This year I’ve been meditating
in this blog about ways to live into the Call of God on each of us. During
Epiphany we looked at the lessons of 1 Thessalonians 5:16-22 and Philippians
4:4-9 beginning with ‘Rejoice Always’. Lent was a time of looking at our
journey in light of the Dorothy’s travels in Oz, the disciples’ road to Jerusalem,
and at the path Naomi of Bethlehem traveled from despair to faith. For Eastertide (the weeks
between Easter and Pentecost) join me on an exploration of what Psalm 100 can
teach us about living a ‘holy life’-a life of sharing the Good News of our
faith.
The first line of the psalm
calls us to "make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth." Just as our Epiphany study urged us to “Rejoice Always," the psalmist says that the most important thing we can do is to make a joyful noise. Some
translations say “Shout with joy [to the Lord], all the earth”, which is even
more emphatic than ‘make a joyful noise’. I am reminded of Jesus telling the Pharisees
on the first Palm Sunday that if his disciples were silent, “the very stones
would cry out.” (Luke 19:40) We have plenty of reason, as children of God, to
shout with joy!
Spring is a perfect time of year
to hear the world making ‘joyful noise’. This year I have been very aware of
the bird twittering that has been largely absent during the winter. It seems
like they are singing extra loud this spring, so that I hear them even through
the closed door. The breeze rustling through the ever more abundant leaves on
the trees, the splashing of feet in puddles, and the barking of neighborhood
dogs all seem to be shouting in their own voice of the new life bursting out
this spring. Each part of the world has its own joyful noise. Farms have the
sound of chicks and other baby animals. If you live near frozen ponds, the ice
makes cracking sounds as it melts and in other areas, the melting snow makes
the rivers and streams rush more loudly.
I know it is easy to be
oblivious to all this joyful cacophony. It is equally easy to be oblivious to
reasons for making our own ‘joyful noise’. It’s not really about being ‘happy’,
but more about being aware of blessings. What blessings, you might argue—I’m
sick, I’m broke, I’m out of a job, I’m alone… We could all come up with a
reason for not joining the chorus of joyful noise. Yet, don’t we all have
blessings, if we just stop and think about it? The fact of John 3:16 should
remind us to make a joyful noise.
Making a joyful noise is a
wonderful way to begin the Resurrection season. Now in Eastertide we joyfully
say “Alleluia, Christ is Risen! The Lord is Risen Indeed, Alleluia!” Some
churches, including the Cathedral of St. John, have a tradition of ‘burying the
Alleluia’ during Lent. No songs with ‘alleluia’ are sung and the alleluia is
left off the antiphons. On Easter morning the children are invited forward (see photo) to
open the “Alleluia tomb” and lead the congregation in a grand “Alleluia” shout!
How can we make a ‘joyful noise’
along with the stones, heavens, and mountains? As the cartoon (from reverendfun.com) at the beginning suggests, we don’t
have to do it with hymns and prayers, which are good, but we can also just ‘say
yippee!’ sometimes! Think of at least one thing to make you shout for joy today,
then share that with someone else. We can all use a bit more joyful noise in
the world.
