Well, what an interesting couple of weeks this has been! Forgive my absence for the past couple of weeks. But we were moving. Packing and loading and moving, not changing appointments mind you, just houses. We are in temporary housing, prepared to move into the parsonage at the end of June. A lot of work, a lot of effort, a lot of energy expended. On Monday night when the first a biggest hurdle was managed, La Donna and I looked at each other and said this used to be easier when we were younger. Then moving was an adventure, now it felt like a burden. A chore. A weight we had to bear.
But bear it we did. We are fine, settled, looking forward to the next part that settle us even more. And then we will sing praise to God. And then we will participate in the life of the community. Then we will ... Why not now? Why wait until all gets sorted out?
That’s what we tend to do, you know. When things aren’t going well, when the burdens seem too great, too much to bear, we tend to back off from the community of faith. We tend to withdraw. When I’m ready, we say. When I feel better, we say. When I get these things taken care of, myself sorted out, get back on an even keel, on the right track, then I’ll come back and sing praises among the community of faith.
It’s as if we believe that church is only for those who have it all together. Only for those whose lives are neat and ordered and obedient. And many of us come to church fearful that we will be exposed as the one, the only one in the midst of the congregation, who doesn’t have it all together. Who isn’t on top of the world. Who can’t answer that ubiquitous social convention question - “how are you?” - with the usual answer - “doing just fine” - without severe cramping in the crossed fingers hidden behind our backs. Without risking biting off that tongue in our cheek.
We want to praise. We really do. Even when we don’t realize it, we do. There is something deep down inside of us, something in the design of our very being that causes us to need to praise, to lift up our hearts to God. We just don’t think we are worthy of singing God’s praise. We don’t think God wants to hear our voice. We’re pretty sure that God would prefer praise sung only by those who have it all together.
Except that we’d be wrong, if that’s what we think. We’d be wrong.
Psalm 22:25-31 From you comes my praise in the great congregation; my vows I will pay before those who fear him. 26 The poor shall eat and be satisfied; those who seek him shall praise the LORD. May your hearts live forever! 27 All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD; and all the families of the nations shall worship before him. 28 For dominion belongs to the LORD, and he rules over the nations. 29 To him, indeed, shall all who sleep in the earth bow down; before him shall bow all who go down to the dust, and I shall live for him. 30 Posterity will serve him; future generations will be told about the Lord, 31 and proclaim his deliverance to a people yet unborn, saying that he has done it.
“From you comes my praise.” Did you notice that? From you, from God comes the praise from my lips. God is not just the object of praise, God is the source of praise. It isn't our goodness that allows us to praise, it is God’s.
This is Psalm 22. Let that sink in for a moment. Why? Well, psalm 22 is the psalm we know well, except we know the other end. We know the beginning of psalm 22. We know it because it was the psalm Jesus remembered as he was dying on the cross: “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me.” Go back. Take a look at the rest of the psalm. By just looking at this end of it we are missing the depth of what is going on here. We are missing the pathos of the human condition. We are missing the struggle we all face if not regularly, then at some point. At some point in our lives we will feel abandoned, we will feel cut off, we’ll feel like a worm as the psalmist does in verse six. We’ll feel like our bones are all out of joint, like our hearts are melting like wax, like in verse fourteen. Like dogs are snapping at our heels, like the sword is about to descend, like our hands and feet aren’t working any more.
God back and read the rest of Psalm 22. It is a tragic tale. Except that interwoven throughout, not just here at the end, but throughout the psalm there is the call to praise, the call to faith, the call to trust in the goodness of God. How do you trust in God when your bones are out of joint? How do you praise when your heart is melted like wax and the enemies are dividing your clothes like spoils of war?
Go home. That’s how. Home where you belong. Where you are a part, where you pledged your faith, where you made your vow to belong. “From you comes my praise in the great congregation; my vows I will pay before those who fear him.” In the great congregation we can find our voice again. And great doesn’t just mean big, it means important. It means the group that matters, the people of God, who have helped to shape you, who have made you who you are, who you couldn't do without if you ever stopped to think about it. From you, From God comes the praise, come the words that I need to sing, even through melty hearts and dislocated joints, from you comes my praise, in the midst of the great congregation. In the midst of the people who have decided to love me even though I’m not all that loveable. In the midst of the people who build me up even when I am coming apart. In the midst of the people I have loved back to wholeness even as they have loved me back into wholeness more times than any of us want to count. From you come my praise in the midst of the great congregation.
Thanks be to God! And because of that knowledge and not because the prayer was answered.... Take a look throughout all of psalm 22 and tell me where it all got better. Show me where it says, it was bad for a while there but I’m better now. It says God heard me, which could mean healing has happened, or it could mean that his faith was shored up enough to believe that even thought bones are still dislocated and hearts are in puddles in the midst of bony chests, God has not forsaken after all. All this praise may be coming from a sick bed, or a wooden cross. But a sick bed surrounded by the congregation, the great congregation of the people of God.
And because of that knowledge, because of that presence, not because of a resolution we might hope for, vows must be paid. No, wait, vows will be paid. What vows? Where did vows come into the picture? The vows of belonging, the vows of covenant and commitment. I will uphold the church with my prayers, my presence, my gifts, my service and my witness. Those vows. Remember?
This is a stewardship emphasis remember. An out of season stewardship emphasis, reminding us whose we are. And Psalm 22 gives us the motivation for giving back to God, praise. Praise that comes from faithfulness. Faithful praise because of the relationships formed in the body of Christ. Faithful Covenantal Praise that comes out in our words and in our deeds. In our fulfilling of our vows.
Because those vows are fulfilled, the whole world changes. That’s what the psalmist promises. The result of our faithful fulfilling of our vows, giving to God and church, the poor are fed, those who seek can find, the word goes out to the ends of the earth. Our fulfilling of our vows spreads out geographically until the whole world knows and joins us in praise. But wait, there’s more! Our fulfilling of vows spreads out temporally as well. Those who have gone before join us in praise, those who are yet to come will join us in praise. All time, all space, all belong to the God we praise in the midst of the great congregation.
It staggers the imagination, frankly. That my giving just might help change the world. Just might help someone else, whose bones are out of joint and whose heart is melted like wax, stand in the midst of our great congregation and sing the praises God gives them to praise. Because I was, because you were faithful. Wow. And when I have gone down to the dust, the praise will still ring in this congregation, because we were faithful. Wow.
Praise be to God.
Shalom,
Derek
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