Column by Mary Lee Talbot
“What time is it?” the Rev. Frank M. Yamada asked the congregation at the 10:45 a.m. Sunday morning worship service in the Amphitheater. He noted that some people looked at their watches, which he said was becoming an old-fashioned way to keep time.
He noted that others looked at their cell phones, and some looked at their cell phones with their arms stretched as far as they could go. Yamada then continued his sermon, titled “They Cried to the Lord — Praying in God’s Time,” and the scripture reading was Psalm 46.
“What kind of time are we living in? There are wars and rumors of war; natural disasters like the flash flooding in Texas, North Carolina and New Mexico; political polarization; economic uncertainty; deportations. Does that sound like our time?” he asked.
He continued, “The bad news is I don’t think there is a lot we can do to fix it. In African-American preaching, the preacher will name the issue, the problem and then let the tension build. People will start calling out, ‘Fix it, preacher’ until finally someone says, ‘Help him, Jesus.’ But it is important to name the problem.”
The good news is that there are reserves of wellness to help us deal with times of distress. The Bible was written in uncertain times. “It was written on blank pages, and those blank pages turned into the Psalms,” he said.
When Yamada was a young seminary student, he broke his wrist playing basketball. He had to have surgery to repair it. Just before the anesthesia started, he realized that he would not have control over his future, that his life would be in the hands of others. He started praying the 23rd Psalm. “Isn’t that what the life of faith is like,” he said, “that we often turn to the Psalms for comfort?”
Yamada’s sermon series title, “They Cried to the Lord,” is in homage to his teacher and mentor Patrick Miller, whose book on the psalms is titled They Cried to the Lord. “The Psalms provide profound hope, an alternative to the noisy cacophony that surrounds us. They are one of the most cherished books in the Bible. The late Walter Brueggemann said that by extolling the mighty acts of God we align our hearts with God’s way of being,” Yamada said. He used Psalm 117, which has two verses as an example.
There are many kinds of psalms — of thanksgiving, ascent, royal — but the most common is lament. Laments are both individual and communal. Psalms of lament are cries for help, and they take on a universal quality that provides comfort in distress and, finally, vindication.
“We often turn to Psalms in times just like these, and it resets our clock to God’s time,” Yamada said. “The psalm begins with a faithful complaint, and at a critical point the psalmist turns and recalls God’s hesed, God’s faithfulness, and the psalm ends in praise. The world has not changed, but the psalmist has.”
Psalm 46 is what inspired reformer Martin Luther to write “A Mighty Fortress is our God.” Yamada said it was used in services after 9/11 and on Zoom screens during the pandemic.
The psalmist is calling the community back to trust in God. The opening of the psalm is “God is our refuge and strength, / a very present help in trouble.” Yamada asked the congregation to repeat the verse with him. Then he asked them to repeat it again and let it sink in.
“I don’t know your personal stories, and I don’t understand your uncertainties, but I can say that God is our refuge and strength, a fortress not built by human hands. This is the God who protects. As the Apostle Paul said, in him were all things created, through him and for him. Did you catch the cosmic imagery? We should not fear, even though the earth may change.” Yamada told the congregation.
In the ancient world, the waters of the deep equaled mythological chaos. In Psalms 46, God is the protector and has the forces of chaos under control like a symphony conductor. “God is on your side, offering protection and securing your very being. Here is the cosmic God, but God is as near as your next thought,” Yamada said.
Verses 7 and 11 remind the reader that “the Lord of hosts is with us; / the God of Jacob is our refuge.” God is Emmanuel, God with us, and we can align our heart and mind to the rhythm of the grace and peace that God intends for all creation, Yamada told the congregation.
At the very end of the psalm, God speaks and says, “Be still, and know that I am God! / I am exalted among the nations; / I am exalted in the earth.”
Yamada invited the congregation to practice turning to God’s rhythm as a counterpoint to noise. He asked them to close their eyes, probe their hearts and name the stress that has them out of step with God. Then he invited them to release those anxieties as they listened to him read the psalm. He closed the sermon by reading Psalm 46 and letting the congregation know: “Be still, and know that I am God! / I am exalted among the nations; I am exalted in the earth. / The Lord of hosts is with us; / the God of Jacob is our refuge.”
The Rt. Rev. Eugene Taylor Sutton, senior pastor for Chautauqua, presided. George T. Snyder, former chair of the board of trustees of Chautauqua and trustee for life, read the scripture. Joshua Stafford, director of sacred music and the Jared Jacobsen Chair for the Organist, performed Finlandia, Op. 26, by Jean Sibelius, arranged by Herbert Fricker, for the prelude. The anthem was “Awake, my Heart, and Render,” music by Jane Marshall, words by Paulus Gerhardt, translated by Winfred Douglas. Stafford directed the Chautauqua Choir, which was accompanied by Owen Reyda on the Massey Memorial Organ. The offertory anthem was “In the Beginning,” by composer and organist David Hurd, who was in the congregation for its premiere. The text was from John 1:1–14. The Chautauqua Choir sang the premiere, which it had commissioned with the Motet Choir. The choir was under the direction of Stafford and accompanied by organ scholar Laura Smith on the Massey organ. Soloists were Mara Hazzard-Wallingford, soprano; Leslie Lewis, alto; Chris Wallingford, tenor; and Jim Evans, bass. The anthem was commissioned “in recognition of (Stafford’s) significant contribution to Chautauqua Institution’s worship and in honor of five years as the Institution’s Organist and Choir Director.” Stafford performed Toccata in D Major, by Marcel Lanquetuit, on the Massey organ for the postlude. Support for this week’s chaplaincy and preaching is provided by the Jackson-Carnahan Memorial Chaplaincy, Randell-Hall Memorial Chaplaincy and the J. Everett Hall Memorial Chaplaincy.
