A TIME TO CELEBRATE

"Let everything that has breath, praise the Lord, Hallelujah"
Psalm 150:6

The Reverend Alex Thomas

We just read that wonderful passage in 2 Samuel 6 today about David dancing naked into Jerusalem. His wife Michal wasn't too happy with him being naked in the street and all, but David was celebrating. It was important that the ark of the Covenant was being brought back after having been taken away by the Philistines. It was now being brought "home". It was a time of praise. It was time sing. It was a time to make noise with all kinds of instruments, and it was a time to dance. We we celebrating today. For us it is a time to praise, sing, make noise with instruments and even dance but I don't think we will go dancing naked down Lantzville Road to the new church. It's a little chilly for that this morning. We will, however, celebrate.

C.S. Lewis in his book Reflections On The Psalms has a wonderful quotation on Praise:

The world rings with praise--lovers praising their mistresses, readers their favorite poet, walkers praising the countryside, players praising their favorite game--praise of weather, wines, dishes, actors, motors, horses, colleges, countries, historical personages, children, flowers, mountains, rare stamps, rare beetles, even sometimes politicians or scholars. I had not noticed how the humblest, and at the same time most balanced and capacious, minds, praised most.... I had not noticed either that just as men spontaneously praise whatever they value, so they spontaneously urge us to join them in praising it: 'Isnt she lovely? Wasnt it glorious? Dont you think that magnificent? The psalmists in telling everyone to praise God are doing what all men do when they speak of what they care about. (1)

The Psalmist today thinks about the world around him - the temple, the evidence of what God has done and is doing in the lives of the people - and then breaks into a hymn of praise. We are urged to praise God with rams horn, lyre and harp, timbrel and dance, rousing cymbals, loud clanging cymbals. The psalm ends with these words:

"Let everything that has breath praise the Lord , Hallelujah"

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I have learned over the years how important it is in our personal lives to nurture ourselves with positive thoughts and words of praise and thanksgiving. It has a tremendous effect on our inner well being.

We know how we like to receive "thank-you notes" and notes of praise. I don't think there is anything more heart warming than receiving that kind of note in the mail. But it is even more important to write those kind of notes because the act of praise first effects the one who praises.

There is all kind of literature written today about the enormous power of the human mind to shape our lives. It is said that selecting a phrase and training your mind to focus on it throughout the day can dominate your awareness and reshape the person you are. If you take a phrase like "I give thanks that I am serene and peaceful, repeat it a number of times in the morning and at different times during the day, and keep doing that for a month and we will see how profoundly your life is transformed. You actually become aware of more times of serenity and peace in your life. Similarly, you can take the phrase "Let all that is within me praise the Lord", repeat it in the same way and your life can actually be more celebrative. You will be more acutely aware of all there is to celebrate in your life.

How important is that? Let me tell you about the renowned cellist Pablo Casals.

When Casals was an old man, almost 90, he was beset with the infirmities of age, which incapacitated his whole body. But Casals was able to cast off his afflictions, at least temporarily, because he knew he had something to celebrate--his musical gift. This was his daily Cortisone for his creaking joints.

It is said that Casals would walk into the room stooped over, bent, hunch-backed, in apparent pain. He painfully sat down at the keyboard of the piano which he also knew how to play, and slowly, and with great labor, began to press the keys and the pedals, and slowly the music of a Bach creation began to emerge. The fingers straightened. The spine became more erect, and within two or three bars of the music, Casals was moving up and down the keyboard in a rhythmic frenzy. He finished the piece, got up from the piano, and was good for an hour or two, in a state of relative well-being. Casals filled his painful void with celebration and thereby coped with his condition. (2)

What is one word that you would like as an epitaph? Sam Keen in his book To a Dancing God answers

"I know what I would like to have for mine. It is celebration!" (3)

You can see why the words of the psalmist in psalm 150 are more precious to the soul than precious jewels

Let everything that has breath, praise the Lord, Hallelujah

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If the effect of praise on our lives as individuals is so powerful, it is equally true of our lives as a Christian community. Celebration always brings new life. To be a part of a praising congregation is fulfilling, brings to our lives a sense of joy, and fills us with new life and anticipation.

I think today is a time to celebrate - to have the words of praise on our lips and in our hearts as we move from this building to our new one. It is time to celebrate and to praise God for all that god has done in the past, moving us from a small group of people gathered in homes, to using the Roman Catholic Church which was across the street for services, to this building, and now into a new centre for worship and ministry. Yes! It is a time to celebrate, but it is also important for our life together as a community to have celebration become the very fabric of our life together, and to permeate the whole church. Charles Wesley wrote over 6000 hymns many of which were hymns of celebration and praise. He said that he wrote these hymns of celebration instead of the "dreary thumping of some hymns". We need to move ahead with a song of joy in our lips and in our hearts rather than having the dreary thumping song of regret, despair, and complaint on our minds.

Of all the accusations against Christians, one of the most tragic came from Nietzche when he said that "Christians had no joy"

Let us show the world today and everyday that we have joy, and that we are a people of celebration:

 

Praise the LORD! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty firmament!
Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to exceeding greatness!
 
Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp!
Praise him with timbrel and dance; praise him with strings and pipe!
 
 
Praise him with sounding cymbals; praise him with loud clashing cymbals!

Let everything that has breath, praise the Lord, Hallelujah

 

 

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(1) C.S. Lewis, Reflections on the Pslams Fontana Books, p. 80

(2) As told in Norman Cousins best-selling book book, Anatomy Of An Illness

(3) Sam Keen To A Dancing God, Harper and Row