A Sermon delivered on Sunday, December 22, 2024 by Rev. Dr. Patrick H. Wrisley.
Food is a big deal this time of year; the holidays always seem to bring out the wonderful culinary and baking skills lying dormant during the rest of the year. There are delicious poppy seed loaves, which was a favorite of mine that my wife Kelly made each year to give away to folks. Christmas cookies with red and green frosting on them. There is homemade fudge and hot chocolate and the Venti half-calf Caramel latte with whole milk at your favorite coffee shop. Then there are the apple, pumpkin, and pecan pies to add the dollop of goodness after our overstuffed holiday meals of ham, turkey, or roast beast. WebMD indicates that folks will gain up to two pounds over the course of holiday binging which is much less than I was expecting.[1] It is safe to say that between Thanksgiving and New Year’s, people wallow in a carbo-loaded sugary bliss.
You have blessed me the last few weeks as I have been doing rounds with this bronchial pneumonia with delicious food to get me back in preaching shape. From chicken noodle soups, homemade bread, cookies, and a yellow jar of something I was not sure what it was. I looked at a note attached, and it says, “Lemon curd – a good decongestant.”
“Lemon curd?” I thought to myself. “What’s that?” So, I stick in a spoon and pull out this bright yellow congealed scoop and took a bite. I died and went to heaven as Lemon curd is nothing but lemon meringue pie without the crust! Bliss indeed! Jill Emblidge, they will rise up and call you blessed for that one! So, it is in the context of all this gastrointestinal goodness that today’s scripture jumped out at me.
Turn in your Bible to Psalm 80. The psalms comprised the Hebrew peoples’ hymn book and in the psalms are different types of songs to sing. Some were songs of triumph. Some were songs sung while traveling to religious festivals in Jerusalem. Other psalms were used as songs of praise and thanksgiving for all God has done, is doing, and will do in the future. And then, there were some songs that were complaints and laments. These are songs sung to God demanding to know where the heck God was in the midst of trouble. They are songs implicating God as being a silent partner in a marriage or indicting the Lord for being asleep while the people of Israel flounder. Well, that is the type of psalm we have for this morning. It’s a psalm of lament and complaint expressed to God. Listen to the Word of the Lord.
Psalm 80
1Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock! You who are enthroned upon the cherubim, shine forth 2before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh. Stir up your might, and come to save us! 3Restore us, O God; let your face shine, that we may be saved. 4O Lord God of hosts, how long will you be angry with your people’s prayers? 5You have fed them with the bread of tears and have given them tears to drink in full measure. 6You make us the scorn of our neighbors; our enemies laugh among themselves. 7Restore us, O God of hosts; let your face shine, that we may be saved. (NRSV)
“You have fed your people with the bread of tears.” Isn’t that an incredible image? The lectionary Bible study group meets on Wednesdays. They gather to look at our preaching passages and had a field day with this one. This text seemed out of place compared to the stories of angels appearing and announcing good news of impending births and the promise of a coming deliverer of the people. Psalm 80 comes roaring forth as a giant Debbie-downer in this season of festive holiday preparations. Who wants to talk about eating the bread of tears when you have Jill’s lemon curd to scarf down?
The American Psychological Association reports that nine in ten adults experience various stresses and fears over the holidays. These include financial worries. They also miss loved ones who have died or are far away. Some people do not look forward to seeing certain family members, like crazy Uncle Eddy, at the Christmas table due to fear of family arguments. The same study points out that 43% of the people says that the stress they experience over the holidays interferes with their ability to really enjoy them and that 36% felt all the gift giving had become competitive.[2] Daniel Gillison, writing for the National Alliance of Mental Health says 3 in 5 Americans feel their mental health is negatively affected by the holidays.[3] We wrestled with the text for a few minutes in the Wednesday Bible study. Finally, we admitted that Psalm 80 merits being looked at in worship.
Who doesn’t love the holidays? They are festive and fattening. Hopefully places of worship can help people keep the center of Christmas focused on the child coming and cooing in the manger, and believe me, it is getting harder every year. But the holidays can be difficult for some and because Church deals with hard truths and reality, we need to acknowledge that some of those sitting next to us in the pews or who can’t even get themselves motivated to come to worship are having a difficult time emotionally, spiritually, socially, familially, or professionally.
Mixed in with our own dysfunction, is the circus playing out in Washington, conflicts in Eastern Europe, volatility in the Middle East, famine in Sudan, threats of tariffs, deportations, climate change and war.
I have always said Church is a microcosm of the larger world. It is the place, it is the community, Jesus chose to reveal and live out the Kingdom of God to the world. If we in the Church cannot take care of each other, there’s little chance the world can or will. Psalm 80 is our reminder that there are those times when God seems silent at best or aloof at worst. It reminds us there are those recurrent tides ebbing in and out where people will feel happiness and will feel dread. And it is in this community called Church, we become the living reminders to each other God has not forgotten them, that God has not abandoned them, that God is listening to their cries through us.
The late priest, professor, and contemplative, Henri Nouwen speaks of these Psalm 80 moments in our lives. He writes the mystery of the Christian life, “is not that God came to take our burden away or to take our cross away or to take our agony away. No. God came to invite us to connect our burden with God’s burden, to connect our suffering with God’s suffering, to connect our pain to God’s pain.”[4]
Beloved, look around you. Think about the people you run into every single day – your neighbors, teachers, bank clerks, or even family – who are the people that you can be the one who gently, lovingly, helps connect their suffering to God’s presence and suffering for them? You see, this is the beauty of Christmas. This is the beauty of Mary’s Magnificat, that God lives, moves, breathes, and heals the ones whose hearts are tired or broken.
© December 22, 2024, by Patrick H. Wrisley. Sermon manuscripts are available for the edification of members and friends of First Presbyterian Church of Glens Falls, 8 West Notre Dame Street, Glens Falls, NY. They shall not be altered, re-purposed, published, or preached without permission. All rights reserved.
[1] See https://www.webmd.com/diet/features/holiday-weight-gain-big-fat-lie. Accessed on December 22, 2024.
[2] See American Psychological Association, Created November 30, 2023, Even a joyous holiday season can cause stress for most Americans. Accessed on December 20, 2024 from https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2023/11/holiday-season-stress.
[3] Daniel H. Gillison, The Most Difficult Time of Year: Mental Health During the Holidays, December 20, 2021. National Alliance of Mental Health, https://www.nami.org/from-the-ceo/the-most-difficult-time-of-the-year-mental-health-during-the-holidays/.
[4] Henry J. M. Nouwen, Following Jesus. Finding our way home in an age of anxiety, Gabrielle Earnshaw, ed. (New York: image books, 2024), p 80.
patrick h wrisley 