21 st Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C, 08/21/2016, Greeneville, Tennessee 1 About a year and a half ago, I went to a conference at a church in Kansas City. This was a large church, large enough to have its own preschool. During a break, I took a walk outside the building and ran across the children at recess. One girl had decided to play by herself. She walked across the low balance bean with her arms spread wide. Then she sprinted to the slide for a few rounds up and down. The sky was blue, a gentle breeze brushed across her face; she had her freedom and she was lost in it. One other thing: she was singing. I didn t hear the tune, but I saw her lips moving and the joyful intent on her face. I don t need to tell you who she was singing to. Sometimes, we just need to sing. Nothing else will work given the circumstances. Either the joy is too high, the pain too deep, or the work so long that we just have to have a song to move through it. One of our church families was keeping watch over the grandmother, the matriarch of the clan. She wasn t going to live much longer. The nurses were only keeping her comfortable, and the hearts of the family were heavy. What do you do in those last hours? Well, the grandmother was devoted, and she loved music. So the family decided to send her off with a song. They gathered around the bed and wrapped her in the melodies of her favorite hymns. To this day, they recall what a sacred time that was. It felt
21 st Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C, 08/21/2016, Greeneville, Tennessee 2 as if they took a few steps with grandmother into heaven. The songs got them there. Sometimes, we just need to sing. It s Senior Sunday, time to send off the next batch of kids to college. Somehow we have to give them a blessing while at the same time assuring ourselves that they and we will make it. So we sing, God Will Take Care of You, through trembling lips. The people who study such things tell us that the Civil Rights movement propelled itself forward not only with artful planning, but also by repurposing old spirituals. Those songs helped them to keep their eyes on the prize when the journey seemed too long; and when resistance came, they sang Ain t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Round. By singing together, they linked arms and pressed on in the fight for human dignity. Sometimes we just have to have a song to carry us along. Three songs fill up our reading from the Revelation of John. If we started a few verses earlier, we would have picked up two more. Five songs in a little more than one chapter, sung by a multitude of choirs. What s all the singing about? Well, John has taken us into God s throne room. We re in the presence of the Presence. Lightning flashes from clouds above the throne. An emerald rainbow arches from one side of the throne to the other. And while we can t see the face of the Holy One, we know he s
21 st Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C, 08/21/2016, Greeneville, Tennessee 3 there, majestic, full of light, ruling in love over all things. So the twenty four elders bow down and toss their crowns in reverence. Worthy, worthy, they sing. The four cherubim and seraphim circle in the air. Holy, Holy, Holy, they cry. Angels, too many to count, shake the rafters with their praise. And finally, every living creature those that have been, that are, and that will be - gives honor and glory to the one seated on the throne and to the Lamb. You won t find a larger musical ensemble anywhere. Good for John. He needed a song. John wrote the Revelation while he was in prison. He and his fellow believers were being persecuted for not worshipping the Emperor. Most everyone else did in the Roman Empire, but on the grounds that only God deserved ultimate devotion, John s community of faith did not attribute the things that belong to God to Caesar. So were they right or were they being too touchy about idolatry? Were they justified in their resistance or just foolish? You think about these things when you re paying the price. But then the heavens were opened for John, and he got a fresh look at the heart of things. He saw again who was the center and apex of creation, who deserved honor, glory and blessing, and Caesar was nowhere in the mix. The vision confirmed what he already knew. To the one seated on the throne and to the Lamb, glory and honor and blessing. Everything in the whole cosmos is
21 st Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C, 08/21/2016, Greeneville, Tennessee 4 destined to praise God and God alone. That song had the power to make his heart steady again and his determination strong. We re not threatened by the Roman Emperor anymore. Our issue is finding anything worthy of worship. God feels so far away, and all our substitutes have proven faulty. We are a disappointed people because our programs and politics have not saved the world. Corruption and dishonesty have infected every institution we have wanted to believe in, including the church. Our leaders wear size fourteen clay feet. Our causes are easily hijacked and diverted by people eager for power and notoriety. Is there nothing left worthy of our devotion, our full throated love and commitment? Then John pulls back the veil, and we see the truth that runs deeper than our skepticism. To our wonderful surprise, the throne is not vacant, but full to overflowing. And the best representation of the God who dwells there is a slaughtered Lamb. The last time we saw this Lamb he was on a cross. But now he has moved to the core, to the center of all things. The very love that died for us lives for us. And my goodness, how powerful he is. That s what the seven horns stand for. And notice how close he is. With those seven eyes he sees and knows all that s happening in and around us. This is the cure for our fear that sin and evil reign. It s not true. Love reigns. The heart of the universe isn t cold and
21 st Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C, 08/21/2016, Greeneville, Tennessee 5 indifferent. And the prize doesn t go to those who slash and burn their way to the top. Power goes to the One who gave his life for the world and he will reign forever and ever. The slaughtered Lamb has conquered. And if we don t believe it now I have confidence that someday we will. Because when John named the choirs around God s throne, he included us. Did you pick up on that? He saw all creatures in the sea, on dry land and in the air, giving up glory to God as if every inch of God s glorious creation joined in eternal worship, as if there was no more doubt that we had found the One to whom we ought to give ourselves. Worthy is the one seated on the throne and the Lamb to receive all power, honor, glory and blessing. John says those words are ours to sing. I don t know how to thank John enough. He s given back to us our song. If we sing it, we just might be healed. It works the other way, too. Having been healed, we sing, as so many of the psalmists show us. Once lifted from the pit, they praise God s name. But the song itself can be medicine, especially if it knocks on heaven s door. Praise itself can put us back together. I m living proof. How many times have I walked into this building (sanctuary) with broken to pieces until someone starts playing the music? I can t tell you how often the choir has done surgery on my jaded spirit; I m grateful for every operation.
21 st Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C, 08/21/2016, Greeneville, Tennessee 6 Offertories have rescued me from boredom. Preludes have shaken me awake from despair. Sometimes I stop singing during a hymn just so I can hear you sing. And it s like a magic dose of grace to carry me along. You may remember like I do Ruth Thomas s hands stretched out over the keys. Wrists held just so as she sat at the piano, and those long slender fingers, delicate and incredibly strong. Then, she pressed down, and the music came from somewhere so deep in her that it must have come from beyond her. Did she not transport us to a different place, somewhere where heaven and earth become one? I owe Ruth. It s a debt I won t be able to repay. She helped me see and believe in God. There s a song out there somewhere, going on all the time, and if we tap into it, it might just put us back together. It has the power to bring order to chaos, beauty to the jumbled mess of our days. That song above all songs connects us to the truth in ways that words from a sermon or a lecture cannot. If you listen closely, you can hear the melody in the bright chant of the early morning birds, in the buzz of insects around the light pole or even when the earth and mind turn silent. You also might find it in here as we open our hymnals to number sixty-four and sing. All of us need the song, even if we don t like to sing or feel awkward around music, because the notes reconnect us to the heart of things.
21 st Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C, 08/21/2016, Greeneville, Tennessee 7 In one of the rural congregations my father served, several men of the church wouldn t come into the sanctuary until the singing was done. They stayed outside, smoking cigarettes, until the main course was served, the sermon. The song service was inconsequential, preliminary, okay if you were into that sort of thing, but not necessary. Well, after my father was there awhile, he put an end to that in his gentle way. He thought all parts of worship mattered. I see now that he did those men a favor. He gave them a chance to connect to the song. And I m sure you understand what we done and what we re celebrating today. We ve found a way to keep the song going, another means for helping people like us sing the Lord s song generation after generation after generation. It s the least we could do to help them see Jesus at the heart of things. We trust the music will help put their lives back together as it has for us. We want God s love song to make it into their hearts until they echo back with us the melody of those made well. Sometimes, we just have to sing. This is our song. Glory to God; Glory to God; Glory to God. Amen.