Weeping by the River

 

By the Waters of Babylon, Arthur Hacker (c.1888)

Public domain, via Wikimedia Common

 

Scripture

Psalm 137

¹ By the rivers of Babylon,
we sat down and wept,
when we remembered Zion.
² On the willows there
we hung up our harps.
³ For there our captors demanded songs
and our tormentors asked for joy:
“Sing us one of the songs of Zion.”
⁴ How can we sing a song of Adonai in a foreign land?  

(Tree of Life Version)

Devotion

 Some days, you just can't help but feel deeply, deeply sad.  Today is one of those days for me.  Though I remain physically healthy, I am still in quarantine.  By noon, people had alerted me to several situations where a great deal of prayer and compassion is needed.  Then I received some hard news about a member of my extended family.  As I listened, I couldn't help but think of how difficult, unfair, and downright awful 2020 has turned out to be.  If I were able to be out in public right now, I would love nothing more than to go sit beside a river and weep. 

The Israelites in the Babylonian exile knew what it meant to feel sad and directionless.  They had been traumatized by war,  the destruction of the Temple (the center of their spiritual and cultural world), deportation from the only home they knew, and enslavement.  They had lost everything that was dear to them.  Psalm 137 describes their deep torment as they sat beside the rivers of Babylon and longed for home.  The Babylonians wanted the Israelites to put on false smiles and entertain them with their native songs and dances, but they all they could bring themselves to do was sit and weep with longing for everything they had lost.  How could anyone expect them to find joy or praise God in this foreign land?

During this week's meeting of the Presbytery of Charlotte, Rev. Dr. Alice Ridgill pointed out that 2020 often feels like a modern day Babylonian exile.  Church folk been forced out of our standard places of worship and asked to give up traditions that bring us comfort.  We've had to remain physically distant from those we love.  We worry about how to provide for our families or be safe when we leave our homes.  And yes, it is okay to admit that we need to just sit down and weep in this foreign landscape.

 Rev. Ridgill also reminded us as awful as the Babylonian exile was, God used it to help the exiles grow in faith and understanding.    Unable to make sacrifices at the Temple, the exiles began to focus more on understanding and teaching Torah.  Rabbis (religious scholars who help common people understand God's teachings) came into being.  The exiles created synagogues, and worshiped together by singing the Psalms, praying, and receiving religious instruction.  All of these new practices helped the people grow in faith, understanding, and service.  And when they were finally able to return to Zion, they did so singing the many songs they had God had taught them to sing in Babylon.  Their time in that strange and foreign land had been terrible, but their faith was the better for it.

Friends, I do not like the foreign land that is 2020.  But I have to ask:  how might it inspire us to sing God's praises in new ways?  What new things might the Holy Spirit lead us to try, and how could those things transform the church into something that better reflects God's love in our ever-changing world? 

Today, my heart is too heavy to come up with many answers...and so I need to take a moment to sit and share my sorrow with God.   My hope is that when tomorrow comes, God will help me get up from my place by the river, dash away my tears, and sing a few broken bars of a new song.  It probably won't be happy, and it certainly won't be perfect...but with God's help, the melody will be just tuneful enough to help me grow in faith and understanding.  When we finally emerge from this troubled time, I pray that each one of us keeps singing God's praises in ever newer and more beautiful ways.

 

Prayer

God, our hearts are heavy.  Be with us as we weep for what we have lost.  Help us learn how to sing your songs in this strange and troubled world so that we may allow you to transform our hearts, our minds, and our worship into something even better than all the things for which our souls long.  Amen.