|
"Doxology"
Why are we here? Each one of us has our own set of answers. Answers we have shaped ourselves or received from other human beings. They are shaped by our own distinctive experience. We tell ourselves we can give value to what we choose. Why are we here? Why are you here? Is it because of habit, a discipline that you learned long ago? That is good, but it is not good enough. Perhaps you are here because of your children: you want them to develop a strong set of values. That is good, but no, it is not good enough. Are you here because you looking for a thought, something to carry away, sort of like a bumper sticker? That is good, but it is not good enough. Or maybe you are here for the sermon. I like that one! That is good, but it is not good enough. Are you looking for strength to face a challenging task or just to get through the week? That is good, but it is not good enough. Or perhaps you feel you need comfort for some pain and difficulty. That is good, but it is not good enough. Are you here for the music? It is wonderful and well-done. That is good, but it is not good enough. Maybe you are here for some lesser reasons: to be happy, to be successful, to avoid conflict, to avoid change, to look good, to gain power. Lists like that assume that life is a series of problems to be solved or a technique to be practiced. The truth is some problems cannot be solved, and techniques don't always work. These answers focus on what we need, want, and desire. They cast us as captains of our fate. We human beings sometimes look for meaning where God has not in fact located it. Life is not contained in or comprehended by any or the answers we might give. Why are we here?
Here, in this place, every Sunday, we give a different answer: when we stand and sing the doxology, we give a clear, unambiguous answer. We are here to praise; doxology is our purpose, our chief end. That is what makes us what we ought to be. Doxology is the primary constitutive factor of our humanity. Praise and thanksgiving turn us from our self-preoccupation to focus upon the one who is Lord of life. This is what animates and energizes life. This is what gives life passion and love: Praise God from whom all blessings flow; Doxology is the enterprise of seeing by means of words and images, the glory and majesty of God and being drawn into the chorus of praise. The psalmist knows the answer to our question: "I will praise the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praises to my God while I have being." Psalm 146 begins and ends with "Hallelujah." Praise is how the psalmist holds life together, how we hold life together too. We know that in our heart. When undergoing testing and stress, hymns or phrases of hymns come to mind. Why? Hymns are vehicles of praise. The power and meaning of these songs in life and death, sickness and health, faith and doubt, sorrow and joy is clear. Or perhaps particular psalms come to mind. Psalms belong at the center of the life and worship of the Christian congregation and in the midst of the personal pilgrimage that each of us makes under the shadow of the Almighty. Our purpose is praise. Everything else flows from that. The author of the book of Revelation knows the answer to our question. The book is a word to the churches of Asia Minor who are undergoing some severe testing. The worship services in Revelation are all the more remarkable given the circumstances of those churches. Common sense and observation would say that those Christians would be without a song; a dirge or lament perhaps, but certainly no "Hallelujahs." Yet praise never ceases, in heaven or earth, or under the earth. When John is set before an open door and responds to the invitation, "Come up hither," he finds at the center of ultimate reality, in the heart of what was, is, and shall be, a sanctuary with a worship service in progress. The praise and prayers of God's creatures sustain the world. The foundation structure upon which all else is built is praise. Those who praise God then and now find their reason for doing so not in themselves or their circumstances, but in God. They praise God because they see through what is going on, and see the real world of God's creation. We know that too. Though sometimes we lose sight of it! Praises enables us to become who we are formed by God to be and yearn to become. In praise we remember and recall what grace can do. We find trust and hope and courage for what grace will do. We might not have made it thus far. But we did.
Praise is a necessity. If we ever lose our doxology we might as well be dead. Without praise human beings fall into destructive modes of being. Self-centeredness dominates and life loses its focus. It is one of the problems of our times that as we become crowded together the sounds we make to each other and to God become more self-centered, everything exists for the individual. As praise breaks forth, so life breaks free. Doxology liberates us for God and from self. We affirm God's sovereign rule of creation. As we do so we notice creation in a new way. Praise has precious benefits. In praise we notice our own worth to God. God gives life, sustains it, heals it. God will not rest content with our sin and silence. The difficulty is that we have interrupted praise, but God will not rest content with that. God will not deliver us into the dominion of darkness and its stillness unto death. God calls us to praise. Did you ever notice that underneath all other life there is a continual music--even of the spheres. The need to make music and to listen to it is universally expressed by human beings. Why? Praise is our nature. In praise we rediscover our worth to God. The measure of God's love for us is clearly seen in creation, in Christ, in community. And yet often human beings have been so sunk into sinful and sullen silence that they cannot, will not praise God for such love. The story needs telling, telling, and retelling. Energy for life derives from being connected with God, with neighbor, with the world. Where such connections are broken death gains power. Praise keeps us connected, so there is energy for life, sufficient energy to care for the humanness, the humaneness, the humanization of the world. We find courage and action to do what the creator God hopes. We engage in flights of possibility. At its most passionate the Bible knows there is no alternative to praise. In praise, we notice God in the real world of our hurt, pain, and unrighteousness. Praise connects the reality of our pain with God's mercy. Our pain has not been denied but fully faced in honest, bold trusting. Praise permits us to live beyond hurt and trouble. Praise refuses to let life be reduced. Praise provides comfort for our pain and gives it meaning. Praise is a great healer. Such praise is a yielding of our pain to the one who wants us never to be destroyed by despair. Hurts spoken lead to surprising thanksgiving. Praise enables us never to submit to the present at the cost of the future.
In praise, we notice others praising with us. Our neighbors sing with us. We sing with our neighbors. Drawn to the throne, the differences and distinctions, threats and fears among us are now seen not to be decisive, because we all sing the same song to the same sovereign. Our neighbors include angels, stars, whales, widows, orphans, sojourners, princes, priests, friends, enemies. We are all there entering a new world with new possibilities. Our whole history of life with God is a doxology. We praise ourselves free of self. We turn our life to God and we find overflowing grace, in ordinary places and times and in strange places and times. And it does not stop. A faithful and obedient church keeps praising all the way to the throne. New impetus occurs along the way. We dare to imagine that beyond our sight the church triumphant including our treasured dead are still singing at the throne. So we dare to imagine, to conjure:
Praise goes on, because the "fear-not" solidarity of God with us goes on. To this God belongs the kingdom, power, and glory. Not to fear, hatred, hunger, despair, death, but to the Lord. Hallelujah! Such praise is indeed our duty and our delight, the ultimate vocation of the human community, indeed of all creation. Yes all of life is aimed toward God and finally exists for the sake of God. That is what it means "to glorify God and enjoy God forever."
|
F.
Harry Daniel