The Flood Has Not Swept Us Away

Psalm 124
Psalm for the Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost (Year A)

Tonight felt a little bit like the sun peaking through the clouds after a fearsome storm. Things will still not be normal for quite some time. The effects of the storm are ever present. To be honest, I don’t even know for sure if the storm has passed or we have just caught a break. I just know that right now there seems to be some daylight.

The last time that we met as a youth group was over five months ago. We filled the gaps where we could. We rode Zoom to the end of the school year. We made front porch visits in the summer. But like so much else in this year gone sideways, it was not the same. And today was still not the same. We met outside scattered around the church’s campus. We wore masks and kept our distance.

But we were together and, in the midst of chaos and the tumult of this year, that felt like a victory.

It also felt like a victory to create something new. Our youth and children’s ministries teamed up to put together a drive-in worship service for families. Beneath the late August sun, we sang and ran and danced and reminded those dear to us that we love them and God does too. It was gratifying to hatch this scheme with a great group of people, have no idea if anyone would show up, and then watch the parking lot fill with cars. That too felt like daylight.

And I would be remiss to not thank God for these things. The psalmist in this week’s passage declares that if it were not for God then Israel would have been swallowed up by its enemies and swept away by the flood. And perhaps 2020 is not that dramatic, but maybe it is. All I know is that we looked around tonight at that parking lot full of families and I waved to my students as they headed home and it felt like we had gotten through something. We’re still here. The proverbial flood had not swept us away. Thanks be to God.