The Ultimate Intimate (Telling God's Story: New Testament)

25 July 2021

Steinbach Mennonite Church

Last Sunday, Michael Pahl introduced us to the section in the hymnal on God’s Story as it draws from the Old Testament. Today, we continue with the New Testament. This section in the hymnal is really big, covering everything from Advent to the Reign of Christ. There are more than 200 entries included in this section.

I have chosen two basic passages to encompass these varied themes. The first is found in the beginning of Luke’s gospel and emphasises the simple historical nature of the accounts we have in the New Testament. The second is found at the end of Revelation and emphasises the cosmic nature of the story that we find ourselves in. We look briefly at these two passages and then return to this remarkable combination of daily life and cosmic significance.

Luke 1: 1-4, 2: 1-7

The first two chapters of Luke’s gospel make two simple points besides telling the amazing and wonderful story of Jesus’ birth. 1) Luke writes his gospel in order to establish the simple historical truth of the life of Jesus. 2) He locates the story of Jesus’ birth in sober matter-of-fact terms: when and where. God’s story in the OT begins with the cosmos – “far beyond the starry skies”. In the NT the story is anchored in history. God’s story is the story of God’s intervention in human history. “God is here among us, let us all adore him.”

Luke 1: 1 to 4 states it clearly. Luke says that there are many stories circulating about Jesus and that there are also many who actually knew Jesus and heard him teach. Luke says, “I too decided, after investigating everything carefully from the very first, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the truth concerning the things about which you have been instructed.” Luke grounds the amazing story of Jesus in sober historical fact.

Luke 2: 1-7 demonstrates that grounding:

In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. ² This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. ³ All went to their own towns to be registered. ⁴ Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. ⁵ He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. ⁶ While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. ⁷ And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

Luke writes with the kind of attention to detail that you might find in a good journalist, one who takes care to verify everything and gets all the facts straight. This careful attention to historical fact is a basic characteristic of the story of God. Most religions are not grounded in history. They seek to show the cosmic story, not the simpler human story. The way that the New Testament story begins with attention to human history is important.

Why do you think it is important? Other religions (like Hinduism and Buddhism and Islam) do not ground themselves in history in this way. We do, but why? Because the story of Jesus brings God directly into our lives. Jesus was a man like us. He was a Palestinian Jew who lived in the first century. He was probably average height for his time – about 5 ft 3 in, with short hair. The people around him knew him and his family. The importance of all this simple historical detail is to emphasize the reality of “God with us”.

Revelation 21 and 22

This emphasis on the particular specific reality of Jesus brings us to the end of the story in Revelation. The book of Revelation in general is anything but commonplace. John does not make it easy for us to see his historical context. Instead, he focusses on the cosmic reality of Christ. He brings the whole grand story of God’s redemption of the world to a soaring climax in which Jesus, the man of Galilee, is revealed as Christ, the ruler of the Universe.

We read part of chapter 21 and part of chapter 22, but we could have read both together. The end of chapter 21 describes Jesus this way: “I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb.” In the New Heaven and New Earth, the sun is eclipsed by the glory of “the Lamb”, that is, Jesus, the Son of God.

Chapter 22 repeats this description: “Nothing accursed will be found there anymore. But the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him; they will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And there will be no more night; they need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.”

The descriptions of the New Jerusalem include various ways of describing perfection. There is no more sorrow. Tears are gone. Death is done away with. There is no more sea. This last one is interesting: In the Old Testament, the Sea is the place that evil rises from, and in the earlier chapters of Revelation the Beast comes from the Sea. Now, not only is evil defeated, but the very place that agents of evil have hidden themselves is destroyed. Everything is now right; perfection rules forever!

Synthesis

Bring these two pictures together. In the first picture, Jesus comes as a baby who grows into adulthood and lives an ordinary life on earth. He gets caught up in the intrigues and power plays of the day and loses his life to a Roman cross. In the second picture, Jesus reveals God in all God’s glory, and the physical weakness that we see in Jesus reveals the power and eternal glory of God, the Creator.

In my seminary studies, my world religions professor (Matt Zahniser) expressed this dual dynamic in an interesting way. He observed that some religions view God as ultimate and other than us. Typical are Judaism and Islam, in which God created all that is. God is not present in this world physically; rather, God made this world, and we live in it and do God’s will. God is ultimate. God is sovereign. As Judaism puts it, God is “King of Eternity”, and as Islam puts it, God is the only One, the absolute Other, the Creator of the universe.

Zahniser continued with the opposite end of the spectrum: Some religions view God as intimate and closer to us than our own skin. Hinduism is typical of this view. Hindu teachers tell us that you and I are God. We are all one and the differences that we see in this world are really only an illusion. If God is not just within me, but actually is me, then God is more intimate than we can possibly imagine.

Both of these views have their attraction. If God is ultimate, God has the power to deal with all of the problems of our world. Of course, if God is ultimate, God may not be particularly interested in our problems. If God is intimate, God cares about us intimately. Of course, if God is intimate, God may not have the power to deal with our problems. We need a God of power and a God of intimate love. That is what we find in Christian faith.

In Christian faith we have a God who is ultimate. Just as in Judaism and Islam, God is the creator of the universe. The passage Michael Pahl led us in last Sunday states it clearly: “Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.” (Isaiah 40:28)

We also have a God who is intimate. Just as in Hinduism, God is closer to us than anything else in the world. That is why one of the names of Jesus is Immanuel, “God with us.” That is why Jesus was born as a baby into a human family. Indeed, you could call Jesus “the Ultimate Intimate”.

The Ultimate Intimate – that is the story of the New Testament. God who is ultimate, who holds the moon and the stars in God’s hand, that ultimate omnipotent God came into our lives as one of us. Or to put it the other way round, Jesus, the intimate one, Jesus who walked with his disciples and ate and slept with them, this closer than a brother Jesus is also the ultimate, the Creator of all that is or ever can be. Jesus is the Ultimate Intimate.

Singing The Story

We sing this amazing NT story each Sunday to remind ourselves that this is the world that we live in. Our world often appears to be a collection of random events with no real hope for the future. We sing the story to remind ourselves that the one who made our world lives and walks among us as one of us. We sing the story to rediscover God’s presence in our hurt and fears.

These two themes – God’s closeness and love for us on the one hand and God’s power to save us on the other – intertwine to give us hope in a hopeless world. Here are two new songs in this section of the hymnal that express this hope.

#303

O love, how deep, how broad, how high!/ It fills the heart with ecstasy,

That God, the Son of God, should take/ our mortal form for mortals’ sake.

For us he was baptized and bore/ his holy fast, and hungered sore.

For us temptation sharp he knew,/ for us the tempter overthrew.

For us he prayed, for us he taught,/ for us his daily works he wrought,

By words and signs and actions thus/ still seeking not himself but us.

For us to wicked hands betrayed,/ scourged, mocked, in purple robe arrayed,

He bore the shameful cross and death, for us at length gave up his breath.

Eternal glory to our God/ for love so deep, so high, so broad;/

The Trinity whom we adore forever and forever more.

 

Another hymn, sung to the tune of  Star of the County Down (sung by the Irish Rovers).

#412

My soul cries out with a joyful shout that the God of my heart is great

And my spirit sings of the wondrous things that you bring to the ones who wait

You fixed your sight on your servant’s plight and my weakness you did not spurn

So from east to west shall my name be blest/ Could the world be about to turn?

My heart shall sing of the day you bring/ Let the fires of your justice burn

Wipe away all tears/ For the dawn draws near/ And the world is about to turn!

Though I am small, my God, my all, you work great things in me

And your mercy will last from the Depths of the past to the end of the age to be

Your very name puts the proud to shame and to those who would for you yearn

You will show your might, put the strong to flight/ For the world is about to turn

My heart shall sing of the day you bring/ Let the fires of your justice burn

Wipe away all tears/ For the dawn draws near/ And the world is about to turn!

From the halls of power to the fortress tower not a stone will be left on stone

Let the king beware for your justice tears ev’ry tyrant from his throne

The hungry poor shall weep no more for the food they can never earn

There are tables spread, ev’ry mouth be fed/ For the world is about to turn

My heart shall sing of the day you bring/ Let the fires of your justice burn

Wipe away all tears/ For the dawn draws near/ And the world is about to turn!

Though the nations rage from age to age we remember Who holds us fast

God’s mercy must deliver us from the conqueror’s crushing grasp

This saving word that out forebears heard is the promise which holds us bound

’Til the spear and rod can be crushed by God Who is turning the world around

My heart shall sing of the day you bring/ Let the fires of your justice burn

Wipe away all tears/ For the dawn draws near/ And the world is about to turn!

Conclusion

I encourage you to look through this wonderful section on the life, death, resurrection, return, and reign of Jesus. There is power in this story – the power of the Ultimate Almighty God. There is love and hope in this story – the love of the Intimate God who loves us so much that God became one of us. The power of love expressed in the Ultimate Intimate, God with us, our Immanuel.

Texts

Luke 1: 1-4: 2: 1-7

1) Luke writes his gospel in order to establish the simple historical truth of the life of Jesus. 2) He locates the story of Jesus’ birth in sober matter-of-fact terms: when and where. God’s story in the OT begins with the cosmos – “far beyond the starry skies”. In the NT the story is anchored in history. God’s story is the story of God’s intervention in human history. “God is here among us, let us all adore him.”

 

Revelation 21: 1-4; 22: 1-6

God’s story in the NT begins in Bethlehem, but it ends in the New Jerusalem. From sober history to something beyond human imagining, “fantasy” of the highest order. The end of the story really is better than anything we could possibly think of ourselves, and it is given to us!

Focus Statement: God’s NT story begins in our lives and ends in God. The OT sets the stage for us to analyse the ills and troubles of this world; the NT brings hope into the darkest places of our lives.

Think on it questions: What is the New Testament story for? Isn’t the Old Testament enough? Why do we need “God’s Story, Part Two”?

Building God’s House

A word about how I go about preparing sermons. I prefer to preach from a specific text than on a specific theme. I have my favourite themes of course, and the theme that emerges from today’s texts is one of them. It is, therefore, all the more important that I begin with Scripture. I use a lectionary that Lee Hiebert, our senior pastor at SMC, uses, and it gives us the two passages I work with this morning. 

My basic process is to consider each passage of Scripture, and then to search for common themes, which form the basis of the sermon. We begin then with 2 Samuel 7, proceed to Ephesians 2, and then seek a synthesis. The lectionary also adds Mark 6, but I have omitted the gospel reading from this morning’s texts. 

 

2 Samuel 7: 1-17 

The story in 2 Samuel 7 is set in the time after David has brought relative peace to his kingdom. In his earlier reign, David was in conflict with various enemies who sought to enslave or obliterate the Children of Israel. Now the land is at peace, and David begins to think about what should come next. He is sitting with Nathan, well known as a prophet. (Note that prophets in the Old Testament are known as “the mouth of God”.) 

 

David floats an idea that has been brewing in his mind. Now that his own throne is secure and he is at peace in his palace, he would like to build a house for God, a temple to the Lord. At first, Nathan says, “Go for it!” Then God speaks to Nathan, and Nathan acts out his role as one who speaks for God. God says, “Do you think I need a house? I don’t need a house. You are the one who needs something, and I will give it to you. I will establish your son on your throne, and he is the one who will build a house for me.” 

 

In 1 Chronicles 17, we have a parallel passage that tells essentially this same story, and then in 1 Chronicles 22, David gathers the materials necessary for Solomon to build the Temple. It is in that chapter that we are given a reason that Solomon and not David should build the Temple – that David was a man of war and had blood on his hands, while Solomon was a man of peace (witness his name: Solomon, derived from the word “Shalom”, or peace). But that explanation does not appear in our text. What does? 

 

Our text suggests something else: That God must first establish (build) David’s house before David builds God’s house. The point is simple: “Unless the Lord builds the house, they labour in vain who build it” (Psalm 127: 1). Genesis 11 and 12 make the same point. In Genesis 11, the people say, “Let us build ourselves a city and a tower … Let us make a name for ourselves.” God rebuked their efforts, because they left God out of their plans. Then, in chapter 12, God says, “I will make you a great nation [I will build you], and I will bless you, and I will make your name great.” Human efforts to do anything must follow God’s plans to work in our lives. David needed to step back and wait for God to work, so that he could join in what God wanted to do. 

 

Ephesians 2: 11-22 

Our second passage makes it clear what God wants to do. The first ten verses of the chapter describe God’s gift of life – “By grace you have been saved through faith”. Our text describes that gift of life more fully. 

 

Paul describes two groups of people, the “circumcised” and the “uncircumcised” – that is, Jews and Gentiles. Jews were “close to God” through the old covenant, which reminds his readers of the whole story of the Old Testament. Gentiles were “far way from God”, because, as Jesus puts it to the woman at the well, “salvation comes through the Jews” (John 4: 22). 

 

Now someone might think that the Gentiles’ condition excludes them from God’s presence. Indeed, the Jews of Paul’s day looked down on Gentiles. The barrier between Jew and Gentile was perhaps the strongest barrier in the New Testament world, but Paul makes clear what is really going on. God came through the Jews not just for the Jewish people, but for the Gentiles as well. Christ has broken down “the dividing wall of hostility” to make one new group of people that we call “Christians”. This was, if you will, the original “All Peoples’ Church”. Everyone was welcome! 

 

The way Paul puts it is important: “So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone.” (2: 17-20) The essence of God’s salvation is peace, restored relationships between us and God and restored relationships between people. The dividing wall of hostility describes this world; “Peace” describes life in God. 

 

Working it Out 

I teach world religions at Providence, and I have been to the mosque in Winnipeg many times. Islam has a basic problem in that it honours Jesus only as a prophet. Muslims cannot say that Jesus is “the Son of God” and they would find it difficult to talk about Jesus the way that this passage does. At the same time, Islam has an important insight about how we relate to God. 

 

Islam divides the world into two groups of people – Dar al Islam and Dar al Harb. Dar al Islam means “House of those who submit” (Muslims are “people who submit” to God); Dar al Harb means “House of those who are at war” (infidels are “people at war with God”). Now surely this is an accurate depiction in Christian terms also. The world outside of God is filled with people who are at war with God and with each other. 

 

Listen to the news and see how we live in a world at war with itself. This week there were riots in South Africa, especially in Durban and KwaZulu-Natal. Our own country struggles with the relationship between Canada’s indigenous people and those of us who now live in the land. Our neighbour to the south is consumed with the debate over vaccines, with people on both sides convinced that the other side is trying to destroy them. We are even at war with the planet itself, as we face heat waves in the northwest of North America, floods in Europe, and drought on the Western plains of Canada. We are indeed a world at war. 

 

Paul suggests that the road to peace is found in the person of Jesus Christ. If we want to become Dar al Salam (the house of peace), we must become Dar al Islam (the house of those who submit to God). The true path to this peace is faith in Jesus Christ, who saves us by his grace. 

 

Synthesis 

Let’s bring these two passages together.

        1) David wanted to build a house for God. God said, “First, I will establish you. You need to get with my program if you want to worship me.” 

        2) Paul shows us how God wants to establish us and what God’s program is.

        3) God’s program is comprehensive – the healing of all the problems in our world, beginning with the church, that is, starting here with you and me. 

 

Together, then, these passages tell us that, if you want to worship God fully – if you want to build a house for God, you begin by seeking peace with God and asking God to build that full salvation and peace in your life and mine.  

 

Application 

What does that look like in our world? I find it interesting that this wonderful passage in Ephesians 2 follows immediately on the reminder that salvation is by grace through faith. Our first step is always to recognize that God does what needs to be done. We just join in. David wanted to build a house, and God said, “Wait for me to do the building.” We want to save the world, and God says, “Only I can save the world.” 

 

Our first step, then, is always a step into prayer and worship. As we are doing this morning, we come into God’s presence and honour and adore God. We do that in many different ways. Some people like loud fast-paced music; other prefer simple and reflective chants. Some people like prayer services where everyone is calling out to God together in a cacophony of sound; others prefer silence. Some people find God in the city; others find God by water and trees. The specific ways we worship are not as important as this basic fact: We come into God’s presence. If you have not met God in Christ, there is a basic hole in your life that only God can fill. 

 

Worship always leads to action, and action continues our worship. As we meet God in prayer, we may realise that God wants us to do something specific – something that breaks down barriers between people, something that reaches into a world at war with itself and holds out God’s peace. That action of seeking peace where people are at war is an act of worship. 

 

Remember that this peace, God’s peace, is comprehensive. It includes peace between Democrats and Republicans in the USA and peace between Wab Kinew and Pallister in Manitoba. It includes peace between Americans and Canadians divided by Covid-19. It includes even peace between the people who live here and the land in which we live. As Paul puts it in Romans 8, “For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; … in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.” God’s peace and salvation is for every person and indeed for the whole earth. 

 

This means that our worship leads us to seek peace and reconciliation on every side. When the medical people in the hospital work to reduce the effects of Covid-19, if they are Christians, their work is their worship for God. When a business manager seeks good relationships between management and employees, if he/she is a Christian, their work is their worship to God. When a neighbour brings a conflict between neighbours to an end and “makes peace”, if she is a Christian, if he is a Christian, their action is their worship for God. 

 

I think of an example from Christian environmentalism. In a book titled Kingfisher’s Fire: A story of hope for God’s earth, Peter Harris describes the founding of an organisation called A Rocha. A Rocha is present in Manitoba also, with a centre near East Braintree. Check it out sometime on your way here! 

 

In his book describing the beginnings of A Rocha in Portugal (A Rocha means “The Rock” in Portuguese), Harris describes how they also found themselves planting a church in Portugal, because their environmental work was an expression of their love for and worship of God. They have listened to God’s voice establishing them in the world, and A Rocha is the result. 

 

One of their projects was in the Bekaa Valley in the country of Lebanon. They were working in a war zone trying to save wetlands, which were basic to the survival of migrating birds. Although this project took place in a war zone, God has blessed it with remarkable success. Their work has been their worship. 

 

You and Me 

What does all this mean for you and me? David got something very right in the Old Testament reading. Once he was able to sit down and rest, he started asking, “What can I do for God?” God told him to rest some more and wait for God to work, but David’s impulse was right. I can give you a homework assignment. Ask God what God is doing! 

 

As you worship here in the church, as you pray and worship God at home, as God speaks to you in your work and in your play, listen for God’s voice. Then make your worship complete by joining in what God is doing. We live in a world at war with itself. God comes into our world and brings peace and reconciliation. God has made us “ministers and messengers of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5). 

 

Your homework is to listen for what God is doing and then to join in. If you don’t do this, your worship here is incomplete and God is not pleased with it. If you do join in? Well:

Now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. ¹⁴ For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us. ¹⁵ He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, ¹⁶ and might reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it. ¹⁷ So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; ¹⁸ for through him we all have access in one Spirit to the Father.

 

If you do join in? You are part of the salvation of the world! 

 

 

 

18 July 2021 

All Nations People’s Church 

 

Texts 

2 Samuel 7: 1-17 

David wants to build a “house of cedar” for God. God says, “I will establish your house instead, and your son will build a house for me.” 

The order of things is important here: First, God builds-establishes; then we build-establish. Compare to Genesis 11 (Let us make a name for ourselves) and 12 (I will make your name great). We face the constant temptation to do God’s work for God (acting as though we can take God’s place), instead of joining in and participating in God’s work. 

 

Ephesians 2: 11-22 

God builds one new humanity out of the various warring factions in our world. This is the “house of God”, and this was God’s purpose from the beginning – to reconcile the world to God and the people of the world to each other (cf 2 Cor 5). This great work is central to the name of this congregation: “All People’s Church”. This work is based on the work of Jesus (dying and rising) and of the Holy Spirit (filling and empowering).

Sing Praise

We are working our way through the sections of the hymnal in our summer series, and today we come to the section on praise. Last week, Bev led us through thoughts on gathering and worship. There is, of course, overlap between the different themes. Praise and worship and thanksgiving are all interrelated, so those speaking on each theme can be expected to repeat some of the same ideas. That is not a problem. In fact, it is a positive benefit, since it helps us in our exploration of each theme.

 

We read two Scriptures only among the many we could have referenced. Psalm 95 calls us to sing praises to God, who is our Creator and our Salvation and our Ruler. Many of the psalms have similar shouts of praise. Sometimes they lead to an exhortation to listen to God’s voice and obey God in our lives, as in this Psalm. Sometimes they occur in the middle of deep cries of pain. Sometimes they come at the end of grief and sadness, which leave us wondering why we would praise God at that moment.

 

In every case, they remind us that praise is the lifeblood of God’s people. We praise God who made us. We praise God who saves us. We praise God who rules our lives. Praise is what God’s people do. Always and in every circumstance. You remember how the New Testament puts it: “In everything give thanks” (1 Th 5: 18); “Always give thanks to God for everything (Eph 5:20). Thanksgiving is basic to praise. Praise is the lifeblood of God’s people.

 

The gospel reading is a well-known passage in Matthew 6, which gives us what we call “The Lord’s Prayer”. I observe only the beginning of the prayer: “Our Father in Heaven, let your name be acknowledged as holy.” You can see that this is a prayer beginning in praise. The old acronym ACTS is built on this model. ACTS stands for Adoration – Confession – Thanksgiving – Supplication. Adoration is the action of praise as modelled in the Lord’s Prayer. Prayer begins in praise, as Jesus himself taught us. 

 

Why is Praise so Important? 

Here is the basic question: Why is it so important to praise God? I want to spend some time on this question, because the answer helps us to structure our lives in ways that are good for us and that honour the God who made us. 

 

We could answer that it is important, because the Psalms make praise basic to lament and to supplication and to all of the appeals we make to God. When we turn to God, we begin and end in praise. But that answer is only to say that praise is important because praise is important. So, why is it something we do when we appeal to God? 

 

To some extent, I am trying to work this out myself. I don’t understand God, nor do I understand fully what God wants me to do, but here is my effort to grasp the necessity of praise. It all begins, I think, with the way that we experience life and the way that we see reality. 

 

When we come into this world, everything revolves around us. We see and hear and learn based on the observed fact that we are the centre of our own little universe. As we grow, we learn that other people matter too, and our world begins to expand a bit. As adults, we have a fuller view of reality, but the truth is that we all still experience life first of all through our own skin. 

 

As a result of this necessary self-centredness, we think that the world is good or bad based on what our own life is like. If we experience great joy, we think that life is great. If we experience great suffering, we think that life is bad. We tend to evaluate the whole of reality based on what our own little piece of reality is like. 

 

Now surely our own limited experience of life is not a good guide to the whole of reality, but it is hard to get beyond it. When I feel sick or experience great loss, reality as a whole feels bad. I may know objectively that the world is not a bad place, but it feels like one to me. Similarly, when everything in my own experience is rosy – a good job, good family, and good community – it is hard for me to grasp the complexities of famine and warfare elsewhere. 

 

One of the ways that we move beyond this limited self-centred perspective on reality is to involve ourselves in the larger world. Some of us have worked oversees in various countries. Others of us have stayed here in Steinbach, but we have involved ourselves in the almost invisible layers of our community, and as a result our boundaries have broadened. Some of us read voraciously and our world has become much bigger. This involvement in the larger world gives us a better view of reality. 

 

The fact remains, however, that even our larger perspective is still limited. It is limited by our own finite minds, and we can easily conclude that the whole of reality is something quite different than it is. To see reality properly, we need a perspective that can see the whole picture, and none of us is nearly big enough to do that. 

 

The Place of Praise 

When we praise God, we take a step towards that larger perspective. We focus our hearts and minds on the One who really does see and know everything. We begin to get out of our own skin and see the world as God sees it. We see and express a reality that is beyond our own limited and finite minds, a reality big enough to build our lives on.

 

The whole process is similar to what happens when we look at certain paintings. Have you ever stood so close to a painting that all you can see are individual blobs of colour? Then, as you back up and can take in the whole canvas, the blobs of colour turn into a picture of startling beauty and clarity.

 

A similar effect – contrasting what we see close up and what we see at a distance – appears in the picture we used for our Gathering Sunday hanging on the wall in our foyer. Close up, so close you could touch the picture, you can see the names of individual people in the congregation. As you back up, you can take in the whole picture, full of wind and waves. If you are actually living within one of those names, you cannot even see the wind and the waves of which you are a part. We live close up, and we see what is right around us, but we also need the perspective of standing back to see the whole picture. 

 

Think about that image for a bit. The little blob of paint in which you live your whole life may be a blob of particularly dark and stormy paint, so that all you can see is hardship and struggle and pain. If you could step back, however, you would begin to see the bigger picture in which there is joy and beauty and delight beyond imagining. Praise is the act of stepping back and listening for God’s voice, beginning to see with God’s eyes. Only so can we discover the reality on which we can build our lives. 

 

A Musical Illustration 

You may heard of Tolkein’s great trilogy, “Lord of the Rings”. The story is set in “Middle-Earth”, and Tolkein constructed a complete history of his world, complete with a creation story. His prehistory of Middle-Earth is found in The Silmarillion. It begins with Iluvatar, the name that Tolkein uses for the Creator God, singing a wonderful melody that brings all of creation into being. I will describe what happens, using our own names for the process.

 

First there are the Ainur, Tolkein’s name for the angels and archangels. The angels and archangels begin to sing with God, filling out the melody with the harmonies God puts within them. Then the greatest of these beings decides that he wants to sing his own melody. His name in Tolkein’s story is Melchor. We could call him Lucifer, the Son of the Morning.

 

Lucifer, whom we have come to know as Satan, begins to sing a different song, one that destroys instead of creates and brings harsh pain instead of joy and delight. Soon others of the angels begin to sing with him, and darkness grows within the song of joy and beauty and wonder that God is singing with the hosts of Heaven.

 

God hears Satan’s song of pain and destruction and takes the harsh melodies, weaving them together into a new song greater and more wonderful even than the first song. These combined melodies and harmonies are of an almost unbearable beauty. Then the angels – good and bad – see that the combined melodies have brought into being, the whole of our created order.

 

Tolkein has given us a picture of what he thinks happens in creation. The picture is one of great delight, but it contains scenes of unspeakable pain. This past week we have heard again of the pain that besets our own country, with the rediscovery of 751 unmarked graves in southeast Saskatchewan. We are reminded of the deaths of so many children in the residential schools of our country.

 

This reminder is only one of many dark places in our history. Sometimes we feel as though we are caught up in Melchor-Satan’s countermelody of grief and destruction. We are reminded that Jesus said of Satan that the thief comes only to kill and steal and destroy. We are trapped in that trail of destruction – until we begin to sing again our songs of praise. Haltingly, almost afraid to praise God in the middle of our heartache and heart break, we sing to God. In the act of praise, we begin again to hear the larger melody that God sings. Gradually, our voices strengthen, and we become able to see the joy and beauty of life, greater than all of our sin and failures. 

 

Voices Together 

Praise reconnects us with God. Praise reconnects us with the greater reality of God’s presence and work in our world. As we praise God, we begin again to hear God’s voice and feel God’s heart. We rediscover the strength we need to live as God’s people in this world. Praise does not eliminate the pain and hurt of our lives, but it connects us again with the strength we need to live in this world.

 

Our new hymnal, Voices Together, has a strong section of hymns of praise to help us in this great task of healing our souls. Some of the hymns are old and well-loved; some are new and will need learning. Some old hymns have new words, which can help us grow in our understanding of who God is and who we are. They are in English and German and other languages from Africa and Indonesia. Together they give us the resources to rediscover God and to begin to see reality again with God’s eyes. They help us build the foundation of our lives anew so that we can live fully the justice and peace that God brings into our world.

 

Hear just two examples. First, the old 606 (#118 in the blue hymnal) is now #70. This version of the doxology – Praise God from whom all blessings flow – is a hymn to sing when all seems dark around us. Voices raised united in praise to God remind us that even unmarked graves are not the end. God is present and God gives us strength and wisdom to find new paths when our own strength and understanding fail.

 

Second, a hymn in the closing section of the hymnal – “Sending” – reminds us that God receives our praise but does not need our praise. Here are the words from #814.

 

O God beyond all praising, we worship you today,

and sing the love amazing that songs cannot repay;

For we can only wonder at every gift you send,

at blessings without number and mercies without end.

We lift our hearts before you and wait upon your Word,

we honour and adore you, our great and mighty Lord.

 

The flower of earthly splendour in time must surely die,

its fragile bloom surrender to you, the Lord most high.

But hidden from all nature, th’eternal seed is sown,

though small in mortal stature, to heaven’s garden grown;

for Christ, your gift from heaven, from death has set us free,

and we through him are given the final victory.

 

Then hear, a gracious Saviour, accept the love we bring,

that we who know your favour may serve you as our King.

And whether our tomorrows be filled with good or ill,

we’ll triumph through our sorrows and rise to bless you still;

to marvel at your beauty and glory in your ways,

and make a joyful duty our sacrifice of praise. 

 

 

Steinbach Mennonite Church 

4 July 2021 

 

Texts 

Psalm 95: 1 to 7

¹ O come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise! 

³ For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods. ⁴ In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also. ⁵ The sea is his, for he made it, and the dry land, which his hands have formed. 

⁶ O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker! ⁷ For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. 

 

Matthew 6: 5 to 15 

⁵ “And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. ⁶ But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. 

⁷ “When you are praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard because of their many words. ⁸ Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. 

⁹ “Pray then in this way: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. ¹⁰ Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. ¹¹ Give us this day our daily bread. ¹² And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. ¹³ And do not bring us to the time of trial, but rescue us from the evil one.’ 

¹⁴ For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; ¹⁵ but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

 

Looking Ahead: Why is “praising” so important in Christian worship? What’s going on when we “praise the Lord”? 

 

Focus Statement: Praise re-orients us and helps rebuild the foundations of our lives.