A Song of Hope, A Song of Trust

The Rev. Dr. Whitworth Ferguson III
Manassas Presbyterian Church
Manassas, Virginia
September 6, 2009

A Song of Hope, A Song of Trust
Deuteronomy 33:26-27

I cannot read the text,
our lesson from Deuteronomy.
I cannot read the text because I will confuse many of you.
Those of you who like to read along in the pew Bibles
will read these words:
“There is none like God, O Israel,
who rides through the heavens to your help,
majestic through the skies.
He subdues the ancient gods,
shatters the forces of old;”

That’s not what you would hear me read.
Here’s what I would read:
“There is no one like the God of Israel,
who rides on the heavens to help you
and on the clouds in his majesty.
The eternal God is your refuge,
and underneath are the everlasting arms.”

We have two different versions of this passage,
two different translations,
especially in the way we translate the second verse,
verse 27.

In the New Revised Standard Version
we have in the pews
and from which I usually read here in the pulpit
we hear:
“He subdues the ancient gods,
shatters the forces of old;”

But in the original Hebrew we read,
“The eternal God is your refuge,
and underneath are the everlasting arms.”

This is one of many examples that makes so clear
how difficult it is to translate words
from one language to another,
especially when we try to translate from
three-thousand year old Hebrew
into contemporary English.
Scholars with equally broad and deep knowledge
of ancient Hebrew don’t always agree on how a word,
much less a whole sentence,
should be translated.

It is just one more reminder why we Presbyterians
do not read the Bible as the literal word of the Lord;
two different translators could give us
two very different “words of the Lord”
and both could be right.

I prefer the translation we don’t find in the pew Bible:
“The eternal God is your refuge,
and underneath are the everlasting arms.”
These are words I think Moses would have spoken
to the Israelites
as he prepared to say good-bye to them,
as he prepared for his death
after leading the children of Israel
through the wilderness for forty years.

The entire book of Deuteronomy is a speech from Moses,
his valedictory address to the children of Israel,
as they stood on the east side of the Jordan River
and looked west across to the land
that God had promised them,
the land they had journeyed so far and so long to find,
the land that was to be theirs
as the children of God.

Read through the entire book and we find
Moses speaks to the Israelites in different tones
reminding, lecturing,
exhorting, warning, threatening;
his tone is often strident,
as though he is wagging his finger at the people
who stood before him,
men and women, boys and girls
all of whom he loved,
but who had worn him out,
exhausted him with their griping, their bickering,
their petty concerns, their complaining,
their weak faith.

Here in the final chapters, though,
he doesn’t chastise or rebuke.
Moses exudes warmth
as he blesses the tribes,
each by name.
And then he reminds them of the Lord God’s greatness,
and more important, the Lord God’s goodness.
He knew that the people were frightened of the Lord,
that they looked upon Yahweh as quick to anger,
and slow in his mercy.
Moses wanted the children of Israel to know
the Lord he knew,
the Lord God who was merciful,
patient,
grace-filled, and loving:
“Children of Israel,
as you go through your lives remember:
The eternal God is your refuge,
and underneath are the everlasting arms.
…There is none like God,
who rides through the heavens to your help…”

What an extraordinary final word
to share with the Israelites;
what an extraordinary and loving benediction.

This is our God, too,
God our Father, God our Mother,
the God who calls us here each Sabbath to worship,
the God who reveals himself in the pages of the Bible,
the written word;
The God who reveals himself in Jesus Christ,
the Living Word.

This God leads us here and now
just as surely as he led the children of Israel
through the wilderness.
The pillar of fire that led the Israelites
is for us the Holy Spirit,
the breath of God
that blows through this church
and fills each of us.

Every year I always find myself filled with a sense of wonder
and anticipation as we turn the page on the calendar
from August to September
and resume all our activities after the summer.
Where will God call us?
Where will the Spirit lead us?
Where will the Spirit push us?
Will the breath of God blow gently through this body,
or will it roar through to clear and cleanse?

God is always making all things new.
God doesn’t allow us to dwell for long in the “good old days,”
because God is always calling us to the “exciting new days”
that lie ahead, just around the corner.
The breath of God moves us there,
sometimes willingly,
but as often, against our will.

Last Sunday our Session talked about one possible new place
the Spirit may call us to in the next year.
We gathered informally to talk about how
we minister to our young people,
especially those in Middle School, High School
and the large group of twenty-somethings we have.

We acknowledged that we are not ministering
to these young folks as well as we should,
as faithfully as we should.
We have wonderful volunteers who work with them,
but we have known for the past five years,
that what we need,
or more to the point,
what they need,
is an Associate Pastor:
someone who can be there for them:
to teach, to lead them,
to talk with them, guide them,
listen to them,
help them discern God’s will for them,
and pray with and for them.

We had an Associate Pastor until 2004,
when the position was eliminated for financial reasons.
We tried a stop-gap measure a couple of years ago
with a part-time Youth Director,
but after Sarah left, we realized that was
not the right path.

My read of our time together last week was
that the Spirit is calling us to make 2010
the year we restore the position of Associate Pastor.

The only thing holding us back is money,
but we have been working on that this past year.
We have well over half the funding we need
already in the budget.
We are as close as that to having the position fully-funded.
It will be up to all of us to provide the rest.

I did the math and if we had to fund the position
in its entirety, we could do it
if every member of this church
added $4.13 to the plate each week.
$4.13 each week, each of us.
That’s all!
But the actual number is closer to $2 per person per week.
It’s amazing what we can do as the Body of Christ,
community working together!

Our Elders will continue to pray about this
and discuss the matter as we seek to discern God’s will
for our church, God’s will in this and other areas.
What is God’s will for the ministry we provide
through our Early Learning Center?
What is God’s will for our Mission work?

What is God’s will for our Worship and Music ministry?
I was thinking about that over my vacation
as I read a book about how to expand media ministries.
The model for how we worship dates back to
before the birth of Jesus,
back to the time of Ezra and Nehemiah:
we read from Scripture and then we interpret the reading.
We usually interpret through a sermon;
but we also interpret through music,
through dance,
through the children acting out a pageant.

More and more churches are using video to help enhance
how we interpret.
Perhaps you’ve been in a church where this is done.
Some churches do video well,
many do not.
And we Presbyterians seem to have a visceral reaction
against even the word video!

I am used to hearing a spoken sermon;
many of you are also used that.
It is what we are comfortable with.
But the reality is that the generation coming up
has grown up learning through screens and visual media.
If we want to reach out to our younger people,
we need to be thinking about this path for worship.
Not necessarily in the next year, or even in the next two years.
But the Spirit will call us there sooner rather than later.

Our Elders will seek to discern God’s will on all these matters
in the months ahead;
they will be looking for that pillar of fire
that says, “follow – this is the direction I want you go.”
Our Book of Order reminds us that the Session is called
“to lead the congregation continually to discover
what God is doing in the world
and to plan for change,
renewal
and reformation under the Word of God.”
G-10.0102 (j).

Discovering what God is doing in the world,
planning for change,
renewal and reformation:
That is what our Elders are called to do
and we will be much more focused on that calling
in the year ahead.
We will work to grow as spiritual leaders of the church,
remembering that being spiritual means simply,
“alert attention we give to a living God,
and the faithful response we make to him in community.”
(Peterson, Subversive, 40)

We will work on discernment,
work on embracing the mysteries of God,
confidently stepping into
“the cloud of unknowing.”
(Armstrong)
trusting that God will reveal his will.

As we look to a new program year,
I am excited,
and I am filled with a sense of anticipation,
because God’s arms are underneath each of us,
all of us, lifting us, supporting us,
and pushing us forward, into each new day,
each new day where the Spirit calls us.

I am excited because over the next year,
I know we will become a more spiritual community,
a more prayerful community,
a more nurturing community,
a more welcoming community.
We, all of us,
we will be transformed each day
by the renewal of our minds,
through the power of God’s Spirit,
as we embrace our Lord’s call to ministry and service
with confidence and hope and faith.

Moses knew this and understood it,
even if the children of Israel did not.
That’s why he could sing a song of hope and trust
to the children of Israel
even as he knew his life had come to its end.

My September song is the same as Moses’:
it is a song of hope,
a song of trust.
For I know that underneath me,
underneath you,
underneath all of us
are the everlasting,
everloving arms of God.

As the Psalmist has written,
Praise the Lord!
We will give thanks to the Lord with all our hearts…
Full of honor and majesty is God’s work
and his righteousness and mercy endures forever and ever.
Let all God’s children praise the Lord!
AMEN