{"id":2508,"date":"2013-10-18T08:17:25","date_gmt":"2013-10-18T12:17:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stlydias.org\/blog\/?p=2508"},"modified":"2013-10-18T08:17:25","modified_gmt":"2013-10-18T12:17:25","slug":"stephanies-sermon-on-psalm-13","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stlydiasliturgy.org\/blog\/2013\/10\/stephanies-sermon-on-psalm-13\/","title":{"rendered":"Stephanie’s Sermon on Psalm 13"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stephanie Gannon, a Master of Divinity student at Union Seminary and a congregant at St. Lydia’s, delivered this sermon at St. Lydia’s on September 29 and 30, 2013. You can read the full text of her sermon on her blog, onefierceheart<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Psalm 13: \u00a0The Journey from Sorrow to Song<\/p>\n

<\/em>A few weeks ago, in the first session of a class I\u2019m taking at Union on Aggression, the professor, Dr. Ann Ulanov, posed the questions, \u201cWhere is anger in your prayer life? What form does aggression take in your church\u2019s liturgy?\u201d \u00a0My response was, \u201cHuh?? \u00a0Like nowhere. \u00a0Aggression doesn\u2019t (and shouldn\u2019t!) exist in those places. My spiritual life is calm, gentle, and peaceful (just like me!).\u201d \u00a0Raised Irish Catholic , I wasn\u2019t taught to talk back to God. I was an obedient, good girl who didn\u2019t even know that was possible.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

Psalm 13 is a dialogue with God that\u2019s direct and confrontational. When I chose this psalm, I was struck by the emphatic nature of the refrain, \u201cHow long?\u201d \u00a0 With every new repetition on those words in the opening lines of the psalmist\u2019s lament, we hear and feel increasing urgency. Hey God, have you forgotten me? Why do you keep ignoring me? \u00a0How much longer must I endure this pain that seems to have no end? Yoohoo!! Are you listening?? \u00a0The second verse\u2014How long must I bear pain in my soul, and have sorrow in my heart all day long?\u2014 really sounds like the blues.<\/p>\n

Psalm 13 is typical of the lament psalms in its form and tone. It taps deep into the currents of the Israelites\u2019 suffering in the hands of their oppressors. \u00a0What\u2019s it like to call out in pain but not feel heard, let alone responded to?? \u00a0We might think of Job, who faces just this dilemma, this aggressive silence on God\u2019s part. Of course God does reply to him, but refuses to answer his questions\u2026<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

In the late spring and early summer of 1999, we learned that my dad was very sick. I rushed home to Maryland in late June from Heidelberg, Germany, where I was visiting my boyfriend and good friends.<\/p>\n

I spent the next three weeks–his last–nursing him every day and helping my mother navigate the many phone calls and visitors. Taking care of him was hard work, and his situation was quickly deteriorating. Still we held out hope that the chemo would work. I did everything I could to make him comfortable\u2014brought him his favorite donuts and crabcakes (none of which he could eat), set up the VCR with his favorite Westerns and Laurel & Hardy movies, rolled him over on his side to rub his back to help ease the pain his bed sores caused. He told me some stories about growing up on the Eastern Shore, and we laughed like old times whenever we could. Sadly I didn\u2019t have the final heart-to-heart talk I\u2019d wanted us to have. As I retell this, so many memories flood back\u2026<\/p>\n

You can read the full text of Stephanie’s sermon on her blog,\u00a0onefierceheart<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stephanie Gannon, a Master of Divinity student at Union Seminary and a congregant at St. Lydia’s, delivered this sermon at St. Lydia’s on September 29 and 30, 2013. You can read the full text of her sermon on her blog, onefierceheart. Psalm 13: \u00a0The Journey from Sorrow to Song A few weeks ago, in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[29,8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stlydiasliturgy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2508"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stlydiasliturgy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stlydiasliturgy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stlydiasliturgy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stlydiasliturgy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2508"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stlydiasliturgy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2508\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2509,"href":"https:\/\/stlydiasliturgy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2508\/revisions\/2509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stlydiasliturgy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stlydiasliturgy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stlydiasliturgy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}