WHY PRAISE, WHY NOW?
A sermon by George R. Pasley
Matthew 21:1-11; Matthew 27:27-31, 38-44
When I visit my family in
I’m not going to talk about the devil today but I am going to talk about a closely related subject: weeks from hell.
Oh I know, this is a Sunday when we praise the Lord and shout Alleluia, and next Sunday we will do it some more. But in between, the events that we remember this week were events in which the powerful negative forces of life reached out and grabbed a hold of the Son of God and took his life away.
The truth is, there is not a person alive who has not experienced some sort of week from hell. The further truth of the matter is that when Jesus was arrested, tried, crucified and buried he entered completely into our lives and our sufferings.
Whatever your suffering, whatever your ordeal, whatever your particular trial, not matter how small or how large, you share it with Jesus. So praise the Lord, if you can.
During the season of Lent, and during this Holy Week, we pay particular attention to those sufferings. In fact, in some congregations there is a tradition that the world ALLELUIA is not to be spoken during Lent.
I have to admit, that would probably be a pretty easy tradition for me to adhere to because there are a great many times during the course of a normal day when I find it difficult to be joyful, even if it does take more muscles to frown than it does to smile.
But I’m not going to encourage us to be mournful today. Rather, I’ll do the opposite. Let’s praise the Lord, even if it hurts too much to sing very loud.
Lloyd Ogilvie is retired now, but he was the chaplain of the US Senate and before that he was pastor at Hollywood Presbyterian Church.
One day he was visiting a church member who was experiencing one of those weeks from hell, and Lloyd asked him how he was doing.
The man answered, “Well, joy is not an option.”
“Right,” answered Lloyd. “It’s not an option, it’s an obligation.”
That’s a very Presbyterian way of looking at things. After all, we think that everything bad that happens to us is good for us.
But why do we praise the Lord, and why do we do it even in the presence of horrible evils and great suffering. More important- how can we?
It may be tempting to look at the Palm Sunday story- the story about Jesus riding on a donkey, and the crowds shouting Hosanna, and ask all sorts of questions about that event. But such discussion would have to include some speculation.
So instead I suggest we do one thing: let’s note that they did it. They praised the Lord. Even if we don’t know what they were thinking when they did it, we know that they praised the Lord. Even if they didn’t know why they did it, they did it.
Ever since, the church has commemorated their acts of praise- and that long history tells us something. Their acts of praise on that Sunday so long ago told a story that the church has deemed important, and that story is this: no matter what happens, no matter how bad things get, no matter how loud the powers of evil shout their angry words, no matter how hard death grabs a hold of us, none of that is the last word.
The last word will be an ongoing never-ending song of Alleluia!
Alleluia will be the last word, because during that awful week death grabbed hold of Jesus but it could not hold on to him permanently.
Therefore the last word will be a shout of praise to the Lord our God, and so we will sing it now, even as they are planning a crucifixion. And while Christ is being crucified, and while we are carrying him to the tomb, and while we are locked away in grief and confusion and sorrow, we will praise the Lord.
The Jewish people were taught that they were to offer Thanksgivings to God even for things that were sorrowful and horrible, and when they practiced their faith rightly that’s exactly what they did.
So here are some clues, some hints to help you hold on to our faith in the Lord when times are tough.
The first is this: joy might be an obligation, but lament is definitely an option.
The songs of the Jewish people- the book of the bible that we call Psalms- is filled with sad songs of lament. Modern churches have been rediscovering those psalms, and finding they are a powerful voice as we pray to God about the great depth of human suffering and about the great prevalence of violence, cruelty and injustice in the world.
So if joy is too hard an obligation for you, go ahead and lament. But please remember this: your lament will not be the last word, because God will wipe every tear away and we will shout Alleluia together.
But here’s another option, a way of singing alleluia even when the truthful story includes great pain: Sing alleluia in a minor key.
The great composer and church musician Johann Sebastian Bach wrote some of his alleluia music in a minor key, expressing this truth: we are grateful that Jesus suffered with us and for us, but the truth of our gratitude must recognize his suffering- and our own.
One Bach historian put it this way: There is more than one way to sing Alleluia!
So if you need to, sing it sadly.
Now, this next part is very important: Those of us who can be joyful need to sing joyfully for those who can’t.
I’m going to pick on
Sandy is a great musician and I am not. Oh, I can pay attention and follow the music and hear Steve tell us what to do, and as long as
But this week during practice
But right away I thought, okay George, you know what you are supposed to do, so do it, until
Robin told me this week about a girl in her school, Sarah. Sarah is blind, but one day Robin witnessed Sarah giving comfort and wisdom and strength to a sighted girl who was experiencing her own unique form of suffering.
That’s one very important reason why we come to church and praise the Lord, so we can help those who are suffering remember the truth: suffering and death are not the last words about life. The last word and the best word will be an ongoing never-ending song of Alleluia!
Our worship of God- specifically, the praise that we shout and sing, is what one scholar called “street theatre.” It tells an important, essential story.
The story is a story about the last word, and it says that the last word will belong to a gracious and wonderful God who loves us very much. Since that last word belongs to God we will praise the Lord right here, right now.
While we praise the Lord, we will trust that our words and songs of praise will echo through the dark and horrible days that we face.
When we hear those echoes, we trust that their wonderful sound will help us to
Hold on
Hold on
Hold on
Until Jesus appears with perfect benediction, and we can began singing that wonderful ongoing never-ending song of praise.
In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Amen.
