Praise

"Praise the Lord..." Psalm 150

Each of the stanzas in the last psalm in the book of psalms in the Hebrew Bible begins with the simple phrase, "praise the Lord." No one can leave reflecting on that psalm asking, "now what was the main point again?"

This morning, I read this psalm at it left me unnerved. I didn't feel like praising God not because I don't like to worship or think worship is unimportant. It's just that I wasn't feeling that excited about God. It seemed like after I read it that the psalmist really wanted me to praise God...as if it was his need, not mine, to praise God and he wanted me to do what he wanted me to do. I resisted. I'm not overally dramatic with my worship. I've never raised my hands to the sky nor lost my self in awe of God's majesty. I'm Lutheran after all. I have closed my eyes to focus and I have been moved in worship to sing honestly and been moved to tears...all a sign of the Spirit at work in the service and in my life. But I've never shouted, "Praise the Lord..." as some Christians do. There isn't a thing wrong with that...it's just me.

Then God reminded me of the real issue in my life right now, why I felt unnerved by the psalm.
My experience this morning with the psalm was kind of like my experience watching a football game. Usually between the crowd and the action on the football field are the cheerleaders who enthusiastically encourage the crowd to join them in cheering for the team and rooting them on to victory. Unless one of the cheerleaders in the squad is a family member, friend, or someone we have a crush upon, most of us pay little attention to them. We focus on the game. The cheerleaders are nice, but not important to the game overall. No offense to cheerleaders. But most of us would also say if the cheerleaders were taken away from the game we would miss them.

I wonder if this is what I perceive worship and/or daily prayer with God to be like...a nice part of life, but essentially unnecessary to the important action happening in the "real world" of life on the field. I reality though it is God who creates this real world and I/we cannot seperate worship and life. Worship is life and life is worship...this afterall is the point of the Psalm, "Let everything that has breath praise the Lord" (chickens, ostriches, infants, grandpas, aunts, men, women, boys, jaguars, etc). As we move and live we live in praise of God...by virtue of our existence. I was unnerved by the psalm because I began to seperate in my mind what is not intended to be seperated, worship and life.

Thank you Lord for the reminder to worship you in all things...whether writing this blog, talk on my cell, washing my son's dirty feet, riding a bike, or whatever. In all things, let your name be praised. Praise the Lord.

Thanks for reading.

Random clapper

Saturday night I sat behind the random clap starter. A great American hero Budweiser? Maybe not, but it was a unique experience. "Random clap starter?" you ask. It's the person who deems the point made by a speaker during a talk inspirational and/important and thus begins to clap and the rest of the group follows suit. In a crowd of 3000 people I sat behind that guy. During the talk on stage, the guy in front of me four times started the random clap. After the first time, his son, probably 20 years old looks over at him with awe and says, "Dad, you began the random clap." The guy didn't respond because he was too engrossed in the speaker's content. The wave of clapping was begun by a middle aged guy sitting near the back of thousands of people, right in front of me. Did I respond to his initiation? Yes, claps are like yawns, they are infectious.

The random clap that I'm waiting to experience is the one we see in movies, mostly in high school movies where the "nerd" turns hero. At that moment, always near the end of the movie, the cool kids who had previously been the arch nemesises (what is the plural of nemesis anyway), stand near the "nerd" after his/her moment of triumph. He/she has finally gained their respect and usually one guy starts clapping slowly and forcefully: clap..........clap.........clap........and then others begin to join in....clap...clap..clap...and the speeds picks up into a wave of clapping....clap, clap, clap, clap...I've never seen this in real life, but I've always wanted to be the one who starts the slow, forceful random clap.

Here's to you Mr Random Clap Starter...

Thanks for reading...

Tragic

What is going on in the world? Moments ago, I heard the story that over twenty people on the Virginia Tech campus were killed by a gunman. Apparently he or she opened fire in a co-ed dorm and then in the engineering building. The news is quite tragic. The quiet of a college dorm and academic hall early on a Monday morning is interrupted by the sound of gunfire. The peace of a early spring morning turns to chaos. Terrible. Terrible. May our prayers rise before you like incense O God for those who suffer loss and those who are terrified.

Through the darkness

This morning I tripped over a familiar passage from Psalm 23, "Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil for you are with me..." I tripped because I unconsciously added words not written in the translation I read. I added, Even though I walk through the valley of death, I will fear no evil..." Turns out the Hebrew word immediately after "valley" in the original can be translated either, "death valley" or "dark valley". And yet I found myself glad that death wasn't added to my translation, not because I don't like the subject (nor do I like it either), but because it spoke to much of my reality. I face the unknown daily, tomorrow is darkness to me as it is to all of us. None of us can see past this moment. Death, while always a possibility for each of us, isn't always a subject we ponder...hopefully. And like all of us, there are times in life that I face the darkness of difficult times when it feels like hope is gone and darkness surrounds me. In that moment, whether wondering about tomorrow or trying to get through the darkness of difficulty, God is there.

God is there, not to dispel the darkness. We have to walk through the darkness...we move through it. The psalmist reminds us that God doesn't necessarily shed light on the path. What God does is protect us from the enemies that beset us in the darkness.

My son is now afraid of the dark. We didn't do anything to cause this fear by telling him monsters lurked in the closet or under his bed. One night after we had turned out the light in the hallway outside his room and darkness surrounded him, he said, "Daddy, I'm afraid of the shadows." His night light had been casting shadows on to the wall beside his bed. I reassured him that there was nothing to around that could hurt him, that he is safe, and if there is anything I would be there to protect him. He rested.

How much more for our lives? How many times do we express fear when "darkness" surrounds us, and God says, "No worries my child...I will fight for you." How many shadows have frightened us...images of what might happen, what could be, what we think is there but really isn't...when reality is that these shadows in the dark can do nothing to us? God is with us. We fear no evil...God's rod and staff to drive away enemies is used.

Thanks for reading.

Changing the world

Yesterday I picked up U2's album "October" from 1981. Sheesh...how 26 years old! What possessed me to buy this CD of early U2, I don't know; add it to my collection I guess. One song in particular caught my attention "Rejoice" (lyrics below), and especially one line in the song, "I can't change the world, but I can change the world in me." There is so much truth to that phrase...Changing the world starts from within our own lives. We experience the truth of this if we've grown up or live in a dysfunctional family. One person's dysfunction affects the rest of the family system. Conversely, one person's emotional, mental, and spiritual health will have a positive affect on a family.

The lyrics to the song also echo the ancient words from Paul to the Christians in Philippi, "Rejoice in the Lord always...whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, thing about these things. Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you" (Philippians 4:4, 8-9). In the face of difficulty around us, we dare to rejoice in God's goodness and grace.

It's falling it's falling
And outside the buildings
Are tumbling down
And inside a child on the ground
Says he'd do it again

And what am I to do
What in the world am I to say
There's nothing else to do
He says he'll change the world someday
I rejoice

He's building, I'll follow
In my bed when I woke up
To what he has said
Everything's crazy
But I'm too lazy to lie

And what am I to do
Just tell me what am I supposed to say
I can't change the world
But I can change the world in me
If I rejoice
Rejoice...

And what am I to do
Just tell me what am I supposed to say
I can't change the world
But I can change the world in me
If I rejoice

I don't know what to change
Rejoice...

Taste and smell history

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to go to the Ohio Historical Society's preservation office and warehouse where historical artifacts not in the museum are stored. My purpose was to view some of the Civil War battle flags from Ohio regiments.

At one point in the tour, our guide opened a sealed case probably 10 feet wide and 8 feet tall that held 10-15 of the flags in a climate controlled chamber. When he opened the doors the smell of woods fires and the sulfur of gunpowder, still left in the fabric after nearly 145 years permeated the air. I was smelling history.

Every Sunday churches around the world have the opportunity to taste history. Each time we take the bread and wine, Christ's body and blood, we taste history...the history of God's rich mercy and love extended to people through every generation. We're reenacting a small, a very small, a miniscule portion of the Jewish Passover celebration which recalls God's amazing freedom fighting to get his people out of Egypt. Jesus, on the night of his betrayal, celebrated the Passover with his friends and took the middle of the three pieces of unleavened bread, breaking it as the head of the household does in the Passover seder, and distributed to his disciples saying, "Take and eat. This is my body broken for you." After supper, the gospels record, Jesus took the cup of wine, the cup of redemption, and after giving thanks (Blessed are you Lord God of the universe because you give us the fruit of the vine) gave it to his disciples saying, "Take and drink. This is my blood shed for you and for all people for the forgiveness of sin." Redemption.

Every Sunday, we get to taste history as I got to smell American history. What an honor.

Post-India thoughts

Since I've returned from around the world, I've wondered about what I experienced while there. Certainly traveling there and spending a week with the BFLC was a blessing and honor, but I still feel like to don't fully comprehend what happened there, especially given all of the difficulties I faced from the train to car sickness. I feel in a way like Peter getting his feet washed by Jesus recorded in John. Peter refuses Jesus' washing, but the Lord says, "Right now you don't know what I am doing, but later you will understand." Complete understanding about the trip will come in time.

In the meantime, I realized that one of the great values of traveling to India are the relationships that are maintained. A friend of mine puts it this way about life, "Relationships are not the main thing, they are the only thing." I agree with my whole heart. The relationships I've gained with the Indian pastors are valuable. The difference between this trip and a year ago in January of 2006, is that I was able to joke around with the pastors this time because of the growing friendship between us. Each afternoon during the symposium, the conference took a break for tea. Most of the American visitors didn't drink the tea and opted for soda. I chose the tea. Each afternoon one of the pastors as we were walking together toward the steps going down to the break area would ask me, "You take tea?" I would reply, "Yes of course," and Jakiah or Rajesh would walk faster ahead of me to get me some chai (tea). On Wednesday afternoon we stood there together and some of the pastors were teasing John Babu calling him, "Raipa" which I was told meant, "rock." Babu played along with the fun-natured ribbing, and because I know these guys I was able to play along. We laughed together. There is a beautiful bond that happens when people laugh together.

Later in the week Jakiah, one of the pastors, asks me my age and when I told him he was shocked that we were the same age. He said, "Not only can I practice speaking English with you, you are my friend." I agreed.

There is a growing relationship between All Saints and Nachugunta. It's one thing to talk about a village called Nachugunta and hear about their struggles and joys as a people. It's another thing to meet the pastor there, Sudir and his wife, to shake hands with the people, and to bring back pictures of the people of Nachugunta to show the folks at All Saints. While the new church wasn't completed at Nachugunta when I visited, I was able to share with them one of the banners from All Saints which is a picture of the church building, but made up of the various faces of the families here. Even for the people there in India, I was able to show them the faces of people who care about the gospel and others as much as we do here. Bottom line, relationships were sustained.

We need people. That point was reinforced over and over in my mind being there. As the train sped back to Hyderabad on Friday afternoon from Guntur, I went out to the door to the coach and stood there enjoying the breeze and fresh air. At one point as we went by a small rural Indian village the thought crossed my mind that at the next stop I could simply get off this train and walk away. My friends wouldn't know where I went. There is no way I would ever do such a thing, ever. What kept me on the train? Relationships with those traveling with me and my family in the U.S. Even if I had gotten off the train, I still would need relationships. I couldn't have survived alone for long. We need people. We need God.

Thanks for reading.