Sermon Preached at
The Riverside Church in the City of New York
March 20, 2022.
Sermon title: “Alleluias during Lent” – OR “The need to celebrate whatever light we find. Within the darkness of Lent. “
Biblical Reading: Psalm 148 and John 19: 25b-27
Contemplation line:
“Mom, but why is it, what is it for, what does everything happen for?!”
“- hug me my little boy, that I have so much love for you …”
Guimaraes Rosa, “Miguilim,” in Corpo de Baile, (Rio De Janeiro: Editora Nova Fronteira, 1984).
ART BY MARC H. ELLIS
WATCH THE WORSHIP SERVICE HERE:
Dear Friends, I feel blessed to be here this morning. I have been coming to worship at Riverside since I was doing my PhD at Union Seminary and the Rev James Forbes was the pastor here. I came back visiting you when other pastors were here. I remember organizing a liturgy here when the Dalai Lama came to visit. I remember even more vividly the memorial service of Prof. James Cone. What a joy to be here with you again.
My word of deep gratitude to our precious Rev. Michael Livingston for the invitation and for being a wonderful pastor of this church. I also want to say a word of gratitude for the amazing work of Rev. Amanda Meisenheimer, Rev. Bruce Lamb, Rev. Jim Keat and the people who tirelessly keep this community going. I pray for you all as you go through this time of discernment.
The world is gone and I must carry you.
The world is gone and I must carry you.
From the first time I read this poem from Jewish Romanian poet Paul Celan, these were immediately carved in the walls of flesh of my heart. Paul Celan is writing with the Holocaust on his heart. When the world was gone apart for Jews: I must carry you.
The world is gone and I must carry you.
So many times it feels that our world is gone. In heavy and lighter ways. Worlds, many worlds gone. Sometimes it is my own world crumbling down due to circumstances, hardships and unexpected events. Sometimes it is the world of my family that seems to go away and all of sudden I start to ask myself how can I belong there. Sometimes it is the world of my church coming crashing down and I have to gasp for air. Sometimes it is my own country dismantling right in front of my eyes and I see democracy eroding like a mountain of sand. And if all that was not enough, our earth is burning with climate disasters and global warming moving towards a time when the earth as we know it, will be gone.
We Christians are in the midst of lent, a liturgical time when we pause, ponder, go deeper and attend to the depths of our soul. From ashes we came, to ashes we shall return.
Lent is a time to face the falling apart of worlds and find a way to build other worlds possible. Lent is a time to share life together when little is given. Lent is a time for us to dig deep into those places that we hide from ourselves and give it names.
Lent is not a time to give up chocolate or beer. Instead, Lent is a time to delve into the shadows of our soul, dig the underland of our skin and discover what is there that scares us. Lent is to face the longest night of the soul and to discover what Howard Thurman called the luminous darkness within. For God lives in the luminous darkness of our soul. And more, God is the luminous darkness of our soul.
To go through Lent is to gain the courage to start the grief process of people, earth and things we have lost but we were never able to do.
To go through Lent is to learn, by the listening of that small voice within, how to calm ourselves down.
To go through Lent is to learn how, by the grace of God, to keep ourselves afloat.
To go through Lent is to learn how, by the love of God, to keep ourselves alive.
To go through Lent is like finding small alleluias along the way to get us going until resurrection comes.
You know, for many liturgical traditions we cannot say the word alleluia during lent. Because Lent is the time of lament and we cannot confuse these things. That is why you have here in the church a movement from lament to alleluia. And it makes total sense.
It is important to have this itinerary. No alleluias while we go deep into the lament of our lives until we get to know deeply what lament is all about. And there are times where indeed no alleluia makes sense or should be allowed.
However, our times seems to be an eternal Lent, with so much lament around, with so much pain we are seeing and feeling everywhere. COVID, wars, racism, all growing exponentially! Inequality, sorrow, death, grief, the earth being devoured by our consumerism and being completely destroyed. Lent on asteroids every day of the year!
But In order to survive this eternal Lent, we need to find solace in the company of God. And every time I realize that God is with me, I cannot help but find a song of praise within me! Praise God, OH Praise God.
Let me tell you a secret. I can’t live without an alleluia! Not even during Lent! You know why? Because as soon as I wake up I HAVE to say ALLELUIA. When I see I am alive I have to say Oh glory! Alleluia! I look at my body and in wonder I say: Wow! Alleluia! I look around and I see my family: my goodness! Alleluia! I go out and see the skies, be it a luminous Sunday or a weary cloud morning and I go: ohhh alleluia! I hear the birds chirping and I smile and chirp back: alleluia!
This my friends, is what I see in this morning biblical text. What a time that was. Jesus betrayed, denied, made fun of, spat upon, beaten up, brutalized. Now he is hanging on the cross at Golgotha. Nearly assassinated by the state. Some disciples and Jesus family around. Others hiding. Their world literally crumbling down. The text says:
Meanwhile, standing near the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, ‘Woman, here is your son.’ Then he said to the disciple, ‘Here is your mother.’ And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home.
When everything was falling apart, Jesus looked at his beloved disciple and said: now she is your mother. And then Jesus looked at his mother and said: Now he is your son.
Oh, what else were Jesus saying to them if not “The world is gone I must carry you.” It was as if Jesus was saying:
My precious disciple: the world is gone, your mother will carry you.
My beloved mother: the world is gone, your son he will carry you.
It is in those moments when we are going through the valley of the shadow of death and suddenly somebody says I know the world is gone but I will carry you!
That is when we discover an alleluia right in the midst of death! That is when a praise burst from my mouth. Because my heart becomes full after being so empty and for so long.
Isn’t this exactly the story of the Africans turned into slaves in this country? When life was an eternal lent and there was no way to go. They created the alleluias to each other, for each other. By singing about new heaven, they felt the new heaven in their bodies. And even in the midst of slavery and death, they sang. When the Devil said harsh things to break them down they sang back.
Went down to the river Jordan,
Where John baptised three
Well I walked to the devil in hell
Sayin John ain’t baptise me
I say;
Roll, Jordan, roll
Roll, Jordan, roll
My soul arise in heaven, Lord
For the year when Jordan roll
Not even the Devil could keep their lives on perpetual lent! Resurrection was their praise and their testimony! Alleluia!
Or when they sang Follow the Drinking Gourd they were creating the lines of escape and a new life of freedom that was about to happen.
Follow the drinkin’ gourd
Follow the drinkin’ gourd
For the old man is waiting for to carry you to freedom
Follow the drinkin’ gourd
These songs of the field helped them make sense of life. Oh those songs were alleluias in the midst of a harsh lent, life in the midst of death, resurrections in the midst of lynching trees. In the midst of forced labor they sang their freedom. On in the midst of the civil rights movement they were able to cried glory! Their songs were like the poem: “the world is gone I must carry you.”
Their songs created a way out of no way. Their songs helped them deal with their pain, make pain turn into something powerful. Their songs re-signified their lives so they could keep going.
Their songs were their constant alleluias.
In 1965 as our precious Black people crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge, in what was known as the Bloody Sunday, they were telling us: “the world is gone, I must carry you.” That is why we are here today. Because somebody walked through that bridge and sang and cried GLORY!
This is why we have a sound black America today. Because the black people found glories and alleluias in the midst of the most difficult times. They carried each other on through and made future possible. Not only for black people but for all of us!
Because they carried us into the future we can now have each other. For we are each other’s keepers. So now it is on me to go around and say “The world is gone, I must carry you…”
And because we are each other’s keepers, we can praise God. That is why we have Psalm 148 today in the midst of lent.
Praise God!
Praise God, sun and moon;
praise God, all you shining stars!
Praise God, you highest heavens,
and you waters above the heavens!
Praise God…
Oh my friends we must continue this Psalm today… Will you help me?
Praise God for shelter and for warmth today
Praise God Oh Praise God
Praise God I have clothing and food
Praise God Oh Praise God
Praise God I have a house, a church and a community
Praise God Oh Praise God
When I remember our mothers and grandmothers, nuestros papas e abuelitos and all the food, the care, the healing, the presence, the praying… I cannot help but praise God
Praise God Oh Praise God
Praise God I worship in a house that carry the songs of my ancestors
Praise God Oh Praise God
Praise God there is a tree near my house and birds are singing
Praise God Oh Praise God
Praise God we have the Hudson river right here near us
Praise God Oh Praise God
Praise God I am still alive even after COVID
Praise God Oh Praise God
Praise God I can still carry the memories of those I lost
Praise God Oh Praise God
Praise God I will find a new job and I will find health insurance
Praise God Oh Praise God
Praise God I haven’t lost my heart completely
Praise God Oh Praise God
When I am alone and fearful in the midst of the night I call on God’s name and God rushes sending angels to console me
Praise God Oh Praise God
Even when I am so weak and weary and I cannot mumble a single word, my spirit knows what to do, which is to
Praise God Oh Praise God
Praise God there are people taking care of the poor today
Praise God Oh Praise God
Praise God for there will always be a drinking gourd in our path, always a Left foot, peg foot, travelin’ on showing us the way
Praise God Oh Praise God
Praise God somebody is praying for this war to end
Praise God Oh Praise God
Praise God somebody keeps saying: we will find a way out of no way
Praise God Oh Praise God
Praise God somebody is praying for me today
Praise God Oh Praise God
Praise God somebody will hold my hand and if nobody hold my hand, God will
Praise God Oh Praise God
For we will always know how to sing
Precious Lord, take my hand
Lead me on, let me stand
I am tired, I’m weak, I am worn
Through the storm, through the night
Lead me on to the light
Take my ha-and, precious Lord
Lead me home
Praise God Oh Praise God
Praise God I have somebody or a pet or a plant waiting for me
Praise God Oh Praise God
Praise God because when I am completely lost, I turn to God and ask:
“Precious God, but why is it, what is it for, what does everything happen for?!”
And God… like a loving mother, Grandmother, a loving father or Grandfather will say
– hug me my little child, for I have so much love for you …
Even when the world is gone, I will carry you!
Ohh And when I hear that… when I hear that somebody will carry me on when my world is gone…
Ahhhh
I…
along with my people,
in the midst of the congregation,
will stand up with them
and with them
we will all say out loud:
Praise God Oh Praise God
Alleluia
Questions from Marc Ellis: