The text of the sermon delivered by Rev. Kirk Moore at Union Congregational United Church of Christ in Somonauk, IL on Sunday, October 3, 2010
This morning’s Bible reading is from Psalm 137
We don’t read that verse
This week’s Bible reading from Psalm 137 makes for a good reggae song. We sang it this morning. Do you remember these words?
By the rivers of Babylon
Where we sat down
There we wept
When we remembered Zion
Both the song and the entire Psalm express pain and sorrow. But the song doesn’t quote the entire Psalm. You noticed the sentences at the end of this morning’s reading. At the end it makes me want to throw up.
I can’t understand the pain that the writer of this Psalm felt. I can’t understand the anguish of the people who endured the atrocities committed against them by the Edomites. I can’t understand a desire to kill the children the enemies who have treated your people and your children like animals – raping and murdering them. I have never experienced the kind of rage that would come from seeing your children savagely murdered and abused.
I can see how a person or a people would feel that payback was the only thing that would give them satisfaction. I can see how a person or a people would want revenge after they had been treated so savagely. I can see how people today want revenge against those who have murdered innocents.
But I can’t understand ever wanting to take little ones and dash them against the rock.
That brutal emotion is expressed at the end of Psalm 137. I wish the verse wasn’t there, but it is.
I just don’t want to read it.
Some are more understanding with the entirety of this Psalm. They say that it gives permission for people to be honest with God — say anything to God.
I agree that we can say anything to God. We can chew God out, yell and scream, call God awful names, vent, vent, vent, vent, vent, vent. In our venting we let go of some of the anger and pain. In our crying out we begin what is usually a slow process of healing. Even in our completely inappropriate words God understands and God listens – always. God isn’t the cosmic sheriff waiting for humanity to mess up so God can respond with lightning bolts or something like that.
As I say that, I’ve got to mention that Psalm 137 isn’t the only place in the Bible where such words exist. In Isaiah 13:16 it’s the wrath of God against the evil that get this: “Their infants will be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses will be plundered, and their wives ravished.”
And even with that, let me repeat. God isn’t the cosmic sheriff waiting for humanity to mess up so God can respond with lightning bolts or something like that. Harsh, awful words have been used to describe what God is like. God isn’t like that.
But there’s something different going on here in today’s reading.
This is a psalm. It isn’t a promise of any kind. It isn’t a view of what God is like. It is the powerful, raw emotion of someone writing out of pain and anger.
It doesn’t call on God to pay back or to kill children. It has the voice of the writer saying that happiness will come to the ones who get revenge against the Edomites. It says that happiness will come to those who slaughter the children of their enemies.
We can say anything to God.
It’s not OK to seek revenge against our enemies. It’s not OK to call for the slaughter of innocent children.
Payback is dangerous. It doesn’t pay back anything. It doesn’t ‘square things.’ It only makes things worse. Wishing harm on our enemies and out adversaries comes out of a desire to pay them back for what they have done. It doesn’t work. At all. Revenge is a dish best not served.
But let’s not forget that these horribly offensive words are in our Bible. They are in our sacred book. They do not reflect the overall theme of the Bible (God creates, we mess up, God restores, we mess up . . .) although they are certainly an example of messed up motivation. They do not reflect God’s two most important rules (Love God! Love everyone) in any way, shape or form. We cannot, however, judge the whole of our sacred book by the presence of anger, offensive verses, or unacceptable texts.
We can’t judge any religion that way.
We can call the end of Psalm 137 what it is. Horrible. Offensive. Unacceptable.
And we can acknowledge that the pain expresses come from deep within a heart that has been through devastating circumstances and brutal treatment at the hands of someone else. We can seek to be agents of healing instead of division when we hear others cry out. We can hope that others will hear our pain and will be agents of healing instead of division when we cry out.
This and so many other psalms remind us that in our anger, pain, and sorrow we can cry out. We can sing the blues. And in our crying out we can begin the slow process of healing. We can begin to live with and heal from devastation as we remember the place of pain and say, ‘there we wept.’
Close with prayer.
Union Congregational, United Church of Christ - Somonauk, IL 