During the 2019 special called general conference, which is the world-wide gathering of the United Methodist Church, where the official decisions for the church are made, when they passed the traditionalist plan by a very narrow margin, which is a terrible way to make decisions, and they made the church’s position on homosexuality even tighter, I started crying. The vote happened just before I was going to see my counselor for my regular appointment and I started crying in his office over it because I didn’t know what was going to happen, and the push at that time was that centrists and progressives would be pushed out of the denomination. How things have changed in the past five years. This past week in the final days of General Conference, which is actually the 2020 postponed conference, not only are many of the conservative churches gone but they also overwhelmingly removed what has been known as the restrictive language around homosexuality and the ban on clergy being ordained if they were members of the LGBTQ community. And I cried again for a very different reason, and I praised God that we had finally overcome.
And I say that not only as clergy, who have seen what this has done to the church and to clergy, and I can guarantee there are lots of gay clergy, and I know them, and now they can be who they are. And I also celebrate as the father of a gay daughter, although that was not what changed my opinion on this. And I celebrate for the future of the church and what this represents for our future. And I also recognize that this does not make everyone happy, and there are many reasons for that. But I can say with some pride that when my last church became the first openly welcoming and affirming congregation in this conference around this issue that those who voted against that decision were still members when I was appointed here because as you’ve heard me say that we are better when we are at the table together. And the truth is that for this congregation nothing different will happen; we get to keep on being who we are, and loving as we do, and living into our value that we are inclusive and we love Christ. And so today I come before you in praise for the Lord has done marvelous things, as we just heard in the 98th Psalm, and that is appropriate as we think about what it means to dance with God in praise.
Now praise is an interesting thing. When we talked about
dancing with joy a few weeks ago, I said that joy and happiness often get
treated as if they are the same thing, but they are not. You can have joy when
you are happy, but you do not have to be happy to have joy. Happiness is
dependent upon circumstances, but joy is an attitude, although I don’t really
like that word. But you can have joy regardless of what is going on in your
life because joy, as Henri Nouwen said, is about the love of God and knowing
that there is nothing in all of creation that can separate us from that love.
And because of that every abiding and present love, we can be joyful in all
situations. And in some ways praise is like that and it is also nothing like
that. Praise from a scriptural perspective is usually, but not always, about
praise of God, and mainly about what God has done or what God is doing. And we
find a large portion of calls to give praise, or expressions of praise to God
in the book of Psalms. And this is matched by the Jewish name for the book of
psalms which is the book of praise. And so, praise is different from joy in
that there is, I think more significant overlap with happiness. Because one of
the things you see in the psalms is that is psalms in which there is a cry of
despair, or an asking for help, it begins with that plea, and explanation of
what’s happening or their feeling about it, without any mention of praise to
God, although there might be a reminder to God of God’s promises, but then once
there is some resolution, then praise begins.
One example that’s familiar to us because of the cross is
the 22nd psalm. It begins with Jesus’ famous quotation of it: “My God, my God,
why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of
my groaning? O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer; and by night,
but find no rest.” Then there is sort of an change between remembering that God
has saved others, or it might be said reminding God what God has done before,
but is not doing anything now, and the psalmist says, this one is attributed to
David, “I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart
is like wax; it is melted within my breast; my mouth is dried up like a
potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws;…. My hands and feet have shriveled;
I can count all my bones.” Then there is a cry for God to hear and respond, not
to be far away. And there is some rescue that happens, although it’s not elucidated,
for it then turns to praise saying “For he did not despise or abhor the
affliction of the afflicted; he did not hide his face from me, but heard when
I cried to him.” And therefore, the psalmist will give praise, praise that
shall continue for generations, in the great assembly because God has done it.
And so, it’s not that you can’t praise while bad things are happening, but it’s
almost always that the praise comes after the deliverance. A distinction might
be made that the petionary period is about prayer, and the response after is
the praise. And if there is praise in the midst of darkness, the praise is
about past deliverance, with the hope of future deliverance so that more praise
will be forthcoming. Not as a quid pro quo, save me and I’ll praise you, but I
will praise because you saved.
And so, part of this is knowing/remembering that praise is
other focused. I’m sure we know some people, and definitely know of some
people, who demand praise as it’s a sign of loyalty and fealty. But that is not
why we praise God. God doesn’t demand or need our praise because God is not a
narcissist or psychopathic, as those who need and demand praise are. Instead,
we praise God because of what God has already done, is doing or will do,
because of promises fulfilled and promises yet to come. Praise is a gesture of
gratitude, and it can literally be a gesture. Because while praise can simply
be verbal, it does often also involve bodily action, raising your hands or
clapping is an obvious example, but there is also shouting and singing and
making a joyful noise with instruments, as the 98th psalm we heard today says.
And let me just note as an aside, this does not mean that playing an instrument
you don’t know is fine because “you’re just making a joyful noise to the Lord.”
People like to say that and somehow it only applies to musicians, that they can
just do whatever they want. We don’t do that for anything else. I’ve never
heard anyone say “yes, they’re a terrible preacher, but they’re just making a
joyful noise to the Lord so it’s okay.” We are supposed to give the best we can
to God in praise, and just one more note, I’m not talking about children
learning an instrument who bring special music. Back to our originally
scheduled programming. So, the 98th psalm praises actions already taken by God,
God’s faithfulness, and also actions yet to come, that God will judge the world
with righteousness and with equity, which will cause some to praise and that
reality might also cause some others not to want to praise because of that
judgment.
And so, praise is also sort of personal. What will cause me
to praise, like the Yankees winning, will cause others not to praise, right? So,
it’s sort of situational, again a way that it’s a little different than joy.
And yet, praise also, when done appropriately, should move us outside of
ourselves, in that what we praise might involve us, but whom we are praising is
not us, it is someone or something else. And even when we are praising what has
happened, it moves beyond simply our own needs and fears and hopes because
these praises often take on a universal characteristic. And so, if you pay attention
to the praises of the psalms, and they can be a format for us, they may start
particular, from individual salvation, but they move outward, to the faithful
praising, to even all the earth giving praise. That the seas will roar, the
hills will sing for joy and even the trees will clap their hands in celebration
of God. And so, this praise not only brings us outside of ourselves, it is a
breaking of narcissism because what praise also ultimately does is to give
thanks to others for things we could not do for ourselves. In praising God, it
should start with God’s love and salvation and grace poured out for us, of
delivering us from our slavery to sin and death, as we will hear in a few
moments in the communion liturgy. Of knowing that we cannot save ourselves, but
it can also simply be a move of thanksgiving for what others have done for us
too. That is praise is not just about God. Next Sunday is Mother’s Day, and it
can be a time we give praise for our mothers and the other important women in
our lives for what they have done, what they have given to us. And it can be
giving thanks to the person at Starbucks or Smith’s or Blue Window, or
wherever, for a job well done. Praise can take us out of ourselves to see
others, to know others and to bring us into a different and deeper relationship
with others, even if that relationship is short-lived. But with God, that
praise serves to connect us even more in the dance in which we participate, and
it can help us to learn new steps as God shows us new things, new ways of
living and new ways of being.
And so, in this season of Easter, our dance of praise I think begins with praising God’s presence in our lives. Of praising the good news that God so loved the world that God sent Jesus, not to condemn, but to redeem, to save. Of praising God’s call on our lives and the desire to dance with us, even when we don’t know the steps, even when we trip and fall, that God continues to be there as a gentle and patient teacher showing us the way. And we praise that God does all this not because of what we have done, or who we know, but because we are God’s beloved children, all of us, all of creation, which is why all the world gives praise to God. May we indeed learn new songs to sing for God has done marvelous things; may we make a joyous noise to the Lord for all that God has done. May we celebrate with all the world the good news given to us through Christ. So that we may continue in our dance with God by participating in this dance of praise, with God, with each other and with all the creation. I pray that it will be so my brothers and sisters. Amen.
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