The Zion Songs! (Psalm 137)
Prayer:
We invoke not your presence O Holy One,
for it is already in our midst. But we pray for our best selves that we may
receive the word. Amen!
Grace and peace are already ours,
for we belong to the family of Jesus the Christ. What a joy it is to join
millions of Christians across the world today and to participate in this holy
meal. Our focus this morning is to taste the bread of life and to reach out to
those who need bread; to drink the cup of joy and help others taste the
goodness of our Lord. My sermon this morning is based on Psalm 137.
For thousands of years, generations of people
have communicated with God in simple human language. They shared with God their
gratitude, their rage, their hatred, their hopes, their fears, their longing
for peace and justice and their dreams through simple words. I do not see any
elegant expression or pious jargons in the Psalms. As a dear long for the
flowing streams so my soul longs for you. (Psalm 42) My God My God why hast
thou forsaken me (Psalm 22) Psalms are about the daily living experience of all
human beings. The psalms have an eternal spiritual value; a lasting message. It
simply exposes the common humanity of people. That is why as a church we read
and sing these Psalms Sunday after Sunday with Nichol playing the music for us.
Friends! We live today in a changing culture.
Even though I do not live like the Amish people being very close to the nature,
in today’s computer technology I’m far behind. I do not even understand some of
the terms for in my vocabulary a key board is a piano. A, C.D is a bank account.
“Cut”, you did it with a pocket knife, “paste”, you did with glue, a “web” is a
spider’s home, and the “virus” is the flue. And if I “unzip” anything in public
I will be in jail for a while. How many of our children in this technologically
advanced age are familiar with the Patriarchs and the prophets of the Old Testament?
How many of them do understand the proverbs and the Psalms of the bible? A little
five year old was sent to the Sunday school with the following note pinned to
her jacket. “The opinions expressed by this child concerning God church faith
and the bible may not necessarily be those of the family”.
The background for Psalm 137 was a historic event.
It happened in 587 BCE, when Babylon invaded Jerusalem. The Babylon of the
biblical times is the Iraq of today. Many people in Jerusalem were brutally
killed in this war and many were taken as prisoners to Babylon. The beautiful temple
was in shambles. It was destructed and raised to the ground. The temple of
Jerusalem was literally God’s dwelling place. It was a center of all things in
life and it provided them a place of security.
This
was evening time or perhaps a night in Iraq. The soldiers wanted to celebrate
the victory over capturing Jerusalem. Normally for the soldiers once the war is
over then their pace of existence gets slower. So here the soldiers wanted to transform
their dull moments into a jolly good time. Just like those days when Bob Hope used
to visit and provide some entertainment for the American soldiers in places
like Kuwait or Bagdad or Saudi Arabia, now the Babylonian soldiers were longing
for the same experience. They asked the captives to provide music for them to sing
and to dance in the barracks.
Now let us listen to Psalm 137:
By the rivers of Babylon, perhaps Euphrates or may be Tigris, we sat down and
wept and remembered Zion. Zion is the other name for Jerusalem as well as to
the temple in Jerusalem. There on the willow trees we hung up our harps and our
guitars and there those who carried us away, demanded music and singing. “Sing to us”, they asked, those songs
you normally sing in your temple. How could we sing those Zion songs in a foreign
land?
There
is an interesting case coming up in the US Supreme Court. It is about prayer.
It is about whether having prayer is permissible during the town Board meeting
here in Greece New York. Well, once the case is over and if payer is allowed
what kind of prayer will we pray. Is it the Christian prayer or the Jewish
prayer? That leads to my next question; just like the shampoos and the tooth
paste in the shopping center or the different sandwich and the salad dressings
in our restaurants, do we have too many Gods in the US to choose from? Do we
have a Christian God, an Islamic God, a Jewish God, and a Hindu God? The
captives perhaps are saying the same; the religious songs are meant only to be
sung in the temple. Perhaps they may even say that the pop songs and the jazz music
do belong only to the entertainment world. I have a different view on this
subject and I want this theological debate to continue even after my sermon
this morning.
Of course the captives were sad for
they lost their homes and their homeland as well. Their question then was; “will
we ever be able to see the land of our fathers and mothers?” Friends! I can
identify with their feelings for I have gone through this experience myself
when I had to leave my home land of Sri Lanka due to some political turmoil. Being
a citizen of this country and having a home of my own is not the same as
enjoying one’s ancestral home and country. This story however reminds me that
once I lose hope in life I lose everything. The captives in Babylon have lost their
hope completely. Let me give you another example. Several years ago I prayed constantly
for the South Africans to regain their own land. I prayed earnestly for the
release of Nelson Mandala from the prison. However did I expect that to happen
in my life time? You and I have now witnessed as to how the people of South
Africa have been freed from the chains of colonial oppression. The beautiful
song “FREEDOM O FREEDOM” was born out of this struggle. Do we know of other songs
sung with the beat of freedom and with the thirst for human dignity? How about
the song” Deep in my heart I do believe
that we shall overcome some day”? How
about the song, “Don’t cry for me Argentina”. Why can’t these
songs be sung anywhere whether in sanctuaries or in market places? How can one
be optimistic and hopeful in the midst of calamity and gloom? Recently a Pastor
was sharing with me of a woman in his church, who celebrated her one hundredth
birth day, and the church organized a great party for her and there was a local
newspaper person who interviewed her. When the question was asked: do you have
children? She in the height of excitement responded without any hesitation NOT YET!
The captives were freed after 40 years
of their prison life, because Persia had won the war over Babylon in 537 BCE.
The captives are now able to sing, free
at last and free at last for we are
back in the land we dreamed about
and yearned for. The book of
Ezra and Nehemiah tell us the details about their return and the reconstruction
of the temple. The Psalmist writes this account so picturesquely, in Psalm 126.
When the Lord restored the fortunes to
Zion we were like those who dream. Then our mouth was filled with laughter and our tong with shouts of joy.
Now in conclusion I want to lift up the
words of our concluding hymn of today:
In the midst of our new
dimensions, in the face of changing ways,
Who will lead the pilgrim peoples wandering in their separate
ways?
We are men and we are women, old and young, each a gift
of creation, each a love song to be sung. Amen!
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