I Samuel 17 Key Verse 45 (Traci will tell the story so don’t read the passage)
John 5:1-8
Isaiah 63:7-9
Exegesis:
This is gruesome talk and must be interpreted carefully as poetic language, not literal claims about the use of God's power. These poems have been composed after the worst tragedy of Israel's long history, the exile into Babylon. The people have been rendered powerless as they were forced eastward toward a long future in a Babylonian ghetto. The poet announces the need for a God who has unleashed might on behalf of the exiles. And once they have returned to their shattered land of Israel, after the defeat of Babylon by the armies of Persia, they find little hope and again need a God worthy of the great challenge of rebuilding practically from nothing.
Poets exercise their huge imaginations to offer hope to those who have no hope. This God has acted throughout the long history of God's people, and the poet wishes to remind them of those actions for them, the chosen ones. So, he now "recounts the gracious deeds of YHWH, the praiseworthy acts of YHWH" (63:7ab). One could also translate these lines: "I will remember YHWH's acts of unbreakable love, YHWH's ringing hymns!" YHWH has acted and we have sung in response, because "of all YHWH has done for us, great good to the house of Israel that YHWH has shown according to God's mercy (compassion—Hebrew is literally 'womb'), according to the abundance of steadfast love (or "unbreakable love)" (63:7cd). The poet has here reached into the deep language of the very center of Israel's faith and is reminding them of God's good deeds from the foundation of the nation.
"Because God said, 'They are surely my people, children who will not deal falsely' (or perhaps "who will tell no lies"); so God became their savior in all their distress" (63:8-9a). God's hopes for the people were that they would be truth tellers, trustworthy children for whom God would be a savior in all occasions of pain or struggle. Verse 9bc is very difficult to translate, but it could be read, "There was no anguished messenger; it was God's own presence that saved them." Then, to continue the thought, "In God's love and pity, God redeemed them; God lifted and carried them through all their past days" (NRSV's "all the days of old" is less than clear). The Hope Of Divine Companionship: Reflections On Isaiah 63:7-9
The image of God’s steadfast love, grace, and mercy is indeed deeply moving and vital in the time of Trito-Isaiah for a people who, after their return from Exile, continued to harbor doubts. The original audience consisted of people who desperately wanted to say “God is good,” but did not always feel that it is, “All the time.” For these people’s sake, the prophet is proclaiming in verse 9 that it was not a representative of God, his messenger, or an angel that God sent to do his saving work, but God’s holy presence self who in God’s love and pity redeemed them, and like the Good shepherd (Isaiah 40:11) or a Nursing Mother (Isaiah 49:15; 66:10-13) that they have come to know their God to be, carried them as in the days of old. At the dawn of this New Year, many of us may be looking at the world around us and feel that the world has gone mad: On a global level, in our respective communities all around the world, in our personal lives.
‘God’s gonna trouble the water.’ This line in the African American spiritual ‘Wade in the Water’ refers to a passage in the gospel according to John, where we hear the story about Jesus healing a sick man at the pool of Bethesda. Here we have a verse that is often omitted from contemporary Bible translations because it is probably a later addition to the original text and which says, “For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had.”
The angels trouble the water – God troubles the water – and miracles happen. Only when things are stirred up, troubled, change for the better, can healing happen.
Sermon:
When I was three years old, I had an entourage of three-year old friends. After listening to our Rice Krispies Snap Crackle and Pop, with full tummies we would gather in the courtyard and play together until our mother’s called us inside for lunch. Our days were full of make believe and scientific discoveries as all three-year old days are filled. One hot July day, we found ourselves by a large green trash bin that hugged the back of the apartment building. Underneath the bin, the body of a kitten was trapped and all we could see was her motionless head. Like Batman seeing the Bat Signal flashing in the night sky, we went to work to rescue the kitten. I do not remember how we managed to leverage the giant bin and pull the kitten out, but we did, and I was elected to take her home and bring her back to life. I suppose I was already showing signs of being a healer.
Anyway, I quietly crept back into my home, my mother, mesmerized by As the World Turns, did not see me sneak into the bathroom. Quiet as a mouse, I placed the kitten in the sink and slowly let the water from the faucet fall into her mouth until her flat body became full and round. I placed the kitten, (who I named Meow because I was full of hope that any moment, I would hear a Meow), in my bed until dinner time. I prayed all afternoon that God would bring Meow back to life. 5:30 rolled around and I was called to the dinner table. I put on a sweater and placed Meow inside so she could be close to my heart, and I sat down between my parents to enjoy our dinner. My mother immediately asked why I was wearing a sweater on such a hot day, and I muttered, “I don’t know, just cuz.” Then my father looked at my mother and said, “Do you smell something?”
I began eating very fast.
My mother noticed a spot of fluid growing larger on my sweater. I saw it too and I felt it draining into my lap and dripping down my legs. And I smelled something too.
“Trey,” mom said, “What’s inside your sweater angel eyes?”
And I began to cry and say, “It’s Meow. I’m bringing her back to life. Can we keep her?”
My mother gasped. My father laughed. And then my parents lead me to the washroom where they proceeded to undress me, give me a bath, and talk to me about death. That evening, I attended my first shoebox dandelion funeral.
After another hot bath and a good scrubbing from my mother, she tucked me into bed and as she gently moved my bangs out of my eyes, my mother said, “Trey, I am so proud of you for caring about Meow and wanting her to be a part of our family.”
As I began to cry again, my mother kissed me on my forehead and said, “Today, you got into some good trouble, and you made me smile. I love you.”
(Slide 1: Angel Stirring the Water)
I remember watching my mother leave my room and thinking, “So, getting into good trouble is a good thing and it makes my mother smile.” That night, a minister was born.
The angel of God’s presence was stirring the water.
In August 2020, the world witnessed the Celebration of Life for Senator John Lewis, a man who loved people and his country unconditionally. Senator Lewis was a man who offered his life in service for emancipation and equal rights for African Americans and all human beings. From a young age, John Lewis was a person of conviction and faith, and it was his exploration into world faiths that compelled him to follow the ways of Jesus, Ghandi and other world leaders teaching love over the law, grace over fear, freedom over slavery. John studied leaders who committed to live their lives getting into good trouble for the highest good of all. I wept as I watched and listened to President Obama eulogize Senator Lewis.
(Slide 2 – John Lewis & Martin Luther King Jr.)
I wept because America’s sitting President refused to honor Senator Lewis in any way because he must always be the most important person in the room. Trump’s ego did not have room to allow President Obama’s portrait to be hung on the Presidential Portrait wall. I felt like I was three years old again, smelling the sour smell of death and decay as I witnessed the further decay of my birth nation where my parents continued to live amidst the horrific rising numbers of Covid-19 and their government’s ego filled betrayal.
(Slide 3 – John Lewis )
The angel of God’s presence is stirring the water.
Many, if not all of you joining in today, are feeling the same sickness in your stomachs as we witness the fall of the world’s moral political presence die a slow death. The United States of America is becoming the Divided States of America at the hands of a narcissistic blind giant ego and his entourage that blindly follow him while children remain in dung and death filled cages on the border of Texas and Mexico. Canada is divided amongst itself, and our leader struggled to actively listen so he can understand our urgent needs will not be met by temporarily removing taxes from specific items that meet specific parameters as crazy as a magazine purchase will not be taxable as long as it does not contain more than 5% advertising…what a nightmare for retail workers and folks simply wanting to buy a certain magazine, while many indigenous communities are still begging for clean water. Stand in any line or drive on any street and you can see and feel that people are enraged. Trudeau has resigned. Some people are thrilled, some are heartsick, and it is time for us to face our giants before we have no hope in turning around the Titanic of racism, inequality and an us verses them mentality that we have helped nurture. We are part of the global problem folks, even here in our beautiful Lake Country.
The angel of God’s presence is stirring the water.
(Slide 4 – We are all equal)
If we dare to get honest with ourselves, some of us will recognize the labels we have placed on others. If we dare to be truthful, some of us will admit we are more comfortable around certain ethnic groups. If we dare to be love, to follow the ways of Jesus and get into some good trouble, some of us will admit that we have made assumptions and turned a blind eye to the narratives that have been dying to be seen and treated equally around us for hundreds of years. If we are courageous, some of us will admit that we haven’t spoken up for the rights of black neighbours, the rights of women to be treated with respect, to make decisions about their own bodies, and to receive equal recognition and pay in the workplace and in religious institutions and communities. If we are honest, most of us have become accustomed to the sour smell of discrimination and like a gross character in an Austin Power’s movie, many of us have come to enjoy the smell of our stink.
Jesus must have began getting into good trouble at a very young age because when he left his parent’s side and went into the Temple to teach the religious leaders at the age of 12, they quickly left the Holy Lands and moved to the East. For the next eighteen years in the East, Jesus would strengthen his spiritual wisdom and gifts before showing up at the River Jordan to be baptized at the age of 30 and really begin to get into some very very good trouble.
The angel of God’s presence stirred the water.
(Slide 5 – David & Goliath)
Jesse’s son, David, was the youngest of eight sons and he was a tiny little guy who nurtured a giant faith while looking after his father’s flocks of sheep. Sitting on hillsides, day after day, David took his instrument and sang songs of hope, social justice, gratitude, and love to God. David became a soldier of faith and love on the hills of Judah. One day, Jesse asked David to take some food to his brothers who were Israeli soldiers fighting a battle with the Philistines. (This battle continues to this day…proving people have not listened and have not learned anything, but that is a sermon for another day). While David was greeting his brothers, a champion soldier, a formidable giant presence suffering from a condition called acromegaly – a disease that causes abnormal growth but also has the side effect of restricted sight, this giant was being led out onto the battlefield. David’s brothers inform him that the King of Israel will give one of his daughters, exemption from taxes and great riches to the man that kills the giant Goliath. David says, “What? You are telling me a man will get all that for facing this uncircumcised Philistine who defies the armies of the living God? (no racism there!) His brother’s reply, “Yep.” Then Elijah, David’s oldest brother, gets his ego bruised and becomes angry with the baby of the house and accuses David of being arrogant and wanting to see his brothers cower to an enemy. And David spins around asking everyone, “What have I done wrong now? There is a real problem here guys.” Then David goes to King Saul and says, “I may be little, but my heart is ready. I will go face this giant.”
King Saul looks around him, and then at his strong and weary soldiers and tells David he is out of his mind. “You’re a baby and you have zero training to face Goliath.” David replies, “I saved my father’s sheep from a bear and a lion that I caught by its mane and then killed it. God protected me then and God will protect me now.”
Saul gives David his blessing and a coat of armor that swallows him whole, and David quickly sheds the bronze protection and rises to face Goliath with his armour of faith, his sling shot and five stones he picks up on his way out onto the battlefield.
Goliath is led out onto the center of the field, and I wonder if the reason it took him a while to respond to David is because he could not see him until he was literally at his feet and then realizes Israel has sent a child to face him. Goliath’s ego is wounded, and he screams out, “Does Israel think I’m a dog?” And then Goliath, like a political demagog, sent out a tweet screaming insanities against Israel and their God. It is here that we arrive at our key verse where David replies, “You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of Hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you and take your head from you. And this day I will give the carcasses of the camp of the Philistines to the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. Then all this assembly shall know that the Lord does not save with a sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord’s and He will give you into our hands.”
Well, Goliath literally could not see what was coming as David slung his first stone and placed it deep into his forehead. But there were some other things everyone could not see about David. David could face his nation’s giant because his perspective differed from others. David did not see an invincible opponent, he saw opportunity. His methods differed from others. David used a weapon proven to work, not a conventional weapon. His conviction also differed from others. David understood that Goliath did not have a relationship with God and David was passionate in his relationship with the Sacred. His motives also differed from others. David heard Goliath’s threats and tweets against God and humanity, and he knew his ego would bring him down. David’s vision also differed from others. He desired to make Yahweh known to the world as the most loving and powerful Source on earth. And David’s experience differed from others. When he stepped onto the battlefield, he carried with him his past victories over the bear and the lion, not weeks and weeks of paralyzing fear like Israel’s army carried with them. And lastly, David’s attitude differed from others. When he looked at Goliath, he did not see him as a threat too big to hit, but a target too large to miss.
The angel of God’s presence stirred the water.
(Slide 6 – Every Child Matters)
Friends, today, our world is facing many giants. The giant of narcissistic leadership. The giant of a healthcare collapse. The giant of immeasurable loss and grief. The giant of isolation. The giant of economic depression. The giant of racism. The giant of despair. And the biggest giant of all is our belief that our voice is not big enough, strong enough and trained enough to make a difference. Friends, this is simply not true. Like John the Baptist, a lone crazy looking man and voice crying out in the wilderness, I am crying out to myself and to all of you, “Prepare the way of the Love. This is the moment, this is the day that the Lord has made, let us live in the moment and be grateful, courageous, and joyful in it, for God is with us, we are not alone.
We possess the strongest and most beautiful source of strength, I will not say weapon, because the greatest giant and war each of us will ever face is the one inside our hearts and minds which is loving our neighbors as ourselves. Our source for strength and courage to love is the eternal love that is weaved into our DNA. Our responsibility is to plug ourselves into our Loving Source of everything we need to face our giants and love our neighbours and our enemies as ourselves. John Lewis believed in love, not violence, listening, not assuming, sharing, and not hoarding. Jesus believed in a love so strong that not even death could defeat his love. He loved with radical fierceness. He listened to women, called men down from tress, picked the margins, the edges, for his ministry. He wrote in the sand, cursed a fig tree, and died on a cross to prove love wins and can change the world.
And three-year-old Trey, well she believed that a little water could bring a kitten back to life. I’ve grown a bit since then. Now I know it is living water I need to be giving out to everyone, especially the giants and the least of these. Folks, trouble can be seen and experienced as something that is good. ‘Wade in the Water’ wasn’t just a spiritual hymn that African Americans sang to encourage themselves as they waded through their oppressors and pushed towards liberation – Wade in the Water - its words also served as a code. ‘Wade in the Water’ was one of the songs that was used along the Underground Railroad, reminding those escaping slavery to ‘wade in the water’ and thus cover one’s tracks whenever possible – because ‘God’s gonna trouble the water’…One of his more famous quotes is from 2018: “Do not get lost in a sea of despair. Be hopeful, be optimistic. Our struggle is not the struggle of a day, a week, a month, or a year, it is the struggle of a lifetime. Never, ever be afraid to make some noise, to become people who affirm all people and get into good trouble, necessary trouble’ when others do not want to learn and understand that every human being is an eternal soul that God holds precious.
So, this January 12th, 2025, may we dare to meow because who knows, perhaps our meows will evolve into a Lake Country roar, ad then a BC roar, and then a national roar that changes our world. May we dare to get into some good trouble and may we dare to love like this moment is our last chance to love. May we refuse the opportunity to offer temporary solutions to heartsick people.
The angel of God’s presence is always stirring the water… always inviting us to companion our neighbors, the stranger, everyone. May we refuse to waste time and energy going to war with people who have the same needs as we do. And may we dare to love wastefully like everyone’s life depends on love. May it be so, Amen.
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