A 61st Avenue Psalm

In Bible Study last weekend, we read Psalm 124, then wrote from the experiences and words of the crowd, our own psalm. These are the words of those living on the streets, those who've gotten off the streets, those addicted and recovering, and most of all, those who've experienced God's presence:

We could never have made it without God.

Listen up! Are you with me?

We could never have made it without God.

When all our enemies rose against us to beat us with more than just a rod,

we would have been lost, lonely, downcast, or even killed.

We felt like a child who had lost his parents,

filled with bitterness and hatred.

After walking through the darkness for so long,

we have finally seen the light; we found that we were not alone.

God was on our side all the time.

Our God is an awesome God.

If God be for us, who can stand against us?

Had It Not Been for the Lord

Sermon for 61st Avenue UMC, Nashville, TN Oct 10, 2009, 6 p.m.

Psalm 124

1-5 If God hadn't been for us —all together now, Israel, sing out!—
If God hadn't been for us
when everyone went against us,
We would have been swallowed alive
by their violent anger,
Swept away by the flood of rage,
drowned in the torrent;
We would have lost our lives
in the wild, raging water.

6 Oh, blessed be God!
He didn't go off and leave us.
He didn't abandon us defenseless,
helpless as a rabbit in a pack of snarling dogs.

7 We've flown free from their fangs,
free of their traps, free as a bird.
Their grip is broken;
we're free as a bird in flight.

8 God's strong name is our help,
the same God who made heaven and earth.

If it had not been for the Lord, where would we be? Tonight, we will look at three stories of people who can testify to God’s commitment to life – in all of its goodness – they’ve come through situations that others would have considered hopeless. Whether we acknowledge it or not, God is walking alongside us – through the peaks and the valleys – empathizing, sympathizing, and yearning for life in its abundance to be restored within us and throughout creation.

Let us pray.

This summer, while United Methodist Communications was conducting training for six conferences in Africa, I came to know a pastor from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Pastor Louis Loma Otshudi came to the U.S. to learn about communications technology. While he was here, his host family came to me, saying that he had saved a baby’s life in the Congo - that the baby was now living in Houston and that his family was coming to Nashville to visit Pastor Otshudi. That was the beginning of what I knew about a baby named “Innocence” whose life is a testimony of “had it not been for the Lord.”

Watch Video: Congo Family Adoption

“It wasn’t just another thing he did for the church – he saved that baby’s life.”

God’s most precious gift is life. And God doesn’t want to see that gift – life – go to waste.

Sometimes we go through things that we think we can never get through – mountains too steep to climb or valleys too low to ever climb out of. Yet I’ve met people who’ve come through things that I thought would have destroyed them. I’ve witnessed people who’ve come through war and prison and torture, the loss of family and loved ones – still proclaiming the goodness of God – and how if it had not been for the Lord, they surely would not have made it.

God’s mercy isn’t just for those who’ve earned some special right to it. God’s mercy is for ALL. When we read this psalm, we could get hung up on the part “If God had not been on OUR side...” Sometimes we make the mistake of thinking that God is only on one person’s side in an argument (usually our side). I don’t think God is on any one person’s side – God is on the side of life, love, peace, hope, joy, redemption, salvation, and grace. God calls all of humanity to be on God’s own side – it is there that we all can find the true meaning of life. No matter who we are.

In 2008, I heard of a man named Corey Wagner, living in the Adams County Detention Facility in Colorado, and of his pastor, Yong Hui McDonald. I’d like to share their story with you.

Watch Video: Art by Inmates

Sometimes people think that God has brought them to trouble, only to raise them out of it. I don’t see it that way. I think that this world is full of brokenness and that each of us has choices to make and that we will encounter the choices that other people make – sometimes wrong choices - that hurt us in the process.

In the midst of trouble, I think of God as the Great Recycler – you know? Taking the brokenness of our lives – the junk the trash the pain the hurt and making something beautiful of it. For Corey Wagner, he took his junk to prison, but God has turned that junk into something beautiful – not for Corey to hoard for his own happiness and redemption but for other inmates who may finally recognize God’s grace as they experience it through Corey.

If you study the Bible – you’ll see that the great heroes and “she-roes” of the Bible are not people who lived perfect lives. They are people who finally got on their knees and humbled themselves, admitting that they were not perfect and calling upon God’s help. And through that admission, God’s grace accomplished amazing things through them. Look at Moses – who killed an Egyptian – King David – who had an affair with a married woman and had her husband killed to hide his sin – look at the sinful woman mentioned in Luke whose humility and devotion to Christ raised her up as an example of dedicated worship.

Our last story is of a pastor whose ministry became even more vital when he admitted his own brokenness.

Watch Video: Recovery Church

All of us are broken – we come from various places of brokenness and we may be at different places on the path to healing. Sometimes we think that a person has it together because they look alright on the outside, maybe they wear the right clothes, drive the right car, live in the right neighborhood. But we just never know what’s going on inside a person – what pain they may be hiding from others just to live into that “right” image.

God knows. God knows what is going on inside of you and me, right now. And no matter what you’ve done or how broken you think you are, God’s love is still there for you – going before you and behind you and beside you – waiting for you to receive.

Romans 8:38-39 says:

“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Psalm 139:8 says:

If I ascend into heaven, You are there;
If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.

There is no place we can go, no place we can hide, nothing we have done or can do to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. Are our souls open and ready to receive this transformative love? Are we ready to make that difficult climb out of the valley or up the mountain?

I’d like to close with these words from a hymn:

(Listen) God Hath Not Promised

God hath not promised skies always blue,
Flower-strewn pathways all our lives through;
God hath not promised sun without rain,
Joy without sorrow, peace without pain.
But God hath promised strength for the day,
Rest for the labor, light for the way,
Grace for the trials, help from above,
Unfailing sympathy, undying love.

What is your story? How do you say now or how will you one day say, “Had it not been for the Lord?” If you feel led to open yourself up to God’s grace this night, we invite you to come forward. If you’d like to take the hands of people here in this congregation so that your walk will be shared by others you can love and be loved by, please come during the hymn of invitation.

“What a Friend”