Sermon for June 23

The reading

Psalm 69:1-16

1 Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck.
2 I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold; I have come into deep waters, and the flood sweeps over me.
3 I am weary with my crying; my throat is parched. My eyes grow dim with waiting for my God.
4 More in number than the hairs of my head are those who hate me without cause; many are those who would destroy me, my enemies who accuse me falsely. What I did not steal must I now restore?
5 O God, you know my folly; the wrongs I have done are not hidden from you.
6 Do not let those who hope in you be put to shame because of me, O Lord God of hosts; do not let those who seek you be dishonored because of me, O God of Israel.
7 It is for your sake that I have borne reproach, that shame has covered my face.
8 I have become a stranger to my kindred, an alien to my mother's children.
9 It is zeal for your house that has consumed me; the insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.
10 When I humbled my soul with fasting, they insulted me for doing so.
11 When I made sackcloth my clothing, I became a byword to them.
12 I am the subject of gossip for those who sit in the gate, and the drunkards make songs about me.
13 But as for me, my prayer is to you, O Lord. At an acceptable time, O God, in the abundance of your steadfast love, answer me. With your faithful help
14 rescue me from sinking in the mire; let me be delivered from my enemies and from the deep waters.
15 Do not let the flood sweep over me, or the deep swallow me up, or the Pit close its mouth over me.
16 Answer me, O Lord, for your steadfast love is good; according to your abundant mercy, turn to me.

The message (this is a rough outline)

The Point:  We express our faith in our hymns, worship, actions and relationships, we can be real and more intentional about that work. 

This week, we continue to hear ancient words of joy and struggle in the collection of psalms. The Psalms are songs based on experiences, on people looking to God for help and reassurance, people searching for God in bad times or silent times and people giving thanks for rescue. The psalms were all composed in and for the people of Israel.  They had some shared experiences that everyone knew, profound moments of shared joy, anger, disappointment and shock.  For joy, there was the Exodus, the freedom from slavery in Egypt, entering the promised land, protection and blessing and becoming a nation. For anger and disappointment there was civil war, dividing the kingdom, losses in battle, and more than anything else, the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem by the Babylonians around 780 bc.  Throughout all this was repentance and rebuilding, the restoration of faith and property.  All that is to say Psalm 69 was composed by a person of faith, who felt like they were alone, drowning, surrounded by enemies and with no help coming, who heard God’s good promises but saw bad crap all around them. We could easily bash their lack of true faith, think “well I’m not like them”, I would never say “My eyes grow dim with waiting for my God”.dismiss them as a not so good believer and write them off as a doubter.  Of course, that would ignore the truth that it was honest experience, a place to be venerable, open and let God’s word act on you.   

The Psalms we will go through over the next few weeks are based on a very specific outline. This worship and preaching series on the Psalms is written to show experience the life of faith. The series is based on Pastor and well known Old Testament professor Walter Brueggemann's overview of the Psalms.  In life we move through a pattern of ups and downs, each trial we endure, each tragedy we witness, each unfairness that is exposed, changes us.  Bruggemann breaks the psalms down into three categories or types of experiences. Orientation: When life is stable, things are fair and hard work is rewarded.  (Psalms 113), to Disorientation: When things fall part or collapse, there is unfairness and undeserved suffering, when God’s presence is hard to see and God’s promises are hard to trust (Psalm 69), to Reorientation: When faith in God and creation are found again, but the experiences and moments of disorientation shape our understanding (Psalms 27 and 40).    

Last week was orientation, a song of praise and thanksgiving, a time to celebrate and share God’s love.  This week, its disorientation, doubt, fear and worry, anxiety that should not be.

We write psalms everyday. Our hymns today are the same. They are also the reflections, attempts to give a voice to a larger community, to touch all different people loved by the same God.

This morning our discussion questions to start coffee hour will simply be to talk about a time when, you felt like Pslam 113, Praise the name of the Lord and times when you felt like pslam 69,  Help me God, im drowning, things are hopeless and I cannot get out.  We are a place for both, a place to celebrate and find comfort.

Yesterday, we had our end of the school year party.  I managed to go through all 3, orientation, disorientation and reorientation over the course of a few hours.  At 1:30, I felt good, things were all ready to go.  At 2:00 pm (start time) no one showed up and I learned another church was running a youth focused event at the same exact time (communication is important) and advertised it widely. by 3, only a handful of people came, so I felt disappointed, angry, annoyed, like I was wasting my time.  by 3:30, we had  a great crowd, everyone was having fun and some of the people running the other event came over to help us with our project,