Ring Bell for Church Renewal

Thank God for people like John Bell. We had an 'optional' IME day today (IME = Initial Ministerial Education, or curate training day) with John Bell of the Iona Community and I'm sure glad I took the option to attend. Bell's easy and authentic way of communicating was warming and inspiring.

The theme was something along the lines of sacred spaces and symbols, and discussion revolved initially around things like church architecture, reordering the space so that it speaks of such important qualities as welcome, gathered community, singing praise, word & table & heavenly kingdom. Some of our churches are a product of their time, architecturally speaking. Individual private worship in rigid pews, austere aesthetics, high distant altar, etc. Bell talked about ways churches can change (eek! change???) to become more meaningful authentic worship spaces that reflect Jesus as being right there among his people. Chairs instead of pews, arranged in the round with a central table seems to be Bell's vision, and this happens in places. I'm quite attracted to the idea. The solid arguments for change must be based on the need to welcome all, for the sake of effective mission and evangelism.

A question was brought up from the audience about projector screens. I think the asker was asking about the screen as a central focal point and Bell's views on this, but his reply was interesting. His concern was the fleeting nature of song lyrics on a screen, as opposed to the permanence of black ink on a service sheet or songbook. People cannot reflect as easily on song lyrics that vanish immediately from sight after being sung as they can when, perhaps during the sermon, they can revisit the text of the lyrics on the sheet or in a book. They can often see who wrote the song or hymn, and when it was written, too. Bell spoke of the ability of the words to minister to us, and asks whether this ministry is as effective if the words just disappear. He suggests if a screen is used to also use books or song sheets as well, and don't worry about the trees in this instance, it is worth it. If you're concerned about the trees, protest against all the junk mail or free 'news' papers everywhere, he said.

In the second half of the day Bell focussed on symbols. First, using the wedding service as an example, he asked us to think about what the actions are really symbolising. If a couple who already have been living together decide to wed in the traditional manner of father 'giving away' the bride, what is this meaning? People do like tradition, though, for its own sake, even if they haven't thought much about the meaning at all. And why do the congregation, who after all are there as 'witnesses', only get to see the backsides of the bride and groom during the ceremony? Apparently this has origins in the days when weddings were much quieter and smaller affairs, often held in the parsonage with only a couple of witnesses.

Music is also a symbolic thing. Our God is a symbolic God - this is shown in the bible when God asks his people, for example, to build rock cairns at places of significance. Jesus gave us the most potent symbols of bread and wine as his body and his blood. Bell cautioned against the use of symbolic actions in worship if it hasn't got relevance - there is a difference between symbolic action and gimmicry.

Finally, Bell demonstrated how the wonderful songs from the Iona Community can be used in a liturgical setting, especially the short songs, which are like chants, really. Prayers or bible readings can be interspersed with these short songs, and we tried out a few and they were lovely. 'Church renewal' is what the Iona Community says its about, and John Bell is a wonderful, inspirational spokesperson. God bless him.

Thank you Lord

Praising God today for small miracles and answered prayer! (Can't give details as they are confidential).

I will give thanks to you, O Lord, with all my heart;

I will tell of all your wonderful deeds.

I will be glad and rejoice in you;

I will sing the praises of your name, O Most High.

(Psalm 9:1-2)

This morning I am rejoicing for a friend. Hallelujah!

Praise the Lord! Psalm 146

Psalm 146 begins and ends with Praise the Lord! (Hallelujah, in Hebrew). It’s a hymn of praise for the God who is faithful, the God who cares about the needy, and the God who sets people free. This psalm, along with all the psalms, would have been well known by Jesus and his first disciples. And this psalm carries a message for us today, as well. I want to look particularly at verses 7-9 of Psalm 146. Here are those verses again:

He upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry. The LORD sets prisoners free, the LORD gives sight to the blind, the LORD lifts up those who are bowed down, the LORD loves the righteous. The LORD watches over the alien and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.

God did these things for Israel in the past. And God did these things through Jesus Christ while he walked the earth. And God’s will is to continue to do these things through all his people, who are the body of Christ.

The acts of God recited in vv 7-9 point to events in the history of Israel. In verse 7: ‘He upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry. The LORD sets prisoners free’ – the most obvious event remembered here is the Exodus. In Egypt, the Israelites were oppressed as slaves. Moses led them out into freedom and into the desert, where they became hungry. God heard their cries and sustained them with manna from heaven. Freedom from oppression and the provision of food – this is attributed to God by the Israelites.

In verse 8, the psalmist writes, ‘the LORD gives sight to the blind’. But among the miracles written about in the Old Testament, the recovery of sight is absent. I couldn’t find any examples of the Lord giving sight to the blind in the Old Testament. In the Old Testament, the Lord giving sight to the blind was not a reality, but a promise. And it was associated with the Messiah who was to come. It was prophetic. Isaiah prophesied sight for the blind as did our psalmist here in Psalm 146.

Verse 8 continues: the LORD lifts up those who are bowed down,
the LORD loves the righteous. God loves righteousness because that is one of God’s main attributes. To be righteous is to live your life guided by the qualities of justice, integrity, sincerity and equity. In the Old Testament, Noah, Abraham, and Job were called righteous. In varying situations, ‘righteousness’ means being right, doing right, and putting things right. It includes ‘frustrating the ways of the wicked’ by creating order out of disorder, and unity out of disunity.

Verse 9 says: The LORD watches over the alien and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the ways of the wicked. God's love and concern for people who are disadvantaged is obvious throughout the Old Testament. God’s covenant with Israel included the obligation not to abuse the weak or defenceless, as we see in Exodus 22: "Do not take advantage of a widow or an orphan. If you do and they cry out to me, I will certainly hear their cry”.

The Law of Moses contained several rules for the fair treatment of orphans, widows and foreigners, for example in Deuteronomy 24: ‘Do not deprive the alien or the fatherless of justice, or take the cloak of the widow as a pledge. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you from there. ...When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it. Leave it for the alien, the fatherless and the widow, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.’

So we see that this short Psalm touches on several aspects of Jewish history. The ‘God of Jacob’ rescued Israel from oppression, hunger and slavery, and formed a covenant with his people, that they would be a blessing to all the nations of the earth. And for us as Christians, if we reframe this psalm and view it in the light of Jesus Christ, we recognise a connection between what God has done for Israel and what God has done for us through Jesus Christ. Through Jesus, God came to rescue all people from spiritual oppression, hunger and slavery, when we turn to him. In Luke chapter 4, Jesus stands up in the synagogue in Nazareth and reads from the scroll of the prophet Isaiah (61):

"The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind,
to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour." Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, and he began by saying to them, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."

Everything Jesus did had both a spiritual dimension and an earthly dimension. When we’re released from spiritual blindness, we see the greater purpose to which our earthly good works contribute. We understand that God’s kingdom is breaking in, and that God wants our lives to be formed into this Kingdom shape, where Jesus reigns.

Today we can have a real impact on people’s lives – by giving our time, our talents, or our money. Through charitable organisations such as Open Doors, Christian Aid, the Barnabas Fund and the Ark, as individual Christians and through the Church, we can uphold the cause of the oppressed and the unfairly imprisoned. We can give food to the hungry and sight to the blind. We can arrange hospitality for refugees and the homeless, and we can care for orphans and for widowed people. Selfless giving of time, talents, and money for the sake of the kingdom of God aligns us with the will of God.

In the short space of Psalm 146, we remember God’s saving grace in the past, and are pointed towards the reign of Christ and our responsibilities as his disciples. Under the New Covenant, we are the body of Christ. We are to seek out the lost and fight the corner for the oppressed. We are to feed the hungry and liberate those enslaved by the things of this world. When this happens through Christ’s church in the world, it’s a sign of his kingdom breaking in on earth, and he is to be praised. Hallelujah! Amen.

Hallel

Psalm 113
1 Praise the LORD.
Praise, O servants of the LORD,
praise the name of the LORD.

2 Let the name of the LORD be praised,
both now and forevermore.

3 From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets,
the name of the LORD is to be praised.

4 The LORD is exalted over all the nations,
his glory above the heavens.

5 Who is like the LORD our God,
the One who sits enthroned on high,

6 who stoops down to look
on the heavens and the earth?

7 He raises the poor from the dust
and lifts the needy from the ash heap;

8 he seats them with princes,
with the princes of their people.

9 He settles the barren woman in her home
as a happy mother of children.
Praise the LORD.


Continuing with our sermon series on the Psalms, this morning’s Psalm [113] is known as one of the Hallel Psalms. The Hebrew word Hallel is familiar to us in the word Hallelujah. Hallel means ‘praise’, and Yah is the shortened form of Yahweh, the name of God. So Psalm 113 is a hymn of praise about God. It’s a call to the people of God to remember who God is and what God has done.

All day, every day, and everywhere – as the psalmist says, ‘from the rising of the sun to the place where it sets’, ‘both now and forevermore ...the name of the Lord is to be praised’. Praise shouldn’t be something we only do when we feel like it – praise is supposed to be something that we do at all times – in ordinary and extraordinary times – in good times and in bad times. The method of praise comes down to individual preference, but whatever way we do it, God’s people are called to praise God.

The call to praise God is followed in the psalm by reasons for praise: God’s glory is above the heavens and wide as all space! There is nothing in all creation that can be compared to this God, and yet this God is concerned about people, and the ordinary activities of people. God watches over all his creation. God raises the poor, lifts the broken and oppressed, corrects inequality, and injustice, and provides fruitfulness in otherwise barren conditions. Disparities between wealthy and poor, powerful and powerless, elite and excluded – situations present at the time the psalm was written, and still present today – these do not harmonise with the attributes of God.

What must then be called into question is people’s attitudes towards those who suffer from poverty, inequality, and despair. Those who participate in activities that contribute to the poverty of others; those who isolate people into categories for discrimination; those who exclude the childless from circles of friendship are reminded that these attitudes do not align with God’s care for people.

Instead, the psalmist affirms that those in the ash heaps of life and dust piles of despair will be lifted up. This mighty God helps people find dignity within the community. This God hears the prayers of the discouraged. This God also hears the prayers of the childless couple. Coming out of the Hebrew tradition, the psalm reminds people of God’s answer to the prayers of Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, & Hannah who were once barren women. The psalm reminds people that the experience of the desolate will not be forever. There will be a day of justice, a day where the fields are levelled. The people of God will have security, contentment and fruitfulness. Their day of despair will not triumph, and a day of praise shall break forth.

Psalm 113 speaks of a God who is high and exalted, who also ‘stoops down’ to care for people. This is the God who sent Jesus, whose name in Hebrew is Yahshua, which means ‘Yahweh saves’ – Jesus, who came to live among us, and who died and rose again for the world.

At this point our psalm connects with our two other readings. As Jesus says in our Luke passage, we are called to love and to serve others, and to invite those less fortunate than ourselves to our table. As St. Paul says in the Hebrews passage, we’re called to love each other, but we are not to forget to entertain strangers. That’s hospitality in its most God-honouring form.

I have this crazy vision of how exciting it would be if we focussed our energies on inviting strangers to come and eat here with us. Yes, it would be risky, and it might be uncomfortable. But I think it’s what Jesus would do if he were walking around our town today – he would invite everyone to come and eat at his table. Isn’t that what we, as the body of Christ, should also do? Not just our friends, our family and our 'presentable' neighbours; but as Jesus said, ‘...when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed’.

One of the most powerful ways God lifts up the lowly is through other people, so if we claim to be disciples of Jesus, then we will actively seek ways to serve the people who need to experience God’s love. That is praise in action.

We praise God for who God is, we praise God for our ongoing salvation, and we look forward what God has planned for the future when Jesus returns. Every time we sing ‘Hallelujah!’ we can be reminded of what God has already done, and that God will finish the salvation that is still taking place. God’s saving presence was demonstrated in the past, and will be demonstrated again when Jesus Christ, Yahshua Messiah, returns in glory. ‘Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise – the fruit of lips that confess his name’. Amen.