Psalm 34:1-8 (9-22)
Preaching
A Journey Through the Psalms: Reflections for Worried Hearts and Troubled Times
Preaching the Psalms Cycles A, B, C
Object:
The most fervent of prayers we can offer up to God is the living out of our lives in faithfulness. This sentiment was echoed in the writings of Saint Clement of Alexandria, a philosopher/theologian who died around 216 AD. Beyond the volumes of written prayers and liturgy that have piled up over the centuries, this simple dictum rings of authenticity. If our very lives are viewed as prayer, as an offering to God, what lives would we lead? If every action, every word, and every thought were understood to be prayer, things would change dramatically.
Could it be that the development of worship into segmented and compartmentalized sixty-minute chunks could have been a mistake? As one who writes materials for just such times, the thought is a bit daunting but worth considering. With people going to church on Sundays, church and the faith it is designed to nurture become relegated quite easily to the Sunday slot. Indeed, God help the pastor who strays much over the magic sixty-minute limit! We dare not, after all, let our faith interrupt the rest of our lives. What if church stopped being a location and reinvented itself as a way of being. In other words how is it that we can be the church together?
What if whole Christian communities could appropriate Paul's concept of being a "living offering"? (Romans 12:1). What if we abandoned worship as we know it and embarked upon lives that were a prayer being lifted up to God? What if we blessed the Lord "at all times," as the psalm suggests? What is suggested is really a seamless garment of faith. It is the ingestion of God's wonder into the body of Christ. What is hoped for is the rebirth of the church as each person begins to embrace the call to be praising God all the time, to be praying every day in every way with everything we do.
When we lift up the words, "O magnify the Lord with me," the question almost immediately arises. What will be used as a magnifier? The answer is simple to say, but will not be easy to do. The magnifier of God is to be our lives, lived in praise, wonder, and prayer. This way, it's easy to understand the notion of "tasting God," of experiencing God's wonder and goodness as we live out our lives as an act of prayer together. So it is these familiar and oft-said words could gain new life.
Could it be that the development of worship into segmented and compartmentalized sixty-minute chunks could have been a mistake? As one who writes materials for just such times, the thought is a bit daunting but worth considering. With people going to church on Sundays, church and the faith it is designed to nurture become relegated quite easily to the Sunday slot. Indeed, God help the pastor who strays much over the magic sixty-minute limit! We dare not, after all, let our faith interrupt the rest of our lives. What if church stopped being a location and reinvented itself as a way of being. In other words how is it that we can be the church together?
What if whole Christian communities could appropriate Paul's concept of being a "living offering"? (Romans 12:1). What if we abandoned worship as we know it and embarked upon lives that were a prayer being lifted up to God? What if we blessed the Lord "at all times," as the psalm suggests? What is suggested is really a seamless garment of faith. It is the ingestion of God's wonder into the body of Christ. What is hoped for is the rebirth of the church as each person begins to embrace the call to be praising God all the time, to be praying every day in every way with everything we do.
When we lift up the words, "O magnify the Lord with me," the question almost immediately arises. What will be used as a magnifier? The answer is simple to say, but will not be easy to do. The magnifier of God is to be our lives, lived in praise, wonder, and prayer. This way, it's easy to understand the notion of "tasting God," of experiencing God's wonder and goodness as we live out our lives as an act of prayer together. So it is these familiar and oft-said words could gain new life.
