It was VBS time at Red River
this past week and so it feels like a good time to talk about praise. Children
do praise well. Of course, some kids are shy and some of them are afraid to
stand in front of people, but the one thing kids do that adults often do not is
they give it a shot. They try things. Often those things don’t work because
kids aren’t always all that bright, but they try nonetheless. The adults in
their lives—their parents, teachers, whomever—are constantly having to set
boundaries because kids will try anything and everything. It’s why we put
covers over light sockets and locks on the cleaning cabinet. Given the
opportunity, kids will try it.
I’ve spent a good deal of time recently pondering that
bit in the Gospels about becoming like children. The last three Sunday
scripture readings have, in different ways, left me considering the positive
attributes of children’s faith. Today, talking about praise I feel the need to
revisit this subject one more time because, let’s face it, adult Lutherans aren’t
the best praise-ers. I was just at Synod Assembly the last two days and I can
tell you that this is not specific only to Kittson County. The only swaying I saw
in Moorhead was related to the 90 degree weather in the non-air-conditioned
room. Heat stroke and praise are not the same thing. But it did get me
thinking: What does it look like for Lutherans to do praise? Because I don’t
think the only way to do praise is lifting up ours hands and saying, “Praise
Jesus” half-aloud. I also don’t want to mock that, because if it’s earnest it’s
good. I just wonder if we need praise, and if so, is that the only way? Because
I have my doubts that many of us will ever do anything praise-ful if that’s
what it is.
That wondering about praise brought me back to children,
because I watch Natalie when she’s into something religious—and she’s old
enough now that she does sometimes get into prayers and church songs and
whatnot. At VBS—at seven at night—maybe not so much but at other times she
does. And when Natalie is doing song and dance she is doing praise, even if she
doesn’t really understand the thing she is praising, and it’s exactly that
realization that caused me to pause. She doesn’t really understand, I thought, but who among us does? Who
among us really understands who and
what it is that we are praising? More to the point, is praise about
understanding at all? Isn’t praise a response to a feeling? Today is Trinity
Sunday—Father, Son, Holy Spirit—who can wrap their head around that? Who really understands how all that works?
The funny thing is if I ask Natalie, “Do you know what
we’re doing when we’re praying?” She’ll say, “Yep!” And then she’ll stand there
and wait for me to explain. It might be a bad sign that she already think she’s
knows whatever I’m asking, but I’ll take it as a good sign that she at least
waits for me to explain it after she’s said she knows. Anyway, again I found
myself thinking, “Wait, isn’t that how the rest of us are too?” If I ask you,
“Do you know what we’re doing when we’re praying?” You probably also think,
“Yep!” And then you wait and ponder what that might mean, and maybe you even
wait for me to say something to try to make it clearer. We aren’t so different
from children. God is a mystery, and better yet, God only becomes more mysterious
the more you study him and the more you wrestle with your preconceived notions
of who God is. Praise comes in understanding that I don’t get it, but still I
want to say “Thank you.” Praise is however we live out our feelings of
gratitude.
Praise is also about trust; not about belief, per se,
because nowhere in the act of praising do you have to make any sort of declaration
about what it is you believe. That’s another thing Natalie has taught me. She
doesn’t decide, “I am this. I believe this.” Instead, she just has a go and
sees how it feels. If it feels good she puts some trust in it, and tries it
again. Praise is the act of trusting God more than I trust myself, which means
that praise is also about vulnerability. Certainly when we make our praise
public this is evident. It’s easy to mock and ridicule somebody who is open
with praise, whether to their face or behind their back. But even when praise
isn’t public there is vulnerability to it because you can’t praise God without
humbling yourself.
This brings me back to that question of what praise looks
like for us. Maybe it is raising your hands and shouting “Alleluia” for some of
you as it is for some of our kids, but for most of you I expect it’s not, but
that doesn’t excuse us from doing it. So given what I’ve learned about
praise—that it is about gratitude and trust and vulnerability—I wonder what it
looks like for all of us to praise. Maybe it is a “thank you” under our breath;
maybe it is earnest prayer—not thoughts of maybe praying, not good vibes, but
the hard work of honest-to-goodness praying. I don’t think there’s a
one-size-fits-all concept of praise. We are all created to praise differently.
The question that I’ve learned to ask from the child-like faith of our kids is
how are we trusting and how are we allowing ourselves to be vulnerable?
I can’t answer that for you, but I do commend it to you
to think on. How are you showing gratitude? How are you trusting? How are you
being vulnerable? Then, I think you will discover in what way you are praising
God. Then, when you hear psalms of praise or speakers who talk about praise, as
if the only way to do it is whatever their way is, you can be confident in
knowing that no, I too can praise and here’s how I do. This is important work,
because praise is something God expects of us, like it or not. It’s not given
as an option among many but as an imperative for the life of faith. Kids do it,
and they can lead us in it. But it is incumbent on us to discover how we
actually might praise God in a way that feels faithful and honest to who we
are.
Lutherans can’t be allergic to praise. We just might have
to reimagine it for our own selves. That shouldn’t be a huge problem; we are
used to reforming after all. The question is whether we want to, whether we
will make ourselves vulnerable enough, and what it looks like for us if we do.
So, praise the Lord! In your own way, whatever that is. Praise the Lord!
No comments:
Post a Comment