Dancing to Mourning

Session 12.11

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Introduction

This week we are looking at Psalm 95 together. This psalm is identified by scholars as an enthronement psalm. This means that it is a hymn that celebrates God’s cosmic reign as king of creation. This is different from royal psalms that celebrate particular kings of Israel. 

Scripture: Psalm 95​

O come, let us sing to the Lord;
   let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
   let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
For the Lord is a great God,
   and a great King above all gods.
In his hand are the depths of the earth;
   the heights of the mountains are his also.
The sea is his, for he made it,
   and the dry land, which his hands have formed.

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Nikki's Video Script
Dancing to Mourning

This week we are looking at Psalm 95 together. This psalm is identified by scholars as an enthronement psalm. This means that it is a hymn that celebrates God’s cosmic reign as king of creation. This is different from royal psalms that celebrate particular kings of Israel.

The enthronement psalms were likely used on important festival days when attendees would shout “YHWH is King” much like we shout “Christ is Risen” at Easter time. It is an interesting choice for us to read because we are in a time of lent and we aren’t even supposed to say hallelujah in church during this season.

The opening 7 verses are a call to worship God. All are invited to “make a joyful noise” and to “sing to the Lord”. These verses remind us that we come to worship God because God made all of creation and all of creation is God’s.

As we continue to read through the psalm, we realize that it is not all celebration. Beginning in verse 8 the mood of the psalm moves from celebration in worship to a reminder of God’s call to obedience.

The psalmist calls the listeners to remember their ancestors who hardened their hearts when they were wandering the wilderness after escaping from slavery in Egypt. They tested God and refused to be obedient even though they had seen how God had saved them. The listeners are called to remember the sins of their ancestors so they do not repeat the same mistakes.

There is a time for remembering the sins of those who came before us when we gather together in our faith communities. Often we are resistant to this idea because we may be afraid of tarnishing someone’s memory or maybe we are afraid of being associated with those same sins. But, when we take time to do remember, we have opportunities to name out loud that we will be different moving forward and to acknowledge our own complicity in this behavior when that is a reality. It will not be a comfortable thing to do, but that is the point. The discomfort we feel will challenge us to be better and when we name these things out loud, the power they hold over us and our communities weaken.

With the advent of the MeToo movement that emboldened more victims coming forward about the abuse they have experienced, many of our churches are having to grapple with the revelation that former ministers and church leaders were perpetrators of this abuse.

In a similar vein, we live in a time in America in which we have not adequately acknowledged and worked to repair the damage that was done by slavery and so it remains a wound that threatens our communities and keeps us too divided.

And no doubt in each of our individual communities there are harmful events in our past that continue to create division and apathy and fear and hatred.

Now don’t hear me suggesting that we should air all the dirty laundry on Sunday morning. Care to protect victims matters. But I do think we can find ways to name the things in our communities past that have created harm so that they begin to loosen their grip in our lives and in the lives of our communities.

This was a regular part of the high holy day’s celebration for the Israelites and it can be an important part of turning our own mourning into dancing.

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