Inscribing the Text: Sermons and Prayers of Walter Brueggemann

Shrill Faith for the Nighttime

Shrill Faith for the Nighttime Psalm 30:4-11; Luke 18:1-8 You will recall that President Gerald Ford, when he became president after the long process of expelling Richard Nixon from the presidency, said—in his first public utterance as president—"America 's long nightmare is over." He meant that we could move on and restore civic life. It interests me gready that he used the image of "nightmare" for that national trauma, an image that gives me a beginning point for my words to you. I Nighttime is an odd time in human life, indicated by the fact that young children never want to go to bed. It is a scary time. It is a time out of control, plus the fact that you might miss something. In the daytime, before we go to bed, we mosdy manage and cope, and even do well, and stay in control of our lives as best we can. When we wake up the next morning, we may sleep late or get up early; but either way, we take on the day and pick up our activities and responsibilities and cope, more-or-less as best we can. But in between going to bed and waking up, there is that odd time when we let our guard down. We can't help it. We let our guard down because, as we say, we "lose consciousness." In an age before electricity , it was a very dark time and the forces beyond our control—eidier real or imagined—crowded in our lives. That is why ghosts and spooks operate at night, out of control, when we cannot see them. That is why, moreover, the pivotal events in biblical faith happen at nighttime, when we cannot see them. Specifically, the deliverance of Israel from Egypt happened at night and the resurrection of Jesus from the dead happened at night when no one saw. All of us, moreover , know about the night when we hear strange noises and our anxieties become large, and we go over and over and over things that are beyond our control. Sigmund Freud, of course, made a defining 179 study of dreams; he understood that in dreams unexpected and sometimes unwelcome messages come to us that have force and meaning, often embodying those parts of our life that we do not understand or control. Unlike the daytime, the nighttime is vulnerable and exposed and dangerous. It is that time when we cannot manage, and people of faith are drawn to God as a source of safety when there is no other source of safety, and as a source of presence when the world feels absent. And now, nightmares are very big in our world ... wars and rumors of war and terror and assault and threat and violence. We feel unsafe and we dream up all kinds of security programs that do not in fact make us any safer, but if anything, only more anxious. Daytime is for obedience and virtue and morality. But nighttime is for threat and danger and anxiety. II In this sermon, I want to think about the special, mostly neglected resources of faith given in the Bible for the nighttime when we are under threat. I want to consider with you one psalm in which the psalmist tells about his own crisis of faith. And of course the reason we pay attention to this particular experience of that ancient psalmist, and the reason his experience got into the Bible, is because that experience of faith reported here is so very like our own. Psalm 30 is like a "journal" oitwo days and one night in the stressful reality of faith. I share this psalm with you because it seems clear that the Bible has resources that are much needed in our time of great societal nightmare. The speaker of Psalm 30 is a person of immense faith and is eager to share that faith. In introductory comments, the speaker says, "I want you all tojoin in songs of faith with me": Sing praises to the LORD, O you his faithful ones, and give thanks to his holy name. (Ps 30:4) Everyone mustjoin in this song. And here is the reason: For God's anger is but for a moment; his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may linger for the night, butjoy comes with the morning. (Ps 30:5) 18o God does indeed...