January 3, 2021; Pastor Rebecca Ellenson; YLLC; Songs of Praise
Every one of our readings today is a song of praise. Music lodges in our minds in such an amazing way. Evidently, most people know over 4000 songs by heart! This week I’ve had Canticle #14 from the LBW repeating over and over again in my head. The words of today’s first lesson are set to its bright jaunty tune. When I was studying to be a pastor at Wartburg Seminary we sang Canticle 14 at least once a week. Wartburg is a residential campus with about 95% of the students living on campus. Our community life, including classes, was structured around daily chapel and fellowship in the adjoining refectory.
“Listen, you nations of the world, listen to the word of the lord, announce it from coast to coast, declare it to distant islands. The lord who scattered Israel will gather his people again; and he will keep watch over them as a shepherd watches his flock. With shouts of joy they will come, their faces radiantly happy, for the lord is so generous to them, he showers his people with gifts. Young women will dance for joy and men young and old will make merry. Like a garden refreshed by the rain, they will never be in want again. Break into shouts of great joy, Jacob is free again! Teach nations to sing the song: the Lord has saved the people.”
The prophet’s message is filled with hope and the transformation that would follow times of struggle. For me it carries the good memories of a community joined in one voice, harmonies lifting in the sanctuary. When we are able to gather again in this space, we’ll have to sing it together. I can just imagine how it will be here, to shout for joy, to have our faces radiantly happy.
I just love that all four of our lessons today are songs of praise. It’s what we need to hear right now: that God does save God’s people, over and over again. It happened in the Exodus, it happened after the exile, it happened when God sent Jesus to show us the way, it happened when the Holy Spirit filled the church on Pentecost, it happened in countless ways through the history of the Church, and it will happen again and again and again. Teach nations to sing the song, the Lord has saved the people! Indeed.
Each of our readings today really ought to be set to a magnificent musical score. There should be surround sound and fireworks, perhaps. These lyrical passages ring with rich images and lavish praise. Explanation isn’t really called for with texts like these. They stand on their own. The only appropriate response might be something like applause or a standing ovation.
Some of our best friends in Mexico have a tradition, they stop whatever they are doing at sunset each day and watch the sun sink over the horizon of the Pacific Ocean. They acknowledge the blessings of the day and stand at attention, lifting their faces to the heavens, to acknowledge God’s goodness. Our living room in Voyager Village faces West, and in these darkest weeks of the winter I too have been pausing to watch the sun sink into the tree line and paint the horizon with soft color.
Sometimes simple praise is the best response to the mystery of God. This week Steve and I were able to spend two afternoons on the cross-country ski trails. I thought of our psalm for today that sings praise for God’s Word. God’s command runs swiftly, transforming the world. The vivid images couldn’t fit any better. “God sends out a command to the earth; the Word running swiftly, giving snow like wool; scattering frost like ashes, hurling down hail like crumbs. Who can stand before God’s cold? God sends out the word, melting them, making the wind blow and the waters flow?” Wow!
After 4 winters in Mexico I’m really appreciating how the snow transforms the landscape, falling like wool, scattering like ash, covering up the drab brown of early winter. For the psalmist who wrote those words, snow would have been a rarity. No wonder the question is asked: Who can stand before God’s cold? It’s glorious language isn’t it? Like the other texts for this Sunday, the psalm is all about praise, expressing in imagery and song the wonder that is God’s Word.
Lutherans are not known for hand waving and outpourings of loud praise. I’ve heard us called the Frozen Chosen, in fact. But, all of our texts today invite us to give a cheer for the wonder of God’s word, the beauty of God’s creation, the sparkle of the crystal flakes, the crunch and squeak of snow underfoot, the transformation of God’s saving grace, the coming of Christ as the light in the darkness.
Paul’s opening words to the church in Ephesus simply drip with superlatives. These 11 verses are all one long sentence. 201 words of praise, each phrase builds on the one before it, heaping praise upon praise for the goodness of God. It’s not enough to say that God has blessed us, But God has blessed us with Every Spiritual Blessing in the Heavenly places. We are chosen, destined for adoption to be holy and blameless. This hymn of praise is like a musical crescendo of words, glorious grace, redemption and forgiveness, lavished grace on us, all things gathered up in the fullness of time, all things in heaven and on earth! It’s one long string of excess—it’s like glitter on top of sequins, heaping mounds of goodness according to the pleasure of God’s will. This section is almost too much to even understand! But hidden in there is the crux of it all—God’s lavish grace showered on us is so that we might live for the praise of his glory
So, finally we come to the gospel reading. The opening verses of John’s gospel are mystical and glorious praise. How does one begin to exclaim the glory of God, the mystery of the word made flesh? Well, again only poetry or music can even begin to express the wonder!
In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. What has come into being was life, the light of all people. The word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen the glory, full of grace and truth. From the fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
Oh, how we need these hopeful words right now! We’ve turned the last page of the calendar of 2020—Thank God! We’ve made it through that year of loss and fear and pandemic fatigue. We’ve watched from the quiet of our homes as the virus has overwhelmed hospitals, has taken lives, and has stirred a selfish independence in some. We’ve lived through one of the most contentious election cycles in memory, we’ve seen the rise of White Nationalism threaten our land. Finally hope is around the corner. The vaccines are rolling out. The light is returning.
These biblical songs of praise offer a promise: even when it seems otherwise the light will continue to shine and the darkness will not win, God will continue to save the people, over and over again. The fullness of God’s grace is lavished on us. God’s word fills all creation, lights the world, and we are emboldened both to live with hope as well as share with others the hope that is within us.
Christmas celebrates the incarnation, God made flesh. In mystery and wonder fit for music and poetry Christmas reminds us of God’s decision to become one of us, to take on our lot and our life that we might have hope, and to share our mortal life that we might enjoy God’s eternal life. This is so that we might live a life of praise to God’s glory.
This promise invites our active participation every day of the year. From God’s fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. Our lives matter to God. Our welfare is of tremendous importance to the Almighty. There is no worry too small, no challenge too great, that God is not eager to share it with us. Indeed, God is eager to equip and empower us to share our worries and challenges, as well as our joys and hopes, with each other. And because of God’s decision to come to us in a form we recognize, we are empowered to reach out to those around us.
As we move forward into this new year may we follow the Christ so that the grace, mercy and love of God might continue shining on in even the darkest of places.
Howard Thurman’s wonderful poem “The Work of Christmas”
might be a fit accompaniment to John’s Prologue:
When the song of the angels is stilled,
when the star in the sky is gone,
when the kings and princes are home,
when the shepherds are back with their flocks,
the work of Christmas begins:
to find the lost,
to heal the broken,
to feed the hungry,
to release the prisoner,
to rebuild the nations,
to bring peace among the people,
to make music in the heart.
Let us begin the work of Christmas, to live the Christmas life. Blessed Christmas and a New Year of grace and praise.