Waiting and Resting in Hope

Waiting and Resting in Hope // Psalm 130 // Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time 2024

Psalm 130(NRSV): 

1 Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord.  2 Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications! 3 If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, Lord, who could stand? 4 But there is forgiveness with you, so that you may be revered. 5 I wait for the Lord my soul waits, and in his word I hope; 6 my soul waits for the Lord more than those who watch for the morning, more than those who watch for the morning. 7 O Israel, hope in the Lord! For with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with him is great power to redeem. 8 It is he who will redeem Israel from all its iniquities. 

THE WORD OF GOD, FOR THE PEOPLE OF GOD

Thanks be to God. 

PRAYER: Let us pray.  Lord of Hope, As those who work through the night long for the sunrise, we long for the coming of Christ. In our Worship today, we yearn for your spirit to give us a glimpse of your glory, that one day we will see in full, when all will be made new, through Christ our Lord, our light. Amen

SERMON: 

I have several shows that I’ve watched purposely multiple times, and one of those I’ve watched all the way through three different times is the show The West Wing. Aaron Sorkin’s writing is fast-paced. I’m nearly always drawn into each scene and storyline; the characters are interesting and relatable, some are inspiring, and others feel real. During the Christmas episode, Noël, in season 2, One of the main characters, Josh Lyman, who is the deputy chief of staff and chief political advisor to the fictional president Jed Bartlett, met with a psychotherapist, to talk about what happened with a cut on his hand. Josh said he cut it on a piece of glassware, and slowly, as the episode goes on you realize that Josh is dealing with these big moments of stress and anxiety because of a gunshot wound he suffered. Because of the sirens the night he was shot, loud sounds triggered a panic attack, and when he went to his home, he slammed his hand into his window and cut himself on the broken glass. 

He worried about his job and didn’t want to lose it. His Boss, the Chief of Staff Leo McGarry, pulled him aside and told him the most fitting story in relation to today’s scripture. He said this: “This guy is walking down the street, and he falls in this hole, the walls are so steep he can’t get out. A doctor passes by, and the guy shouts up, ‘Hey you, can you help me out?’ The doctor writes him a prescription, throws it down in the hole, and moves on. Then a priest comes along and the guy shouts up, ‘Father, I’m down in this hole can you help me?’ The priest writes a prayer, throws it down in the hole, and moves on. And then a friend walks by, ‘Hey Joe, it’s me, can you help me out? And the friend jumps in the hole. Our guy says are you stupid? Now we’re both down here. The friend says, ‘Yeah, but I’ve been down here before and I know the way out.’” You see, McGarry had his own demons, he too wasn’t perfect, he too was flawed and had his moments when he was in depths. 

Before we head on, I want you to take a self-inventory. Is there something in your life you need to cry out to God for help with? Think about that. When you get it, I want you to write down a word or phrase on a piece of paper or your bulletin that will remind you to call out to God for God’s redeeming grace and then hold on to it. 

Contextually, the Psalm fits in two places in the Psalter, it is one of the Seven Penitential Psalms; these are psalms where the poet is an individual in trouble, and they were called the penitential psalms because early Christians used them as prayers for forgiveness and reconciliation. It is also a Psalm of Ascent; these are Psalms 120 through 134; now, historically, these Psalms were used by pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem, a City that sits on top of a hill and is surrounded by hills and valleys. During the last semester of my undergrad, I was fortunate to be able to study abroad in Israel, and any time we left Jerusalem, where our dorm was located, on our journey back, my professor or other students would read one of these songs. It was a moment to refocus from our trips out and about and to center our hearts and minds on God. Pilgrims have been reading or singing the psalms for centuries while traveling. So when we hear the poet of Psalm 130, say out of the depths I cry to you, we can see this in a couple of ways. The word depths has two meanings. Maybe the author is talking about the ocean's depths, this vastness, this bigness is underneath me, and I am drowning. Another definition of this word is a valley. In the middle of these giant mountains, I am but something so small. The Author Cries out to God. Old Testament scholar Walter Bruggemann says this prayer from the depths is one of inordinate boldness. In one fell swoop, it links the ruler of reality and the most extreme, remote circumstances of human need. It begs to ask the question, how, then, are we to address our creator? Should it only be in pious moments or as the psalmist cries out, it can be in our most vulnerable state. It is a miserable cry of a nobody from nowhere. And this cry penetrates the veil of heaven! 

In verses 3-4, we see that the poet is unqualified to approach the throne, their iniquities, their sin, their separation from God. And then we see those qualities don’t matter to the grace in which our God has. John Wesley said in his note about verse 4 that God is ready to forgive those who bring themselves before God. And God’s “…mercy is the foundation of all religion, without which people would desperately proceed in their impious courses.” This forgiveness as the foundation of all religion is the first act, Brugemmann said it is the baseline, the promise of all else, “there is forgiveness, and from it, everything else flows. It is not grounded or, reasoned, or explained. It is the first act of new life, of the new age. This is the center of the entire prayer.” In God, there is forgiveness so that we may revere God. 

I ask you this, What does it mean to revere, or fear, God, the answer comes in verses 5 and 6: hope. So what, too, does it mean to wait on Hope? The hope and promise of the grace that has been chasing you, that’s calling out to you. The grace sees you in the hole, jumps in, and says I know the way out. In this waiting, we are like watchmen, waiting for the shift change and the sun to rise.

Again, with my movie sentimentality, I think of Lord of the Rings: the Two Towers when King Theoden is preparing his army for their last stand at helms deep you see the enemy marching all around them, and they are worried and look scared as they prepare for their last stand and the viewer casually remembering what Aragon had said before the battle began, that there is “always hope.” And sure enough, as the night ends and light piers over the mountain, daybreak has come, and so has relief through Gandalf, the white wizard, this Christ-like figure. Fear of God means having confidence that things in the depths are not as they will be. Life will be transformed. Forgiveness leads to liberation from life as it most presently is. Maybe, you’ve screwed up recently or have been for a long time, or maybe you feel like you are in the depths right now, that your long night of the soul is never ending, I ask you to wait in the hope of the Lord.

Another word for waiting is abide. In John 15, where early Methodists found language for their Covenant Renewal Services we find Jesus saying in verses 4 and 5, “Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, and you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit because apart from me, you can do nothing.” 

When we wait on the lord as a watcher waits for the morning, there is this turn in the psalm, where everything goes from being individualistic, personal, to a communal celebration. When we rest in God we can celebrate the steadfast love of God and God’s redemption. 

So I ask you this: Are you abiding in Christ? Are you resting in that hope, that grace that is chasing you? Are you seeking Redemption with God and those you’ve offended? Are you longing to rest in the reverence of your redeemer? In her book, The Theology of Love, Mildred Bangs Wynkoop wrote that “the ultimate meaning of redemption is the restoration of fellowship with God.” 

How’s your relationship with God? Are you in the depths? Or maybe you know someone in the depths? Maybe you have experienced God’s radical grace, and your life has changed. And maybe you know someone who needs to know that through God, there is hope, even in their seemingly hopeless situation. 

Now, do you have that piece of paper? Go ahead and take it in your hands and ball it up. I would love for us to take a moment to pray and then bring it before God. Give that sin, that iniquity, that relationship, that sickness, that fear of inadequacy, that separation from God in your depths, Or your friend and their depths, Bring it before God today. Cry out to God and find the power of resting and waiting in the Hope of Christ.

During our closing hymn(song), “When the poor ones come” (When you come for communion), I want to invite you to come down here at the alter and leave this scrap of paper at the foot of the cross as a personal sign of your prayer from the depths: that God, in God’s grace, will hear you through the veil of Heaven and that you will continuously find and rest in the hope that is God’s grace. 

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.