Transcript
Now the Son of Man has been glorified and God has glorified in him. Please be seated.
I warned Deborah that I would do this, and I promised I would at least try to give her a heads up, and I did. We spoke yesterday, and she’s walking down the aisle to get to her spot in preparation. This is a sermon on a hymn.
You see, there is a hymn that is my absolute favorite. Actually, I should admit, pretty much all the hymns are my absolute favorite. In fact, when I was first called to serve here, Deborah reached out and asked for my favorite hymn, so I sat down with the hymnal and started writing down the numbers of hymns I liked and realized I basically wrote every number. But this hymn, is definitely my favorite. My disclaimer is that next week I might have a different definite favorite, but this week it’s this hymn. I jokingly referred to it as the loud boiling test tube hymn.
And I think part of the reason why I love it so much is because the lyrics are really quite a bit absurd. So in the hymnal, number 412- Blue Hymnal, go ahead number 4 1 2 and keep it out. During the sermon you’ll want it. It’s called Earth and All Stars.
Each verse goes through all the various things that should sing to God. That should praise God. Hail, wind and rain. Hark! Flute and lyre. Engines and steel. And yes, even in verse five. Classrooms and labs. Loud boiling test tubes. And the refrain goes like this. He has done marvelous things. I too will praise him with a new song. With everything this hymn goes on about all the things that should sing to the Lord a new song.
It makes me think of our Psalm today. Number 148. I’m not sure how familiar you are with the Psalter. That’s the collection of Psalms and Scripture. In our translation there are 150 Psalms. Yes, other translations have different numbers. All the same psalms, just counted differently. In our translation, the last five songs are all about praising God, and each one offers a different context. A slightly different command in Psalm 148 goes through all the natural things, and all the people who should praise the Lord.
Angels and heavenly host. Sun and moon waters above the heavens. Even sea monsters and creeping things. All of God’s creation and should praise the Lord. Now you see the overlap with Psalm 148 and hymn 412. God created absolutely every single thing, and all that God created should praise God.
Sing God a new song. Worship God, for we would be nothing without God. Literally, we wouldn’t even exist if God didn’t create us. And that goes for flowers and trees, limestone and beans, knowledge and truth. Fire and hail, mountains and all hills, wild beasts and winged birds. And even you and me. God created each and every single one of us. Isn’t that worthy of praising God?
And here’s the thing. Praising God. Singing a new song to God. It’s wonderful. It’s life giving and rewarding. Takes the focus off of us and places it on God. It makes God the center of everything. All that God created. All that praises God.
And here’s a little twist. Praise must include gratitude and perhaps even a little bit of wonder and even joy, because the very nature of praise is an expression of gratitude, an expression of wonder, and an expression of joy. Gratitude for God to God, for all that God has done for us and for all of creation. Wonder at all that God has done and joy for all that God has done. You know, glory and praise go hand in hand. One commentary said, glory means reputation, and to glorify means to acquire or recognize a good reputation. And praise would be expressing that recognition, expressing the joy and gratitude and wonder of God whose reputation goes further than simply good and exceeds even our wildest imaginations, exceeds even our wildest expectations or anticipations or anything our puny little human brains could comprehend. No wonder God is worthy of praise, worthy of a new song, worthy of glorification.
How okay, so here’s the thing. If God is worthy of a new song, worthy of praise and of glorification, how do we go about doing that? How does anything praise God? After all, it’s not like the fruit trees and all cedars can simply say, thank you, Jesus for the hail, wind and rain could actually sing a song to God, let alone a new song. So how do all these things natural created around us and quote “artificial things” Praise God? Well, by doing exactly what they were made to do. How does the sun and moon praise God? by sun-ing and moon-ing as best as possible. And how does fire and hail, snow and fog praise God? by fire-ing and hail-ing and snow and fog-ing as best as possible. By being what God created all things to be as best as they possibly can be.
So how do we praise God? How do we be what God created us to be as best as we can possibly be? Love. Loving one another just as Jesus loved us. Yes, if you read the two creation stories at the beginning of Scripture creation in six days and the seventh day of rest and creation in the garden of Eden, we have specific tasks to do. The first creation story says God created us to have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth. And the second creation story says, the Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to till it and keep it. And if we were to summarize both of those all the way down to the very basic, it would be love, love all that God created, love all that God gave us, and above all love one another.
If tempestuous wind is to love God by living into its fullness as a tempestuous wind. I love that word. And water is above the heavens are to love God by living into the fullness of being waters above the heavens. Then we are to love God by being created in the image of the very God who created us. And we are to be that by loving one another.
Jesus doesn’t put a lot of commands on us. Sure, we’re supposed to feed the hungry and clothe the naked and house the homeless. We’re supposed to be like the Good Samaritan who helps the stranger on the side of the road, and the farmer who plants the seeds in fertile soil, and the poor widow who puts her last coin in the coffers. But all this means love, love the hungry and the naked and the homeless. Love the stranger at the side of the road. And the seeds deserve fertile soil. And those who need that last coin. Love. That is what we are created to do. That is why we are created at all. God wants us to love one another.
How do we glorify the Lord? How do we praise the Lord? How do we sing a new song to the Lord? By loving God and loving all that God created. And just because.
Let us sing verse five, my favorite of hymn number 412. Classrooms and labs, loud boiling test tubes, sing to the lord a new song. Athlete and band, loud cheering people, sing to the Lord a new song. He has done marvelous things. I, too, will praise him with a new song!.
Amen and Alleluia. Amen. And a big thank you to Deborah.