Two-Stepping Through Times of Trouble
Lisa Nichols Hickman
Psalm 31
Fox Chapel Presbyterian Church
Sunday, July 20, 2008
PSALM 31 – from The Message
1I run to you, GOD; I run for dear life. Don't let me down!
Take me seriously this time! 2Get down on my level and listen,
and please--no procrastination! 3You're my cave to hide in,
my cliff to climb. Be my safe leader, be my true mountain guide. 4Free me from hidden traps; I want to hide in you. 5I've put my life in your hands. You won't drop me, you'll never let me down. 6I hate all this silly religion, but you, GOD, I trust. 7I'm leaping and singing in the circle of your love; you saw my pain, you disarmed my tormentors, 8You didn't leave me in their clutches but gave me room to breathe. 9Be kind to me, GOD-I'm in deep, deep trouble again. I've cried my eyes out; I feel hollow inside. 10My life leaks away, groan by groan;
my years fade out in sighs. My troubles have worn me out, turned my bones to powder. 17Don't embarrass me by not showing up; 19What a stack of blessing you have piled up for those who worship you, Ready and waiting for all who run to you to escape an unkind world. 21Blessed GOD! God’s love is the wonder of the world. Trapped by a siege, 22I panicked. "Out of sight, out of mind," I said. But you heard me say it, you heard and listened. 23Love GOD, all you saints; GOD takes care of all who stay close to him, But he pays back in full
those arrogant enough to go it alone. 24Be brave. Be strong. Don't give up. Expect GOD to get here soon.
TIMES OF TROUBLE
My dad – your pastor – the very reverend Lee Nichols may come across as a Presbyterian pastor who does everything ‘decently and in order’.
But there is one thing you may not know about him –
As a pastor in South Louisiana – he was a snake handler!
Sounds scary, doesn’t it?
And scary it was – when after a torrent of rain as only South Louisiana could offer – our wonderful church building built into a flood plain could at times do just that – FLOOD. And with that, came an onset of snakes.
And so, on Sunday mornings before worship – if you really wanted to see the preacher in action – you could walk into the sanctuary and see my dad wrestling snakes – trying to get those creatures back into the backyard.
Your church has been very involved in the ongoing aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and all of its floods. In some ways, it seems crazy – almost three years later – to still mention Katrina in a sermon. But just this week, I received a phone call from a man in our church down there for the first time who called to say, “I had no idea.” What I have appreciated from afar about Fox Chapel’s commitment to Katrina is three things – your creativity in ministry, your commitment for the long haul, and the community of folks of all generations who have worked together to serve.
In fact, when I spoke to Jim later in the week, who shared with Richard Maag (Director of the Presbyterian Disaster Assistance) that his pastor was preaching at Fox Chapel this weekend, he said, “Fox Chapel Presbyterian? We love them. We have nothing but good things to say about Fox Chapel and their commitment here.”
When folks in my congregation ask, “Why are we still involved down there?” I tell them the story about our first day there.
We had gone on the ‘disaster tour’ – five fifteen passenger vans, three hours of driving, perhaps in that time we saw one or two functional fast food chains, maybe one Walmart. We were driving through Lakeview – a middle to upper middle class neighborhood – and we had driven by hundreds of homes without seeing any sign of life.
As our vans turned around in a cul-de-sac one man emerged from his home – and we saw him mouth to us – THANK YOU FOR COMING.
What seemed whispered in silence to me – has echoed in my ears as a scream – for the past year.
And the thought that goes with that memory, is – if he had a bad day – who would he tell – who would be there to hear – the funny story, the frustrating moment, the friendly chit chat?
You see when floods arise, it makes for troubling times.
And whether that calls you to snake-handling or screaming whispers to be heard – the feeling is still the same – that of being utterly alone and absolutely helpless.
You may be sitting in the pew thinking – well I haven’t had to handle a snake, I didn’t lose my home in a flood – but I’d be willing to venture that each one of us in here has had one of those devastating moments in a time of trouble – when we felt utterly alone.
I RUN TO YOU GOD
We hear the Psalmist speak from his experience –
I run to you God, I run for dear life.
Don’t let me down!
Free me from hidden traps.
You saw my pain.
Now, I am in deep, deep trouble again.
I’ve cried my eyes out.
I feel hollow inside.
My life leaks away – groan by groan –
My troubles have worn me out.
Do you hear in these words the flood that life can bring? The flood of tears, the flood of emotions, the flood of exhaustion – my life leaks away, groan by groan.
Awash in the flood of these words is an undercurrent – where the Psalmist questions the actual presence of God -
Don’t embarrass me by not showing up.
Don’t let me down.
What’s wonderful about the Message interpretation of scripture – is not the perfection of the translation – if you compared this to the NRSV you might hear very different nuances. But what is wonderful about this interpretation is that it was build on Eugene Peterson’s thirty years of pastoral ministry and the thousands of conversations he had with his parishioners in that time. This is a translation informed by an oral history of our present day struggles. The freshness of his language is informed by the faithful struggle of a congregation of believers.
And the nuance he brings to this text, is this: he names those devastating moments when we want to give up.
Its that moment when we put God out of sight, out of mind.
We hear the Psalmist do a two step here – a step forward into faith and the formation of life that comes from faith in God – and then a step backward with a sigh of exhaustion – that screams of giving up.
Have you ever done that dance –
Step to the left
Step to the right
Two-stepping hesitantly through times of trouble?
DANCING WITH DAD
The last time I danced with my dad was at our wedding – nearly ten years ago.
But I am going to call him forward – and extend to him an invitation to dance.
Now this is not your ordinary, two step, it is an even deeper Cajun tradition – called the Cajun Potato Dance.
The Cajun potato dance is a two step – done with a potato between your head and your partner’s. The folks who still have the potato between their heads at the end of the dance are the winners – they win applause, acclaim, affirmation!
There is a great phrase that goes with the Cajun Potato Dance –
Lache pas la potate. Say it with me… lache pas la potate.
What that means is “Don’t let the potato drop”.
And it is slang for the phrase – Don’t give up.
Here is surprising encouragement from a Cajun two step. Don’t give up.
I don’t know where you are struggling to keep the potato up – if it is in your marriage, in your job, in midlife questions, in retirement. Maybe it is financial – with bills, cuts, gas and groceries. Perhaps it is with one of your children – where the call to give up can seem greater than the call from God to keep trying.
You see, we might do the two step –
Step to the left
Step to the right
When we go back and forth in faith – but with the insertion of this potato and catchy phrase – we find new encouragement: Don’t give up. That is the subtitle to this sermon – two stepping through times of trouble COLON don’t give up.
We come to the end of the Psalm and we hear exactly this:
Blessed God,
Your love is the wonder of the world.
When I was trapped by siege – (when I wanted to give up) – I panicked.
But you heard me,
You listened.
And then we hear this phrase – whispered to us as words of encouragement across the centuries:
Be brave. Be strong. Don’t give up.
Expect God to get here soon.
STEP ONE - PARTNERSHIP
If you came to worship today looking for a three point sermon – then you’ll leave disappointed. I only have two:
They both have to do with two stepping confidently through times of trouble.
First, two stepping is always a partnership. You grab the hand of someone beside you and you get to dancing. Not always easy in the life of a church – perhaps the appeal of mega churches – community is easy. In smaller churches, you are known. This is the doctrine of the trinity, this is the doctrine of the church. We are always in relationship – and that relationship is created, redeemed and sustained by the community of the trinity – God, Christ and Holy Spirit.
As our church partnered with people in New Orleans – heard stories of people fighting not to give up. And we heard a curious refrain – that called us to engage in a two step that called us to a different kind of mission – a mission to write, a mission to tell.
The refrain, heard after every conversation was this, “Don’t forget us. Tell our story.” We heard this from people across the city.
This was an invitation to a dance – their words the first step, our follow up the second step. So we wrote, we told, we screamed, we publicized videos on youtube, participated in a writing workshop and led a writing workshop. We partnered people as pen pals. We connected children from a Charter School in New Orleans to children here at Wilmington Elementary as pen pals.
A fourth grader here in New Wilmington, I’ll call him Andrew, received a letter from his partner in New Orleans. They had written several times, but this letter opened up some new information.
Andrew went to his teacher Mrs. Wastvedt to show her the letter.
Mrs. Wastvedt, my pen pal has four sisters just like me.
“Really, four sisters – what a wonderful thing to have in common.”
Mrs. Wastvedt, my pen pal likes Transformers and Indiana Jones, just like me.
“Really, you could draw him some pictures, share some stories.”
Mrs. Wastvedt, my pen pal – his father passed away when he was in second grade
just like mine.
“Really Andrew? It sounds like you guys need each other.”
STEP TWO: PRAYER
The second point of this sermon, this two-step if you will, is prayer. Now Second, usually my prayer goes like this, “Please don’t let me step on their toes…please don’t let me step on their toes..”
But for this sermon, learn this prayer -
Be brave.
Be strong.
Don’t give up.
Expect God to get here soon.
Turn to your left – tell them to be brave.
Turn to your right – tell them to be strong.
Look inward for a moment – in a quiet moment – whisper to yourself “Don’t give up.”
And look up – heavenward – because we expect God to get here soon.
It is through partnering and through praying – that we handle those snakes, we face those floods, we make it through those moments when we feel utterly alone even though we are screaming out to be heard.
This is what sustains us – to not give up – partnership, prayer so that truly we can two step through times of trouble. Two stepping through times of trouble is not a dance we do alone – we do it only in the partnership of the church, in the communion of the Holy Spirit, the one who calls us NOT to give up, the one who calls us to dance!
Amen.
Jim Moose is the coordinator and visionary for the Western Pennsylvania Table Project. He was down in New Orleans this week delivering the first round of 100 tables and benches. While there he committed to a second round of 300 tables. If you are interested in being involve d in this endeavor in any way, please email lisahickmanaz@hotmail.com or moosewoodfurn@peoplepc.com.