Monday Morning Faith: The Parade of Orphans (Ps. 68) Chris Altrock – 11/2/14

I was once in a parade.

I’ve watched many parades. But one time I was actually in a parade. It was an experience I will never forget.

As I have shared with you before, I grew up in a small rural town called Cloudcroft. When I was a boy, there were no parades in Cloudcroft. They now have a Christmas parade and a Fourth of July parade. They even have an Outhouse race. But when I was a child, they had no parades. I lived in town without parades.

Can you imagine a world with no parades? 

• No ticker-tape parades along Broadway in New York City for astronauts returning from space or athletes fresh from a victory.
• No Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade.
• No New Year’s Day Rose Parade.
• No Homecoming parades.
• No Fourth of July parades.
• No Christmas parades.

It would be a sad world, especially if you are a kid. Because when you’re young, there’s hardly anything more exciting than a parade. The thump and crack of a well-rehearsed drum line. The sharp and smooth sounds of brass and woodwinds in a marching band. The rainbow colors of floats floating past. The high arch of hard candy being thrown from the floats to the kids down below. The people of fame and notoriety in honored places in the parade.

I loved parades when I was kid.

So, when our Cub Scout leader announced that we would be on a float in the Alamogordo Christmas Parade, I was speechless. Alamogordo was a thirty minute drive from Cloudcroft. It was the closest big town. It had a movie theatre and a grocery store and a small mall. Each Christmas they held a minor parade. And true to his word, our Cubmaster got us into that year’s Christmas parade.

I remember that cold night in the desert town. We gathered at the parade’s beginning. Our Cubmaster pulled up in a Ford pickup with a large trailer sparsely decorated with crepe paper streamers and hay. The five of us jumped on board, with bags of candy. Then, we heard the marching band at the front of the parade begin to play. That was the signal to start the process. As we slowly drifted down the four-lane street, people of all ages filled sidewalks on both sides. They waved at us. They clapped. And young children held hands, palms open, begging for candy.

There’s hardly anything like being in a parade.

Because, normally parades, at least the seats of honor, are reserved for very important folks. For example, there have been more than 200 ticker-tape parades held in New York City. And at the center of those processions have been very important people:

• In 1910, it was Theodore Roosevelt, who had just returned from his African safari.
• In 1928 it was famed pilot Amelia Earhart.
• In 1936 it was Jesse Owens who had just won four gold medals in the Olympics.
• In 1945 it was General Dwight Eisenhower.
• In 1969 it was Neil Armstrong and crew following their mission to the moon.
• In 2012 it was the New York Giants who had just won the Super Bowl.

We throw parades for very important people.

And Psalm 68 describes a parade thrown for the most important Person—God himself:

¹God shall arise, his enemies shall be scattered; and those who hate him shall flee before him! (Ps. 68:1 ESV)

If we read the Bible from cover to cover, we’d recognize these words. We’ve heard them before. Many years earlier, they came out of the mouth of Moses. Moses would say these words each time the Ark of the Covenant set out to lead the people of God:

³⁵ And whenever the ark set out, Moses said, “Arise, O Lord, and let your enemies be scattered, and let those who hate you flee before you.” (Num. 10:35 ESV).

The Ark of the Covenant was that sacred container, made famous by the movie “Indiana Jones,” which symbolized the presence of God. Where the ark was, God was. And these words at the beginning of Ps. 68 were the Moses would use as a procession began with the Ark out front. It was a parade. The Ark out front, representing God’s presence. The people trailing behind. These are the words used to start that parade. A parade with God as the ultimate guest of honor.

That’s led some to wonder if this Psalm was sung by David when he brought the Ark in a jubilant parade into the city of Jerusalem where it would remain (2 Sam. 6:12). Perhaps David borrowed the words from Moses as the Ark was led in a procession into Jerusalem.

Thus, this psalm imagines a parade in which God rides as the person of honor. In fact there is language later in this Psalm which calls this event a procession or parade:

²⁴ Your procession is seen, O God, the procession of my God, my King, into the sanctuary—²⁵ the singers in front, the musicians last, between them virgins playing tambourines: ²⁶ “Bless God in the great congregation, the Lord, O you who are of Israel’s fountain!”  ²⁷ There is Benjamin, the least of them, in the lead, the princes of Judah in their throng, the princes of Zebulun, the princes of Naphtali. (Ps. 68:24-27 ESV)

It’s like we’re listening to Al Roker and Matt Lauer commenting on a parade. There’re the singers! There’re the musicians! There’s one of the tribes of Israel!

This psalm is about a parade. God is on parade. God is at the center of this procession with all his dazzling brilliance and wonderful goodness. This ticker-tape parade is being thrown in honor of God.

And, according to this psalm, there are at least two other groups in this parade accompanying God. One group is made up of the foes of God:

⁸ You ascended on high, leading a host of captives in your train and receiving gifts among men, even among the rebellious, that the Lord God may dwell there. (Ps. 68:18 ESV).

This line borrows language from the military world. It calls to mind a military parade. In the ancient world, after a general gained victory in an important battle, he might return home in a great procession. And in that parade, he would have some of the notable enemies or captives whom he had defeated. These captives would be displayed so that the people watching would know that those whom they most feared were now defeated.

In this parade, we see the enemies of God. God’s parade includes his foes. Those who have caused the worst conflicts on our planet, those responsible for the greatest corruption on our planet, those whose characters keep us awake at night. These foes march defeated in God’s parade.

Their presence in this parade reminds us that we no longer have reason to fear. That our God, the God at the center of this procession, has defeated them.

There is, however, at least one other group in this parade:

⁴ Sing to God, sing praises to his name; lift up a song to him who rides through the deserts; his name is the Lord; exult before him! ⁵ Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation. (Ps. 68:4-5 ESV).

The fatherless and widows. We should be shocked that they are in this parade. Shocked because in the ancient world they were nobodies. They were on the margin of society. Forgotten by most. Neglected by most. Nobody wanted to be around the fatherless or orphans. No one wanted to be around widows. They were poor. They were vulnerable. They were the invisible people in that culture. They were the very last kind of person you’d find at the center of a parade. Especially a parade like this one which has such a distinguished guest of honor.

Yet that’s exactly where we find them. God’s parade not only includes his foes, it includes the fatherless. God plucks the fatherless from obscurity and gives them notoriety. God takes them from the margin and places them in the center. God shares his spotlight with the fatherless. God gives them a prominent place in his procession. These nobodies now find themselves in the seat of honor in the greatest parade on earth.

 

The image should cause us to pause. If our culture throws a parade today, it throws it for the people who make the headlines. The people who make a difference. The people who make history. The people who make us laugh or cry or think. We don’t throw parades for orphans. Orphans still stand near the margin of our society today. They are still invisible. Still forgotten.

• The Memphis Department of Children Services reports that every year about 1,000 children show up at their facilities. Most have few resources and few advocates. Can you believe that? 1,000 children in need show up every year at the Memphis DCS.
• The Christian Alliance For Orphans reports that there are about 153 million orphans in the world today.[1] Many live in stark poverty and utter hopelessness.

Our society has largely forgotten them. We’d never throw a parade for them.

But God does. God invites them into his procession and shares his spotlight with them. In fact, he becomes their father. He is called Father to the fatherless. The parade becomes a kind of adoption process.

And we cannot read this psalm or see this image of God’s parade without being moved to follow God’s example. We too are called to include orphans in the parade of our lives. We are called to do for them exactly what God did for them.

• That’s why we find this line in Exodus: You shall not mistreat any widow or fatherless child. (Ex. 22:22 ESV)
• That’s why Isaiah urged us to “…learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.” (Is. 1:17 ESV)
• That’s why James would write this: Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. (James 1:27 ESV)

We are called to include orphans in the parade of our lives.

How do we do that? In our Link we’ve listed a number of specific ways you can help orphans. I urge you to linger over that list today and to visit those hosting tables in The Commons with more information. You’ll find very specific ways in which you can get involved in putting orphans in the parade of your life.

Of course you do this when you give to Highland’s bi-annual Outreach Contribution. That contribution helps fund Agape, the four children’s homes at Highland today, our new Adoption Fund, and our work at Macon Hall and LaRose elementary schools. The first of two Outreach Contributions funding those ministries takes place on Nov. 23 as we seek to raise $215,000. But we hope that today you will also consider additional ways in which you might place orphans in the parade of your life.

In his book A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, Donald Miller tells the true story of a special parade put on by Bob Goff in San Diego.[2] It was New Year’s Day. A day when many people were watching The Rose Parade on television.  But Bob’s kids were bored. They wanted something to do besides watch a parade on television. Bob asked them for ideas. They said things like “Let’s buy a pony” or “Let’s build a rocket.” And then one of the mentioned “Let’s have a parade.” Bob liked that idea. So they all sat around the kitchen table dreaming about what their parade would look like.  They would make and wear costumes and hold balloons. And they could invite their friends to watch. With this plan, the kids started calling friends and neighbors to invite them to watch the parade.

But as Bob thought more about it, he realized it’s more fun to be in a parade than to watch a parade. So he made a rule: nobody would be allowed to watch the parade, but anybody could participate in the parade.

Bob and the family dressed up in their costumes, got their balloon and walked to the end of the street. They were joined by a few friends and neighbors who wanted to be part of the parade. They began marching down the street. Others were watching the strange little parade on the sidewalks. But one by one, Bob and the kids would grab them off the sidewalks and convince them to participate. By the time they got to the end of the street, no one was watching the parade. Because everyone was now in the parade.

That’s what God does in Ps. 68. He’s not content to let those orphans stand on the sidelines and beg for a gift from the floats. One by one, he grabs them from the sidewalk and puts them at the center of his parade. And now, he’s inviting us to do the same. He’s inviting us not only to join his parade. He’s inviting us to reach out to everyone we can, but especially to reach out to orphans, and invite them to participate the parade of our lives. And every time you engage in one of the ministries in The Commons or in the Link, you are doing just that. The parade has started. Who will you invite to join us?

Let’s close this morning with this video which tells us more about what it looks like to invite the fatherless into God’s parade: