“Restore Us to Joy” based on Psalm 51:1-12 and John 3:1-10, 17-21

I chose as our “We Cry Justice” reading today the end of the essay, where the Rev. Chadwick powerfully invites us to think about transgressions as “lack of justice” – to move from a focus on individual sin to national/communal ones. She invites us to hear the words “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me” as an invitation to remain steadfast in the work of justice, to move for structural change.

It is the core of her essay and it is fantastic. But it turns out that to make sense of the power of what she’s saying, you need to hear the beginning too:

Throughout history, the phrases of this psalm – “Have mercy on me, O God” and “Create in me a pure heart”- have often been read as words of penitence. They have been reworked and added to music, sung as a tune begging for forgiveness after individual transgression. And, indeed, they read easily that way: as though the writer has committed a sin and is seeking repentance and forgiveness for that individual act. … What if we read the psalm as lamenting something far more wicked: the sins of society that turns its back on the poor.1

I rather liked this idea, this movement from the individual transgressions to communal transgressions. It isn’t that I don’t believe both exist, but I don’t think individual transgressions ever happen in a vacuum apart from communal transgressions.

Her point about the psalm being set regularly to music is true too, although none of the 4 United Methodist hymnals I pick from most often had a song based on Psalm 51 that I could read without gagging. So I skipped them all. But there were plenty.

I got curious then, about if there is a reading of this Psalm in the communal that could be supported, say, by reading it in Hebrew or something. Quite often when you want a particular answer from the Bible you can find a scholar to tell you that thing. I pulled out my best commentary on the Psalms, the kind that devotes 30 pages to this one Psalm, and read along in order to discover that I could maybe make that point, but it would be a significant stretch. However, I did find some other great nuggets.

One I’m sharing not to make a broader point but because I simply adored it and can’t help myself, “Thus in Psalm 51 the supplicant appeals for mercy on the basis of God’s willingly assumed and continued obligation [God’s] “loyal-love” to act for the removal of anything, including guilt, which threatens the welfare of the individual (or people) for whom [God is responsible.”2 Isn’t that just beautiful? Both the assumption that God’s “loyal-love” is enough to rely on for forgiveness and that God’s desire is to remove anything INCLUDING GUILT that harms us? We may not spend a lot of time around here focusing on individual sins, but know that if we did, I’d be making that point EVERY TIME. And reminding us all that God is willing to help us even with our guilt, something we may need a lot of help with.

What I found most striking in the commentary on the Psalm were the lines that said this Psalm is hard to categorize because, “there is a full confession of sin which is without parallel in any other biblical psalm… The paucity in the Psalms of the confession of sin and pleading for forgiveness is striking.”3 So, I’ve heard A LOT about Psalm 51 in my years of Christianity. I’ve heard a lot of quotations of “Create in me a clean heart” and “purge me with hyssop” and even “against you and you alone have I sinned.”

Its been almost omnipresent in some parts of the church. Now this is when it is a little bit hard to be preaching here because a lot of you have no idea what I’m talking about and are now wondering what sorts of messed up conservative Christianity I’ve exposed myself to and I LOVE that you don’t know this. Those of you who have come along more recently though – please affirm that I’m not making this up? Thank you.

Psalm 51 is the Psalm for Ash Wednesday, and it comes up 3 other times in the Revised Common Lectionary, but I think it’s power is still bigger than its exposure in the Lectionary. Perhaps, we might say, people just need a way to express their need for forgiveness. Or, perhaps, we might say, Christianity has created a system whereby people are expected to feel awful about themselves and spend a lot of time begging for forgiveness. (See: mainstream Christianity how it thinks about sex.)

I fear there is far too much truth in that idea – that Christianity invites us to feel badly and beg for forgiveness. Now, I’m all for apologizing when we err, I’m delighted when I see signs of forgiveness between people, and I’m well aware we all make LOTS of mistakes every day. But I think a lot of Christianity sets us up to feel guilty about our humanity itself, and that’s where I get bent out of shape. Good news we got reminded God is willing to work with us on our guilt, huh?

Now, I think making people feel guilty is bad, full stop. But I am also concerned about Christianity telling people they’re bad for being humans because people feeling guilty and down on themselves fail to notice the bigger picture. They fail to see their goodness. AND they fail to see the real sins happening around them.

The opening quote to our We Cry Justice reading this week was from MLK.

“One night, a juror came to Jesus and he wanted to know what he could do to be saved… Instead of getting bogged down on one thing, Jesus looked at him, and said, ‘Nicodemus, you must be born again.’ … In other words, “Your whole structure must be changed.”

I believe that part of the work of faith development is the work of letting God unravel our internal “whole structure” over and over again, and build it back up better. And as we keep on moving closer and closer to grace, it enables us to see more clearly the world’s structures in need of change too. John reminds us that God wants to SAVE us, that is, bring us into wholeness, bring a new structure, make it one that works for everyone. And, John says, it requires us letting go of some of the things we think we know and making space for God stuff.

God stuff like everyone is made in the image of God, even the ones you like the least. God stuff like everyone deserves rest, and food, and shelter, even the ones who mooch. God stuff like the whole creation is sacred and we are called to care about all of it. God stuff like there are no hierarchies – no one is worth more than any other – and it is always a tragedy when God’s beloveds are harmed. God stuff like peace is the goal, and violence isn’t a part of the path to peace. God stuff like consuming will never bring us true joy. God stuff like we are already enough, and we need not fight to be worth God’s love for us. God stuff like healing is possible, and so is resurrection, and more can happen than we can even dream. God stuff like hope… despite it all. God stuff like being asked to let go of guilt so fuller life can happen in us.

AND God stuff like creating in us clean hearts so we can dream with God, and have mercy on us so we can learn mercy and do it.

God stuff. That salvation is also where our reading in the Psalm ends, “Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit.” Joy! Being with God is a source of joy. To be with God is mean to be joy (not guilt.) Let’s attend to it. Amen

1Claire Chadwick, “Steadfast Spirit for Justice” in We Cry Justice (Minneapolis, 2021), p. 151-2.

2Marvin E. Tate, Psalms 51-100 in World Bible Commentary Series (USA: Zondervan 1991) Psalm 51 p. 13

3Ibid, page 8.

June 2, 2024

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