Dr. David D. Young
November 18, 2007
Psalm 67
Colossians 3: 12-17
"Building A Bond"

This morning I need to offer a super-glue sort of sermon – it has to stick in just a few minutes because today’s is a very full service – with this being Harvest Sunday.

These past four Sundays we have been "Celebrating Our Family of Faith" through a sermon series that has been dealing with stewardship as we have lifted up service, financial giving, sanctuary, and diversity. Today we are embracing the theme that is central to our common life – that of worship, gratitude and unity. Worship, gratitude and unity are at the core of our life together as a family of faith.

Through worship we are building a bond with God and with one another. Hear again a portion of Psalm 67 which Kate Phyfe read for us,

May God be gracious to us and bless us
and make his face to shine upon us,
let the peoples praise you, O God;
let all the peoples praise you.

Let the nations be glad and sing for joy,
let the peoples praise you, O God;
let all the peoples praise you.

The earth has yielded its increase;
God, our God, has blessed us.
May God continue to bless us;
let all the ends of the earth revere him.

That is a thanksgiving Psalm, a worship Psalm and a praise Psalm. On this Sunday before Thanksgiving we encounter here a Psalm peppered with praise and gratitude – which is at the heart of worship.

At this time I’ve invited Rick Derr to share with us a bit about this very special day and what it means to him.

Rick Derr

Harvest Sunday has always been one of my favorite services of the year. How about you?

For me, it is the combination of an uplifting message and music combined with the humbling feeling that I need to do much more to show my thanks to God through helping those less fortunate than me.

Harvest Sunday is such an uplifting expression of our community. We sing great hymns with gusto while looking around at our neighbors and our church. The focus of the service is on the many wonderful blessings we enjoy individually and collectively and expressing our gratitude to God for these blessings. The words of the hymns, anthems, scriptures and prayers remind us of all these blessings and how lucky we are. The church is full with so many familiar faces. Those of us in the choir are privileged to see your faces, particularly during the food offering. (By the way, join the choir if you want the best seats in the house.)

At the same time, this service, with its focus on expressing gratitude for our many blessings, is tremendously humbling for me personally. This service forces me to focus on the multitude of blessings God has sent my way. I am greatly blessed personally, in my family, my community, and my nation. And if I stop to think about how blessed I am compared to the average person in the rest of the world – not to mention compared to the least fortunate in our world – I am greatly humbled. While perhaps I have worked hard and kept on the right path through my life to earn some of what I have and what I am, I primarily am a product of the many blessings given to me at birth and throughout my life. To simply sing and pray to God about how grateful I am for these blessings is not enough. Jesus taught us that "even as you have done this to the least of these my children, you have done it to me." I am humbled on Harvest Sunday to realize that I have not done nearly enough for all God’s children to show my gratitude to God. I need to work much harder to express my gratitude in actions on behalf of others.

And that is where I circle back to this community of faith we all are a part of. For here we can help each other move from hymns and prayers to actions. This church does great things to help others, and we can do much more – together.

David Young

Thank you, Rick.

We do not worship to get something out of it – we worship to focus on that which is at the center of all reality. When we offer our thanksgiving and praise to the Lord Almighty – it is God who builds a bond in love. Through worship God builds a bond with each one of us and it is through God that our deepest bond with one another is built.

When we think of our circle of fellowship, our family of faith – we need to remember that a circle is defined by the radii not the points along its circumference. It is the relationship of each point to the center – that binds the circle together in harmony. Not each point along the circle randomly connected to the others.

Unity which arises out of a common connectedness to God in Jesus Christ at the center provides the balance and support which comes from diverse gifts and separate – but not separating points of view from around the circle. Worship is the concrete bond of unity between us as Christians. All persons can find common ground – not through their stages and stations in life – but through their relationship with Christ. It has been well said, that at the foot of the cross – we all stand on common ground.

Tennessee Congressman Ed Jones once told about the woman from the city who didn’t appreciate the time he was spending on the agriculture committee. "What do we care about agriculture?" she fumed. "We get all our groceries at the supermarket!"

How sad that she had forgotten the source. We simply get the product and enjoy it, use it and move on. We lose track not being connected to the earth the way many of our ancestors were. Today we will be bringing forward all kinds of food items, most of which come from the supermarket. But today we come to put our faith in action. It’s a small gesture but it is an important one nevertheless as we seek to help and share out of our many blessings. It is a symbol of what we really can do to get serious about giving and sharing out of our bounty – opportunities are limitless as we think about taking our gratitude and putting it into action.

At this Thanksgiving season we dare not forget the source of our life and that which nourishes with all the blessings we receive. Offering thanks, giving praise, and opening ourselves and our hearts to the binding love of God is what worship is all about.

Our late President, Theodore Roosevelt had this to say about worship

"On Sunday go to church. Yes- I know all the excuses. I know that one can worship the Creator and dedicate oneself to good living in a grove of trees, or by a running brook, or in one’s house, just as well as in church. But I also know that as a matter of cold fact the average person does not thus worship or dedicate himself/herself."

One of our greatest theologians of the last century, Karl Barth, said,

"Christian worship is the most momentous, the most urgent, the most glorious action that can take place in the human life."

Could it be that Sunday morning worship is one of the best hours of the week because it is then that we intentionally join with others to turn our focus to the center and source of our true life’s meaning. If you compare worship to all the other things that vie for your attention during the week then what we do here is merely competing with all those things that entertain and interest you. But, if it’s turning your attention to God, it’s in another league altogether. Our confirmands have been learning the Ten Commandments. And the third commandment is honor the Sabbath Day and keep it holy. It is so easy to find other things to do on Sunday morning but is it not the Lord’s day and are we not the Lord’s?

When we worship simply for what we will get out of it we do not allow God to be Lord of life rather we turn God into our servant. But, when we worship with thanksgiving, praise, a contrite spirit and an open heart, God will rebuild us such that we go forth as new people. What we get out of it is what God makes us when we come out of it, which is seldom our own design. It is as though we are given a new and different wardrobe to mark our identity.

Hear it as Paul so beautifully put it in our Colossians passage. He has just framed the center for us when he wrote, "Christ is all and in all." Then in today’s text he says,

"As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe
yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility,
meekness, and patience. Bear with one another
and, if anyone has a complaint against another,
(for heaven’s sake) forgive each other; just as the
Lord has forgiven you, so also you must forgive.
Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which
binds everything together in perfect harmony."

"Building a Bond"- that’s what it is all about friends. And he goes on to say, "let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful not just at Thanksgiving, but always be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God." He’s talking about worship. "And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."

This passage of Paul’s says so much: kindness, compassion, forgiveness, love which ultimately comes from God and returns to God such that everything is bound together in harmony.

Worship is building a bond in unity with God and with one another and love is the super glue. The peace of Christ, giving thanks, letting the word of Christ dwell in us richly, singing songs in praise to God. Is this not our true worship? Is this not a lifetime of building a bond? Celebrating our Family of Faith with thanksgiving in worship, that’s what we’re about here today.

In closing I share the words of poet, George Herbert,

"Thou that has given so much to me,
give one thing more-a grateful heart:
Not thankful when it pleaseth me.
As if thy blessings had spare days,
but such a heart whose pulse may be Thy praise."

Last Sunday we received nine new members into our family of faith and next Sunday we will be welcoming another three or four as we expand our circle of fellowship. At such times we bind with them as we seek to faithfully follow our Lord, and we sing,

"Blessed be the tie that binds, our hearts in Christian love,
the fellowship of kindred minds, is like to that above."

"Building a Bond"- may it be so for us – always!

Amen.