“Singing Praise!”

May 6, 2007

Scripture Reading:  Psalm 150

Rev. Dr. Carol  L. Kerr

 Blue Point Congregational Church

Psalm 150 says, “Let everything that breathes praise the Lord!”  Praise is the human’s response to wonder.   I love the cartoon Ziggy.  The little mild mannered rounded man, Ziggy, is standing on the edge of cliff and witnessing a marvelous sunset.  The caption says, “Go God!”  Praise is saying “Go God!”  throughout life.   

The birth of a child with small fingers, and delicate skin – Go God!  The ragged patch of yellow daffodils on the side of the road – Go God!  The soft tongue of my dog licking my hand – Go God!  The return of a soldier from Iraq – Go God!  The Andromeda galaxy – Go God!  Falling in love for the first time – Go God!  Kids splashing in puddles – Go God!

Have you ever noticed that when you see something wonderful, like Ziggy witnessed the wonderful sunset, it is impossible not to urge the people around you to watch it too?  “Hey, you guys, you have got to see this sunset!”  Then everyone Oooo’s and Aaaaa’s together – Go God!  So, let’s do it together.  Why don’t some of you blurt out something wonderful you have seen lately and we will all respond with – Go God!  We can repeat each other, talk on top of each other, doesn’t matter, just blurt wonderful things out…..Adults, and Kids.

  C.S. Lewis said, “Joy is the serious business of heaven.” 

“Let everything that breathe’s praise the Lord!”  God is supremely happy with his creation.  Ziggy is looking at the sunset and saying – Go God!  God is looking at Ziggy and saying – Go Ziggy!   Have you ever notices that God has made each of our fingerprints differently and there are billions of finger prints on earth.  God makes each snowflake differently.  Think of how many snowflakes there were this winter!  God makes every dandelion separately and think of how many dandelions are going to be on my lawn this summer!  Yet, God never gets tired of making things.  He has an eternal appetite for his creation.  At the beginning of the Bible God creates the heavens and the earth and he says it is good!  As an exercise in contrast, imagine for a moment how the opening sentences of the Bible might read if God were not a supremely joyful being (I am taking this from The Life You’ve Always Wanted by John Ortberg.

In the beginning, it was nine o’clock, so God had to go to work.  He filled out a requisition to separate light from darkness.  He considered making stars to beautify the night, and planets to fill the skies, but thought it sounded like too much work; and besides, thought God, “That’s not my job.”  So he decided to knock off early and call it a day.  And he looked at what he had done and he said, “It’ll have to do.”

On the second day God separated the waters from the dry land.  And he made all the dry land flat, plain, and functional, so that – behold – the whole earth {including Maine} looked like Idaho.  He thought about making mountains and valleys and glaciers and jungles and forests, but he decided it wouldn’t be worth the effort.  And God looked at what he had done that day and said, “It’ll have to do.” 

And God made a pigeon to fly in the air, and a carp to swim in the waters, and a cat to creep on dry ground.  And God thought about making millions of other species of all sizes and shapes and colors, but he couldn’t drum up any enthusiasm for any other animals – in fact, he wasn’t too crazy about he cat.  Besides, it was almost time for the Late Show.  So God looked at all he had done, and God said, “It’ll have to do.”  

And at the end of the week, God was seriously burned out.  So he breathed a big sigh of relief and said, “Thank Me, it’s Friday!”

Of course, Genesis looks nothing like that.  Instead it throbs with the refrain “God said,…And it was so…and indeed, it was very good.”  Go God!  Praise the Lord.

Praise is the human response to wonder.  In our amazement praise is something we get others to join in with us.  God praises his creation.  Furthermore, praise draws us beyond ourselves into a truly ecstatic moment which takes us beyond our limitations and at the same time centers us into who we truly are.  In a Peanuts cartoon Lucie, Linus and Charlie Brown are lying on their backs looking at the clouds:

Lucy:               If you use your imagination, you can see lots of things in cloud formations…What do you think you see, Linus?

Linus:               Well, those clouds up there look to me like the map of the British Honduras on the Caribbean.  That cloud up there looks a little like the profile of Thomas Eakins, the famous painter and sculptor…And that group of clouds over there give me the impression of the stoning of Stephen….I can see the Apostle Paul standing there to one side…

Charlie Brown:         Well, I was going to say I saw a ducky and a horsie, but I changed my mind!

Praise completes our enjoyment.  It is an act of praise when all our sense, mind and heart, are united  in love to that wonderful thing.  Lucy, Linus, and Charlie Brown were praising the clouds as they captivated their imaginations..  Great clouds – Go God! 

Psalm 150 says, “Let everything that breathes praise the Lord!”  Breathing is something we do every single moment.  It is what keeps us alive.  But, we only notice our breathing sometimes.  We notice the breathing of someone else when they are sleeping next to us and we are still awake.  Some might call that noticing the snoring.  For months I would notice my breathing when big white clouds would come out of my mouth as I walked to my car in the cold air.  In a few weeks I will notice my breathing when the lilacs are in bloom and their sweet smell wafts on the wind.  Where is that smell coming from I wonder, as I take a deep breath in.  Kids let’s all hold our breaths for a moment.  …….O.K. breathe.  Breath is life.  

The Bible knows that breath is life and so it is a symbol life with God, with our soul, and with the Holy Spirit in us. 

In the book of Genesis when God makes man, “..then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.”  (Gen. 2:7)  The prophet Elijah had a vision that the Lord took him to a valley of dry bones.  The Lord commanded him to tell the bones to come together, and put flesh on them, and skin, and then was told to “prophesy to the breath:  Thus says the Lord God:  Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain that they may live.”   Then there was the time when the resurrected Christ appears to the disciples in the upper room.  Jesus says, “Peace be with you.  As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”  When he had said this, he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit”. (Jn 20:21-22).

When you put breathing and praising together you get singing.   Singing is all about breathing through your vocal chords.  If you have ever sung in a choir, the director will tell you good places to breathe, and to breathe through your diaphragm, and to take big long breaths before the big long measures.    It’s cool when you think about it.  It is a circle.  With the breath of life that comes from the Lord, we praise the Lord and so, in praise, return that breath to him.  Have you ever heard of the expression, a sacrifice of praise?  That is what they are talking about, sacrificing our breath to God.  Perhaps the lyrics to the song, “You Can’t Keep Me from Singing” say it best.  My life flows on, and endless song above earth’s lamentation.  I hear the real though far off hymn that hails the new creation.  Above the tumult and the strife I hear the music ringing, It sounds an echo in my soul, How can I keep from singing?

If you asked a person on the street, “According to Christianity, what is the main purpose of life?”  Some s might say, to serve people.  Some might say, to read the Bible.  Some might say, to pray.  Other’s who have actually been a member of a church might say, to join a committee.  But, it isn’t any of these.  The Westminster Catechism says that the chief purpose in life “is to praise God and enjoy him for ever.”  To live is to praise God and to praise God is to live.  That is why we sing.

Let me end with this terrific story I found on line:

 Song as Prayer

"Let Me Sing"
 
Like any good mother, when Karen found out that another baby was on the way, she did what she could to help her 3-year-old son, Michael, prepare for a new sibling. They found out that the new baby was going be a girl, and day after day, night after night, Michael sang to his sister in his mommy's tummy. He was building a bond of love with his little sister before he even met her. The pregnancy progressed normally for Karen, an active member of the Panther Creek United Methodist Church in Morristown, Tennessee. In time, the labor pains came. Soon it was  every five minutes, every three, every minute. But serious complications arose during delivery and Karen found herself in hours of labor. Would a C-section be required?
 
Finally, after a long struggle, Michael's little sister was  born. But she was in very serious condition. With a siren howling in the night, the ambulance rushed the infant to the neonatal intensive care unit at St. Mary's Hospital, Nashville, Tennessee.

The days inched by. The little girl got worse. The pediatrician had to tell the parents there is very little hope. Be prepared for the worst.  Karen and her husband contacted a local cemetery about a burial plot.  They had fixed up a special room in their house for their new baby but now they found themselves having to plan for a funeral.

 Michael, however, kept begging his parents to let him see his sister.  I want to sing to her, he kept saying. Week two in intensive care looked as if a funeral would come before the week was over. Michael kept nagging about singing to his sister, but kids are never allowed in Intensive Care.
 
 Karen decided to take Michael whether they liked it or not. If he didn't see his sister right then, he may never see her alive.  She dressed him in an oversized scrub suit and marched him into ICU.  He looked like a walking laundry basket. The head nurse recognized him as a child and bellowed, "Get that kid out of here now. No children are allowed." The mother rose up strong in Karen, and the usually mild-mannered lady glared steel-eyed right into the head nurse's face, her lips a firm line. "He is not leaving until he sings to his sister" she stated. Then Karen towed Michael to his sister's bedside. He gazed at the tiny infant losing the battle to live. After a moment, he began to sing. In the pure-hearted voice of a 3-year-old, Michael sang: "You are my sunshine, my only sunshine, you make me happy when skies are gray.

Instantly the baby girl seemed to respond. The pulse rate began to calm down and become steady. "Keep on singing, Michael," encouraged Karen with tears in her eyes. "You never know, dear, how much I love you, please don't take my sunshine away."
 
As Michael sang to his sister, the baby's ragged, strained breathing became as smooth as a kitten's purr. "Keep on singing, sweetheart."  "The other night, dear, as I lay sleeping, I dreamed I held you in my arms". Michael's little sister began to relax as rest, healing rest, seemed to sweep over her. "Keep on singing, Michael." Tears had now conquered the face of the bossy head nurse. Karen glowed.

 "You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. Please don't take my sunshine away..." The next, day...the very next  day  ...the little girl was well enough to go home.

Woman's Day Magazine called it The Miracle of a Brother's Song. The medical staff just called it a miracle. Karen called it a miracle of  God's love.
 

I say it is Praise in action.