A Chorus of Praise – Sermon for Easter 5C
Psalm 148 Laudate
Dominum (From the Book of Common
Prayer)
1 Hallelujah!
Praise
the Lord from the heavens; *
praise him in the heights.
2 Praise him, all you angels of his; *
praise him, all his host.
3 Praise him, sun and moon; *
praise him, all you shining stars.
4 Praise him, heaven of heavens, *
and you waters above the heavens.
5 Let them praise the Name of the Lord; *
for he commanded, and they were created.
6 He made them stand fast for ever and
ever; *
he gave them a law which shall not pass
away.
7 Praise the Lord from the earth, *
you sea‑monsters and all deeps;
8 Fire and hail, snow and fog, *
tempestuous wind, doing his will;
9 Mountains and all hills, *
fruit trees and all cedars;
10 Wild beasts and all cattle, *
creeping things and wingèd birds;
11 Kings of the earth and all peoples, *
princes and all rulers of the world;
12 Young men and maidens, *
old and young together.
13 Let them praise the Name of the Lord, *
for his Name only is exalted,
his splendor is over earth and heaven.
14 He has raised up strength for his people
and
praise for all his loyal servants, *
the children of Israel, a people who are
near him.
Hallelujah!
I
would like to begin by sharing an experience from my time as a staff Chaplain
at Ohio State University Hospitals. One
late night, I received a call to meet a family at the hospital emergency
room. The circumstances were
particularly tragic; a young woman had been the victim of a random shooting and
was in critical condition. And so upon arriving, I sat with the family for
several hours waiting for news; listening as the parents and siblings shared
their grief, trials and even a few happy memories. After a little while other family began to
arrive and there was one aunt in particular who immediately began to admonish
the parents for not having enough faith.
I cringed and struggled as this very well meaning woman went on and on
and on about how we as Christians are supposed to praise God in all
circumstances.
I
will come back to this.
This
morning I would like to focus on Psalm 148, which is the Psalm appointed for
today, the fifth Sunday after Easter.
The Book of Psalms is a collection of songs, or song texts. There are many different types of songs in
this collection, including songs of lament, abandonment and anger; songs of
wisdom; songs which recount God’s saving works through history; and songs of
celebration and praise. Our Psalm for
today is a song of praise. In fact,
Psalm 148 is part of a set of Psalms – numbers 146 through 150, which together
form a doxology or a final glorious song of praise to the great book of
Psalms. Each of these five Psalms begins
with an exclamation – a joyous shout:
Halleluiah! This literally means “Praise be to Yahweh,” or Praise the
Lord! And then proceeds with a chorus of
praise.
And
who is to join this chorus of praise?
Well Psalm 148 actually specifies that there should be two choirs. In music appreciation we would call this a
“polychoral” work. Choir # 1 consists of
the angelic host, the sun, the moon, the shining stars, and even all of heaven
itself. Choir # 2 is a to include the
sea-monsters from the deep, fire, hail, snow, fog, tempestuous wind, the
mountains, hills, fruit trees, cedars, wild beasts, cattle, creeping things,
birds, kings and princes and rulers, and all people, men and women, young and
old. Now that is quite a chorus!
In
short, all of creation is to join the chorus of praise. In the creation account in the 1st
chapter of Genesis after each day, God surveys His work of creation and
declares it is good. And so, all of this
Good Creation is to join the polychoral song of praise to God!
OK,
so it is clear who is called to praise – it is also clear from the Psalm that
praise is to be the primary calling of all creation. All the heavens, plants, creatures and you
and me are all called to make praise the first and foremost priority of our
lives. We are to praise God in
everything we do and in every circumstance.
But
how? How are we to do this? What about those times when we don’t feel
like praise? Or when the circumstances
are filled with loss and despair, like the situation I began this sermon
with. How can we praise God then – in
those circumstances? We need to look
closer at this question of how exactly do we praise God?
A
few years ago, while I was serving St. John’s Lutheran Church, I attended a
worship conference on alternative musical resources for worship. The first scheduled event was an evening
concert presented by the Maranatha! Praise band, which was out of Nashville. The music was very upbeat, filled with praise
and celebrations. But early on I noticed
a few people in the audience starting to raise their hands and wave them about
as if they were trying to get the band’s attention. My initial reaction was to think, “gee, I
really don’t think they are going to take questions in the middle of a
concert.” And then it dawned on me: that
they weren’t raising their hands to ask question, but as an expression of
praise.
This
is a valid way of expressing praise.
Raising our hands, singing, shouting, dancing, all has its place. But that is not the whole story. I think in our society, were often religious
dialogue and expression is dictated by one or two traditions, we have developed
the idea that this is how you have to praise God; that praise also requires
faith and thanksgiving and joy. And
that praise isn’t possible without these things. Well, that is simply not true. That is one valid expression of praise. But not even the most important or common
one.
Remember,
people make up only a tiny part of the choir.
How do the sea-monsters, the cattle, the wild beasts and the wingéd
birds fulfill their obligation to praise God?
How do the tempestuous winds and the mountains manage their polychoral
parts in the choir? “The problem we have
in understanding praise is that we are accustomed to seeing praise as a special
offering – a prayer or a song or certain behaviors or attitudes. We relegate praise to a certain time and
place… But the praise of the Lord in this psalm is
more than what happens at a special time or place. Verse 6 is a clue to what is
understood by praise in the psalm. ‘The
Lord established the heavenly (and earthly) things forever, and fixed their
purpose and place in creation.’ In other words the stormy wind fulfils its task
of praise by being a stormy wind. All creatures praise the Lord by being the
creatures the Lord made them. This is true also of the Lord’s people*… “ We are joining in the chorus of praise as we
go about living our lives as faithfully as we can. We don’t have to be in a certain frame of mind. We just have to go about living our lives in
way that are faithful to our calling. In
the case of the family I spoke of earlier, the appropriate and natural
expressing of grief, sorrow, fear and anger, were an expression of praise. This is what the Aunt didn’t understand. That by giving full voice to sorrow, grief,
even anger – this is praise – this is being faithful! In fact, I would go so far as to say that to
deny these natural expressions and emotions, which are a natural part of life,
would display a lack of faith. We praise
God most faithfully when we accept who we are and the wonderful gift of being
fully human.
One
final thought. Today is Rogation Sunday,
which is when we focus on the natural environment and God’s glorious
creation. Psalm 148 is explicitly clear
that we are fellow choir members with all of God’s natural world, who, also in
order to fulfill their calling to praise, must be allowed to be what they were
created to be as well. In as much as we
are called to cherish who God wants us to be, so also we must cherish all
dimensions of God’s creation so that together we can all join in the glorious
polychoral song of praise to God.
* Exegetical article The Old Testament
Readings: Weekly Comments on the Revised Common Lectionary, Howard Wallace
Audrey Schindler, Morag Logan, Paul Tonson, Lorraine Parkinson, Theological
Hall of the Uniting Church, Melbourne, Australia.
http://www.textweek.com/writings/psalm148.htm
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