“A Story of Hope” based on Psalm 144:3-4, 12-15

When I was 13 I broke my leg, my femur to be specific. It hurt a lot. I was in a straight leg cast from my hip to my toes, which got in the way. During the weeks I was in the cast, I YEARNED to be able to walk up stairs and it felt like an ETERNITY passed while I had to sit on the stairs and push up or down them one at a time.

It was less than 6 weeks, but I was 13.

Sometimes though, even today, in the midst of walking stairs, I notice the absolute joy and wonder of being able to do so. I remember that yearning, and I’m grateful again that I can do the thing I wanted so desperately to be able to do.

I say this with an awareness that not everyone can walk stairs. Some have never been able to, some will never be able to again, some just can’t yet, and some cannot just for right now. The capacity to walk up and down stairs is something easy to take for granted – when and if you can do it. The lack of capacity to walk up and down stairs can profoundly impact a life, despite the best efforts of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The Psalm today reminds me of stairs. It speaks of abundance with such profound excitement. Scholars are not clear about it: does it reflect an expression of a present joy or a future hope? In either case, I think it is worth paying attention to. What is the nature of this exuberant utopia worthy of great praise?

There is plenty of food, the children are able to grow strong and whole, no one is attacking them, and they are safe at home. Based on this they say, “Happy are the people to whom such blessings fall; happy are the people whose God is the WOMB OF LIFE.”

For people who have such things, it is possible to stop noticing how amazing it is when there is plenty of food, the children are able to grow strong and whole, no one is attacking them, and they are safe at home. It is possible to pay attention instead to what one doesn’t have, or what isn’t right, or even the stressors around them – and entirely miss the wonder of basic safety and enough food.

Of course, there are plenty of people who don’t have basic safety and enough food. We have a Community Breakfast Program to try to respond to the needs within our community for sufficient, nutritious food. We know that one meal a week helps without solving that problem. Violence in our society is plentiful, safe housing is insufficient, and good food is not as accessible as it needs to be. And, of course, those who are migrants, or immigrants, and those who are displaced as well as people in less wealthy countries ALSO lack basic safety and sufficient food.

It can be easy to take it for granted, unless you don’t have it. And It can be hard to focus on anything else when you are hungry or unsafe.

Which is why it is a beautiful and profound dream, the idea of plenty of food, children are able to grow strong and whole, peace and safety at home. For many, many people now and throughout history, enough food and a sense of safety would be a blessing beyond measure.

So, if you have that, THANK GOD!

And if you don’t, know this: God wants it for you too.

Because that is a part of the good news of God: that God’s aim is for everyone to have enough food and for everyone to be safe. That’s the dream. Enough for everyone. No one is excluded. No one goes hungry. No one gets hurt. No one is at war. No one has to fight tooth and nail to get enough to survive because there IS enough for everyone (already) and if it is distributed fairly everyone can thrive.

That’s God’s dream. That’s the kindom of God. That’s the beloved community. That’s what we’re about.

There are, of course, disagreements about how to get there. Do we create the kindom of abundance by attending to the disparities of our society and counterbalancing them? Or do we just kinda hope the injustice goes away? Do we create the kindom of God by offering debt relief to the overburdened? Or by prioritizing lenders at all costs? And while I’m at it, do we get to the kindom by trusting women to made the best decisions for their bodies and families or by asserting authority over other people’s bodies and lives?

There are, I’m sure, good faith arguments on both sides. But as people of faith seeking the kindom, seeking to ensure that ALL people access safety and sufficient resources for their needs, that guides our thinking on issues. Which side of the argument leads to life abundant for the most people? Which creates more justice? Which brings safety? Which leads to better distribution of resources?

And not everything moves in the direction of the kindom, right? But, still we seek, still we work, still we know God is with us in moving the world towards shared safety and shared abundance.

When we came home from Annual Conference, I shared with some of you that in the Episcopal address Bishop Héctor Burgos Núñez named some cultural shifts in how we will function together as United Methodists of Upper New York. My cynicism won out until his final point when he said that we would stop focusing on “church growth” and instead focus on “missional impact.” Now, I think “missional impact” is kinda useless language, but I am trained in speaking church and the actual meaning behind it is great. Missional impact is church-speak for tangibly sharing God’s love in the world. Which itself might be church speak (oops), for “helping.”

When I shared that with a few of you before worship, one of you responded with something like, “Well, yes. The entire point of church is to get people together so we can help other people. If we aren’t doing that, there is no point.” To which I may or may not have said “YES!” a little bit too loudly.

Some of how we do that is by worshiping. Now, if you are listening to this, you probably already find some value in worship, but I think it is helpful sometimes to consider WHY something is useful. Particularly because worship isn’t as directly a way of helping people as serving breakfast is.

Worship gives us a time that is apart from the rest of our week. A time to attend to beauty, and meaning, and to rest. That’s important on it’s own, and it is important to be able to keep going. Worship makes space for shared prayer, which matters in ways we can’t often even name. Worship gives us time to consider scripture and reflect on it, to try to work together to figure out what God is up to, to celebrate what God is up to, and (maybe most importantly?) to notice how God WANTS the world to be and how that is different from how it is. Because if we can’t dream with God towards how things should be, we can’t get there. Worship also gives us a chance to be together, which inherently matters. Because when people are together they can get to know each other, check in on each other, laugh together, and connect.

And because we NEED each other, so whenever we connect it benefits us and it benefits God. I think we may, as humans, need to express thanks for good things, and we need space to mourn the things that break out hearts and worship is designed to make space for the wholeness of human emotion.

We need time that is “unproductive” just set aside to BE humans, to BE with God, to simply BE and worship gets to be that for us too. All together this indicates that worship may be something we do mostly because we need it, and we need to be fed in order to feed. But at the same time we need each other at worship to make worship worship and that’s kinda cool too.

Finally, around here, we have the joy of sharing God’s incredible hospitality to all people and in our shared worship we can break down the barriers that have historically communicated to people that they were unwelcome or unworthy. And that dear ones, is a POWERFUL way of “helping.”

Our shared sense of God’s welcome, of God’s un-ending love, and of the energy and power we have to do things that matter TOGETHER then become the basis for everything ELSE we do as a church: the things we gather to give away, the places we go to share God’s love, the ministries we offer to ease the burdens of God’s beloveds, the ways we show up to be with God’s people and to advocate for God’s dreams.

We get to do all that because we share in God’s dreams for plenty of good and safety for everyone and we get to spend our lives working towards it with God.

And soon we get to gather at the table together to be fed. That is a reason to give thanks! And it is yet another reminder that the fullness of the table of God – the abundance of good food and spacious safety – are meant to be extended until everyone can be at the table together. With God and each other, there is plenty of reason to hope we can get there together.

May God keep on working with us, in us, and through us. Amen

Rev. Sara E. Baron 
First United Methodist Church of Schenectady 
603 State St. Schenectady, NY 12305 
Pronouns: she/her/hers 
http://fumcschenectady.org/ 
https://www.facebook.com/FUMCSchenectady

July 2, 2023