Zach’s Sermon on Psalm 137

Zachary Walters, a Master of Divinity student at Union Seminary and an intern this year at St. Lydia’s, preached this sermon on Psalm 137 at Dinner Church on September 22.

That “Going-Back-Home” Feeling

We all know what it feels like to go back home.
To let out a deep breath,
and feel your whole brain relax.
After a long day of subways and sidewalks and carrying things and bumping people,
the air just feels a little better, a little calmer, when you get back home.
I feel it when I set foot into my parent’s house,
where I grew up,
and now, after seven years,
If I was out of town,
I start to feel it when I get closer to that
familiar New York skyline.

Nowadays, I feel it on Sunday evenings
when I first step into the Zen center.
I felt it as a child
in my grandmother’s house especially.

That’s where we spent most holidays, my family.
When we all got together we numbered more than twenty,
and every time, at least once, we would gather around the piano,
and my grandmother would plink out a couple of chords everyone knew.
“The Waters of Babylon” was one of them, a song based on this psalm.
Pretty soon she got everyone singing,
whether they knew the words or not.
My grandmother is just that kind of woman.

You can read the full text of Zach’s sermon here.