First Presbyterian Church
Abiding Love
Sermon for May 17, 2009
by Pastor Susan Barnes

Psalm 98 is a psalm of praise, perhaps in honor of a new king, but used in anticipation of God's realm on earth. I'll be reading from my translation, but you can follow along on page 551. Listen for the word of God as it is found in Psalm 98.

1 A Psalm. O sing to Yahweh a new song, for God has done extraordinary things. God's right hand and holy arm have delivered victory.

2 Yahweh makes God's victory known in the eyes of the nations;

3 God has remembered God's covenantal kindness and faithfulness to the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the victory of our God.

4 Roar 1 to Yahweh, all the earth; break open and cheer 2 and play music!

5 Play music to Yahweh with the lyre, with the lyre and the sound of melody.

6 With trumpet and sound of horn roar before Yahweh the king.

7 Let the sea roar, and all that fills it; the world and those who live in it.

8 Let rivers clap their hands; together let the hills cheer

9 at the presence of Yahweh, for he is coming to govern the earth.
God will judge the earth with righteousness, and the peoples with equity.

This ends our reading of the psalm. That word I translated ‘rivers' can also be translated ‘floods,' as it is in our pew Bibles. The rivers, or floods, and the sea represent the chaotic forces against God in ancient near eastern creation accounts. 3 So to have them praise God is no small thing. It isn't enough that we human beings sing to God; God's glory and faithfulness are so great, the sea, the world, the rivers and hills have to come together praise God. The word I translated as ‘cheer' literally means “utter a ringing cry, or a joyful shout.” To me, that sounded just like what a crowd does at a ballgame, or what the cheerleaders do to get a crowd going. We can shout in joy. We are blessed that the choir can sing in joy. Let's listen to them interpret this psalm.

Our unison reading is found on page 109. In it, Jesus is talking to his disciples. He has spoken of being the vine and the disciples being the branches. It is part of what is called “the farewell discourse” because it is his last speech to the disciples before he is arrested. Listen for the word of God as it is found John 15:9-17.

9 As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love.

11 I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.12 This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you.

15 I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. 16 You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. 17 I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.

This ends our reading of God's word.

Jesus said, “no one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends.” When the gospel of John was written down and circulated among the churches, Christians were experiencing great persecution. These words of Jesus encouraged them. He wasn't just teaching them about friendship, he was describing his own life. He promised to give his life for them and he did. His words can be trusted.

In the synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, Jesus says “love your neighbor as your self (Mark 12:31, Matthew 22:39, Luke 10:27). But here in John Jesus tells the disciples to love one another as Jesus has loved them. 4 That's a much taller order. Some of us aren't very good to ourselves; we mistreat our bodies, don't exercise our minds, and don't tend to our own souls. So loving our neighbors as poorly as we love ourselves isn't too tough.

Our scripture today tells us to love as Jesus loves. Jesus doesn't call his disciples servants, but friends. A friend is someone you can speak openly to, someone you can dare to tell your secrets to. So we choose our friends carefully.

Jesus said he made known to them everything he heard from “the father.” He did not keep secrets from them. In the Greek and Roman first century, philosophers spoke of the difference between flattery and frank speech. If you flattered someone, you might be trying to get something from him, and couldn't be trusted. Friends, in contrast, spoke frankly to one another. Frank speech was valued. Jesus spoke frankly and openly to the disciples, whom he called his friends 5. Today, we risk speaking openly to people we trust and value, people we think of as equals. Often we do not dare to speak openly to people we don't consider our equals. We are more careful and guarded.

I found this story a long time ago and saved it. It's about equals. It's from Catholic writer John Dalrymple. He remembers this about a saint: “The story how St. Martin…cut his cloak in two on a freezing night and gave half to a beggar is a very telling one. But I remember thinking, when I was young, ‘Why did St. Martin not give the whole of his cloak? Would it not have been more noble, a better example to us all, more sensitive, to give the whole cloak?' However, more recently I have perceived that giving half the cloak contains the essence of Christianity, because this was sharing. St. Martin was coming down to the same level as the beggar. He was saying, ‘I'm cold too. You and I can share this cloak. I am not going just to give you the cloak, I am going to share it with you.' Deep at the centre of Christianity and of the life you and I lead is the notion not so much of giving but of sharing with each other. When you give, you are a benefactor. When you share, you are a participant and equal.” 6

Sometimes even the best intentions don't make much of a difference because the injustice is unsolvable.

I knew a high school student who got a poor grade for writing a report on John Kennedy. His teacher disagreed with Kennedy's politics, and so marked the student down. I know an interviewer who didn't hire a very qualified applicant because she had gray hair. You all know about the losses to ranchers because of federally and state protected wolves.

I'm sure you can think of other stories of injustice; when you add in the problems of racism, poverty, addiction, to say nothing of our crazy economy, there's a load of injustice.

We long for righteousness and equity to come, for fairness to be established. Think about that longing for a little bit.

Psalm 98 responds to that longing. Isaac Watts wrote a hymn about it. I'm pretty sure you know at least some of the words. Say some of them with me : Joy to the world! The Lord is come; Let earth receive her king. Let every heart prepare him room, and heaven and nature sing, and heaven and nature sing, and heaven, and heaven and nature sing.

Joy to the world, the savior reigns, Let us our songs employ, While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains repeat the sounding joy, repeat the sounding joy, repeat, repeat the sounding joy.

No more let sins and sorrows grow, Nor thorns infest the ground; He comes to make His blessings flow Far as the curse is found, Far as the curse is found, Far as, far as the curse is found.

He rules the world with truth and grace, and makes the nations prove the glories of his righteousness, and wonders of his love, and wonders of his love, and wonders, wonders of his love.

Thanks for saying it with me. Hear those words of blessings and truth and righteousness. God will judge the peoples with equity. It's quite a hymn from quite a psalm.

Having you speak up is a way to keep us all focused on God's word.

But sometimes people don't speak for a good reason. Sometimes we'd rather just rest and listen than actively participate. We want to just be still because we have been going and going and going. And sometimes there are other reasons.

Before Tom Bergeron was host of the television show “Dancing with the Stars,” he hosted a daily talk show in Boston. Before the broadcast, he routinely greeted the studio audience and “put them through a training exercise in applause.” He recalled one episode and wrote this. “One woman didn't seem to be buying it. She wasn't applauding at all. ‘Come on,' I teased. ‘You're going to have to do better than that. Show a little enthusiasm.'

Minutes later a nervous staff member came up to me in my dressing room. ‘That woman you singled out called me over when you left,' she said,

‘Too bad,' I said. ‘She wasn't clapping.'

‘Right,' the staff member agreed. ‘But she just wanted you to know something. She only has one arm.'

I felt like an idiot. I was looking right at that woman, but I saw only what I needed.” 7

When we are so busy looking for what we think we need, we can miss what's there.

This host thought there was only one way to applaud: by clapping.

A long time ago when I was in junior high school, an English teacher gave us a list of questions to answer. One of them was the old Buddhist question “What is the sound of one hand clapping?” I wrote “The silence of struggling alone.” I liked the rhythm of that phrase; I liked its simplicity. My teacher did not. She wrote, “Say more. Explain fully.” I never did. I kept my answer.

We aren't expected to struggle alone and clap with just one hand; we get to applaud in other ways. We aren't expected to praise God alone; all the earth is with us.

In our psalm the rivers clapped their hands for joy at God's presence. I don't know how rivers and floods can clap with no hands at all. In Hebrew, it literally means putting the cups of your palms together. Maybe the river noise sounds like applause. Maybe it was just a figure of speech.

But the psalm speaks of other ways to praise God: roar and cheer and play. We can do at least one of those things. But sometimes, life becomes too burdensome to feel much joy, and even if we can praise, we don't. That's when we need to feel love from others, and when friendship makes a difference.

Jennie McBee Sheeks wrote about a stranger's friendship eight years ago: “I had just been released after being arrested for my nonviolent protest of global economic policies. I still bore the signs of being roughed up by US marshals. Some of my friends, also activists, were preparing a Passover Seder and had sent me to the liquor store for kosher wine. The clerk took one look at my scrapes and bruises and the overwhelmed look in my eyes.

‘What happened to you?'

I explained that I was one of the protesters and had just been released from jail. He asked me why I was here protesting. I explained to him how in recent years I had gotten to know persons from many countries and hear their stories of struggles. They had shared with me that their own efforts to speak out against the oppression in their communities were met with imprisonment or murder. These representatives had asked me, as a young white American to use my privilege to convey their message of pain and injustice.

The liquor store employee stepped from behind the counter and hugged me. As he did, I could also hear his heart sing; ‘Please take this love from me to sustain you, to feed you and encourage you along the road. You have a friend in me, and we are now connected. God was in our embrace.'” 8

We can't stop all the injustice in the world; we can't cure deep illnesses.

But we can try to love as Christ loves, knowing that God has done extraordinary things, knowing that God's justice and righteousness will come. Even now, it is breaking into the world, here and there, when people follow Christ's commandment to love one another.

1 can be translated raise a shout or give a trumpet blast
2 give a ringing cry in joy
3Genesis 2:2: “darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.” God had command over the waters.
4 This idea is from Frances Taylor Gench's “John 15:12-17, Interpretation , April 2004, p. 181+.
5 This is from Gail R. O'Day's “Jesus as Friend in the Gospel of John,” Interpretation, April 2004, p. 144+.
6 Dalrymple, John, Letting Go in Love, quoted in “Global Sermon Notes,” December 2003, prepared by the Division of Overseas Ministries and distributed by regional offices of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).
7 Bergeron, Tom. “Does Susan Boyle Know What's Next?” New York Times, April 25, 2009, p. A17.
8 Sheeks, Jennie McBee, “To Love Well,” the Other Side, January and February 2002, p. 42.