Proper 13/Pentecost 11/Ordinary Time 18
Preaching
Hear My Voice
Preaching The Lectionary Psalms for Cycles A, B, C
Object:
This psalm belongs in the category of "personal lament," which means it probably was not used for corporate worship, but by an individual pray-er. From the tone, the person is clearly in some unspecified distress, probably from persecutors of some sort. Protesting his innocence and his faithfulness to God, the psalmist asks for divine relief, and concludes with an expression of confidence that God will come to his aid (v. 18: "I shall awake satisfied").
Psalm 17 could easily be the prayer of a penitentiary inmate imprisoned for a crime he or she did not commit, a circumstance that unfortunately is not that rare in the penal system. With the number of DNA exonerations, revelations of lab errors, and manufactured evidence cases in the news these days, it would not be unreasonable to use this psalm as the basis of sermon leading to prayer for those wrongly accused. A summary of the 1999 Denzel Washington movie, The Hurricane, which tells the story of boxer Rubin "Hurricane" Carter's imprisonment for a triple murder he did not commit, would make a good opening hook for the sermon.
Then there is the case of Gerald Amirault, sixteen years in the Massachusetts penal system (at the time of this writing, in 2002). Accused of child abuse in a case that for most people has been convincingly debunked (including the editors of The Wall Street Journal who have advocated his immediate release), Amirault has been denied a parole hearing because he has refused participation in a treatment program for sex offenders. He says it is because the crime did not happen; the Massachusetts Department of Corrections maintains he is "in denial." If indeed he is innocent, as he says, then why should he "confess" to the crime to get a hearing? This psalm could be his prayer.
Talking about wrongly accused inmates may seem too far removed from many congregations, but there is always the possibility of using this psalm to talk about our individual sense of sinfulness. When is it appropriate and when is it a hypersensitive conscience that accuses, when even God does not?
-- S. P.
Editor's Note: Gerald Amirault was released April 30, 2004.
Psalm 17 could easily be the prayer of a penitentiary inmate imprisoned for a crime he or she did not commit, a circumstance that unfortunately is not that rare in the penal system. With the number of DNA exonerations, revelations of lab errors, and manufactured evidence cases in the news these days, it would not be unreasonable to use this psalm as the basis of sermon leading to prayer for those wrongly accused. A summary of the 1999 Denzel Washington movie, The Hurricane, which tells the story of boxer Rubin "Hurricane" Carter's imprisonment for a triple murder he did not commit, would make a good opening hook for the sermon.
Then there is the case of Gerald Amirault, sixteen years in the Massachusetts penal system (at the time of this writing, in 2002). Accused of child abuse in a case that for most people has been convincingly debunked (including the editors of The Wall Street Journal who have advocated his immediate release), Amirault has been denied a parole hearing because he has refused participation in a treatment program for sex offenders. He says it is because the crime did not happen; the Massachusetts Department of Corrections maintains he is "in denial." If indeed he is innocent, as he says, then why should he "confess" to the crime to get a hearing? This psalm could be his prayer.
Talking about wrongly accused inmates may seem too far removed from many congregations, but there is always the possibility of using this psalm to talk about our individual sense of sinfulness. When is it appropriate and when is it a hypersensitive conscience that accuses, when even God does not?
-- S. P.
Editor's Note: Gerald Amirault was released April 30, 2004.
