Reflection for Sixth Sunday of Easter Church of the Holy Trinity, Hertford, NC May 5, 2024 Thomas E. Wilson, Guest Celebrant
Acts 10:44-48 1 John 5:1-6 John 15:9-17 Psalm 98
Sing to the Lord A New Song
“Sing to the Lord a new song, *for he has done marvelous things”, is the first verse of the Psalm we have for today. I was reading a translator of the Psalms; who said that the writers of the Psalms wrote the Psalms with their eyes open. I grew in my faith with the Hymn using that one of those Psalms, it is one of favorites because it allows me to bellow: “Earth and All Stars; loud rushing planets- Sing to the Lord a New Song!” Except, I was not asked to sing an old favorite, but to enter into a new relationship with a new song. So, this last Monday I made the decision that I would sing a new song. A blog I read faithfully every day is by Tom Ehrich, a retired Episcopal Priest and consultant which a church to which I was a Pastor had once used to help us. On Monday's Blog, Tom mentioned a song: "God welcomes all, / strangers and friends. / His love is strong, / And it never ends."
Since I had decided I needed to sing to the Lord a new song, I looked up the song and it was written by John L. Bell, a Church of Scotland minister with the Iona Community, and he uses a South African tune, Themba Amen. God welcomes all, / strangers and friends. / His love is strong, / And it never ends."
Sing to the Lord a New Song. I listened to it and I started to sing it, over and over again as part of my Prayer. I thought about myself and had to remind myself, that no matter how many times I fall short , God welcomes me. God welcomes all, / strangers and friends. / His love is strong, / And it never ends."
Sing To the Lord a New Song. I thought of people with whom I have real problems. One of them just runs me ragged in anger about him whenever I read whatever he says as reported by the press. God welcomes him. I wanted God to stop me praying for him in song; but after a while I sang with him in mind. Whoever he is, that is his problem; I may continue to disagree with him; BUT I don't need to make him my problem. God welcomes all, / strangers and friends. / His love is strong, / And it never ends."
Sing to the Lord a New Song. I used to have a big house, but when I retired it just was too much to keep up. So, I sold the house and bought a small condo in a couple buildings of a total of forty units that has a relationship with a management company to take care of problems. I attended a meeting of the Owner's Association, which can have tense relationship with the management company. For my sins, I agreed to be elected to the board and at the first meeting last month, I was Shanghaied, when I was elected President. Abraham Lincoln said something like I felt at that moment. He said:“I feel like the man who was tarred and feathered and ridden out of town on a rail. To the man who asked him how he liked it, he said: ‘If it wasn’t for the honor of the thing, I’d rather walk.’” I am going to need lots of help: God welcomes all, / strangers and friends. / His love is strong, / And it never ends."
Sing to the Lord a New Song. At that first meeting I had already grumbled and pointed out things to the Management Company's representative, harrumphing about damage caused by the nails holding down the shingles and boards; and those nails were rusting. Then a couple days ago, the management company representative's husband, who is a commercial fisherman, had an accident and was badly injured and taken to the hospital. I had to stop mumbling about the management company and lovingly pray for her and her husband. God welcomes all, / strangers and friends. / His love is strong, / And it never ends."
Sing to the Lord a New Song. I thought of people who I knew who were going through illness, so I started to sing about them in my heart. God welcomes all, / strangers and friends. / His love is strong, / And it never ends."
Sing to the Lord a New Song. I thought of all those in Gaza, the West Bank and in Israel. I thought of the time I was during my sabbatical in that area and the people I came into contact with in 1994, thirty years ago, whose names are no longer in this old man's memory. But they are in God's memory and love. God welcomes all, / strangers and friends. / His love is strong, / And it never ends."
Sing to the Lord a New Song. This last Friday, I had been asked by the Jewish Community man who serves as their Worship Leader to participate in a Holocaust remembrance. Some of the Outer Banks Clergy joined me with their own lists of names. I was given a list of names of Jewish people who were slaughtered by hatred by people who called themselves civilized and Christians. I read my small list of names, part of page 1353, which in Nazi thoroughness included their full name, their age, the town and country where they were from, and where they died. It would have taken fifteen hours to read all the names. The first name I read was Gersh Mudrik, a 16 year old boy whose first name meant “Exile” or “Stranger”, who along with his parents, aged 45 and 41, and three siblings, 20, 11 and 7, were slaughtered. This is an account of the murders at Dalnik:
On the evening of October 22, 1941 Soviet saboteurs exploded a mine and destroyed the Romanian city commandant's office and killed the commandant, his entire staff, and several German officers. At noon the following day Jews of all ages and both sexes were taken to a local prison, from which they were taken the next day to Dalnik, several kilometers west of Odessa. On the day of their arrival a group of 40-50 people was selected. They were tied together with rope, and then thrown into a pit and shot dead. The remaining 5,000 people were put into four barracks - the men in three and the women and children into the fourth. The walls of the barracks had holes into which the barrels of machine guns were inserted. On October 24 the men in the first barrack were shot with these machine guns. When the perpetrators saw that this murder was taking too much time, they decided to seal the holes and windows of the barracks, poured gasoline into the barracks, and then set them on fire. The Jews who tried to break out of the inferno were shot down with rifles or killed with grenades. On that day and the next the inmates of two more barracks were murdered in a similar way. In the evening of October 25 the last barrack was blown up with dynamite. The perpetrators of this massacre were members of the 2nd and 10th Romanian Infantry Divisions.
In the massacres around Odessa, almost 80% of the region's 210, 000 Jews were killed. Antisemitism is so easy for people who identify as Christians and today we remember the Jews who are our brothers and sisters. These are the people; God welcomes all, / strangers and friends. / His love is strong, / And it never ends."
Sing to the Lord a New Song. I thought about my wife, who died last year, and who I miss every day. She was the person to whom I should have daily quoted the last two lines of Shakespeare's Sonnet 29 : “For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings / That then I scorn to change my state with kings.”
She loved me and she loved God with all of her heart. I have not really wanted to give her to God, I wanted to hold on to what ever I could of her. But, I had to remember she is with God and God welcomes her and me in my sorrow. God welcomes all, / strangers and friends. / His love is strong, / And it never ends."
Sing to the Lord a New Song. How about you? Is there a friend of yours for whom you have love and is in your heart this day in silent prayer? Or do you have a person for whom you feel resentment or anger for what they had done hours, days, years, decades ago? Can you give them to God's love even if you cannot now forgive them. God welcomes all, / strangers and friends. / His love is strong, / And it never ends."
Sing to the Lord a New Song. You all know me long enough to know that I cannot sing, or keep a tune worth a damn. It is not worth a damn but it is worth a blessing. Can you sing with me? God welcomes all, / strangers and friends. / His love is strong, / And it never ends."
God welcomes all, / strangers and friends. / His love is strong, / And it never ends."
God welcomes all, / strangers and friends. / His love is strong, / And it never ends."
God welcomes all, / strangers and friends. / His love is strong, / And it never ends."
Thank you. I needed that.
