Praise

from my message on 4/7/13 from Psalm 150

Breathe.  Breathe in ....and out.  I want you to keep breathing.  It is a good thing to breathe.  The Psalmist says, "Let everything that breathes praise the LORD."  There is no better use of breath that to praise God.  When you read Psalm 150, it is like each line has breath marks, to breathe in and out:
Praise the Lord (in)
Praise God in his sanctuary (out)
Praise him in his mighty firmament (in)
Praise him for his mighty deeds (out)
Praise him according to his surpassing greatness (in)...and so forth

God gave us breath.  You remember the creation story in Genesis...how we were just a clump of clay...until the LORD breathed into us the breath of life and we became living beings.

 Let everything that has breath praise the LORD.  Everything...all creation.  Some creatures have it easy.  Listen to the app I have on my new iPhone, Sibley's guide to birds, a red-winged blackbird.  I have been reading a book from the United Methodist Women book list entitled Green Church.  It is about how the church is to be in the forefront of taking care of the ecology.  The author imagined all of creation praising God, everything that has breath.  I imagined a whale.  Cathy and I were on the island of Oahu in Hawaii, at some state park that I can't pronounce, because all of the names have lots of vowels and hardly any consonants.  Cathy was snorkeling while I was life guarding her.  There just off the shore a whale breached the water, came completely free, and crashed back into the ocean, right there in front of us.  It took my breath away.  Let everything that has breath praise the LORD.

How will you praise the Lord?  Are you still breathing?  When I first started ministry here at St. John's, there was a Sunday School class called the Searchers' Class.  They had a challenge to meet everything in life with the response, "Wonderful."  It is like saying Praise the Lord.  My friend Carl was in the class.  He was an accountant.  He lost his job.  Wonderful.  He got another job.  Wonderful.  Driving a Coca-cola delivery truck.  Wonderful.  He was driving on 183 North, back in the early 80's when there was a traffic light every 1/2 mile, in heavy morning trafffic, when the truck broke down, in the inside lane.  Wonderful.  Carl got cancer.  Wonderful.  He got treatments, chemo, radiation, surgery.  Wonderful.  The cancer abated.  Wonderful.  It came back.  Wonderful.  When Carl was going to the hospital the last times, he took with him a seining net that he strung up around the top of his room.  Everyone who came in he had them write a prayer or blessing and place it in the net.  He said, "That's my love net.  You are carrying me."  Wonderful.  Carl died.  Wonderful. But he didn't die alone.  Wonderful.

We don't do this praise thing alone.  We do it as a community of faith.  As ones who live on this side of Easter, we can praise even in the hardest times.  We do it so much that it becomes a part of us.  It is like a spiritual discipline.  Frank who plays in our praise band had a pastor who was traveling with Mother Teresa.  They came to an airport to change planes.   A storm moved through and the airport shut down.  All the flights were cancelled.  You can bet a lot of people didn't say, "Wonderful."  Mother Teresa said, "Praise the Lord.  Look at all the people who need ministry." 

Let everything that breathes praise the Lord.  Are you still breathing?  How will you praise?  This past week I caught instances of praise.  I saw Adam who has terminal cancer.  His appetite has returned.  He has good hours, pain free hours every day.  He got to go home on Wednesday.  The game room has been cleared out, and he look out of the home he grew up in.  What breath of praise!  I got my breath going on Friday working at Habitat for Humanity, nailing on edging for the roof.  On Saturday, I went hiking at Inks Lake State Park.  Climbing hills, I was breathing hard, which made me slow down and notice the flowers, the purple, the yellow, the bluebonnets.  I noticed the springs were all flowing after the rains of this past week.  I could praise.  What will you do to praise?  There is no better  use of breath.  There is no better witness to the belief that Christ is risen.

John Wesley, an Anglican priest that was trying to reform his church in the 1700's, and the movement got away from him and became today the United Methodist Church, died at age 89.  He is said to have been on his deathbed singing a hymn you can find in our hymnal at #60.  He sang, "I'll praise my maker while I've breath, and when my soul is lost in death, praise shall employ my nobler powers..."

Let everything that breathes praise the Lord.  There is no better use of breath.