Make a Joyful Noise!
May 22 – Recognition and thanks for our Choir and Sunday School
Baptism and Welcome of new member Tatiana Nicolaevna Letfullina
Psalm 66: 1-6 read responsively and Ephesians 5:8-20
INTRODUCTION SCRIPTURE
Psalm 66: 1-6 read responsively
When was the last time you celebrated with complete self-abandonment? When your team won the championship, the day of your wedding or birth of a child, peace is declared after a bitter conflict? All these are moments when we transcend our own needs and wants and just celebrate with joy. This is the kind of worship the psalmist sees all of creation offering up to God.
1Make a joyful noise to God, all the earth;
2sing the glory of his name; give to him glorious praise.
3Say to God, “How awesome are your deeds! Because of your great power, your enemies cringe before you.
4All the earth worships you; they sing praises to you, sing praises to your name.” Selah
5Come and see what God has done: he is awesome in his deeds among mortals.
6He turned the sea into dry land; they passed through the river on foot. There we rejoiced in him.
Ephesians 5:8-20
Ephesians focuses heavily on discipleship: how we should live in light of the grace that has been given to us in Christ Jesus. It gives advice to communities trying to find their way between the paganism of the Gentile word and the church's role to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ. The author of Ephesians seeks to set boundaries and ethics for life together as a community of faith, boundaries that call community members to pursue goodness, justice, righteousness, and truth. Today as we baptize Tanya as a new member, we honor the choice she has made to be one with us in this body of Christ.
8For once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. Live as children of light— 9for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true. 10Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord. 11Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. 12For it is shameful even to mention what such people do secretly; 13but everything exposed by the light becomes visible, 14for everything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, “Sleeper, awake! Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”
15Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, 16making the most of the time, because the days are evil. 17So do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery; but be filled with the Spirit, 19as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts, 20giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
SERMON
Today is a day of celebration. We give thanks for our choir’s leadership in worship, our teachers’ service that makes Christian Education possible here at Unity and Tanya’s choice to be baptized in the faith of her grandmother. Through the years we have weathered storms that seek to divide us, yet again and again God has called us to a ministry of reconciliation and love. Everyday we work to grow a community of believers who will be children of light in a dark and often dangerous world. How do we do that? By making a joyful noise. Sometimes it is like whistling in the dark. Or like from the song in the play “King and I”
Whenever I feel afraid, I hold my self erect, and whistle a happy tune, so no one will suspect, I'm afraid…
The result of this deception is very strange to tell, For when I fool the people, I fear I fool myself as well!
In the Jewish of Purim, you will encounter a certain amount of boisterous hissing, banging, stamping and rattling at the mention of the evil Haman or his sons during the public reading of the Megillah (Book of Esther). Of course the custom of making noise to drown out / scare away or ‘blot out’ evil has it roots in pagan religions. Israelites in ancient times blew the shofar (ram’s horn) and the hazozerah (silver trumpet) to, among other things, panic the enemy in battle. But I think it making noise to chase away evil goes back to our answers gathered around a fire and making noise to keep wild animals away.
It seems the author of Ephesians is using a similar concept that by making a joyful noise with “psalms and hymns and spiritual songs” we chase away the evil that would inhabit our hearts and minds. Today we celebrate the gift of music that helps drive away evil. Tanya shared with the Session that when she first came to the USA she could speak very little English and she had no friends. Worse she had no piano to practice her music and for her music is air. When Unity opened its doors to her to practice on our pianos, it was like saving one who is drowning. I pray all that Unity does will rescue the drowning of the world.
We also celebrate those who teach us the way of life. Rick Kohr began about seven years ago teaching an Adult Bible study. Like many teachers in small congregations attendance was erratic. Preparation is not always award with numerous participants. But through the years his consistency has been blessed, so the class has now out grown the room in which they meet. The message is not to be discouraged by numbers. God will provide them through your witness.
Most of all today, we celebrate a God who gives us a choice to make. At Shechem where God had first promised the land to Abraham, Joshua gathered the people of God and asked them to make a choice:
14“Now therefore revere the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness; put away the gods that your ancestors served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. But if you are unwilling to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served in the region beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” 16Then the people answered, “Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods; 17for it is the Lord our God who brought us and our ancestors up from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, and who did those great signs in our sight. He protected us along all the way that we went, and among all the peoples through whom we passed; 18and the Lord drove out before us all the peoples, the Amorites who lived in the land. Therefore we also will serve the Lord, for he is our God.”
And you know what happened afterwards? The people sang and danced and made a joyful noise to the Lord. Notice it is a joyful noise not perfect harmony. God puts us loud often off key boisterous singers together with crying and giggling children and perfect pitch sopranos and deep basses with tapping feet and roars, squawks and chirps of creation; all together to make a noise that is pleasing to our God. It is what we do when our friends and family choose to serve the Lord. We celebrate with a joyful noise. Listen, I think I can hear the shofar blowing. Amen.
RESOURCES:
Margaret Aymer, Associate Professor of New Testament, Interdenominational Theological Center,
JUDAIC STUDIES ACADEMIC PAPER SERIES Authored by Shelomo Alfassa, Paper No. 3.
Origins of Noise Making to Wipe Out the Evil Name on Purim, March 2008
