Wednesday’s Text: Psalm 77.1-2, 11-20

Wednesday’s Text: Psalm 77.1-2, 11-20

1 I cry aloud to God,
aloud to God, that he may hear me.
2 In the day of my trouble I seek the Lord;
in the night my hand is stretched out without wearying;
my soul refuses to be comforted.

11 I will call to mind the deeds of the LORD;
I will remember your wonders of old.
12 I will meditate on all your work,
and muse on your mighty deeds.
13 Your way, O God, is holy.
What god is so great as our God?
14 You are the God who works wonders;
you have displayed your might among the peoples.
15 With your strong arm you redeemed your people,
the descendants of Jacob and Joseph. Selah
16 When the waters saw you, O God,
when the waters saw you, they were afraid;
the very deep trembled.
17 The clouds poured out water;
the skies thundered;
your arrows flashed on every side.
18 The crash of your thunder was in the whirlwind;
your lightnings lit up the world;
the earth trembled and shook.
19 Your way was through the sea,
your path, through the mighty waters;
yet your footprints were unseen.
20 You led your people like a flock
by the hand of Moses and Aaron.
(NRSV)


Following unconditionally into the future… This Sunday’s PowerPoint background is going to be a picture of a door. I thought, “what better image of following into the future than a door?” The picture, though, is unique. It’s a red door, propped up by some cinderblocks on the front porch. There is no house with the door, just the door. It’s the door of the childhood home of a friend of mine. He was born there, grew up there, brought his wife and kids there for family get-togethers. Now it’s all gone. The tornadoes that hit the Midwest a number of weeks ago tore through the home. Nothing was left. Total destruction. Yet when I look at this red door standing in the middle of the total devastation left behind by that tornado, I see hope. I see an invitation, an opportunity. I see that red door standing there calling us to step beyond the circumstances that seem so bleak into a future that burgeons with promise.

The psalmist is in the midst of some tragedy. He cries out night and day for God to hear him and answer. It is like a tornado has torn through his life and it seems like everything is in total ruins around him. Comfort does not come. He reaches for God, but God seems to elude his grasp. God seems distant and unapproachable. Yet, in the midst of this distress, there is a red door standing. The psalmist says, “I will call to mind the deeds of the Lord; / I will remember your wonders of old. / I will meditate on all your works, / and muse on your mighty deeds.” He recognizes God’s power and majesty: “Your way, O God, is holy.” And then he lists all sorts of ways God has worked to redeem the people. And then, in what is perhaps the most amazing thing in the whole psalm, he says, “Your way was through the sea, / your path through the mighty waters; / yet your footprints were unseen. / You led your people like a flock / by the hand of Moses and Aaron.” For all God’s might and power and majesty, God has chosen to work through people who have decided to follow God unconditional into the future.

There is a red door standing there in the midst of our today calling us into tomorrow. It stands in the middle of great devastation calling us to hope. It stands defiantly among the rubble and the collapse of all that it broken and fractured in our world. It stands there to remind us that God is calling us to become part of co-creating a better tomorrow, one where God’s kingdom comes and God’s will is done here on earth just as it is in heaven. I don’t know about you, but I am willing to follow unconditionally into that kind of future.