Pentecost 14 A
Exodus 6:2-8; Romans 11:33-36
Let Your Balloons Sail Free!
Based on Joachim Neander’s Hymn:
Praise to the Lord, the Almighty
08/25/02
“Hallelujah! Praise the Lord.” These are not expressions that ordinarily used in the Lutheran Church. Not because there’s anything wrong with that, but just because it’s not part of our Lutheran culture.
Evidently it’s not typical of some Presbyterians either. Not too long ago there was a conference at a Presbyterian church in Omaha, NE where worshippers were given balloons and encouraged to quietly let them go whenever they felt moved to show joy in lieu of loudly shouting their praise.
And that’s ok. The truth is, singing the praises of our God and king can be done in any number of appropriate ways – a glorious shout, a humble prayer, a quiet release of a balloon at an outdoor service. In the right setting any of these expressions are appropriate.
Praise comes in all kinds of fashions and for a host of reasons. And today we ponder a few reasons why we might want to consider doing it a bit more.
What is it that brings your heart to praise the Lord? Some are moved to return thanks to God when they’re given recognition for a job well done. For others it’s a touching story or a powerful song that draws those feelings of gratitude and praise. Maybe you feel it when you see what God has done in the life of your children, your grand-children or a student or friend.
For Joachim Neander such praise was evoked by life-changing memories from his youth. To say he was a rebel is probably an understatement. Most of his youth was spent with little regard for God and His Word. Sometimes he even outrightly mocked the Word of God and those who preached it. Neander and two of his friends were on such an excursion when they went to St. Martin’s Church in Bremen, Germany to hear a pietistic preacher by the name of Eyck. They went, not to worship; but to ridicule and scoff, to disrupt and belittle. But God had a big surprise waiting for Joachim. He came to poke fun. God came and poked a hole in his heart and filled it with repentance, with forgiveness and with power for a new life.
It’s the kind of thing God has demonstrated many times in the life of His people. Out of nothing, God spoke His Word and worked faith in Neander’s heart, just as he spoke His Word in the beginning and brought forth the earth, the sun, the moon and all life. By the power of His Word He brought forth life from the barren womb of Sarah and she in her old age gave birth to a son from whom the entire nation of Israel would be born. And it’s by such things as this that the Lord was hailed as the “almighty one,” the Lord of lords, the King of creation.
One reason we bring forth such praise in the face of God’s almighty power is that He’s often used it in the most unusual and unexpected of ways. Considering Neander’s past and his plans for that evening he’s among some of the most unlikely candidates for conversion. Yet God turns the entire situation on end and uses it to accomplish His purposes. Neander becomes a child of God, and more. God turns him into an accomplished hymn writer so as to move His entire church to share in his praises.
The same thing is demonstrated in our epistle lesson today when Paul sings to God’s wisdom, counsel and favor. What wisdom is this? It’s the wisdom of God’s mysterious workings among his people spoken of in the epistle lesson last week. If you remember, we heard how Israel as a nation had refused the gospel. Nevertheless, God used this unfortunate circumstance as an occasion to preach the Gospel to the rest of the world; and then thereby recall His people Israel again through them. Paul put it this way: “Just as you who were at one time disobedient to God have now received mercy as a result of their disobedience, so they too have now become disobedient in order that they too may now receive mercy as a result of God’s mercy to you. For God has bound all men over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.” Quite simply, Paul is saying that God in his great wisdom and power is overseeing all of history so as to use it call all people to His saving grace through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ, and Him alone. He’s turns bad situations into occasions for good.
That’s how God often acts – not just with mighty displays of power that can evoke a sense of fear and dread, especially when we recall our sin. He also acts with mercy, with grace. He acts according to “promise.” That’s because He’s not just the “almighty” one. He’s Yahweh! He’s Lord and Savior!
That’s something Moses and the rest of God’s people were learning in the OT today. They’re frustrated. Moses is especially discouraged. He had gone before Pharaoh and asked that his people be set free, only to have Pharaoh deny his request and then follow up his denial with greater oppression of God’s people. It’s the kind of result that would make one feel more rejected by God than accepted; more aware of one’s shortfalls before God than aware of His grace. So Moses had cried out to God, “Will you do nothing in the face of our bondage?” It’s as if he were saying, “Will you only recall our sin, our debt; how far we’ve fallen and that we deserve in return this grief that we get?”
It’s a feeling we all get from time to time. At times, it can seem that everywhere we turn we run into a dead end. Nothing is going right. Every day seems like a judgment handed down from the “almighty” one on high who keeps a running count of all that we’ve done wrong.
Perhaps Neander was feeling like that too. Nobody really knows why Neander went to church that day. We know what he was planning, but what drove him there in such anger we can only speculate. But it wouldn’t surprise me to find that it was a feeling like the one we’ve described.
Martin Luther had a similar experience. Confronted with the Almighty God of judgment he found God for a while as little more than an object of disappointing wrath, as something to fear. But Luther soon learned in his search through the scriptures that there was more to God than this.
Moses was to learn that there was more to God than this too. We think of God having a memory as we do. We think of him recalling all our sins and weaknesses which make us unacceptable in his sight. But what grand news comes today when God reveals himself to be quite unlike us in the memory department. “I have remembered my covenant.” He doesn’t react with mere “power,” almighty power at that. He reacts by remembering, not our sins, but His great promises and His will to save.
In his own time and in his own mighty way he remembers to save His people from Pharaoh oppression and slavery. In his own time and in his own mighty way he remembers His will to have all people, people like Joachim Neander, come to a knowledge of the truth and be saved, so as to work saving faith in him through His Spirit empowered of His Word. He does this just as He remembers His great covenant promise to send forth a savior into the world who acted mightily to save. He kept His promise to send a savior who would open the kingdom of heaven to all who believed in Him as their source of righteousness and life. He’s more than just the Almighty One. He’s a merciful giver, a gracious savior. He’s Yahweh, the one who remembers and keeps His promises. He’s the one who’s given us every reason under heaven and in earth to let go of our balloons and give Him praise.
When that service ended in Omaha, hundreds of balloons had ascended into the Nebraska sky over head, a testimony of God’s great gifts written on the horizon. What a testament to God’s gifts and blessings. But it could have been better. It could’ve been better because at the end of the service it was estimated that at 1/3 of those present hadn’t yet felt moved to let theirs go.
Let’s not let that happen today. While we have no balloons in hand, let’s let our spirit’s soar free today in the realization of the great God we have. He’s the almighty God who’s acted in powerful ways to give us life and breath, every gift we enjoy, including the saving faith we have in our Lord Jesus Christ. He’s gifted it to us in the water and word of Holy Baptism and has continued to nurture it by the Sacrament of His body and blood as well as His Word. He’s the almighty God who has often surprised us, bringing good out of unexpected circumstances, even out of grief and pain. He’s Yahweh, who remembers, not our sins which he has removed as far as the east is from the west; but His promises which He keeps through thick and thin. Don’t hold back. Just let your balloons sail free.
We sing the hymn.
