Sermon 9/24/17
Psalm 136
Back to (Bible) School: Poetry
Do you like poetry? Have you ever
read or written poetry? I think we can feel both daunted and bored by poetry.
Daunted if we have to try to figure out what it means. One of my favorite
movies is In Her Shoes, based on the
book by the same name from Jennifer Weiner. In the movie, one of the
characters, Maggie, is dyslexic. She ends up working at a nursing home, where
one of the residents is a retired English professor. He encourages her to read
to him, and not just read, but he helps her understand
what she is reading. The first time she reads to him, she reads a poem. When
she’s done, having struggled through word by word, he asks what she thinks. She
says, “Good.” He says, “Unacceptable,” and then proceeds to ask her question
after question until she realizes that she can
figure out what the poem might mean to
her, how it applies to her life right
now. It’s a beautiful scene that captures how disinterested we can be in
poetry, how much it overwhelms us, how afraid we are of getting the meaning
“wrong,” and yet, how beautiful is can be when these artful words of others can
speak deeply to our spirits.
Do you like poetry?
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.[1]
You may write me down in history / With your
bitter, twisted lies, / You may trod me in the very dirt / But still, like
dust, I’ll rise.[2]
Shall I compare thee
to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.[3]
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.[3]
The Lord is My Shepherd, I shall not want. He
maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still water.”
(Psalm 23)
Have you ever written any poetry? I
went through a phase of writing poetry when I was in late elementary school and
junior high. I was inspired, believe it or not, by an episode of Roseanne, the soon-to-return sitcom from
the 80s. The character Darlene, who I loved, wrote a poem on the show, a poem
that revealed her deep, unspoken emotions, and I was enthralled and inspired. I
thought Darlene was very cool, and I
set about to write my own deep, insightful poetry. It was not the greatest
stuff. I’ve had pity on all of you by not
digging some out of my old journals to share with you today. But
truthfully, writing poetry, even bad poetry,
helped me process all the myriad and overpowering feelings one has in the
tumultuous tween and teen years. Writing poetry gave me a place to creatively
process all the stuff that was in my heart at a time in my life when I felt
pretty misunderstood.
Do you like poetry? Do you like music? Consider all the lyrics to songs
that you have stored away in your brain. Consider the songs that shaped you as
a child, as a young person, as an adult. Sometimes hearing a particular song
can transport us back to a time, a place, an experience, help us recall things so vividly. The lyrics to all our
favorite songs are poetry set to music, a kind of poetry that most of us are
more familiar with today.
The Bible is full of poetry. We find it in both the Hebrew Bible, the Old
Testament, and in the New Testament, though less frequently. In the Hebrew
Bible, the books of Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Songs are
considered books of poetry. These books are sometimes also referred to as books
of wisdom. As I said a couple of weeks ago, the books of poetry in the Bible
are not primarily about communicating facts,
even though many of the passages of poetry refer to and respond to historical
events. Instead, in the poetry of the Bible, we see the authors pouring out
their hearts, sharing their deepest feelings in words they’ve written. To me,
that makes the words of poetry in the Bible very meaningful and contemporary,
because although our world has changed, I don’t think the range of emotions
that we experience has changed. The authors of biblical poetry bring to us the
feelings, the spirits, the souls of people of faith who lived thousands of
years ago, and we discover that we experience the same intense emotions, and
struggle with the same searching questions of faith.
Today we’re looking together at
Psalm 136. There are 150 psalms, songs, in our Bible, and they fall into
several categories. Some are called “royal psalms” – they have to do with the
business of the kings of Israel and Judah – psalms about a royal coronation, a
blessing on a new rule, a royal marriage, or accounts of a king’s military
leadership. Some psalms are laments – individual laments and communal laments –
mournful psalms written in times of despair. Others are psalms of thanksgiving.
They’re meant to praise God, give thanks for God’s actions. More than a third
of the psalms are addressed to the Director of Music. They were meant to be
sung as a part of worship. Our psalm for today is like that, meant to be shared
musically in the call and response way we read it together today. A key feature
of Hebrew poetry is a style called parallelism. Parallelism is a repeated
pattern where we find one verse stating an idea, and the very next verse restating
the same or a very similar idea in a slightly different way.[4]
For example, our Psalm today starts with lines about giving thanks first to
“the God of gods” and then to the “Lord of lords” in the very next verse.
In Psalm 136, the focus is on
praising God, particularly because of God’s steadfast love. The psalmist
praises God’s faithfulness, driving the point home by repeating these words as
every other stanza of the poem. God’s love is forever, God’s love is forever,
God’s love is forever. The psalmist writes in a way that will have the
congregation repeating these words again and again, etching them into their
memory, helping the congregation feel the truth of them. “God’s love is
forever” is like the refrain, the chorus of the song, sung over and over.
Psalm 136 also shows us an example
of Israel telling its story. Over and over in the scriptures, we hear reference
to the Exodus, God leading the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt and into the
Promised Land. It’s their defining story. Remember, when we talked about the
law, the commandments, the Exodus, God’s saving the people is the reason given behind many of the laws for
the new nation. So too, in the poetry of Israel, the story of the Exodus is
told again and again. It is the story
that shapes Israel, that provides the example of God’s faithfulness, that
provides their sense of future and purpose, and binds them together as a
nation. This psalm, like many others, reminds the people of their core
identity. As Christians, we do this with Holy Communion. We tell ourselves the
story of Jesus sharing a meal with his disciples, and sharing his life with us
again and again, until we know it deep in our bones.
I wonder, what’s our defining story
as a congregation? What’s the story we tell ourselves again and again about our
relationship with God? As a church, what story do we need to remind ourselves
of again and again? What’s your defining
story with God? What’s the message of your life, the way that God is showing up
all through your days, again and again? How are you reminding yourself of God’s
faithful presence in your life? And I wonder, what’s our refrain? What’s our
chorus? What are the words that we need to etch onto our hearts about who God
is? God is forgiving. God’s love is unconditional. God’s grace is for you. With
God, everything is possible. What refrain do you need to hear over and over
again?
I want to challenge you, as I
challenged the children this week, to try to write your own poetry, your own
praise song, your own words that help you share your heart, your feelings, your
emotions with God. You don’t have to share your words unless you want to – they
can be just for you. And if writing really isn’t your thing, I want you to
think about how you might best express your praise for God, your love for God.
Is it through art? Painting or drawing? Through music? Dance? How can you open
your heart to praise God in a creative way this week? Try something.
“O give thanks to the Lord, for God is good, for God’s steadfast
love endures forever.” Amen.
[1]
Frost, Robert, “The Road Note Taken,” http://classicalpoets.org/10-greatest-poems-ever-written/
[2]
Angelou, Maya, “Still I Rise,” http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/world-poetry-day-28-of-poetrys-most-powerful-lines-ever-written-a6944301.html
[3]
Shakespeare, William, “Sonnet 18,” http://classicalpoets.org/10-greatest-poems-ever-written/
[4]
“Psalms,” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psalms
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