A few years back I was on my
way to work and I heard this brilliantly raw and simple voice on the radio
telling me to “hold on.” Brittany Howard of Alabama Shakes sang:
Bless
my heart, bless my soul
Didn't think I'd make it to 22 years old
There must be someone up above
Sayin', "Come on, Brittany, you got to come on up!”
Didn't think I'd make it to 22 years old
There must be someone up above
Sayin', "Come on, Brittany, you got to come on up!”
You
got to hold on!
I don’t know what was going
on at the time, but it struck me. It played me like I was a string on a guitar.
It rang in and out of my soul, and it suddenly became my song.
Does that ever happen to you?
Do you ever have those moments where something you see or hear reflects where
you are in the world? In these media rich, frenzied days we get image after
image, meme after meme, and vine after vine that we drink like junkies and
never get enough.
And yet we keep looking. We
keep looking for some reflection of our souls. If we listen, the language of
our children tells us just that. They see a video of cat jumping and missing a
counter or reacting awkwardly to a toy, and they say, “Me.” They see a dog
licking at the shadow of water – but not getting any of the water that flows
from the hose – and they say, “same.”
Sure, there are more positive
images that they identify with, but don’t we all just need a way to acknowledge
the awkwardness of life sometimes?
I get the feeling that’s what
David had in mind with many of the Psalms. If anything, Psalm 139 is one of
those that cuts through the awkwardness of being human in a way that says, “I
know your involved in the messiness of life, O God, even if I don’t see it.”
The Psalmist goes on to
acknowledge that God is the source of all that is, so that means that at some
point—he was God’s next idea— just as you and I were thought up by this
provocative thinker of a God.
Before you were a gleam in
your father’s eye, before you were knit in your mother’s womb, before there was
a reason for me to love you or you me – there was a love that held you in mind.
That’s important stuff to
remember when the going gets rough. Like times when you feel like that dog who
was licking at shadows in that video I mentioned earlier, or when you forget
why you are holding on in the first place. For those times, Brittney sings:
So,
bless my heart and bless yours, too
I don't know where I'm gonna go
Don't know what I'm gonna do
There must be somebody up above
Sayin', "Come on, Brittany, you got to get back up!
I don't know where I'm gonna go
Don't know what I'm gonna do
There must be somebody up above
Sayin', "Come on, Brittany, you got to get back up!
You
Got to hold on!”
Maybe it is the economy, or
maybe a friend betrayed you. Maybe you’re scared of the random violence that
grips our country. Maybe it’s your health or the health of a loved one that has
you wondering from time to time where God is in the midst of it all. It doesn’t
matter. Just hold on.
That’s what Paul told a
church of believers who were being challenged by conflicts inside and out –
just hold on. Again, and again in his letters he reminded them that there was
more to life and love and meaning than what they expected to get out of it. And
here he specifically told them that even though they were crushed and oppressed
and filled with panic about what might happen next, they were not destroyed.
They were not without hope. In fact, they would be the source of inspiration
for others – even you and even me.
Years later, a poet born in
Lebanon in 1883, Kahlil Gibran would write, “The deeper that sorrow carves into
your being, the more joy you can contain.” Of course, it doesn’t feel like that
when the carving is going on, so Britney sings:
"Yeah,
you gotta wait"
I don't wanna wait
But I don't wanna wait
No, I don't wanna wait
I don't wanna wait
But I don't wanna wait
No, I don't wanna wait
But,
you got to hold on…
Waiting
on God’s timing is never easy and never fun, because we never do it except for
when we realize that we are not actually in charge of the universe and its
courses. But sometimes waiting is what it means to hold on.
But
what are we waiting for? As we test our spiritual and emotional grip strength,
we who follow Jesus must look to him as the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.
What does he wait for?
Apparently,
in today’s scripture, he waited for a chance to cause trouble. Well, on the one
hand he did not wait. He recognized the suffering of another and acted with
care. He did not wait for a better time for him. He simply did the right thing
for the person he was with.
Now,
on the other hand he waited for the Pharisees to have a good view. He wanted
them to see and to know what he was doing. He wanted them to recognize their
own hypocrisy. Instead, their hearts were filled with malice.
What
about us? Are we willing to recognize the suffering of another, even if it challenges
what we see as holy? Are we willing to wait for the Lord’s timing when the
Lord’s timing is faster than we want to believe? Are we willing to get into the
action of life and faith, even with our limitations? Listen once more to
Britney:
So,
bless my heart and bless my mind
I got so much to do, I ain't got much time
So, must be someone up above
Saying "Come on, girl
Yeah, you got to get back up
I got so much to do, I ain't got much time
So, must be someone up above
Saying "Come on, girl
Yeah, you got to get back up
You
got to hold on
In many ways, that song is
what this table is about. As Presbyterian Christians we only gather around it
monthly, because we believe that it is not a means of grace but that
confirmation of it.
This table celebrates what
God has already done, and it reminds us that there is more for us to do. It
reminds us that we are called into a more common union with God and one
another. It reminds us that we are called to invite more and more people to
this banquet, where the richness of God’s mercy is the main course.
The table of Christ reminds
us of the claim God placed on us in baptism, and that reminds us that these two
sacraments make us aware that all of life is sacred. You got to hold on to
that. You got to hold on to the knowledge that there is nowhere you can go
where God is not present.
We have to hold on. We have
to hold on to one another. For in doing so, we are held by a love like no other
– a love that transforms our lives through life lived together, a love that
heals and reconciles, a love that lets the cracks in our pots become sources of
life giving water to those in need.
Let us rejoice, then, in the
call of God to a more common unity that even includes our weaknesses, offers
forgiveness, and transforms our lives into constant sources of hope and meaning
– even here, even now. Amen.
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