A Joyful Noise

pneumatizing

Oct 10

A Sermon Preached at Salem United Church of Christ

Higginsville, Missouri

9 October 2022

I. Introduction

Our reading from Lamentations last week is all about sorrow – it is about the poet and a city feeling abandoned by God – it is a communal lament about the loss of the standing of Jerusalem in the eyes of the world – the once wonderful and beautiful city is a ruin, a place of devastation – it is a widow whose children the Babylonians have taken away
At the same time, the lament is a cry of hope that God will not forget God's people in exile in Babylon, or the ones who remain among the ruins – there is an implied confidence in God in that song of lament – by the very act of releasing to God their anger and grief, the poet expresses a sense of expectation that God will yet act on behalf of the ones who have lost so much
Beneath everything, oddly enough, today's psalm has much in common with the lamentation, except it comes at the issue of grief and pain from the opposite direction – listen

II. Sing to the Lord

First and foremost, this psalm is a song of praise to God – the psalmist invites everyone and everything on earth to make a joyful noise to God – the reason for the outburst of praise and joy and noise is everything that God has done – God is so great and powerful that God's "enemies" cower
A brief word about this idea of God's "enemies," leaving aside the question of whether anyone is God's enemy from God's point of view – we should be careful with such a concept as God's enemies – we might think that we know who God's enemies are – our human inclination is to assume that our enemies are God's enemies – that we happen to think that is the way it works is no coincidence – we easily think that God is on our side in every matter, but as Abraham Lincoln is supposed to have said when a minister is supposed to have said that they should pray that God was on their side in the American Civil War, "Let us pray that we are on God's side, for God is always right" – Lincoln may never have said that, but the statement deserves serious consideration, at the very least
When we start trying to decide who God's enemies are, we should put ourselves at the top of the list – in fact, we should put ourselves on the list and stop there – the psalmist does not name God's enemies, and beyond naming ourselves, neither should we – we are God's enemies every time we try to make someone else out to be God's enemy – we are God's enemies every time we turn our back on the poor – we are God's enemies every time we close our hearts to someone in need – so, instead of thinking about who God's enemies are, let us all make a joyful noise and bow before the God who does awesome deeds and leave it at that
After all, the whole earth worships God, even the plant and animal world worship God simply by being what they are – their mere existence sings the glory of God's name
The psalmist invites the whole earth to come and see what God has done, to bear witness to God's awesome deeds – the particular deeds that the psalmist lifts up for all to see relate to the Exodus from Egypt – they are, in fact, more or less bookends to the Exodus – the first occurs near the beginning of the Exodus, as God through Moses parts the sea so that the people of God can walk through it on dry land (Exodus 14.21f) – the second comes forty years later (according to the tradition) as God's people enter the Promised Land – God stopped the flowing of the Jordan so that the people could cross the river on foot (Joshua 3.14-17)
These awesome deeds were not so awesome for the Egyptian soldiers or for the people who already lived in the Promised Land, but God's people remember the stories as a part of what God has done for the people – again, let us not look for such deeds in our lives today – let us remember that what we might see as blessing can be the opposite for another person – as the psalmist says, "…let not the rebellious exalt themselves" (Psalm 66.7)
Rather than exalting themselves, the psalmist calls the peoples of the earth to bless God – God keeps the people among the living and the feet of the people firmly in place
Then comes the reality check – all of this joyful noise is not naïve, not sentimental, and not without knowledge – God has done great things, and, the psalmist says, God has tested the people – God has caught the people in a net – God has placed burdens on the people – God has allowed other nations to tread on the heads of God's people – as a result, the people have gone through fire and water
And in the end, God has brought the people to a spacious place, a place of freedom, a place where God and the people can live together in committed covenant relationship

III. A Joyful Noise

So let us make a joyful noise to God – and let us not limit our understanding of what constitutes a joyful noise – of course, we usually think of singing as a joyful noise, and it is – we are blessed to have such beautiful, joyful noises as we have in our worship – the choir, Jamie's playing of both the piano and the organ, our youth choirs, the bell choir – we have an embarrassment of riches when it comes to joyful noises in worship, even if most of us do not sing much above a whisper – that is not the full extent of joyful noises I have heard in my life
I have never been to a Kansas City Chiefs game in person – Arrowhead Stadium has a reputation as being one of the loudest stadiums in the National Football League – that noise in support of the Chiefs gives them a distinct home field advantage – but I have never been to a game in person – I did go to a preseason game once, but I do not think that counts
When the Chiefs were in Super Bowl LIV, I was in a room with perhaps a hundred other people – you remember the game – the Chiefs played somewhat poorly for three-and-a-half quarters, then in the last half of the last quarter scored three consecutive touchdowns to beat the San Francisco 49ers – when the Chiefs went ahead of the Niners, and then scored another touchdown, and then intercepted a pass that allowed them to run out the clock, that room was filled with a joyful noise – and there was no structured music involved – it was a simple expression of glee – it had nothing to do with praising God, but was simply an expression of joy concerning a game
What a shame that we feel free to look like fools in public over a football game, and yet in our praise of the Creator of the universe, we feel such an outpouring of joy and delight is undignified – how can our joy for the presence and deeds of God in our lives and in our world be undignified?
We can consider so much in our lives to be joyful noise and music is one part of it – so is the laughter of children and infants – so is the sound of weeping at a wedding – so is the prayers of the people expressing gratitude and praise to God – nearly everything in our lives is a part of the joyful noise that we live and express
That night that we shouted our glee for the Chiefs win, there were hearts that were sad in San Francisco – that night, they literally felt the pain of loss, albeit in a minor way – but even minor griefs are still griefs

IV. Conclusion

Let us fill our lives with joyful noise to God – let us invite others to join in the shouting and singing the glory of God – let us be aware at all times that one person's joy might be another person's sorrow
And let us remember always the awesome deeds of God in liberating the captives, in caring for the poor, in feeding the hungry, and all the rest, because God accomplishes such awesome deeds by using the hands, the feet, the voices, and the hearts of people who know both sorrow and joy
Let us go, now not only making a joyful noise in the world but also being a joyful noise in the world

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