Yearnings

This past weekend I had the privilege to spend the weekend in Retreat with 14 women from GCC.  We returned to the Retreat Center run by the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) at Bethany Beach.  A little misty cool weather did not deter us from walking over to the beach (including some who checked out sunrise).  Two of our group drove up to Rehoboth Beach on Saturday to participate in the “Hands Off” witness and then returned and gave us a great report of the energy and enthusiasm of folks standing up for those who the policies of this administration have impacted.

Our overall “theme” was around the idea of “Yearnings”, using as a resource a book by that name written by Rabbi Irwin Kula.  We shared conversation around Yearning for meaning, creativity, happiness and transformation.  On Friday night we heard the words and music of an anthem sung during Advent.  I learned of it through the Christmas concert tradition of St. Paul’s UCC in Woodstock, Virginia in which Randy participated.  The lyrics are by Susan Bentall Boersma and music by Craig Courtney.  The words are fitting for the times in which we find ourselves.  There is a yearning deep within in us for the kind of world shown to us in the Christ.

There is a yearning in hearts that in the darkness hide and in the shadow of death abide, a yearning for tomorrow.

There is a yearning, a yearning for the promised One, the Firstborn of creation.

There is a yearning for the Lord who visited His own, and by His death for sin atoned, to bring to us salvation.

Emmanuel, Emmanuel within our hearts, the yearning.

There is a yearning that fills the hearts of those who wait the day of His appearing.

There is a yearning when all our sorrows are erased, and we shall see the One who placed within our hearts the yearning.

Emmanuel, Emmanuel within our hearts, the yearning.

            The Psalmist expressed our yearning for the Holy One in the words of Psalm 42.

As a deer longs for flowing streams,
so my soul longs for you, O God.
² My soul thirsts for God,
for the living God.
When shall I come and behold
the face of God?
³ My tears have been my food
day and night,
while people say to me continually,
“Where is your God?”

 

⁴ These things I remember,
as I pour out my soul:
how I went with the throng^[a]
and led them in procession to the house of God,
with glad shouts and songs of thanksgiving,
a multitude keeping festival.

⁵ Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God, for I shall again praise him,
my help ⁶     and my God.

 

My soul is cast down within me;
therefore I remember you
from the land of Jordan and of Hermon,
from Mount Mizar.
⁷ Deep calls to deep
at the thunder of your torrents;
all your waves and your billows
have gone over me.

⁸ By day the Lord commands his steadfast love,
and at night his song is with me,
a prayer to the God of my life.

 

⁹ I say to God, my rock,
“Why have you forgotten me?
Why must I walk about mournfully
because the enemy oppresses me?”
¹⁰ As with a deadly wound in my body,
my adversaries taunt me,
while they say to me continually,
“Where is your God?”

 

¹¹ Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God, for I shall again praise him,
my help and my God.

 

Rev. Clara