The Beauty of God in Terrible Times

September 13, 2020 • Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Reading: Psalm 27 (recommended: The Inclusive Bible)
Pastor Jeff Wells

The composer of the Psalm is having a terrible time. His enemies are attacking and spreading vicious lies about him. They rise up against him threatening violence. My most important musical mentor, Pete Seeger, wrote a song called, “Wasn’t that a Time” about some other terrible times in human history. Pete used to sing: 

“Wasn’t that a time, wasn’t that a time, a time to try to the soul of man, wasn’t that a terrible time.”

We are living through terrible times. I could give you a whole litany of what’s so terrible right now in the U.S. and in the world. But you know the list already. I don’t need to tell you. Of course, some people are thriving, but there is a very high level of misery and suffering around us and affecting many of us directly. Even if your life does not feel like it’s crashing down or you are on a roller coaster ride, you may still feel like your life is on hold – you feel stuck, unable to move, in danger, waiting to see what might happen next. Every one of us is suffering or challenged in various ways. [Pastor Wells sang:] 

“Isn’t this a time, isn’t this a time, 

a time to try to the soul of man, 

isn’t this a terrible time.” 

How do we hold on in the midst of the dangers and challenges we face? From where can we draw courage, strength, resilience, and even joy in the midst of uncertainty, anxiety, and adversity? 

Of course, it’s not all terrible. There are inspiring signs of resistance to dictators and would-be dictators in Belarus, Russia, and many other places – including, in my humble opinion, the U.S. Millions across the world are rising up to resist police violence, and systemic racism, to make Black lives finally matter.

At a more intimate level, in our community – the Church of the Village – I feel like we have been holding on fairly well. We have been drawing inspiration and strength and joy. We have been maintaining faith, hope, and love by staying connected and celebrating the beauty of God together. To paraphrase the psalmist: “God is our light and our salvation. We will not give in to fear, but will sing our love and gratitude to God who loves and holds us in community.” I am not just boasting about how great our worship is (although I am doing that). The truth is that our worship helps us to survive hard times and thrive in good times. So I celebrate that today. I celebrate what we have accomplished under trying circumstances. Let’s keep doing what we have been doing. Let’s keep holding on to beauty, joy, love, and life.

I believe we experience these most deeply in worship. It isn’t just about worship – many wonderful smaller gatherings are occurring every week as well, in which people are connecting, building relationships, growing, and encountering God. But our worship is the place where the majority of our community comes together every week. I feel very keenly our worship has helped me stay centered, focused, and strong. It has inspired me to work hard and sometimes long hours. Worship has been a great gift during these terrible times, offering so much joy and opportunities to connect with God through this community. It has helped all of us to hold on and even grow.

Remember the words of Psalm 27: 

God, you are my light, my salvation – whom shall I fear? You are the fortress of my life – of whom will I be afraid?… 

One thing I ask of you, Eternal One, one thing I seek: that I may dwell in your house all the days of my life, to gaze on your beauty and to meditate in your Temple.

This morning – and every Sunday morning – we dwell in God’s house and gaze on God’s beauty. This is not a literal house. It’s a virtual house. It’s a Zoom house. God’s house does not need a building and it does not require we be in physical proximity, only that we be able to connect and interact deeply with God and one another. God is not a disconnected ethereal being existing outside of us. God is at work in each one of us and in our connections with one another. So, when we gather as the Body of Christ, we, too, are the embodiment of God. God is made manifest in our community, in sharing communion, in our worship, in our fellowship. 

In the Ministers of Care meeting this week, as we were checking in with one another, someone shared what a rich time this has been in many ways. I think that is true for many of us personally and for our community. In spite of being physically separated, we have experienced a deep enrichment of our experience of worship and of the beauty of God among us. 

There is a wealth of stories of persons who depended on connection and community to survive trauma and desperate circumstances. For those who were interned in Nazi death camps during World War II, having a community of love and support was a major factor that helped many to cope with the severe physical and psychological and spiritual challenges they faced. Don’t we all cope better with life’s challenges when we do not have to face them alone? A small, but meaningful story I read this week particularly moved me. On December 12, 1944, Fania Fainer spent her birthday as a prisoner in the Auschwitz. That day, in the bleakness of a Nazi death camp, she received a fantastic and completely unexpected gift. A fellow inmate secretly collected pieces of paper and cut them into an eight-page, heart-shaped booklet. She gave up some of her meager food rations to create a mix of bread and water to glue the sheets of paper together. Then, she surreptitiously passed it on to eighteen other women who filled its pages with birthday wishes and messages of hope in Polish, Hebrew, French, and German. They also risked their own lives to create this gift [1]. Also, we know that many concentration camp prisoners gathered in secret for worship as often as possible. 

What we are talking about today is an experience of God in the most basic yet crucial moments of life – sharing time with friends, even when it sometimes has to be online; seeing each others faces every Sunday; celebrating birthdays and other events that mark our lives; sharing communion together in worship. These and so many other experiences of relationship and community help us to taste and see the beauty of God. 

[Pastor Wells took a few minutes to ask two Church of the Village members to respond to the question: “How has being a part of the Church of the Village community the past several months contributed to your strength and resilience or your experience of joy and the beauty of God?” After hearing their responses, everyone online was invited to respond briefly in the Zoom chat or Facebook comments.]

The God we have come to know and love never leaves us for a moment. God’s love and care are constant and unfailing. We are able to trust in God as our light and our salvation because we have been able to see God at work in us and among us and draw strength from being the people of God together. The composer of Psalm 27 says to God, I want to “gaze on your beauty and meditate in your Temple.” Seeing God as beautiful helps us to experience life as beautiful, even in terrible circumstances. 

Our joy and hope does not depend on the results of this election or anything else that happens in the world around us. Many of the same horrors we face now will continue to haunt us long after this election, no matter who wins. 

What our beautiful God asks of us is that we continue to create a community of care, compassion, love, justice, and joy. As we seek to dwell together in this house, a desire naturally wells up in us to express our love and gratitude to God – God who is infused in our love for one another. I thank God every day for each you and for this community in which the beauty of God is so evident. 

This is a terrible time. It is also a time of richness and beauty, of hope and love. Pete Seeger put a surprise twist in the final verse and refrain of his song: 

Our faith cries out we have no fear

We dare to reach our hand

To other neighbors far and near

To friends in every land

Isn’t this a time!

Isn’t this a time!

A time to free the soul of man!

Isn’t this a wonderful time! [2]

I invite you now to turn on gallery view if you are in Zoom. We are doing to pray, but I encourage you not to close your eyes, but to gaze at one another and see the beauty of God.

God, give us eyes to see beauty in these strange and difficult days. 
Give us eyes to see opportunities to pour light and to love on our neighbors in real and tangible ways. May these days of isolation remind us of how connected we are, and how much we need one another. We pray in the way of Jesus. Amen. [3]

(c) 2020 Jeff Wells
All rights reserved.

[1]
“Fania Fainer's Heart from Auschwitz,” Montreal Holocaust Museum.
https://museeholocauste.ca/en/objects/heart-from-auschwitz/

[2]  From Pete Seeger, “Headlines  & Footnotes: A Collection of Topical Songs” (1999).
Lyrics available at https://genius.com/Pete-seeger-wasnt-that-a-time-lyrics.

[3]  Missy Smith, via The Resistance Prays

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