Grace Congregational UCC

“Explosion of Wonder”
John 16:12-15
Psalm 8

June 3, 2007 - Kim M. Henning

Seven years ago we received one of those phone calls in the middle of the night that no one ever want to receive. The hospital called late one night to say that—Fay’s aunt Lois—had just died. The news of her death was unbelievable. Lois hadn’t been sick. She was hardly 60 years old. Could we please come down to the hospital? Uncle Roger was alone.

What was unbelievable became real. Aunt Lois....without warning, died. She had blood clots. A few days later we attended her funeral. We worshiped God. We sang the hymn “Lord, You have come to the Lakeshore.” The tears were many, we grieved Lois’ death.

Yesterday, seven years later......we gathered again.....not for a funeral but a wedding, Uncle Roger’s wedding. We worshiped God. We sang again, “Lord, You have come to the lakeshore.” I don’t know if it was only me, but tears welled-up in my eyes.....I hadn’t planned on those tears. They weren’t at the rehearsal Friday evening. But as we sang, I wept thinking about God....God who walks us through the valley of the shadow of death. I wept thinking about how much courage it takes to live, how little we have alone and how much we have with God. I wept seeing the love, the faith, the trust......

We are familiar with the tears of grief at one end of the human spectrum. Tears of joy are at the other end.

We shed tears of joy because of the wonders that take us close to the heart of God. So much of life is pure gift. When with the psalmist we experience, ‘my cup overflows’-----the outpouring of tears is inevitable. “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.” said Paul. “I came that you may have life and have it abundantly.” said Jesus.

The world is full of darkness, darkness that hardens us, makes us angry; the world is full of darkness and regret; we all know something about the unfairness of life, the injustice, the cruelty—but what I think happened with those tears at worship yesterday was an explosion of wonder that made me so glad to be alive.

As I lived with Psalm 8 this week—what I heard was “an explosion of wonder.” I don’t usually preach on the psalms, but Psalm 8 got me this week. Verse 1 is “O Lord, Our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!” Verse 9, the conclusion is the same, “O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!”

The Psalmist knows that this world is governed by God. “O Lord, our Sovereign....” and the Psalmist knows that God does not govern like we are used to be governed. Under the governance of God, the poor are lifted up. Under the governance of God, the weak are given strength. Under the governance of God there is a watchful eye for the widow, the orphan, the child, and the poor.

O Lord, our Sovereign......The reality of God is so obvious to the Psalmist. A person cannot be forced into believing in God. A person cannot be coerced into wonder. Richard Foster says that the glory of God is a human being fully alive. I love that quote. The Psalmist is fully alive because he unabashedly names God to be his beginning, his ending, and all that is in-between.

Do you hear the wonder that vibrates from his mouth? He goes on, “Out of the mouths of babes and infants you have founded a bulwark because of your foes, to silence the enemy and the avenger.” As the Psalmist praises God.....some children must have been standing with him.

And surprisingly, the psalmist does not see children as a distraction to his worship-----he names what many of us know to be true: “Out of the mouths of babes and infants you have founded a bulwark because of your foes, to silence the enemy and the avenger.”

The Psalmist proclaims something radical when he says that God’s voice can be heard through children. So you think the sermon is a little boring once in a while? I do to. But what we have are children, and children are never boring. What are their prayer concerns? Ask them. We can learn so much by simply asking them, ‘who should we be praying for?’ Look at a flower with a child, look at a bird with a child. Children raised in a community of faith point us toward God......

The Psalmist goes on: “When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them? Yet, you have made them a little lower that God, and crowned them with glory and honor.”

The Psalmist looks at creation. It is utterly beautiful. The colors, beautiful. Mozart was incapable of composing music like the sound of birds. Frank Lloyd Wright was incapable of architecture like that of the stars and the moon. And then the Psalmist pauses to think, ‘what are humans being?

The human.... the human mind, the human heart, the lungs, the nervous system, the muscles, the ability to discern the need for God? The Psalmist falls to his knees. We may from time to time ask, ‘why is there evil’?, the Psalmist asks, “what are human beings that you are mindful of them?”

You have made us a little lower than God. You have crowned us with glory and honor. At another time, Paul says—about this miracle--- “I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love.”

The Psalmist is in awe. But he doesn’t stop there. With awe, comes responsibility. “You have given us dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under their feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea.”

The Psalmist reminds us that we have responsibility for the stewardship of this world. The environment. Will it be better when we leave this earth, than when we came? The air. Will the air be as safe when we leave as when we came? Water. Will it be as refreshing when we depart from here as when we came? “You have given us dominion.....you have given us responsibility, you have given us a trust.

It is so sad that some are bored with life.....or even bored with the worship of God. The Psalmist won’t let us go there. Step by step, the psalmist helps us to behold the wonder of God and our existence.

In 1972, Abraham Heschel, the great Jewish thinker was in New York when he had a heart attack. He survived, but just barely. When a friend came to visit him Heschel said, “When I regained consciousness, my first feelings were not of despair or anger. I felt only gratitude to God for my life, for every moment I had lived. I was ready to depart. ‘Take me, O Lord,’ I thought, ‘I have seen so many miracles in my lifetime.’

And then, catching his breath, Heschel said, “I did not ask [God] for success; I asked for wonder. And [God] gave it to me.”