Sermon- July 8

Pentecost 7B- July 8

Psalm 123

            1970 was the beginning of my senior year in college; & back then I was seriously into music. Some of the big songs for me that year were “War” by Edwin Starr, “Who’ll Stop the Rain” by Creedance Clearwater Revival, “The Long & Winding Road” by the Beatles, & “Bridge over Troubled Water” by Simon & Garfunkel. But there was another big song that year that I really didn’t relate to very well. It was “ABC” by the Jackson 5.

            You see, I was never a big Jackson 5 or Michael Jackson fan. But I’m reminded of that song by our Psalm this morning. Do you remember the song? “ABC, as simple as do, re, mi--1, 2, 3, that’s how easy love can be.”  Simple, catchy, & a bit naïve. Sort of like Psalm 1,2,3—I mean Psalm 123.

            This is a worship psalm, sung by post-exilic pilgrims to their Lord, the king of heaven. It describes the posture of their relationship. They’re down on the ground--where there’s suffering, scorn & contempt--looking up to the sky for mercy. The Lord King is on the throne in heaven looking down.

            Supplicants turning their eyes toward heaven to pray for mercy from the assumingly benevolent God is a nice image, isn’t it? It’s a simple & concrete understanding of the Creator-created relationship; but it is very naive & inadequate. It’s an un-evolved understanding of God.

Because God isn’t up in the sky deciding to rain down mercy or woe upon us. The God of our faith is right here, in & among us, as we suffer.

            That’s the whole point of the Incarnation—of God becoming human in the person of Jesus, of God joining us in our pain & suffering to re-establish the relationship that God established with us in creation. And that’s complicated—much more complicated than “ABC—1,2,3.”

            Psalm 123 encourages you to look to the Lord & cast yourself upon him, to put yourself in his nail-scarred hands, right here & right now, to trust him to do what is best. And how do you do that? How do you look to God in your time of need? By looking to Jesus, the very image of God in human form.

            Our Psalm tells us that “As the eyes of slaves look to the hand of their master, so our eyes look to the LORD our God, till he shows us his mercy.” And when we see the hands of Jesus, the master, what do we see? We see the hands of a servant, who touched & healed, who reached out to the poor & the needy, who served those on the edges of society, & who was nailed to a cross for you & for me.

            When we look to the Lord, we need to see Jesus. Jesus, who taught that we are to turn the other cheek, to not return insult for insult. Jesus, who taught us how to treat the poor, the sick, the widow, the orphan, the outsider— the weakest in society.  In every instance, when we look at what Jesus does, our eyes see him feeding the five thousand, healing the sick, touching lepers, making blind eyes see, & caring for those who are on the margins of society. 

            But, there are those in the church today who argue—not so much vocally, but with their lives—that we really shouldn’t look to Jesus for guidance. Their argument for not looking to Jesus for guidance is that we live in the real world. A world where the weak are taken advantage of, where the powerful rule the day, & unless you want to get run over, you’d better look out for yourself. In other words, many find the practical world more appealing as their master. 

            That is where the psalmist comes back, in the final few verses of this psalm, with these words: “Have mercy on us, Lord, for we’ve had enough of the scorn of the indolent rich, too much of the derision of the proud.” We’ve had it with the folks who think that power & position are the name of the game. Help us, Lord; help us!

            And God says, “I will! In fact, I already have!” God’s mercy & God’s grace have been--& continued to be—poured out on us in the life, death, & resurrection of Jesus Christ. God wrapped His arms around you & me in those outstretched, nail-scarred hands of Jesus on the cross. And those hands are still with us. Those hands still reach out to you & me in our times of greatest need.

            Look to those hands. Look to Jesus. Look to the God who is not far away in some heaven “light years away,” but is right here in the Kingdom that He established through His Son. Amen.