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Psalm 67 – New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

1 May God be gracious to us and bless us and make Their face to shine upon us, Selah2 that your way may be known upon earth, your saving power among all nations.3 Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you.

4 Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you judge the peoples with equity    and guide the nations upon earth. Selah5 Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you.

6 The earth has yielded its increase; God, our God, has blessed us.7 May God continue to bless us; let all the ends of the earth revere God.

Romans 15:7-13 – The Message

7-13 So reach out and welcome one another to God’s glory. Jesus did it; now you do it! Jesus, staying true to God’s purposes, reached out in a special way to the Jewish insiders so that the old ancestral promises would come true for them. As a result, the non-Jewish outsiders have been able to experience mercy and to show appreciation to God. Just think of all the Scriptures that will come true in what we do! For instance: Then I’ll join outsiders in a hymn-sing; I’ll sing to your name!

And this one: Outsiders and insiders, rejoice together!

And again: People of all nations, celebrate God! All colors and races, give hearty praise!

And Isaiah’s word: There’s the root of our ancestor Jesse, breaking through the earth and growing tree tall, tall enough for everyone everywhere to see and take hope!

Oh! May the God of green hope fill you up with joy, fill you up with peace, so that your believing lives, filled with the life-giving energy of the Holy Spirit, will brim over with hope!

 “Oh! May the God of green hope fill you up with joy, fill you up with peace, so that your believing lives, filled with the life-giving energy of the Holy Spirit, will brim over with hope!” (Romans 15:13) 

In the final days of this election season, most of us are not living lives brimming over with hope. How do we get there? Can we get there? 

I am here to share the good news that yes, we can. But as most of you know, sometimes there is more pain before the healing can happen. Sometimes unbearable pain. Pain that can only be borne together, in community, through a common faith or belief or practice.  

When I go back to Wisconsin I am reminded of a family’s pain; of my hometown community’s pain. “Be Kind” signs sprung up on lawns and at local businesses about two years ago. These signs are a visible reminder that what we do and say is important. They are a reminder to treat others, all others, with respect, courtesy, kindness. These signs are in response to a local youth being bullied and ultimately taking their own life. Be kind. Too often feelings remain invisible until it is too late. Be kind. Your smile and gentle words may literally be a lifesaver. Be kind, to yourself and to one another, especially in the next days, weeks, and months. 

There were many words and images from Psalm 67 that caught my attention this week: joy, praise, blessing. But the one that surfaced above all others was the word, the concept, of equity. The Psalmist reminds us to be glad that our Creator is a God of equity. According to an article in the November issue of The Christian Century written by Julian DeShazier, Senior Minister at the University Church in Chicago, “Equity is one of those words that has gained traction in the public lexicon without generally being used correctly. The word points to how people’s lives can be improved by having the same access to resources, to the sort of basic fairness that can mean the unequal distribution of resources to people on different journeys through the same system (that’s why equity is different from equality). 

[Show image of three people trying to see through/over a fence to illustrate Equity / Equality]

Julian pushes on to say, “Equity is about the people with the power giving up some so it can be shared better.” 

[This illustration shows how the one that doesn’t need the step gives it away so the one with the most need has two steps.]

In this election season we have previously talked of the necessity to be kind, in our words and in our actions. The days are fraught with disagreement and sometimes outright hostility, even violence. Remember to take a breath. Remember to think before you speak. 

Seven of us from this church attended our Sunrise Association (of the United Church of Christ) Fall Meeting yesterday at the Monroe Community Church. One of the last items on the agenda, and I will say one of the most valuable, was presented by Kathy Woodside of the Bar Harbor congregation. It was gleaned from a letter to the editor written by Rev. Norman Allen of the First Parish Unitarian Universalist church in Portland. 

It speaks to what has been foremost on my mind this week. He wrote an essay titled What if voting became a spiritual practice?  Some excerpts from his essay… “It is easy to think of spiritual practices – like meditation and prayer – as individual, interior, private experiences. But spiritual practice at its best is the opposite. It deepens our awareness that we are not alone. We remember that we are part of a vast interdependent web of existence, and that each individual life shapes all those around it. During worship each Sunday at First Parish, the congregation takes three deep breaths. [Let’s do that now.] It grounds each of us in the moment, but it is experienced collectively. We breathe together. That collective act … echoes the words of Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (1825-1911), who wrote that, ‘We are all bound up together in one great bundle of humanity.’ With Harper’s words in our hearts, we can see that each ballot has a ripple effect that circles outward to transform lives in our neighborhoods, our schools, our counties, our states, our nation, and beyond. That’s why voting as a spiritual practice is also voting as an act of compassion. 

When you step into that voting booth – or complete your ballot at home – pause a moment, close your eyes, take three deep breaths, and know that you are not alone. An entire nation is there with you, depending on you, just as you depend on them. Consider all that might ripple outward from that moment. How might your vote create concentric circles of compassion, rather than discord? How might your vote have a ripple effect of collaboration rather than competition? How might the spiritual practice of voting help heal the world?”

I began with the closing verse of our New Testament reading and I will end with the opening verse of the same passage. “So reach out and welcome one another to God’s glory. Jesus did it; now you do it! Welcome the outcast, the foreigner, the lost or forsaken. Jesus did it; now we do it! Show compassion. Be kind. And get others to join you. We are not meant to do the work alone. We are meant to create community. 

Please pay attention to what your community needs in the next days and weeks and months. And please pay attention to what you need in order to be happy and healthy, to be hopeful and joyful. Yes, we can get there, and we will get there together. 

When I am in Wisconsin, my parents and I fall into a beautiful pattern of daily routines. Typically breakfast is followed by them sitting down to a card game called Spite and Malice. I have played it also. It has components of rummy and solitaire and can be played by two, three, or four people. The interesting thing is, everyone can see some of each other’s cards. The name of the game, Spite and Malice speaks to the strategy of playing defensively; not playing your own cards, even if it harms you, in order to harm another player. We have noticed over the years that there is another method of play. One can play to win without playing with spite or malice. Playing one’s entire sequence of cards, even, or especially, if it benefits another player, typically helps everyone at the table. 

Watching my parents play this game over the past two weeks reminded me how the games that we play, and how we play them, can be metaphors for how we live our lives. Do we play, do we vote, for others to succeed or for others to fail?

“Oh! May the God of green hope fill us up with joy, fill us up with peace, so that our believing lives, filled with the life-giving energy of the Holy Spirit, will brim over with hope!” (Romans 15:13)

Amen

Rev. TJ Mack – November 3, 2024

“Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in our lifetime; therefore we must be saved by hope. Nothing which is true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore we must be saved by faith. Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore we are saved by love. No virtuous act is quite as virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as it is from our standpoint. Therefore we must be saved by the final form of love which is forgiveness.”

Reinhold Niebuhr, The Irony of American History