God Accepts
All Kinds of Praise
Pentecost + 19 – October 17 & 20, 2019
“David Anointed King”
Ricky Bobby – Talledega Nights – “I’m not sure what to do with my hands
(See the video clip here)
Story from 2 Samuel about David and all the house
of Israel dancing before the Lord with all their might; Psalm 150 with its
command to praise the Lord
· And American Lutheran Christians without a hymnal to
hold are like Ricky Bobby – I’m not sure what to do with my hands
· We joke about how we can hear something really funny
in the sermon and we’ll smile as loudly as possible
· Some expressions of Lutheran and other mainline,
mostly white denominations are known to be reserved in worship
o More formal, traditional, liturgical worship with
well-known, beloved time-tested hymns
o Pre-written prayers and well-known responses
o Kind of predictable, and we like it that way for the
most part
· This depiction of David and the people as dancing
before the Lord with all their might, with all kinds of musical instruments,
Psalm 150 exhorting (encourage + command) us to praise God with trumpets and
harps and tambourines and strings and pipe and cymbals – LOUD, CLASHING cymbals
– and with dance kind of makes us
nervous
· And that goes for me too – not usually one to let
loose in this kind of unrestrained abandon, to express this kind of passionate
worship that David leads everyone into a they bring the ark into Jerusalem as
the new center of a united kingdom of the northern tribes of Israel and the
southern tribe of Judah
o This celebration of God’s presence and power being
among them, into the center of their lives as God’s people, an occasion to
praise God for all of the things God has done and continues to do for them – it
feels a little wild and out of control
· Laughed looking back at some videos of churchwide
assembly this past year – with some amazing creativity, with banners and doves
and whales and other animals and rainbows expressing the wonder of God’s
creation; and the celebration of 50 years of ordaining women in the ELCA’s
predecessor bodies, with a gospel choir ad such tremendous joy
o And some clapping, but also a lot of reserved, still
people who didn’t quite know what to do with their hands. ;)
· And it makes me wonder what that is about
o Some cultural
o Some personality
o Some fear or nervousness about what others might think
or not sure what would happen if we let loose
o Or maybe just not fully realizing and letting God’s
amazing, tremendous acts of grace and love really sink in and flow through us
David and the people are a great example of a
different kind of worship
· A joyful, physical
expression of wonder, love, and praise
· This huge parade or procession of people so caught up
in this moment of a new beginning for their people, for bringing the ark from
its storage (basically) at a farm outside of town b/c of the awesome divine
power it represents but can’t quite contain
· They can’t contain themselves – and so there is
dancin’ in the streets, this communal collective joy that cannot be held back
and has to come out with song and dance and music - totally caught up in the moment and giving
all that they have and all that they are to worship God, to show God their love
· And we could learn something from David and the
ancient Israelites – and from our
siblings in Christ who are perhaps a little more expressive in how they worship
and praise God
But! This wild worship is not the only way to
worship God
· God is worthy of honor and worship and glory and
praise forever and ever and ever, amen
· But the command to praise the Lord with all that we
are encompasses all kinds and varieties of worship
o It includes this ecstatic abandon of David AND it
includes a quieter, more reverential style of worship and everything in between
o The command is for everything that has breathe to
praise the Lord – for God’s mighty deeds, for God’s surpassing greatness, with
all kinds of music, with all sorts of physical expressions – dance or kneeling,
bowing our heads or lifting our hands
o The point isn’t the exact “how” of our worship style –
but rather that we worship God and
love God with all of our heart and all of our soul and all of our might – in
whatever ways we can be express that
· We aren’t compelled to worship God in David’s style –
but we do have permission and
encouragement to let our thanks and praise and wonder and awe and love overflow
in more outwardly expressive ways –
· God welcomes our sincere worship in whatever ways we
worship – even when we aren’t sure what to do with our hands.
· Thanks be to God. Amen.
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