By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion." (Psalm 137:1)

When I was training to be a Reader, I studied the Psalms. I was at a residential weekend and the tutor played us a bit of Boney M’s “By The Rivers Of Babylon” as an example of how the Psalms could be worked into modern culture and asked us to think of other examples. One of the people in my group suggested doing the whole of Psalm 137 in the same way. I felt compelled to point out that this psalm ends with blessing people who dash babies on rocks. It’s hard to give that its full meaning with a disco beat.

There are parts of scripture, especially in the Old Testament, that can seem shocking when you first read them and there’s a danger that we avoid them. I notice that the entry in CH4 for Psalm 137 also stops before the end. On a similar note I got into a little trouble with a congregation when I chose as a reading from one of the racier parts of Song Of Songs. If you haven’t read it for a while, please do and you’ll see what I mean.

The end of Psalm 137 is uncomfortable to read - especially when we recognise that we believe that God has guided us to accept these writings as part of his way of communicating with us. I said ‘part’ there and that’s important. There were some early Christians who found parts of the Old Testament so uncomfortable that they couldn’t believe that the God referred to in them was the same God who had revealed himself in Jesus. One - a chap called Marcion - wanted to jettison the whole Old Testament and several bits of the New Testament for exactly that reason.

But if we hold these words to be scripture, and if we believe that God has guided the Church to accept them as part of his way of communicating with humanity, then we cannot turn away from the difficult bits, the unsettling bits, the challenging bits. We can’t turn away from the bits that make us sit up in our chairs and read them and say , “Wait! What!?” because we can’t run away from the possibility that God sometimes wants us to say, “Wait! What!?” Maybe - probably - God sometimes wants to unsettle us and to challenge us. Maybe that’s when he offers us hard teaching.

Psalm 137 is a song - that’s what psalms are. I’ve written a few songs in my time. What often gives a song its resonance is what it tells you about the emotional state of the person whose voice is being allowed to sing in the song.  Psalm 137 is a song of terrible sorrow. Put yourself in the position of the person writing the song. You’ve been herded out of your city to exile in a distant country. You look back, perhaps, and see the smouldering remains of your home, your farm, the Temple where you believe your God lives - lived. The soldiers that did this point to the wasteland that used to be your home and say, “Go on! Sing us a song! Sing to us about the gleaming spires of Jerusalem! Sing to us about the beauty of your god’s temple”. How would you feel? What kind of revenge would you not wish on them and theirs?

Sure, we can understand the human grief and impotent rage behind these words. But why are they in our Bibles? Because we are human. Because this is part of the reality of being human. Life isn’t always a bed of roses and good religion, honest religion doesn’t tell you otherwise. That’s why I began the service with “All Things Bright And Beautiful”. Don’t get me wrong - sure I understand that people see God in the glory and the beauty of his creation. But I’m also aware of the Monty Python parody - “All Things Dull And Ugly”. The world is not always full of happiness, joy and laughter. Sometimes there is sorrow, pain and grief. Sometimes stuff happens that makes us want to lash out in pain and hurt.

That’s why the words of Psalm 137 are important. These words are being directed to a God of grace and love and mercy. Do you think he doesn’t understand where they come from? Do you think they will so revolt him that he would swat aside the person who penned them and condemn them? That misses the whole point of the incarnation. It misses the whole point of God coming into the world in the life of a human being. It misses the whole point of the Gospel - that nothing you can think or say or do can separate you from the love of God. You’re angry enough, hurt enough, broken enough to cry out to him in the way the Psalmist does in Psalm 137 - do you think that can separate you from his love?

In our Gospel reading some followers of Jesus turn away from him because his teaching is “too hard”. His core followers stay with him because, as Peter says, “Who else can we go to?” And that’s the point. Sometimes we’ll find stuff in the Bible that can seem upsetting or strange or unsettling. That’s because it was written by human beings - inspired by God, sure, but still human beings. Unhappy by that? Remembering that Jesus was a human being? The writings in the Bible are inspired by God, but a God who doesn’t treat his children as dictaphones. They are not meant to be simply read off the page. They are meant to be thought about and prayed about.

I started out, in preparing this service, intending to preach on a line in John’s Gospel: “Who else can we go to?” says Peter about Jesus. If we want to understand the harshness and the pain and the grief in the scriptures we have to see them through God’s revelation of himself in the world. I said that the Bible is part of the way God communicates with humanity - the main way God has done that is in Jesus.

And it’s the message of love for humanity. Sure, God knows that terrible things happen in the world, but he is here, in this world, with us. Sure, God knows that sometimes we do terrible things out of pain, grief and the hurts others inflict on us, but they can’t separate us from the love of God and maybe, just maybe, that love can heal us and end the cycle of violence that sometimes springs from that pain. God knows that dreadful things happen in the world - do you think he’s above that? The Cross of Calvary says otherwise.

The message of Psalm 137 Is that God accepts us for who we are. That’s what parents do. Take Psalm 137 to be that moment when a kid says something to his Mum or Dad that hurts them. And that happens to all parents, I think. Take that idea and run with it. Read the difficult teachings and the hard words of scripture through the lens God has given us - the lens he came into this world to give us - his own son.

Take that idea and live it. When the world cries down judgement on folk who have done stuff they shouldn’t have done, insist that we are all broken goods and insist that the love of God is for all. When the world hauls down its idols because they have feet of clay, remind them that we all do and insist that the love of God is for all. When you’re angry, and want to cry out to God from your pain, don’t feel you have to guard your words. The love of God is for all.

Lord, when the words of scripture seem hard, help us to understand them through the love for us that you revealed to us in your son. Help us to offer that love to others

Preached at Gretna Old parish church