Don Friesen
A fellow who thought of himself as a loser began a series of sessions with a psychiatrist, hoping to turn things around. After several sessions of intense therapy, he was beginning to think that he saw a difference. One morning he rushed into the psychiatrist's office shouting, "I'm not a loser anymore, Doc. I just dropped my English muffin on the kitchen floor, and look, it landed butter-side up!" The psychiatrist examined the evidence, then with a sigh handed it back and said, "Stanley, you buttered the wrong side!"
It can be difficult to break out of a negative mind-set. Sometimes we get caught in a cycle of negativity and gloominess, and for such people Thanksgiving weekend must be a time of great perplexity. It interrupts our songs of lament with a call to praise and delight! I'm a bit of a whiner myself, and I find perverse pleasure in crafting insults. Then Thanksgiving comes around and stops me in my tracks! I like to think that insults give evidence of agility of mind, but if their intended target is not agile of mind or may just be a nice person any humour gained is shallow, and any wounds inflicted may be deep.
One doesn't have to be intellectually agile to be doom-and-gloomy. There are a variety of boring Christians who see life as a chore, a duty, a daunting challenge in which can be found little joy. If there isn't a denomination called The Community of Morose Mennonites, there should be, for some of us feel like Woody Allen, who said: "Today we are at a crossroads. One road leads to hopelessness and despair; the other, to total extinction. Let us pray we choose wisely." Even Mennonites who no longer believe in hell think we're going there!
Some Christians seem to revel in severity, their version of the gospel harsh and unyielding. The severity of God is their comfort, the presence of the uplifting Holy Spirit frightening! Guilt is our constant companion, be it the old-fashioned guilt that convinces us of our sinfulness or the new-fashioned kind that makes us feel like we never do enough recycling. And to those of us who are doom-and-gloomy, praise and delight sound suspect! Gratitude and praise sound like so much mush, gush, and sentimental slush.
For those of you who are in that frame of mind today, it gives me great delight to interrupt your lamentation with news of praise and delight! Those of us who like to wallow in the modern waters of nihilism may be surprised to discover that praise and delight cannot be forever suppressed, even by the most desperate of circumstances.
From Lament to Praise!
One has only to peruse the Scriptures to discover a people who suffered greatly, yet out of their experience rose psalms of praise and delight that have survived millennia! Read the book of Exodus the first fifteen chapters and you see the people of God in most desperate straits. The first chapter finds them enslaved in Egypt, subject to all manner of cruelty and exploitation. Secrecy and stealth surround the birth of Moses, escape from slavery is but a far-off day-dream, delegations to the king of Egypt lead to greater cruelty, as well as dissension within the community of faith. We are treated to endless rants, Moses' complaints to God bitter and vitriolic. Disaster surrounds this community, but somehow somehow out of this most desperate plight the people of God find freedom! And in chapter 15 we are treated to a most ecstatic expression of joy! Miriam breaks out in a joyful hymn of praise and thanksgiving!
This movement from lament through salvation to praise is not an isolated Scriptural incident. The psalmist voices a refrain echoed throughout the biblical story:
This movement from desperation to delight, from plight to praise, echoes through Scripture. Chapters 40-55 of Isaiah are saturated with calls to praise, this despite their gloom as the Israelites sit by the waters of Babylon, in no mood whatsoever to sing! Isaiah, however, called them to remember who they are, and Whose they are. Remember, says Isaiah, the One "who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people upon it and spirit to those who walk in it.... I am the Lord, that is my name.... Sing to the Lord a new song, his praise from the end of the earth!" (Isaiah 42:5, 8, 10)
Later in Isaiah God expresses uninhibited delight in His people, their morose mutterings notwithstanding. We read:
(Isaiah 62:3-4, The Message)
God gave us a new name, "My Delight," and the ripples of God's delight and Isaiah's joy are still sounding 500 years later, when at Jesus' baptism a voice from heaven says, "This is My Son, My Beloved, in Whom I delight!" (Matthew 3:17, Amplified Bible) Another echo heard on the Mount of Transfiguration: "This is My Son, My Beloved, with Whom I am [and have always been] delighted." (Matthew 17:5, Amplified Bible)
The Transforming Power of Praise and Delight
Twenty years ago an understated Danish film made its debut. It told a simple story about a desolate outpost of melancholy masquerading as a religious community. Their leader has long since passed from the scene, but the dwindling community continued, their faith akin to the rocky shore, the treeless land, the harsh winds, and the muted colours that surrounded them. Their disposition resembled the stale bread and unsalted fish-soup that filled their bowls. The faithful had forfeited fullness of life and faith, busying themselves, instead, with fractious, petty quarrels. The good news implicit in their hymns did not burst forth from their hearts.
The remaining twelve members of the community meet to remember their late leader, but their solemn recollections and austere spirituality are interrupted by a work of artistry in the kitchen. A young political refugee who sought shelter in this rough Danish coastal town and was taken in by the community, prepares, in gratitude, a feast of delicacies virtually unknown outside the most fashionable restaurants of Paris. The film is called Babette's Feast (1987), and Babette's creation one voluptuous sensation after the next calls forth praise and delight from the faithful, their puritan misgivings notwithstanding.
As Babette's kitchen is awash with the fixings of a exquisite French dinner, quail and sea turtle awaiting their fate alongside the head of a calf, some of the devout sisters are disturbed. They call a secret meeting of the faithful where all vow to consume the food but without tasting it "an ordeal of the spirit to be endured in silence." (Jean Schuler, "Kierkegaard at Babette's Feast: The Return to the Finite," The Journal of Religion and Film, Vol.1, No.2, 1997; I have borrowed heavily from Schuler's essay for discussion of this film) While the community worries and frets about their salvation and whether they are truly forgiven, the sumptuous bounty pours forth from the kitchen, the camera lingering lovingly over every aspect of the meal, the food itself a visible sign of the abundance they dare not believe in.
Some qualms in the face of exuberant pleasure may be prudent, but there is also something heavenly about an artistic creation that absorbs us and helps us transcend our ordinary existence. Preparing a great feast, or delighting in a great feast, or singing an aria by Mozart, or any other heavenly delight removes us from the range of the ordinary! Philosophers often treat the problem of evil as the greatest obstacle to faith in God. Babette's Feast, however, suggests that evil can be accommodated without much bother; what confounds our pedestrian bookkeeping is goodness or love. The villagers were not surprised by harshness, regrets, and ...routine. It was the gift freely given that disturbs them. Babette's feast was as unsettling to the villagers as the ...doctrine of forgiveness." (Jean Schuler) Philosopher Sψren Kierkegaard, another Dane, wrote, "It requires moral courage to grieve; it requires religious courage to rejoice." In other words, "a greater courage is required to trust that love runs deeper than the losses which are so palpable." (Jean Schuler)
Ripples of Praise and Delight
Our reading from the fourth chapter of Philippians is awash with warmth, praise, and delight. "My brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown," writes Paul. "Rejoice in the Lord always; again I ...say, Rejoice. ... Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God." (Philippians 4:1, 4, 6) J.B. Phillips translates verse 4 this way: "Delight yourselves in the Lord, yes, find your joy in him at all times." The Apostle Paul speaks of rejoicing, of being thankful, of praiseworthy things, of his own joy, of his contentment and confidence, of the strength and power he experiences in Christ, of the riches of Christ and what's amazing is that he writes these things from prison! Not only is Paul in prison, but some relational difficulties had developed in the Philippian congregation which Paul can only deal with from a distance, and Paul also alludes to some financial troubles.
At the point of writing this letter to the Philippians it was not yet clear whether Paul would be released or condemned to death, but ripples of praise issue forth from his prison cell, spilling over into his letters, their literary ripples spanning centuries! The rippling effect reminds me of Robertson Davies' Deptford Trilogy, a series of novels that begin with the toss of a snowball a seemingly inconsequential event but one whose ripples are felt for some time. Similarly a baseball in John Irving's Prayer for Owen Meany has not only an immediate impact, the ripples of this incident continue to spread out, affecting many others.
In the Scriptures, even those in anguish cannot resist praise! Psalm 22, for example, is a cry of anguish often read during Holy Week:
"My strength is gone, gone like water spilled on the ground. All my bones are out of joint.... My throat is as dry as dust.... You have left me for dead in the dust." (22:14-15, TEV)
May this festival of thanksgiving be an occasion to interrupt our worries and difficulties with expressions of praise and delight. May we, as the Apostle Paul encourages us, focus on those things that are true, honourable, just, pure, pleasing and commendable. Think about those things, encourages Paul, that are "worthy of praise" (Philippians 4:8), and may the ripples of our praise and delight uplift the hearts of those whose lives we touch. AMEN
"You have turned my mourning into dancing; you have taken off my sackcloth and clothed me with joy...." (Psalm 30:11)
Our reading from the Psalms Psalm 37 also speaks of desperation, what with its talk of fret and envy, and being beset by the wiles of the wicked. Yet in these dire circumstances the psalmist encourages us, saying, "Trust in the Lord, and do good.... Take delight in the Lord.... Commit your way to the Lord.... Be still before the Lord, and wait patiently for him...." (Psalm 37:3-5, 7) A movement from agitation to calm, from fret to delight!
"You (will) be a stunning crown in the palm of God's hand, a jewelled gold cup held high in the hand of your God.
You will be called "The One the Lord Delights In." (Isaiah 62:4, New International Reader's Version) This passage puts a dent in the theology of those who hold to the severity of God. Consider also that when this was written the people had been in exile for many long years. Their capital city and temple had been destroyed, and still the conviction that God loves them indeed, delights in them continues!
No more will anyone call you Rejected,
You (will) be called ...My Delight, ...
Because God delights in you...."
"My God, My God, why have You forsaken me? Why are You so far from helping me, and from the words of my groaning?" (Psalm 22:1, NKJV)
Yet out of this anguish issues forth an amazing testimony of praise, beginning with one individual, and then spreading out an unending testimony in an ever-widening circle of praise. A wave of praise rolls out from this one person, who is joined in succession by his friends, then the congregation, then all servants of the Lord, then all nations! (22:27) An utterly desolate and isolated individual becomes the centre of a universal circle of praise and worship of God!
Quotations of Scripture are from the New Revised Standard Version, unless otherwise noted.