You are welcome to use parts of this sermon, but if you do, please attribute them properly!
“Nothing is,
at last, sacred but the integrity of your own mind.”
“Trust
thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.”
“Nothing can
bring you peace but yourself.”
Insist on
yourself; never imitate.”
Even though we are in church, those official-sounding
quotes are not from the Bible. Those statements are all quotations from an
essay entitled “Self-Reliance,” which was written by American transcendentalist
philosopher, and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Writing in the 19th century, Emerson has been called the
prophet of the American ideal.
A central theme of Emerson’s life work is
individualism, a character trait that, judging from the quotations you just
heard, he highly valued. That being
said, Emerson would urge us to stand up for our own truth. “Believe in oneself above all,” he would say.
And surely we have listened to him, for
such is the way we have been taught to do things here in the United
States. That rugged individualism of
which Emerson wrote is the backbone of our culture.
As Presbyterian pastor Alan Brehm wrote
in his blog: “Self-sufficiency is a sacred dogma for us. We believe in ‘pulling
ourselves up by our own bootstraps.’ We want to be able to do any job that
needs to be done; we want to be able to find our way to any destination without
asking directions; we want to make our own way in the world. Self-sufficiency
represents the American version of the belief of the modern era that we can
solve any problem, climb any mountain, ford any stream” – and, I would add, our
expectation that everyone else should be able to do likewise, and if they
cannot, well, that is a character flaw.
However, the Psalmist holds a different
perspective, one that is clearly illustrated in the portion of the psalm that
we just read. It makes for an
interesting contrast.
You see, as Brehm points out: “In the
Psalms, self-sufficiency is an obstacle that has to be overcome in order
to call upon the Lord for help. Asking for help—truly asking for help—is not
something that comes easily for most people. To ask for help requires the ability
to recognize that you need help. It requires a significant dose of humility to
break through self-sufficiency.”
Rather than turning to God, as we are
so prone to do, when all else has failed, and we find ourselves at rock bottom,
the end of the line, the suffering too great to withstand a moment longer, the
Psalmist proclaims that we ought to reach out to God from the outset. God ought
to be part of our plan. Why?
Because God is good, and
God’s steadfast love endures forever.
God’s love never runs out.
And to prove her point, the Psalmist
continues her song, its notes originating deep in her very soul. She begins by setting a rather grisly scene:
Some of you were sick
because you’d lived a bad life, your bodies feeling the effects of your
sin;
You couldn’t stand the sight of food, so miserable you thought you’d
be better off dead.
No doubt about it. The psalmist is describing a bad situation
here. Perhaps speaking of the Israelites
themselves, she implores us to imagine people who are sick unto death. Though they may be fools and though they may
have brought this dire situation on themselves, the fact of the matter is that
they can no longer eat because food repulses them. They are dying. What do they do?
Then (the psalmist sings)
you called out to God in your desperate condition; God got you out in the
nick of time, spoke the word that healed you, that pulled you back from
the brink of death.
Look what happened, the Psalmist sings! You gave your troubles to the Holy One, and even
if you thought that all was lost, God came to you. God pulled you from the pit where you had hit
rock bottom. God threw you some more
line when you were at the end of the line.
God saved you – which, mind you, is not to say that neither you nor
others did not have a role in that salvation.
To make my point, let me tell you about
a man named John. He was in financial difficulty, and so walked into a church and started
to pray. ''Listen God,'' John said. ''I know I haven't been perfect but I
really need to win the lottery. I don't have a lot of money. Please help me
out.''
He
left the church, a week went by, and he hadn't won the lottery, so he walked
into a synagogue. ''Come on, God,'' he said. ''I really need this money. My mom
needs surgery, and I have bills to pay. Please let me win the lottery.''
He
left the synagogue, a week went by, and he didn't win the lottery. So, he went
to a mosque and started to pray again. ''You're starting to disappoint me,
God,'' he said. ''I've prayed and prayed. If you just let me win the lottery,
I'll be a better person. I don't have to win the jackpot, just enough to get me
out of debt. I'll give some to charity, even. Just let me win the lottery.''
John
thought this would surely do it, so he got up and walked outside.
At that
point, the clouds opened up and a booming voice said, ''John, help me out here
a bit. Buy a lottery ticket.''
We get ourselves into a pickle – and
God comes to the rescue – one way or another.
Nice!
However, the Psalmist’s tune does not
end on this high note. Indirectly, she asks what happens next: Do we walk away from
the brink of death without a second glance, patting ourselves on the back that
we avoided what seemed to be the inevitable?
Do we shrug our
shoulders and figure that, when push came to shove, it was our self-reliance
and rugged individualism that made the difference? Good thing we thought to buy
that lottery ticket!
“No!” interjects the Psalmist. When we find ourselves humble enough to
let go of our self-reliance and when the result of our humility is finding that
the Holy One does not fail us, our response is two-fold. First, we simply thank God.
You thank God for his marvelous love
for
his miracle mercy to the children he loves;
We get ourselves into a pickle. God
comes to the rescue one way or another, and we say thanks. Nice!
However, that is still not the
end. Once again, the Psalmist’s song
continues. She declares that we do not
keep these mighty acts of God to ourselves.
(We) offer thanksgiving
sacrifices,
tell the world what God has done—sing it out!
God creates….We mess up….God
redeems….We thank God…..And we offer our thanksgiving sacrifices. This is the way we are taught to do things in
God’s world, in God’s kingdom.
Self-sufficiency and rugged individualism is no longer the norm.
So sure is the Psalmist that this
abiding relationship with God that is strengthened through our intertwining and
connectedness with the Holy One – so sure is she that this the way to live our
lives to the fullest – that this is the way of God’s Kingdom – that this is the
Gospel of Jesus - that she includes three other examples in this psalm (though
we did not read them today). Each follows
a common pattern.
God creates….We mess up: In each
example, there is a description of the people’s predicament, brought on by
folly or bad decisions. It scarcely
matters as long as the people are humble enough to reach out to God in their
peril. God redeems…..God saves them. The people give thanks….in response to God’s
goodness and eternal love, and offer thanksgiving sacrifices…. public songs of
joy.
When you think about it, it is the
basic Bible narrative in miniature, the essence of the covenant in a nutshell: God creates – we mess up – God redeems – we
give thanks - we offer our thanksgiving sacrifices.
God creates – we mess up – God redeems.
The Holy One holds up her side of the narrative/covenant time and time again –
whether we end up at rock bottom or at the end of the line because of bad luck,
bad decisions, or just because we are plain stupid. God redeems and delivers and heals because
God’s love is eternal.
And so in the other three stanzas of
the Psalm, we see the narrative/the covenant play out over and over again:
Some wandered in the
trackless desert
and could not find their way to a city to live in. They were
hungry and thirsty and had given up all hope.
Some were living in gloom
and darkness, prisoners suffering in chains…They were worn out from hard
work;
they would fall down, and no one would help.
Some sailed over the ocean
in ships…and a mighty wind began to blow and stirred up the waves. The
ships were lifted high in the air
and plunged down into the depths. In
such danger the sailors lost their courage; they stumbled and staggered like
drunks—
all their skill was useless.
And what did they do when they were
lost in the desert, barely surviving in a prison, and sure to be shipwrecked?
Then in their trouble they
called to the Lord, and God saved them.
God led them from their desert
wanderings and set them on a straight path.
God brought them from the darkness of prison into the light of freedom.
God saved them from a watery grave.
Well, we may never find ourselves lost
in the desert, in prison, or afloat on a roiling sea, but surely we have at
times wandered aimlessly through life with no sense of direction. Surely we have felt the chains of a job
pinning us down, or a relationship imprisoning us. Surely we have felt adrift with no anchor on
the ocean of our own fears and inadequacies, feeling isolated and alone. Surely we have, at one time, and in one way,
or another, felt sick unto death.
And at those times we sense, we just
know, that self-reliance will not come to the rescue. Independence will not set us straight. We are too tired and too alone to pull
ourselves up by our bootstraps. And so, with our troubles in hand, we
call upon God. And because God’s love is
limitless, God reaches out to us– and we are no longer lost, no longer
adrift. Our chains are broken, and we
are healed.
And now comes
our responsibility to the narrative/the covenant. We thank God…we offer our
thanksgiving sacrifices. Oh, the
thanking God may not be so difficult – a quick prayer, a smile and thumbs up to
heaven.
However, it is in offering those
thanksgiving sacrifices that we so often seem to fall short. It is continuing to be humble enough to look
around us and see – really see - everyone else who suffers in this world – as
we once suffered.
It is seeing – really seeing - those
who wander as we once did – perhaps homeless or jobless.
It is seeing – really seeing - those
imprisoned as we once were - perhaps by poverty or unjust economic practices.
It is seeing – really seeing - those
whose folly or bad decisions have made them sick unto death - as we once were -
perhaps by bad investments or getting caught in shady deals.
It is seeing – really seeing those who
are drowning without a life jacket as we once did – perhaps under heavy student
loans or inadequate healthcare.
And it is in the action – our
individual actions - of reaching out and aiding those people who, in the end,
are really just like us that we offer thanksgiving sacrifices. Then – and only then are we upholding our
part of the narrative/the covenant: We
say thanks….we offer our thanksgiving sacrifices.
When we do not hold others to a
standard to which we could not hold ourselves – we offer our thanksgiving
sacrifices. When the situation call us to turn our backs on rugged
individualism and instead embrace the Christian value of interdependence and
connectedness -we offer thanksgiving sacrifices.
. As seminary professor Nancy L. deClaissé-Walford wrote, we “must
never forget that those of us who have ample resources and strength (and that
would be us) are called to be the arms and legs, the hands and feet, the voice
of God in this world. God will redeem from the east and the west, from
the north and from the south; but the redemption of God often takes human
form.”
And so, as we continue our Lenten
journey, as we experience God’s eternal love and redemptive power, as we learn
that in much of life, we simply cannot do it alone, as we offer our prayers of
thanksgiving for God having brought us this far, may we also
offer our thanksgiving sacrifices and always ask ourselves this question: How we can put ourselves in a place (Soup
kitchen? Homeless shelter?
Hospital? Mission trip?), put ourselves
in a place where God can use us to rescue others in need? In our moments of God-given strength, how can
we truly be the arms and legs, the hands and feet, the voice of our Creator and
Redeemer?
by Rev. Nancy Foran, Raymond Village Community Church U.C.C., Raymond, Maine
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