| Psalm 29 "The Glory of God Thunders" |
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| Written by Rev. Don Lee | |
| Saturday, 10 June 2006 | |
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I came home last week exhausted from 3 days of Annual Conference meetings and flung myself dramatically upon the couch. My eight year-old, Chris moseyed up and sat down next to me. I asked him how his day went and he told me excitedly about going to Hawaiian Falls; about the cool water slides; about having a friend over to play. Chris paused, and then asked me about my day. (I was so proud he thought to do that!) So I told him about having to sit through 3 days of meetings, about having to make a report in front of a thousand people, about how exhausted I was and he replied in all seriousness, “Dad, I know what you mean!” No doubt my son, at some level understood what I meant; after all he is a graduate of 2nd grade! The irony is he doesn’t understand at the same level what I was saying. In the same way, I confess that I don’t understand our scripture this morning at the same level, (or maybe more accurately) I don’t share the same experiences, ethos, or worldview that led the community out of which this psalm emerged, to proclaim: 1) The God of Glory thunders and 2) Blesses God’s people with peace. And yet at some level we all know what the psalmist is proclaiming, don’t we? This morning’s scripture reading comes from the book of Psalms, Chapter 29. I invite you to listen for the voice of the Lord: 1Ascribe to the Lord, O heavenly beings, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. 2Ascribe to the Lord the glory of his name; worship the Lord in holy splendor. 3The voice of the Lord is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the Lord, over mighty waters. 4The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is full of majesty. 5The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars; the Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon. 6He makes Lebanon skip like a calf, and Sirion like a young wild ox. 7The voice of the Lord flashes forth flames of fire. 8The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness; the Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh. 9The voice of the Lord causes the oaks to whirl, and strips the forest bare; and in his temple all say, ‘Glory!’ 10The Lord sits enthroned over the flood; the Lord sits enthroned as king for ever. 11May the Lord give strength to his people! May the Lord bless his people with peace! The word of God, for the people of God….Amen. Prayer: Lord, we long to hear your voice. Speak to us. In the strength of your steadfast love, bring your people peace. Amen. There’s someone I’d like you to meet. Her name is Dorothy. She’s 80 plus years old and lives in Mt. Vernon, Missouri at the Veterans Home. She has a shaky hand but a clear mind. She’s optimistic, gracious, and believes that if someone does you a good turn, they ought to be thanked and praised. She wrote the following letter to our youth choirs thanking them for their Memorial Day performance. “We’ll it’s a great day after the great day we had yesterday. I want to thank you and all us veterans do too. It was truly a nice performance. I loved the way those kids sang out so loud and clear. And they weren’t all teenagers either. I think some were 7th and 8th graders. The way they played the cymbals and bells were so very good. Also, I loved the sing along too…” She mentions one of the adult leaders whose father and husband were military, and then adds, “We did our part for our country, to serve it well.” And then concludes her letter, “All our love to all of you. And let us pray to God for his love. Yours, Dorothy.” Do you hear it? The voice of God? Here’s what I want to suggest to you. That the God of glory thunders, yes even through an 85 year old woman named Dorothy with tremendous inner strength, who has answered the call as best she can! The God of glory thunders! There’s a story in the OT that shares some startling similarities to our Psalm. Elijah the prophet is running for his life. Queen Jezebel has vowed to take his life. We pick the story up in chapter 19. The prophet escapes to the wilderness, where collapsing under a broom tree, he prays to die. Exhausted and scared, only by divine intervention does Elijah make his way to Horeb, the holy mountain, for a face-to-face with God. As in the thunderstorm imagery of our Psalm, elements of wind, earthquake and fire are present here but the narrative clearly states God is not in these things. Ironically, God speaks (according to the NRSV translation) out of “the sound of sheer silence,” or in the NIV, “a gentle whisper.” This ancient story is an important part of Israel’s ethos. They see in Elijah their identity as a people; they are a prophetic nation through whom: The God of Glory thunders. But the second 1/2 of the prescription defines God’s divine initiative, and thus their call as a God’s people. 2) To Bless God’s people with peace. As you probably know, the word for peace in Hebrew is Shalom. Shalom represents the journey towards hope and wholeness through which people experience health, prosperity, security, cooperation and spiritual renewal. In the words of Jeremiah 29:7, "Seek the shalom of the community, for it is in its shalom that you will find your shalom. " Just as in the creation story, the Spirit of God moved over the face of the amniotic waters speaking, “Let there be…” so the psalmist declares that the Spirit of God is moving in the world not to destroy but to steady the hand that strikes. God’s power is revealed in the prophetic voice that makes a way to peace. Howard Thurman was Dean of the Chapel at Boston University. A preacher, poet, and gentle prophet, Howard Thurman was also the grandson of a slave. He wrote about his grandmother who was a slave on a plantation in that inhuman system of American slavery. The owner of the plantation apparently thought that it would do the slaves no harm if the preacher went down and told the slaves about Jesus on Sunday afternoons. Thurman's grandmother said of this old preacher that, "He hardly ever preached a sermon without going by Calvary." The slave congregation could always relate to a story of a man who was treated like dirt, abused, beaten down, and left for dead. But Thurman's grandmother said of that the old preacher, "When he went by Calvary," he was always moved to shout, "But God raised him again! And he is seated at the right hand of God in heaven!" Then the preacher would take off his glasses, and look straight into the eyes of the congregation, lean over the pulpit, and say to them, "But slaves, you are not any man's property. You are children of God Almighty! …Never forget it!" Thurman's grandmother told him that, whenever the preacher would come to that part of the story, her spine would stiffen, and she was ready to live another day. (5:16). Pulpit Resources The prophetic voice of God, proclaims the psalmist, is like a storm that blows in, and breaks through the status quo. It resounds in both temple and wilderness, washes over the dry desert, and shakes the foundations of the world reminding the creation of who truly reigns in the world. It’s been said that there are no more prophetic voices in the world today. That’s not true. They may not be as recognizable as Nelson Mandela or Howard Thurman or even Mother Theresa, but they exist nonetheless. They are simply people with an inner strength who answer the call as best they can. History now recalls Rosa Parks as a bold leader and hero. But would any of us have spotted her before her famous ride on that segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama? By the end of 1955, Rosa Parks had worked at a number of different jobs. She had been an insurance saleswoman, a housekeeper and, on December 1, 1955, she was a seamstress. As she headed home exhausted that day, from a long day of work, she wasn’t thinking about launching a protest at all. When she boarded her bus in Montgomery, she took her seat directly behind the white passengers section at the front. But when she was asked to yield her seat to white riders, and threatened with arrest, she refused to budge. The driver then stopped the bus, and had her arrested. And a great chain reaction began in the civil rights movement. All from a tired seamstress . Commencement Speech, May 2002 University of Wisconsin. The prophetic witness of ancient community that birthed the 29th Psalm proclaims to us today, “The God of Glory thunders, and blesses God’s people with peace.” Archbishop Oscar Romero once said: It helps, now and then, to step back and take the long view. The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is beyond our vision…nothing we do is complete…the kingdom always lies beyond us. This is what we are about: we plant seeds that one day will grow. We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise. We lay foundations that will need further development. We provide yeast that produces effects beyond our capabilities…. We may never see the end results…we are prophets of a future not our own. We are prophets of a future not our own. Our identity as God’s church is tied to who we are, and whose we are. We are children of the Almighty. And through us the God of Glory thunders! God’s power is revealed in the prophetic voice that makes a way to peace. There are always opportunities to speak prophetically; to answer the call as best we can. This church has a prophetic voice that needs to be heard! As of this last week, the Bishop appointed Denise, Debbie, and me to return to Holy Covenant. But the prophetic voice of God in this congregation is not dependent upon us. When the Bishop says, “GO,” this church will continue to SPEAK FOR GOD. Your identity as a church is formed by your worship; by the ministries you invest yourselves in; by the positions you take and the people who make up your membership. One week before Hurricane Katrina hit, the American Red Cross met with a Conference committee I chair and received permission to visit with each church in the conference about the possibility of becoming an Emergency Shelter. Of course, once Katrina hit, that plan went to the back burner. Last week, Marty Nerren, the director of Emergency Planning for this area of the ARC stopped by for a visit. They are going to be evaluating our facilities to see what might be possible. I don’t know what that will look like and ultimately it will be the call of our Administrative Council and Trustees, but it is an opportunity for us to proclaim: The Glory of God thunders and blesses God’s people with peace! In the words of Archbishop Oscar Romero, “We are prophets of a future not our own… |
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