A CHURCH THAT PRAISES GOD

(Preached on Sunday, August 20, 2006)

Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery; but be filled with the Spirit, as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts,...    -Ephesians 5:18-19

 

In their best-selling book, The One-Minute Manager, Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson urge us to catch people Adoing something right@ and offer one minute=s worth of praise on the spot.  Their strategy is part of a larger plan to create a climate where people feel good about themselves, because only people who have a sense of positive self-worth are able to achieve their full potential.  What some of their clients learn about themselves when they try to put this formula into practice is that one minute of praise is surprisingly difficult.  What more is there to say beyond AGood job!@ which accounts for only two of 60 seconds.  People soon learn that they are inept at praise.  They learn that they are far better at criticizing than they are at affirming.  In fact, one minute of praise often seems like an eternity.

 

What does that suggest about us, at Christ Congregational Church, then, that we have developed a Vision Statement that suggests we are a church that praises God?

First, it does not suggest that we have arrived in heaven or the kingdom of God, nirvana, utopia, and we do this perfectly, contrary to our peers, colleagues and friends in the wider world.  Remember, this is a Avision@ statement C a formulation of what we feel called to be, are working toward becoming, and already, to some sense, are.

 

That we feel called to be a church that praises God does suggest that we understand the importance of praise.

We know that we need to praise.

Centuries ago, Augustine reminded us that we are born to praise and that we live incompletely and unhappily unless we are about the work of praising God.  AThe thought of You,@ Augustine wrote,@ stirs us so deeply that we cannot be content unless we praise You, because You made us for yourself and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.@

I hear echos of Augustine in that great American classic Ray Noble song The Very Thought of You: AThe mere idea of you, the longing here for you ... I see your face in every flower, Your eyes in the stars above, It=s just the thought of you, The very thought of you, my love.@

 

There are hundreds of ways to praise God and we don=t need to limit ourselves to any particular one.  Just think how it cheats God of a part of the glory of God=s creation when we offer only one type of praise.

That includes giving praise to people and the creation around us, for all the created order manifests God.

To be tightfisted about praise is to be half alive, with eyes squinting, with heart and mind fiercely determined to shun beauty.  But God has created beauty all around us and God desires us to enjoy and appreciate it.  When we praise, we are doing just that.

 

We also know that we need to praise God for our good health, physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

C. S. Lewis called praise Ainner health made audible.@

Scientists and medical doctors have done studies that demonstrate the positive chemicals released in our brains and bodies, both when we receive praise, but also when we give praise.

 

This is certainly true when we sing.

There are many physical sensations when singing. Breathing changes C we become conscious of it, in a way similar to when we are exercising.

Physiological changes produce other bodily responses.  Some people feel moved to shift posture to sit upright or stand alerto so breath and voice flow more easily.  Some feel aan urge to make large muscle movements in legs, hips and belly.  Really singing out or singing a good, long song can give a Arush@ from the steady deep breathing.  The added oxygen that strong, steady inhaling and exhaling bring to the brain enhances the effect of the positive chemicals released by the emotions of joy and love we are expressing when we sing.  Singing is truly Ain-spired@ as we begin to breathe together and our hearts and souls are stirred.

Protestant reformer Martin Luther called church singing Asecond only to the Word of God,@ arguing that music encourages the disheartened, mellows the proud, and even softens the vengeful.  He said music is like the Word of God because, ABy music are all the feelings swayed.@

Music may provoke joy or sadness, and memories may come up as we sing, though something in the singing makes it easier to welcome painful feelings in peace and let them be.  Thus we find physical and emotional healing and wholeness as we engage in praising God.

 

We also find spiritual wholeness as we join with others in praising God, especially by singing.  What we sing and how we sing says something about our understanding of the church, our understanding of God and Christ, our understanding of who we are as human beings and our understanding of what is beautiful and meaningful.

Music is powerful.  Parents sing to infants from birth.  Mothers-to-be play music for their babies while still in the womb. 

Dostoevsky said somewhere that when his faith faltered and he found himself doubting, the music of the church and the singing of the congregation held him up.

 

It is important that we sing together as a congregation.

It is important because we sing what we believe, we sing what will increase our love for Christ and conform our will to God=s, and we sing our intention to live as God=s people.

It is important because our praise expresses who we are and it helps shape who we are and how we live.

 

It is important because we all can join in doing it.

It is important because it helps unify us and build a sense that we are one body, the body of Christ.

It is important because we are doing something together for God.  There is something holy about human voices becoming one voice as they sing together.  It doesn=t happen all the time, in fact, it is rather rare.  But there are those moments when you lose the consciousness of your own voice, and the choir becomes one voice. 

It is an ecstatic experience that is impossible to describe.

 

It takes more than emotion.  It takes more than enthusiasm.  It will only happen when the musicians work at their music till they know it so well, they can let the technique take care of itself.  Then they can let the emotion add the keen edge of beauty to what might otherwise simply be well done.  That is, they know the music Aby heart.@

 

That, finally, is why we sing, and often sing the same songs over and over week after week, so that we can begin to know them Aby heart.@  But it is not just knowing the songs by heart, it is knowing our faith, and our God, by heart, that prepares us for those high moments of truly experiencing the glories of heaven, the beauty of standing in the awesome presence of the glorious Creator of the Universe, who also happens to be the truest lover of our hearts.

That is why we come to worship week in and week out.

That is why we read the same Bible stories over and over again.  That is why we rehearse the same story year in and year out of a baby born in a stable, who grew to manhood and taught love and acceptance only to be crucified and then miraculously raised from the grave in victory.