Psalm 96 & Hebrews 12:1-2
All Saints’ Sunday/
3rd November 2013
There’s
certainly a lot of singing in today’s service!
But there are times when we cannot sing. When our hearts are sad; when our
hearts are broken. There’s nothing to
say, there’s nothing to sing. When
Israel was in exile in Babylon it was difficult for them to offer praise to
God. Psalm 137 captures their feelings
in this lament: “By the rivers of
Babylon—there we sat down and there we wept when we remembered Zion. On the willows there we hung up our
harps. For there our captors asked us
for songs, and our tormentors asked for mirth, saying, ‘Sing us one of the
songs of Zion!’ [But] how can we sing
the LORD’s song in a foreign land?” (Ps. 137:1-4).
Singing praise songs to God in the
midst of grief seems cruel. Forced mirth
violates our feelings. In times of trial
and trauma it’s difficult to worship God.
When we are racked by grief and loss it’s difficult to offer praise, to
sing a song, when all you really want to do is cry.
On this day when we remember the
saints in light and give thanks for their life among us, we remember all those
who have gone on before us. We
especially remember the friends we have lost this year. This is always a poignant service. For some it’s
a tough service. The memories, the grief
are still quite raw. Unanswered questions
remain. Loose ends. Unresolved issues.
Unresolved feelings.
Even
if you haven’t lost someone dear to you this year, we all know what grief feels
like. Grief hurts. The pain of grief requires attention; it
deserves our respect. The depth of grief
is also a measure of our love. The
greater the love, the greater the grief.
For there is no love without grief. Perhaps this is what William
Faulkner (1897-1962) was getting at when he said, “Between grief and nothing I
will take grief.” Grief implies love.
It is fitting that today, on this All
Saints’ Sunday, that we introduce and dedicate the new Presbyterian Hymnal, Glory to God.[1] We started the new hymnal campaign a year ago
on All Saints’ Sunday. Today we bring it
to completion. In the bulletin you’ll
find a booklet with the names of people honored and remembered. Take it out now and look at it—look at those
names, especially the ones remembered. Many are probably familiar to you; many
are not. Look at the names. Now imagine them standing around us, on the
periphery of the sanctuary, gathered around us, looking on.
Hebrews 12:1 tells us that we are
surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses, the saints in light who have gone on
before us. They might have gone on
before us, but they have not forgotten
us. They surround us, even here,
even now. And they’re urging us on.
Encouraging us. They’re eager to see what
you will accomplish for Christ and what
we will realize for the gospel. They’re
all around us, eager to see what we will achieve and do for the sake of the
Kingdom.
The
poet W. H. Auden (1907-1983) once said, “We are lived by powers we pretend to
understand.”[2] He’s
right. Our lives—our choices, our
actions, our beliefs—are being influenced by a larger force, by the presence
and power of God’s Spirit shaping our lives. Those who are in the Lord, in this
world or in the world to come, are close and near-at-hand, because whether we
live or die, as the Apostle Paul said, we belong to the Lord (Romans 14:8). We are the Lord’s. And through Christ we are united with them.
Not only do they encourage us and
urge us forward, they invite us to join them in song, singing in praise to God
and to the Lamb (Rev. 5:12). Even if we
don’t feel like singing, even if we don’t think we have a voice, we need to remember
that they are singing and they invite
us to join them in the song of the ages, to unite our voices with theirs, in
full harmony, with songs of praise that are always new. “O sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all the earth. Sing to the LORD, bless [God’s] name; tell of
[God’s] salvation from day to day” (Ps. 96:1-2).
The praise of God gives us new
reasons to rejoice, new reasons to live; the praise of God gives us new reasons
to live our lives in praise and service to God.
The praise of God gives us hope for the living of these days. And new days require new songs, new days call
forth new songs, new melodies, new words, new metaphors, new visions of God’s
grace and goodness.
The
saints around us summon us to sing, all for the glory to God. For, as we will sing at the close of worship
this morning, a stanza that so beautifully, perfectly sums up the chorus of
heaven and earth:
O blest Communion,
fellowship divine!
We feebly struggle;
they in glory shine;
Yet, all are one in
thee for all are thine.
Alleluia! Alleluia![3]
Indeed.
[1] Glory to God: The Presbyterian
Hymnal (Louisville: Presbyterian
Publishing Corporation, 2013).
[2]W. H. Auden, “In Memory of Ernst
Toller” (1942).
[3] From “For All the Saints,”
written by William Walsham How (1823-1897), sung to the tune SINE NOMINE,
written by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958).
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