SERMON SERIES ON “A COMMUNITY OF GRACE”

PEOPLE OF PRAISE

Scripture: Psalm 146:1-2; 150; Colossians 3:16-17

INTRODUCTION

The theme for this church year and for our series of sermons during Lent is “A Community of Grace.” It comes from the Statement of Purpose originally written by Craig Goodrich, which was adopted by the Session four years ago and is printed on the front of our bulletin each week.

This past Ash Wednesday, we began our Lenten journey as we lifted up the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, affirming that He stands at the center of our statement and at the center of our lives, of the church and of all creation. The apostle Paul, writing to the Colossians, put it this way, saying that In Him – in Jesus Christ – all things hold together (Colossians 1:17). And with Christ at the center of our life together, I have chosen the Psalms and the Letter to the Colossians as the texts to guide us toward Easter, focusing on each phrase of our Statement of Purpose about being and becoming a community of grace. So this morning we proclaim that we are, in this congregation, “A People of Praise”!

When Paul wrote to the Christians in Colossae long ago, encouraging them to let the word of Christ dwell in you…as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God (Colossians 3:16), he was reminding them about the ancient tradition of worship which their forbears in the faith had established centuries before in Israel.

Many of the Psalms were written as songs and prayers which the people chanted and recited in their liturgical services, including two Psalms which we read just moments ago. Psalm 146 begins with these words of adoration:

Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord, O my soul! I will sing praise to my God while I have being.

And Psalm 150, majestically depicted in our Rose Window above, ascribes glory to God with musical instruments:

Praise God in His sanctuary!

Praise Him with trumpet sound,

Praise Him with lute and harp!

Praise Him with timbale and dance,

Praise Him with strings and pipe,

Praise Him with sounding cymbals…

Let everything that breathes

Praise the Lord!

Those were the ancient forms of worship inherited by the early church, and further developed during and after the Reformation when our Protestant and Presbyterian ancestors created the liturgies which are still familiar to us today.

The first part of our service this morning is a good example, beginning with the Call to Worship written by King David around 1000 B.C. as the 27^th Psalm, then standing to sing the Doxology – “Praise God from whom all blessings flow!” – which comes from the Genevan Psalter of 1551 A.D., followed by the Prayer of Adoration and that great hymn from the 17^th century, “Praise Ye the Lord, the Almighty King of Creation!”

Now, if you were to carefully examine the entire worship service this morning, you would discover that parts of it are taken from the liturgical life of ancient Israel and the early Christian Church; other parts, like the Apostles’ Creed, come from the Church in Rome; still other sections of our worship have been used by Presbyterians since the Reformation; and all of the service is bound together with more recent forms of liturgy that have been developed during the 20^th Century and on into this new millennium.

I make that observation because, while our worship in this church is steeped in the Reformed Tradition, it has changed over the years to engage our contemporary culture and to increase the participation of all the people in our congregation. Even so, those changes are not always comfortable or easily accepted by folks who prefer things to stay the way they used to be.

And as ordained pastors, we have to be careful not to get too far out in front of the laypeople. Dr. Tom Long, over at the Candler School of Theology, tells about a cartoon which depicted a church cemetery, and in the middle of the cemetery was the gravestone of a Presbyterian minister. The epitaph said: “Here lies The Rev. John Morrison Smith – who tried to change the Order of Worship” (From “Beyond the Worship Wars: Building Vital and Faithful Worship” by Dr. Thomas G. Long, The Alban Institute, 2001).

The truth is that we do not play fast and loose with the worship of this church. To the contrary, we stand firmly in the great liturgical traditions of the Judeo-Christian and Presbyterian heritage. And yet, we also seek to keep our worship fresh and alive as we address the spiritual needs of all those who desire to draw closer to God, to grow deeper in the faith and to become the Community of Grace and the People of Praise that the Lord has called us to be.

II.

That is why we come here, that is what we are looking for and hoping will happen to us and through us as we enter into this sanctuary. Jesus said, Where two or three are gathered together in my name, I will be there in the midst of them (Matthew 18:20). Do you sense His presence in this place today?

And it was the Anglican archbishop and poet Richard Chevenix Trench (1807-1886) who wrote these words about his own personal experience in worship:

“Lord, what a change within us one short hour spent in Thy presence will prevail to make! What heavy burdens from our bosoms take, what parched grounds refresh as with a shower!

We kneel, and all around us seems to lower; we rise, and all, the distant and the near, stands forth in sunny outline brave and clear;

We kneel, how weak; we rise, how full of power!

Why therefore should we do ourselves this wrong, or others… That we should even weak or heartless be, anxious or troubled, when with us is prayer, and joy and strength and courage are with Thee.”

It can happen, you know, and it does happen here, week after week as we enter this sanctuary, not to be entertained or to “get something,” but rather to worship the Lord and to give ourselves to Him – in praise and adoration, in confession and prayer, through music and scripture reading and preaching of the Word, with the hope and expectation that God’s holy presence will be experienced here.

That is why we come to worship, for we are a People of Praise, lifting up our hearts and souls and lives to the God of grace whom we encounter in this sacred place. And sometimes, something unexpected happens here that almost blows us away!

CONCLUSION

Ten years ago, on a Communion Sunday, as I was giving the words of invitation from the old Presbyterian Book of Common Worship, saying “All that humbly put their trust in Christ and desire to lead a holy life, all who are truly sorry for their sins and would be delivered from the burden of those sins, all of us, therefore, are invited and encouraged to come to this table” …at that moment, a woman wearing a New York Yankees baseball cap and carrying a radio on her shoulder, who had been to our prayer breakfast for homeless persons earlier in the morning, she got up out of her pew and started forward toward this table.

Dr. Fahed Abu-Akel rose to the occasion, met her by the front row and whispered, “Ma’am, we usually stay seated for communion.” She answered, “But the preacher told me to come up here!” Fahed replied, “But he really didn’t mean it that way!” So she sat down and we served her and the rest of the congregation with the bread and the cup. But as we stood to sing the final hymn, we invited her to come up and join us in the chancel. And after the Benediction, I was overjoyed to see how many members of this congregation greeted her with open arms and a gracious welcome.

You see, as People of Praise, our primary purpose in coming here is to worship God. But let us never forget that the Savior who invites us to this table today, has also called us to reach out to the lost and the lonely, the homeless and the hungry people of this city, nation and world with His life-saving power and life-changing love.

So as we eat this bread and drink this cup and are renewed in strength as People of Praise, let us then rise up and go out those doors to serve others in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.