Don’t Let Go

Psalm 138
2nd Sunday of Pentecost
Outdoor Worship in the Park
Plymouth Congregational Church, UCC
The Rev. Jane Anne Ferguson
 
Psalm 138
I give thanks to you with all my heart, [Holy One].
I sing your praise before all other gods.
I bow toward your holy temple and thank your name
for your loyal love and faithfulness
because you have made your name and word greater than everything else.
On the day I cried out, you answered me. You encouraged me with inner strength.
Let all the earth's rulers give thanks to you, [O God,] when they hear what you say.
Let them sing about [Your] ways because the [Your] glory and [goodness] is so great!
Even though the [Holy One] is high, she can still see the lowly,
but God keeps his distance from the arrogant.
Whenever I am in deep trouble, you make me live again;
you send your power against my enemies' wrath;
you save me with your strong hand. [God] will do all this for my sake.
Your faithful love lasts forever, [Holy One]!
Don't let go of what your hands have made.
 
Bible, Common English. CEB Common English Bible with Apocrypha - eBook [ePub] (Kindle Locations 23853-23867). C

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Look around you! Take a good, long look! Look at all your friends and Plymouth family. Here we are together again – finally!  Thanks be to God!

The ancient Israelite poet who wrote Psalm 138 in thanksgiving for the Israelites being delivered from exile and their return home to Jerusalem and their beloved temple. We, too, have been a people in exile and isolation from our beloved community. Jerusalem did not look the same. It had to be rebuilt, literally. And community had to be rebuilt with those who had been left in the ruins of Jerusalem to survive and those taken away to Babylon into exile.

Like the ancients we, too, stand on the brink of rebuilding. We come back together after living through so much unexpected trauma and grief. Some of us have been touched personally by Covid 19. Some of us have not. Yet we all hold the collective sadness and fear from this frightening time. Some of us experienced job insecurity, perhaps a lay-off or loss of a job. We have just experienced the fear in the pit of our stomachs of “what if” that were me and the sorrow for those who have been out of work. We all lived through the polarity and division of the election season. We all lived through the gut-punch of seeing George Floyd’s death and the ensuing reality of the devastation brought on by ignoring white privilege, white body supremacy and what it has done and continues to do to the soul of our nation. We all lived through season of the ash falling on our heads from the largest wildfire in Colorado history that was just over those hills. It has been a hot mess, people!!

As joyous as our reunion is today, these months of exiles have taken their toll on us as individuals and as community. We may be tempted to rush back to what we thought was normal as a way of dealing with our grief and anxiety. And then be disappointed that it is not the same and can’t ever be just like before the pandemic. We may be feeling exhausted and anxious, unwilling to jump back into what we think used to be normal. The time of isolation and slower activity has taught us that we may not want to be as crazily over-committed as perhaps we once were. I have heard friends and family members say that they are wandering who their community is after the isolation. Is it the same as it was before? Will they take up all the same friendships as before? What are the thoughts or feelings wondering around in your minds and hearts this morning along with the joy and gratitude of being back together?

Though our psalm is written in first person “I” statements, the poet is speaking for the community. I think the psalmist’s words hold so much wisdom for us right now as we begin gathering after these long 15 months of exile from being in person. Instead of just telling you what they mean to me I am going to invite us all the spend some time with the psalmist’s words individually as we sit here together in community. I will read the psalm three times and invite us to sit in moments of silence after each time to let the words and images work on our souls. This is an ancient spiritual practice called Lectio Divina or contemplative reading. We will sit for just one minute of silence after each reading – for some that will be enough, for those used to this practice it will seem short. In the silence, let the outside sounds flow over you like the breeze…let your distracting thoughts flow up into the sky and your breath return you to the psalm.
 
I give thanks to you with all my heart, [Holy One].
I sing your praise before all other gods, [things that distract me from following you.]
I bow toward you, [here in the holy temple of your creation] and thank your name
for your loyal love and faithfulness
because you have made your name and word greater than everything else.
On the day I cried out, you answered me. You encouraged me with inner strength.
Let all the earth's rulers give thanks to you, [O God,] when they hear what you say.
Let them sing about [Your] ways because the [Your] glory and [goodness] is so great!
Even though the [Holy One] is high, she can still see the lowly,
but the arrogant distance themselves from God’s presence.
Whenever I am in deep trouble, you make me live again;
you send your power against my enemies' wrath; [against the fears that assail me;]
you save me with your strong hand. [God]will do all this for my sake.
Your faithful love lasts forever, [Holy One]!
Don't let go of what your hands have made.
 
Questions for contemplation in silence after each reading.

• 1st reading - What word or phrase is shimmering in your mind, jumping out at you after hearing the psalm?
• 2nd reading – What question arises from the shimmering word or phrase? Lift it up to God.
• 3rd reading – Rest in this reading and in the silence…be aware that in your rest an  “answer” to your question might arise.

 
“Don’t let go, Holy One, of what your hands have made.” This was the phrase that jumped out at me the first time I read the psalm. In a different translation it reads, “Finish in us the good work that you started.” My friends, as we face the dangers of history – and we have faced them this year and they will continue to confront us – may we hold fast to all the good works that God has started and will start in us. We are what God’s hands have made. We are all made in God’s image…the whole of creation is made by God and holds God’s divine image in every blade of grass, every leaf, every bird, squirrel, bug, and garter snake. God will not let go of us. Let us not let go of God and of one another as we rebuild our community in these new times.

Amen.
 
©The Rev. Jane Anne Ferguson, 2021 and beyond. May be reprinted only with permission.

Author

Associate Minister Jane Anne Ferguson is a writer, storyteller, and contributor to Feasting on the Word, a popular biblical commentary. Learn more about Jane Anne here.