“From Despair to Joy”

Psalm 43

A Sermon Preached by the Rev. Douglas M. Donley

June 26, 2004

University Baptist Church

Minneapolis, MN

 

 

            As many of you know, we tore down our deck a few weeks ago.  In my efforts to be a good recycling steward or my resources, I embarked on an architectural journey to build a swing set and play house out of the scrap lumber (the stuff that hadn’t rotted out, that is).  So in the evenings I have been letting my creative juices flow into this monstrosity in our backyard.   The only problem is that when I am out back working on the swing set, it is prime feeding time for the state bird of Minnesota, the mosquito.

            A retired Methodist Minister and a nonviolence veteran by the name of Phil Lawson said in Indianapolis last week,  “If you think you’re too small to be effective, you’ve never been in bed with a mosquito.” The point is that mosquitoes get attention.  I mentioned that this is an apt description of the church.

When we are at our best is not necessarily when we are large or popular or rich or even “successful”.

We are at our best when we are the mosquitoes in the ears of the complacent.

We are at our best when we remain faithful in spite of logic and self-preservation. 

We are at our best when we risk losing what we have for the sake of the Gospel of Jesus Christ which is all about inclusion, justice, mercy, love and compassion.

Jim Wallis recently gave a graduation speech at Stanford.  Among the many things he said was this:  “Poverty is not the only cause of terrorism, it’s more complicated than that…with roots that are also religious, cultural, and ideological.  But unless we drain the swamps of the injustice in which the mosquitoes of terrorism to breed, we will never overcome the terrorist threat.”  I know I’m mixing mosquito metaphors here.  And yet we know that mosquitoes are resilient.  They breed and although they are small, the have an impact.  That’s what we’re supposed to do.

So, like good Minnesota mosquitoes, may we develop resistance to the noxious fumes that our adversaries try to slather on themselves.

May we keep buzzing the saving message of the Gospel, which we live out at UBC.

            Yesterday, I had the opportunity to be interviewed by the Minnesota Family Council for their August newsletter.  They asked why we were a part of the Pride celebration.  I said “because that’s what Jesus would do.”  When he asked how we got into the GLBT-affirming business, I said, “It’s what Jesus would have done.  It’s consistent with Jesus’ ministry with the outcast.  It’s consistent with Jesus standing alongside those whom religion and powers and principalities had left aside.  Jesus always stood up to those powers because that’s how he understood God.  I said that’s how I understand God, too.”  I never tire of telling people the good news of the Gospel.  The fact that the interviewer seemed so surprised that I would cite the Bible was instructive.  I guess I was being a mosquito in his understanding of GLBT communities.  So be it.

            Today’s reading from the book of Psalms is all about how we are to find our joy amidst the despair of the world.  When we have the key to live into the hope of God, then we have a power that can move mountains.  The key to your hope is grafting yourself to God’s vision and not depending upon the acceptance of others for your ultimate happiness.

            Hear again what the Psalmist says and see if you can find your place in this word of lament.

(1)Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause against an ungodly people; from those who are deceitful and unjust deliver me!

            When we are faced with people who oppose us, we often find ourselves praying to God to deliver us from their presence.  It’s way too exhausting to keep advocating all of the time.  We want God to fight for us, because we’re sick and tired of it.  Heck, we’re sick and tired of them.  We want to win and we want them to lose.  That’s the base instinct we have grown up with.  It is normal for us to want to live in peace and to have the deceitful and unjust lose in their cause.  The problem comes when we are willing to be unjust and deceitful in our pursuit of their defeat.  For our satisfaction to be enduring, we need to look somewhere else than in the defeat of our enemies.  Wishing for our enemies’ defeat will not bring us lasting joy even if we receive a brief respite from our despair. 

(2)For you are the God in whom I take refuge; why have you cast me off? 

      Why must I walk about mournfully because of the oppression of the enemy?

            We need to take refuge in God.  God is the one we can trust.  God alone is infallible.  People by definition are fallible and are not ultimately trustworthy.  Why must I walk about mournfully because of the oppression of the enemy?  Well, you don’t.  The enemy wants you to walk around mournfully.  But if you think that enemy has no ultimate power over you, then you have grafted onto that greater power which comes from God.

(3)O send out your light and your truth;

            let them lead me;

            let them bring me to your holy hill and to you dwelling.

            Here the Psalmist sees the true nature of God’s power.  He or she begins the transformation to true allegiance.  God’s truth ought to be our guide, not powers and principalities or denominations or candidates or political parties.  If we trust in God’s truth and God’s light, then we have another kind of vision.  Martin Luther King once said that the long arc of history bends toward justice precisely because God’s truth is a truth that brings justice.  God’s truth is about equality for all of God’s children.  God’s truth is about the acceptance of all people as God’s children.  God’s truth is a call to the end of war and the beginning of the reign of God where no one is left behind, no one is left out in the cold, no one is forced to live in a closet.

            (4)Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy;

                         and I will praise you with the harp, O God, my God.

            On Pentecost Sunday, I joined a half dozen UBC’ers and members of Rainbow Sash and Soulforce Twin Cities in an act of liturgical activism at the St. Paul Cathedral.  Wearing rainbow sashes representing the many people who feel excluded by the Catholic church, 200 lifelong Catholics approached the altar of God to receive communion.  They were blocked by people who were kneeling in the aisles.  They were kneeling because they thought that the Eucharist was being desecrated by the presence of these gentle people who were advocating for their rights.  ON the day of Pentecost, they went to the altar of God to praise God.  In a moment of inspired wisdom, the priests instructed the people in alternate routes to the communion stations so that no one would eb denied communion.  When we go to the altar of God instead of the altar of the Supreme Court or the Capital or Wall Street or the Pentagon or the White House, we are making a distinction about which god we follow.  The Psalmist finds his or her way out of the despair of the oppression by enemies by remembering where true allegiance ought to lie. 

            (5)Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me?

                        Hope in God;

                        for I shall again praise God,

                        my help and my God. 

            Why are we cast down?  Good question.  ON the other side of the empty tomb, we see that God’s power is not beholden to earthly influence.  When we graft ourselves on to the power of God, then we can move mountains.  We can hold truth in our precious hands.  We can see a new reality.  And if we can see it, then maybe we can live it, too.

            So the word on this pride Sunday is to not despair because of the words and actions of those who wish to rain down oppression and abuse. 

            The word is to cling to a joy in God which is above all of the powers and principalities. 

            Hang onto the joy from God who has your backside. 

            Hang onto the hope from God which can move mountains and can even restore us to sanity. 

            It’s so easy to get down in the dumps because of all of the problems of the world.  And yet, God’s desire for us is for us to find a way out of that pit of despair.  God wants us to remember who we are and who we are called to be.  We are called to remember who God is.  Maybe this is the annoying mosquito in our mundane lives.  This insect deserves our attention, not only our blood.  When we pay attention to the persistent plea from God, then we can really do some amazing things.

            Thank God for this great church which is in the business of bringing people from despair to joy.  May that joy spread from person to person and from neighborhood to neighborhood until we all see the grand plan that God has for us all to live in peace, joy, compassion love.

            Amen.