Make a Joyful Noise to the Lord
October 15, 2023 Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost
Ladue Chapel Presbyterian Church
Psalm 100
“Make a Joyful Noise to the Lord”
Douglas T. King
Wisdom from the poet David Whyte, “Gratitude is not a passive response to something given, gratitude arises from paying attention, from being awake in the presence of everything that lives within and without us. Gratitude is not necessarily something that is shown after the event, it is the deep, a priori state of attention that shows we understand and are equal to the gifted nature of life…Being unappreciative might mean we are simply not paying attention.” (Whyte, pp.89-91)
Psalm one hundred is all about gratitude. We are called to “Make a joyful noise…worship the Lord…enter God’s gates with thanksgiving and God’s courts with praise…” We also hear about why we praise. “It is God that made us and we are God’s…God’s steadfast love endures forever, and God’s faithfulness to all generations.”
What is interesting is the order in which this is all laid out. Twice we are told to offer praise and thanksgiving and twice we are told why we offer our praise and thanksgiving. But both times the call to praise and thanksgiving comes prior to the reasons why. The praise comes before the reason why we praise. The psalmist and poet Davide Whyte are on the same page.
We are called to have praise stand as the first thing we do. At the beginning of each new day, we are called to praise. At the beginning of each new activity, we are called to praise. At the beginning of each new interaction we are called to praise.
Now, few of us are prepared to be calling out “hallelujah” throughout our days but we can create a discipline for ourselves of seeking to enter into all that we do with a presupposition of gratitude. I would suggest we learn a lesson from Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer hustling Ben into whitewashing the fence for him. Tom engaged in the chore with such supposed passion and joy that Ben became convinced he wanted to do some whitewashing himself. Tom convinced Ben it was a privilege to pick up a paintbrush.
In this case we are both Tom and Ben in our heads. We can approach each element of our days, and thus our entire lives, as an endless run of chores to be carried out. Or we can begin to approach the elements of our lives with a spirit of gratitude. We don’t have to get out of bed in the morning. We can praise God and give thanks that we get to get out of bed in the morning. We don’t have to go to work. We can praise God and give thanks that we get to go to work. For those of you who have been dragged to worship today. We don’t have to go to worship. We can praise God and give thanks that we get to go to worship.
Our inner Tom Sawyer can begin to work on our inner Ben until what feels like a hustle becomes a mindset. In today’s parlance, fake it till you make it. It is a journey to understand that we can choose to live our lives with an orientation of consistent gratitude. We can recognize that existence itself is a privilege the divine bestows upon us.
In the fourth verse of the psalm we are told to “Enter his gates with thanksgiving…” But the connotations of the original Hebrew word for “thanksgiving” are broader and deeper than solely a feeling of gratitude.” It also denotes actual sacrifice. In those days it meant the ritual sacrifice of an animal to God. But what it embodies today is the understanding that when we offer thanksgiving and praise that is not something we can fully accomplish with mere words.
Thankfully, we are not in the business of animal sacrifice anymore. But there are a multitude of ways we may embody our gratitude. We embody our gratitude by gathering here on a Sunday morning and praying, and singing, and affirming what we believe together. We embody our gratitude by sharing our time and talents with others on the Day of Service, or at the Trinity Food Pantry. We embody our gratitude by the ways we offer love and kindness to those around us, both to those who are beloved to us and to all those who cross our path.
And, yes, on this Sunday as we kick off our stewardship campaign, we embody our gratitude by our financial commitment to the church. When we discuss our annual stewardship campaign it is always a multivalent conversation. On one level we are an institution with operating expenses like any other. We have a financial goal which will allow us to achieve a balanced budget. We need everyone to contribute to make that occur.
But that is only the surface level of any stewardship campaign. The root of our conversation about stewardship is about embodying our gratitude to God. It is a tangible demonstration of thankfulness for all the ways God has blessed us. This is easy to lose sight of us as we breakdown the need to keep the lights turned on, replace worn out windows and doors, write mission checks, and pay the hired help.
Institutional costs can seem like a long distance away from God Almighty. Windows, and doors, electricity, and paychecks are fairly mundane and earthly concerns that may not seem to pertain to the divine. But there is a reason we repeatedly remind each other that the church is the body of Christ. The very essence of our understanding of who God is, is found in embodiment. We believe that God revealed Godself by taking on the human form of a single itinerant teacher and preacher with dusty feet, who got hungry and sleepy just like the rest of us.
There may be nothing more far-fetched than the notion that a human institution with all of its faults and foibles could possibly be a representation of God’s presence among us. But wait, there is, we stand strong in the belief that God’s very self took on all of our human, mortal limitations. When we make a financial pledge to the church it is indeed an embodied response of gratitude to God. For all of the clumsy mistakes we make together in seeking to bring God’s gospel into the world, God has improbably chosen to make use of us.
When you pledge and when I pledge we are indeed embodying praise to our God. We are making a sacrifice that reveals our gratitude. We are making a joyful noise to the Lord.
One of the reasons I love this example of our embodied gratitude and our theme for this year’s stewardship campaign is how collective they are. When we think about making a joyful noise we often think about music and singing. Ladue Chapel is blessed with a multitude of gifted musicians, some of which are capable of singing solos of jaw-dropping beauty. Now, don’t tell this to anyone sitting behind me, but as much as I love and appreciate the glorious solos, they do not compare to when we sing a hymn together as a congregation. As a congregation we are a pretty good singing group, but obviously the quality of what we produce together is nothing compared to those solos. But I so highly value that we do it all together. For every flat pitch and botched sixteenth note we create (mostly me) it does not matter, for the gift that is created by us joining together to create that joyful noise is simply wondrous. It is only together that we are the body of Christ.
I think of our stewardship campaign in the same manner. Your pledge alone will not allow us to do what we need to do. My pledge alone will not do it. But together, all of our pledges raise a joyful noise to the Lord. Together, we embody our praise and gratitude. Together, we are the body of Christ.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Whyte, David, Consolations: The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words, Many Rivers Press,
Langley WA, 2015
Ladue Chapel Presbyterian Church
Psalm 100
“Make a Joyful Noise to the Lord”
Douglas T. King
Wisdom from the poet David Whyte, “Gratitude is not a passive response to something given, gratitude arises from paying attention, from being awake in the presence of everything that lives within and without us. Gratitude is not necessarily something that is shown after the event, it is the deep, a priori state of attention that shows we understand and are equal to the gifted nature of life…Being unappreciative might mean we are simply not paying attention.” (Whyte, pp.89-91)
Psalm one hundred is all about gratitude. We are called to “Make a joyful noise…worship the Lord…enter God’s gates with thanksgiving and God’s courts with praise…” We also hear about why we praise. “It is God that made us and we are God’s…God’s steadfast love endures forever, and God’s faithfulness to all generations.”
What is interesting is the order in which this is all laid out. Twice we are told to offer praise and thanksgiving and twice we are told why we offer our praise and thanksgiving. But both times the call to praise and thanksgiving comes prior to the reasons why. The praise comes before the reason why we praise. The psalmist and poet Davide Whyte are on the same page.
We are called to have praise stand as the first thing we do. At the beginning of each new day, we are called to praise. At the beginning of each new activity, we are called to praise. At the beginning of each new interaction we are called to praise.
Now, few of us are prepared to be calling out “hallelujah” throughout our days but we can create a discipline for ourselves of seeking to enter into all that we do with a presupposition of gratitude. I would suggest we learn a lesson from Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer hustling Ben into whitewashing the fence for him. Tom engaged in the chore with such supposed passion and joy that Ben became convinced he wanted to do some whitewashing himself. Tom convinced Ben it was a privilege to pick up a paintbrush.
In this case we are both Tom and Ben in our heads. We can approach each element of our days, and thus our entire lives, as an endless run of chores to be carried out. Or we can begin to approach the elements of our lives with a spirit of gratitude. We don’t have to get out of bed in the morning. We can praise God and give thanks that we get to get out of bed in the morning. We don’t have to go to work. We can praise God and give thanks that we get to go to work. For those of you who have been dragged to worship today. We don’t have to go to worship. We can praise God and give thanks that we get to go to worship.
Our inner Tom Sawyer can begin to work on our inner Ben until what feels like a hustle becomes a mindset. In today’s parlance, fake it till you make it. It is a journey to understand that we can choose to live our lives with an orientation of consistent gratitude. We can recognize that existence itself is a privilege the divine bestows upon us.
In the fourth verse of the psalm we are told to “Enter his gates with thanksgiving…” But the connotations of the original Hebrew word for “thanksgiving” are broader and deeper than solely a feeling of gratitude.” It also denotes actual sacrifice. In those days it meant the ritual sacrifice of an animal to God. But what it embodies today is the understanding that when we offer thanksgiving and praise that is not something we can fully accomplish with mere words.
Thankfully, we are not in the business of animal sacrifice anymore. But there are a multitude of ways we may embody our gratitude. We embody our gratitude by gathering here on a Sunday morning and praying, and singing, and affirming what we believe together. We embody our gratitude by sharing our time and talents with others on the Day of Service, or at the Trinity Food Pantry. We embody our gratitude by the ways we offer love and kindness to those around us, both to those who are beloved to us and to all those who cross our path.
And, yes, on this Sunday as we kick off our stewardship campaign, we embody our gratitude by our financial commitment to the church. When we discuss our annual stewardship campaign it is always a multivalent conversation. On one level we are an institution with operating expenses like any other. We have a financial goal which will allow us to achieve a balanced budget. We need everyone to contribute to make that occur.
But that is only the surface level of any stewardship campaign. The root of our conversation about stewardship is about embodying our gratitude to God. It is a tangible demonstration of thankfulness for all the ways God has blessed us. This is easy to lose sight of us as we breakdown the need to keep the lights turned on, replace worn out windows and doors, write mission checks, and pay the hired help.
Institutional costs can seem like a long distance away from God Almighty. Windows, and doors, electricity, and paychecks are fairly mundane and earthly concerns that may not seem to pertain to the divine. But there is a reason we repeatedly remind each other that the church is the body of Christ. The very essence of our understanding of who God is, is found in embodiment. We believe that God revealed Godself by taking on the human form of a single itinerant teacher and preacher with dusty feet, who got hungry and sleepy just like the rest of us.
There may be nothing more far-fetched than the notion that a human institution with all of its faults and foibles could possibly be a representation of God’s presence among us. But wait, there is, we stand strong in the belief that God’s very self took on all of our human, mortal limitations. When we make a financial pledge to the church it is indeed an embodied response of gratitude to God. For all of the clumsy mistakes we make together in seeking to bring God’s gospel into the world, God has improbably chosen to make use of us.
When you pledge and when I pledge we are indeed embodying praise to our God. We are making a sacrifice that reveals our gratitude. We are making a joyful noise to the Lord.
One of the reasons I love this example of our embodied gratitude and our theme for this year’s stewardship campaign is how collective they are. When we think about making a joyful noise we often think about music and singing. Ladue Chapel is blessed with a multitude of gifted musicians, some of which are capable of singing solos of jaw-dropping beauty. Now, don’t tell this to anyone sitting behind me, but as much as I love and appreciate the glorious solos, they do not compare to when we sing a hymn together as a congregation. As a congregation we are a pretty good singing group, but obviously the quality of what we produce together is nothing compared to those solos. But I so highly value that we do it all together. For every flat pitch and botched sixteenth note we create (mostly me) it does not matter, for the gift that is created by us joining together to create that joyful noise is simply wondrous. It is only together that we are the body of Christ.
I think of our stewardship campaign in the same manner. Your pledge alone will not allow us to do what we need to do. My pledge alone will not do it. But together, all of our pledges raise a joyful noise to the Lord. Together, we embody our praise and gratitude. Together, we are the body of Christ.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Whyte, David, Consolations: The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words, Many Rivers Press,
Langley WA, 2015
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