Words of Welcome

Psalm 130 Do you feel like crying out to God in this moment of uncertainty?  Do you feel like you are living in the depths of life? Spring may be breaking through the winter blues, but it’s difficult to enjoy the coming of spring when we’re supposed to stay home and stay safe. This morning we turn to Psalm 130 , which begins with a word of lament and ends with a word of hope. The Psalmist begins:  “Out of the depths, I cry to you, O Lord.” Then along with the Psalmist, we plead with God, “Lord, hear my voice!” It’s at times like this that I appreciate the Psalms, which give voice to our laments. They remind us that it’s okay to grieve our losses, even if they’re momentary. As William Blaine-Wallace writes, “grief is prayerful attention, an awareness, acknowledgment, and embrace of life-the-way-it-really-is” [Blaine-Wallace, When Tears Sing , xxiv.]. This is the way life is right now. We’re watching as the Coronavirus marches across the globe. We watch as ...

Psalm 130 Children as young as three-months-old, are crying out for the comforting arms of missing parents. Most of these families who have come to our border are trying to escape violence that probably originates here in the United States. I believe that the God who redeems Israel has heard these cries of lament, and invites us to do the same. Whatever our feelings about the immigration issue, surely the cries of these children touch our hearts. If we are God’s hands and feet and voices, then we have to answer the question: how will we respond to these cries? We hear the voice of the Psalmist: “Out of the depths, I cry to the Lord. Lord, hear my voice!” The Psalmist cries out to God: “Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications.” This is a song of lament that’s numbered among the Songs of Ascent. These are the songs pilgrims sang as they made their way to Jerusalem. This song is darker than the 133rd Psalm, which we heard last Sunday. This song has a pen...

Psalm 77:1-2, 11-20 In the words of Isaac Watts’ hymn, which we sang earlier this morning, we capture the message of Psalm 77: O God, our help in ages past, our hope for years to come, our shelter from the stormy blast, and our eternal home.  When times of trouble strike, and they will strike, where do you turn? To whom do you look for guidance and protection? Do you turn to God, who is “our help in ages past, our hope for years to come?” As we have been moving through the Psalms, we’ve discovered that they invite us to cry out in laments. They give us permission to rage and complain. It’s okay that our souls refuse to be comforted. It’s not a sin to have doubts. Here in Psalm 77 the Psalmist cries out to God demanding to be heard. After issuing a torrent of complaints, the Psalmist then remembers that God has been our help in ages past. Recognizing the prospect that life can be challenging, Martin Luther wrote a hymn that picked up on another Psalm, Psalm 46...

2 Samuel 1:1, 17-27 On Friday afternoon, the President delivered the eulogy for Pastor Clementa Pinckney, one of the nine members of Emanuel AME Church who were gunned down the week before during Bible study. It is a powerful statement addressing the ills that confront our nation, including racism and violence. It is also a strong statement of the grace that redeems and heals. The President began his eulogy with these words:  We are here today to remember a man of God who lived by faith. A man who believed in things not seen. A man who believed there were better days ahead, off in the distance. A man of service who persevered, knowing full well he would not receive all those things he was promised, because he believed his efforts would deliver a better life for those who followed. After leading the congregation in singing “Amazing Grace,” the President intoned the names of those slain and called on the congregation and the nation to share in the grace that these nine ha...