1 HOW SHALL WE SING THE LOORD S SONG IN A STRANGE LAND Intro: : Do you remember? By the Rivers of Babylon There we sat down And we wept When we remembered Zion. Boney M it was, bringing the Old Testament to the people Who knew what they were singing about? And who sensed the pain that lay behind the poetry? The people of Israel, traumatised by enforced exile And the beginning of a new life, Full of uncertainties and terrors. How could they sing the Lord s song When everything was so strange and terrifying and plain awful.?? How could they sing the ancient songs of faith When faith was battered and bruised and called into question - And the very certainties that the songs spoke of, with such conviction, were now lying, it seemed, in pieces; And the God whose covenant love and faithfulness Were the bedrock of their singing Seemed far away And horribly indifferent to their plight? Hang the harps on the trees Forget the songs of dependence and trust It s all turned nasty It s all just dreams and fantasies Here we are now In this strange new world Full of darkness and challenge Full of unknowns, and bereft of promise; Far away from the Temple Which is now a smoking ruin How can we worship when God is so far away And his Temple brought low? If we have to stay in this foreign land For any length of time We will disappear Our language, our culture Our identity Will fade off the face of the earth So, hang the harps on the willows And Enough with the singing!! It s just annoying! It s.embarrassing! But here s the thing They did learn to sing the Lord s song in a strange land!!! They learned that God was not bound by territorial factors
2 And could be worshipped honoured and served anywhere and everywhere - For his chosen place of residence was in the hearts of his people And they could live and breathe their faith even among the peculiarities Of life in ancient Babylon They developed an understanding of God and a vision of what their faith might be that was broader and richer than they had known before new forms of worship emerged to adapt to the new situation and the synagogue became a focal point of fellowship, teaching and identity. What had seemed like a tragedy became instead in the light of their living faith an opportunity to grow. They were helped to see that to believe that - By the prophets who spoke with an unwavering confidence In a future that belonged to God And was filled with God - There are plenty of strange lands that wait for us Places we find ourselves, or will find ourselves That are unfamiliar and scary - and where faith feels the strain, Shudders under the impact of those times and places when all the comfortable things are shaken and stirred and battered and assaulted; And we wonder how on earth we can sing the Lord s song in the midst of this upheaval and uncertainty? Being on your own when you ve not been used to it can feel like being in an alien land a fractured relationship, a bereavement. and suddenly the old landmarks and assurances and shelters are gone and the chill goes to our very bones Nothing has prepared us for this and it hurts how can we sing the Lord s song in this strange land this gloomy valley full of shadows? When the children leave home and the role we had valued so much and which shaped our timetable and our identity is taken from us the empty nest seems very empty and we just don t know where to go and what to do who are we now and what should our future plan be the mist of unknowing seems thick and intimidating. our voice trembles how can we sing? You don t actually know about illness till it happens to you
3 or to someone very close to you and from the world where you are in charge of your life you move to a world where you need other people you work to their timetable you lie in their hospital bed and you struggle to cope with a disobedient body that just won t do what it s supposed to. You are sucked into that world of hospital appointments Tests taken, results waited for, scans required, treatment that leaves you exhausted medication that plays cruel tricks on your body You need to trust the compassion and professionalism of the medical people and procedures you never dreamt of are done to you and its new and scary and full of uncertainties who s going to be singing any song still less songs of praise in that context?? Hang the harps on the willow the song has died on our lips We never expected nor did we ever want to be here in this strange land And so, They wait for us the strange lands that we cannot avoid Who knows what it feels like to grow older till you are there and it s happening it seems a long way off with its limitations and constraints its financial adjustments and its risks the tendency to be side-lined by society. the loss of influence and status just the blessed business of getting out of bed in the morning Who is ready for this journey and all the adjustments and alterations it will require the pressure points it will bring this is a big adventure a foreign land whose language we have to learn and whose customs are new and quirky and not always congenial This is how it goes for us in our human conditions we find ourselves called into, brought into dragged screaming and kicking into strange lands and disturbing situations that put pressure on our faith and make us somewhat disinclined to sing the Lord s song And not a few of us here, are quite literally in a strange land dealing with language adjustments, interesting rules about toilet flushing a world in which everything is either interdit or obligatoire And we take time to adjust.
4 We feel a little displaced Outside our comfort zone - and missing things and people that are precious to us Even the way we are used to worshipping the place and the people the liturgy we are used to the hymns we know our own tunes to the more relaxed way we are used to celebrating the faith or the more formal style of worship that we feel comfortable with in which God seems to come close And now that is gone and instead there is compromise and openness asked of us not comfort and familiarity.. But here s the thing about the Jews in Exile In the end, they did not hang their harps on the willow tree The voice of praise did not fall silent the heart of faith did not stop beating They were not lost. They did not disappear. I remember a wonderful old lady in my former congregation (Mrs Grant She was crippled with arthritis, her husband had died of a stroke And her beautiful only daughter had died aged 46 or cancer Not much cause for singing the Lord s song She said Mr. Twaddle if you could guarantee from the pulpit every Sunday that people who came to church and followed Jesus nothing bad would happen to them ever the church would be full But you can t you can t But she kept coming she kept singing the Lord s song in this strange and scary land This is why people find men and women of faith hard to understand Their resolute faith in God hard to get their head round. Instead of hanging their harps on the willows taking the huff Turning their back on the god who has clearly taken away their season ticket to happiness They pray. They worship. They sing! The Nobel Prize winning author Eli Wiesel tells of an incident he saw while a prisoner in Auschwitz; Surrounded by the hell that was the concentration camp - three devout Jews all of them rabbis decided to put God on Trial for failing his people bringing them to this disaster of abandoning them At the real-life trial, the three judges found God guilty. There was a long, stunned silence among the congregated Jews, Wiesel said. Then his teacher, who was head of the tribunal, broke the silence:
And now, we go to prayers. That s what we do This is who we are. 5