us. -Be the church and come to church because there are also others others journeying through their own mountains who need you saying and singing the faith with, and around, and even sometimes for them. Say, sing keep saying, and keep singing Jesus, who doesn t, of course, promise that believing in him there will never be any struggles, any hardships, any mountains in our lives. No that, unfortunately, in this sin-broken world, isn t true. Keep singing anyway. Sing Jesus whose journey of faith took him up to Jerusalem, where, on a rocky mount just outside its city gates, he was lifted up on a cross and then raised up come Easter s dawn so you, and we, and all, lifting our eyes up to Golgotha s hill, might journey our journeys knowing that his love for us and for this whole sin-broken world is oh-so-bigger than every mountain you ll ever find yourself climbing. I lift up my eyes to the hills, from where is my help to come? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth.

5 - 5 - Let me say those words again. And this time you say them with me. And then our song leader David (Dave) will lead us in a song, remembering the promises that are bigger than the mountains, cause they are the promises of the one who made the heavens, the earth, the mountains, and you and who, if the Bible is to be believed, loves you! AMEN. I lift up my eyes to the hills, from where is my help to come? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth.