Keep Singing. (from Children s Time)

Transcription

1 Rev. Rebecca Schlatter Liberty Sermon preached at Redeemer Lutheran Church, Bangor, Maine Sunday, July 3, 2016 Seventh Sunday after Pentecost Texts: Isaiah 66:10-14; Psalm 66:1-9; Galatians 6:1-16; Luke 10:1-11, (from Children s Time) Keep Singing When I was about 20 years old, I went through a period where I had lots of dreams at night. Happy dreams, scary dreams, really strange dreams all kinds of interesting things happened while I was sleeping. One dream I ve always remembered because it taught me a lot about what we do here in church. In the dream I was in the house where I had grown up. I was hiding in a bedroom, because there were some scary ghosts in the kitchen at the other end of the house. (They were in there eating potato chips; I could never figure out that part of the dream!) Eventually the ghosts started to come toward the bedroom, but then I wasn t hiding anymore. I was standing in the doorway, facing into the bedroom, and I had a piece of music in front of me. I was afraid, but I was singing, of all things! And I understood that as long as I kept singing, the ghosts could not get me. When I woke up, Keep singing became something I would remind myself whenever I was afraid or when I didn t know what was going to happen next. It s one of the reasons I come to church, because when I m too scared or confused to sing by myself, I know that we will all sing together. And for me, to keep singing reminds me of God s love and care through anything and everything that could happen. *** How do you preach on the day before Independence Day? I m not just referring to the expectation of a small but dedicated group that shows up for worship on a holiday weekend. I mean, how do we reflect on our nation at this moment in history? We can t ignore all the crazy and scary stuff going on in our country and our world. Divisive politics at home and abroad, anxious economics, violence that never seems to stop escalating If what we do here on Sunday is going to be relevant to the rest of the week, we need to put that crazy, scary stuff in conversation with the Bible and Christian tradition. But where do we find the stomach for that? As I read the Isaiah text for today, I heard echoes of a message repeated many different times in the Bible: God s promise can be trusted no matter what is going on around us. So for sermon inspiration, I started paging through the Trust section in our hymnal. As I began jotting down titles, it occurred to me that many of the most

2 powerful hymns of promise were American hymns from various times in our nation s history. As a nation, we have been through a lot together. We have known divisive times before. What could be more divisive than the Civil War of the mid- 19 th - century, a period when several of those hymns became popular? Christians in the North and the South prayed their way through those difficult years of war and its aftermath. Metaphorically and literally, they kept singing! Our nation has known other anxious times, too, such as the Depression. Christians prayed their way through that, too. Many faithful people have gone before us and led the way, and their voices echo with trust and hope. So perhaps the best way to experience good news today is to join them in singing our way through the confusion and difficulties and violence of our own time. Along with the four American hymns we ll sing, we give thanks for the ideals of our nation and for our ancestors who have upheld them through difficulties and anxieties. We grieve for the divisions and anger, fears and threats we re facing. Maybe we ll even sing our way further into trust that God will always lead the way home. Our first hymn is Precious Lord, Take My Hand, number 773. It was written in 1932, during the Depression, by Thomas A. Dorsey, a young African- American man. Dorsey wrote this hymn in the midst of personal tragedy, days after his wife and infant son died while he was away working. Its words are appropriate in all sorts of difficulties. We ll sing verses 1 and 2 Precious Lord, take my hand Lead me on, let me stand I'm tired, I'm weak, I'm lone Through the storm, through the night Lead me on to the light Take my hand precious Lord, lead me home When my way grows drear precious Lord linger near When my light is almost gone Hear my cry, hear my call Hold my hand lest I fall Take my hand precious Lord, lead me home A prayer for God to lead us home seems appropriate for this election season too. I have learned a lot about our country from this presidential election. It has taught me a lot about the breadth and depth of the frustration and anxiety among so many in our country around things like economic opportunity and immigration and globalization. Frustration and anxiety do not often bring out the best in us, and I didn t realize the extent of them right now. For example, I am still learning about all the hopes and fears addressed by the slogan Make America great again.

3 To speak to these hopes and fears, we could not do much better than the Isaiah 66 reading today. The prophet Isaiah speaks for God after the people s return to Israel from Babylon, where they had been exiled for 60 years. In their absence, their home had been destroyed. I can just hear a potential leader of that time promising to Make Israel great again! People have not changed all that much in a couple thousand years. So God s words in Isaiah 66 are timely. God does not say, Make sure you elect the right person or it will all be even worse. God says, I will make the city once again a source of care and nourishment. As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you, God assures the people. Our next hymn speaks of that same assurance of loving care, centuries later. It was written by two white women soon after the Civil War, and it became popular in the revivals of the late 19 th century, known as the Gilded Age, when economics were changing, there was anxiety around immigration, and some people were getting very rich and others were getting very angry. It was a good time then, as now, to sing Blessed Assurance, number 638, verses 1 and 3. Blessed Assurance, Jesus is mine O what a foretaste of glory divine Heir of salvation, purchased of God Born of His Spirit, washed in His Blood This is my story, this is my song Praising my Savior all the day long This is my story, this is my song Praising my Savior all the day long In today s gospel reading, one can almost imagine the disciples going out singing, This is my story, this is my song! We too are called to go out. In these anxious and divided times, Jesus commission still holds true for the church: Get out there! With healing, and peace, and the good news that God s reign is among us even now. And it is also true that we are still lambs in the midst of wolves. It s not clear whether that is Jesus describing how things are: It s dangerous out there, folks, and you re little innocent ones. Or maybe he s prescribing how they should be: In a world full of wolves, you should still be peaceful and even vulnerable. Either way, being lambs in the midst of wolves does not sound very appealing. We live in such a climate of fear right now, with safety and security as primary concerns. Fear- mongering is a powerful way to get votes, when candidates sell a vision of themselves as our protector. Protection is also relevant to one of many divisive debates raging right now, that about guns. Fear is a powerful way to sell guns, when people are convinced they can either protect themselves, or go down with the lambs. Fear is also a powerful way to sell gun control, when people are convinced that all

4 would be safer with fewer weapons around. Both sides of the gun debate have this in common: They profit from people being as afraid as possible. As Christians, we have an alternative to such reactive fear. In today s gospel, it seems pretty clear that Christians are not called to become predatory, self- protective wolves. But neither do we have to fear them. Luke tells us the disciples came back from their missions with joy. No doubt they had encountered danger and plenty of reasons to be afraid. But they were not alone, and they carried with them a love and a purpose that came from Jesus himself. This next hymn speaks to that single- minded purpose that makes anything else bearable, even fear. It was an African- American spiritual that became widely popular in the late 19 th century: Give Me Jesus, number 770, verses 1 and 5. Give me Jesus Give me Jesus, give me Jesus You can have all the rest; give me Jesus And when I want to sing You can have all the rest. You can have all the promises that candidates make about protection and prosperity. You can have the fear- mongering that never fails to get the crowds all riled up. You can have the ways we are supposed to protect ourselves at all costs. Give me Jesus, whose unprotected, self- giving love is our saving grace, our example, and our best hope for peace. We hang onto Jesus and to God s promises, and we keep singing. Now more than ever, it seems important to sing and pray our way through this time of elections and gun debates, as we mourn violence in place after place. Now more than ever, we come together, like the Galatians, to bear one another s burdens, and to figure out how to reach out across divisions and help to make America connected again. How to make America neighborly again. How America can become a source of care and nourishment not only for its own people but also for others. That s why we re gathering for prayer and a service of healing over the lunch hour on this Wednesday. We intend to offer this time at 11:30 on the first Wednesday of each month for the foreseeable future. It is unclear in these confusing and anxious times what we can do as a church to make things better. There are just so many needs for healing in our world, our lives, and our families! So it seems right to focus

5 first on what the church has always done: to pray our way through these things together to practice, despite everything, the nearness of the kingdom of God. Our last hymn, our hymn of the day, is My Life Flows On in Endless Song, number 763. We don t know much about its origins, just that it appeared in the late 19 th century and may have been a Quaker or Shaker hymn. With so many reasons for fear, and yet so many reasons to hope indeed, how can we keep from singing? 1. My life flows on in endless song, above earth's lamentation. I hear the clear, though faroff hymn that hails a new creation. Refrain: No storm can shake my inmost calm while to that Rock I'm clinging. Since love is Lord of heaven and earth, how can I keep from singing? 2. Through all the tumult and the strife, I hear that music ringing. It finds an echo in my soul. How can I keep from singing? 3. What though my joys and comforts die? I know my Savior liveth. What though the darkness gather round? Songs in the night he giveth. 4. The peace of Christ makes fresh my heart, a fountain ever springing! All things are mine since I am his! How can I keep from singing?