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May 9, 2010 Sermon

Take Up the Song (Judges 5: 1-7; John 5:2-13)

Rev. Sally Harris

    Unending dance of love,
    Before Your unfathomable mystery
    All eloquence of language falters.
    So we fall silent and rest content in the knowledge
    That we are known, wanted and loved.
    May it be so! Amen!

Let us sit in silence for just a minute and consider what Deborah might have to say to us this day…. The narrative of the previous chapter, Judges 4, provides a backdrop for the celebration the song of Deborah describes. In chapter four, we first hear of Deborah, a married judge, who is responsible for providing administrative and military oversight for the people of Israel during a time of transition. A time punctured with uncertainty, tragedy and war. Moses is long gone. Joshua is dead, and no king is yet on the scene. However, God appoints six judges, including Deborah, in the interim. The “Song of Deborah” specifically refers to Deborah as a “mother in Israel.” She protects “her child” at whatever cost. Through her fiscal insight, the song implies that Deborah is able to maintain her community’s well-being and restore it during a difficult period.

The “Song of Deborah” reminds us that honoring motherhood is not merely about honoring a biological function or the ability to reproduce, but such a day is rooted in affirming our willingness as families of faith to be repairers of the breach and restorers of just community. What might Deborah being saying to us today? … perhaps she is whispering to us the words of the poet Langston Hughes:

Mother to Son

Well son, I’ll tell you:
Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.
  It’s had tacks in it,
  And splinters,
  And boards torn up,
  And places with no carpet on the floor - Bare.
But all the time
  I’se been a-climbin’ on,
  And reachin’ landin’s,
  And turnin’ corners,
  And sometimes goin’ in the dark
  Where there ain’t been no light.
So boy, don’t you turn back.
  Don’t you set down on the steps
‘Cause you finds it’s kinder hard.
  Don’t you fall now -
For I’se still goin’, honey,
I’se still climbin’,
  And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.        Langston Hughes

Perhaps this is what Jesus was trying to say to the person who has been an invalid – in-valid for 38 years. A person has been paralyzed - unable to move for 38 years. Son, daughter Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair… some are born into horror, war and poverty, some end up dependent on others for their entire lives and others are found in-valid because of differing abilities, because of dis-ease, because of color, race or class, because of who they love… Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair… but that does not mean you stop trying… So, don’t you turn back. Don’t you set down on the steps. ‘Cause you finds it’s kinder hard. Don’t you fall now… keep going

But wait a minute this is a person who can’t keep going. Jesus must have known that. Jesus the great physician arrived to make all things right… Right? Jesus walks over and heals the poor guy. Takes pity and uses his amazing gift of healing from God to set right this person’s world. Right? Wrong! When Jesus saw him and realized that he had been lying there a long time, Jesus said DO YOU WANT TO be healed? What a question? Cruel, callous. Why of course he wants to be healed. Surprisingly Jesus does NOT RESCUE this person from his dis-ease. What kind of love is this? There must be a typo – a misprint. Or is it that Jesus’ love doesn’t presume to know what this person wants. In fact Jesus respects this person enough to grant him his dignity by identifying this invalid’s ability to respond. This person’s right to be valid by seeing him as a person of value who can respond. A person who needs to take responsibility for his own healing. And of course the invalid recognizes this immediately and responses with a song of praise. Well not exactly – was it a whine? I have no one to put me into the pool and while I’m struggling to get there – I get trampled – someone always beats me to the pool. It’s kind of like someone who has been taken care of all his or her life – treated like an object – like someone in-valid. It’s called learned helplessness. It happens when a valid or partial helplessness becomes a total helplessness.

Social injustices and situations where one’s actions and responses
have no effect on the environment can produce learned helplessness.

After a period of time of such invalidity a person simply gives up trying to impact the environment. Such people learn that their actions produce no predictable or observable response. Thus they learn to be helpless. Such helplessness causes not only depression but also a kind of ‘failure to thrive’ syndrome, where a person or group of people ceases to grow mentally, emotionally or spiritually. And Jesus refused to participate in that kind of “loving“. Jesus refused to placate or deal with the in-valid man as though he was a victim and Jesus was the rescuer. Jesus engaged him as an agent, as a person with responsibilities, as a person with the ability to respond and told him to get off his… bed and walk! Cruel, unfeeling? No! Deeply respectful of our human capacity, even in our in-validity, to take responsibility for our lives and participate in our own healing.

So, don’t you turn back… life for me ain’t been no crystal stair…

No matter what you face don’t take the broken heart, the lost dreams, the uncertainty, as signs of God’s powerlessness or absence or rejection. No God sings through Deborah’s song...

When leaders lead, when people willingly offer themselves… Bless Yahweh!!!

God urges us to find our song… and to take it up so that we may arise as a force of love and acceptance in a world paralyzed by fear.

So, don’t you turn back… Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair…

No matter what, no matter what it looks like or feels like… God is at work… calling the Deborahs and the Michaels, the in-valid and the valid, the margins and the center to… take up the song, carry it on ‘till all the world joins in to sing along.

Raise a cry for justice and never let it cease. Take up the Song.

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