“Speaking the T--r--u-t--h” - Pastor Hines
January 15, 2022
A
4-year-old boy who was asked to pray for the Christmas dinner. The family
members bowed their heads in expectation. He began his prayer, thanking God for
all his friends, naming them one by one. Then he thanked God for Mommy, Daddy,
brother, sister, Grandma, Grandpa, and all his aunts and uncles. Then he began
to thank God for the food. He gave thanks for the turkey, the dressing, the
fruit salad, the cranberry sauce, the pies, the cakes, even the Cool Whip. Then
he paused, and everyone waited--and waited. After a long silence, the young
fellow looked up at his mother and asked, "If I thank God for the
broccoli, won't he know that I'm
lying?"
That
is a wise child! He did not want to tell a lie. Children first learn to tell
lies around the age of three. They have begun to figure out that you can’t read
their mind, you certainly do not know everything and do not have eyes in the
back of your head. So, they think they can fool you. Sometimes they do. A study
out of the University of Waterloo observing children in their own homes found that
96 percent of young children lie at some point. Four-year-olds lie, on average,
every two hours, and six-year-olds lie, on average, every hour. ... Lying
requires sophisticated thinking. One study of 1000 people suggested that
teenagers lie the most. Judge Judy often says that we know teenagers are lying
when they open up their mouth. I’m sure she’s exaggerating a bit.
If we have not learned already, the
truth has a way of setting us free. The truth leads to righteousness and right
living. Lies can put us and everyone around us at risk. Truth matters. Good
words matter.
Growing
up my mom would often say, “If you don’t have anything good to say, don’t say
anything at all.” Well, the prophet Isaiah says in the first verse of our text
that he will not keep silent, so he must have something good to say. Isaiah
knows it is time to speak up and break the silence.
This is just the opposite of the verse
in Habakkuk 2.20 that declares “The Lord is in his holy temple, let all the
earth keep silence before him.”
Of course, silence is not just about
words, it’s an attitude. Richard Foster a member of the Friend (Quaker)
community, in his book Celebration of Discipline notes “If
we are silent when we should speak, we are not living in the Discipline of
silence. If we speak when we should be silent, we again miss the mark.
What
is it that a godly person should say? Of course, the words that should come out
of the mouths of those who walk with God should be words that build others up.
The words that come out of the mouths of Christians should be words that honor
God and bless the people and bless this world that God has created. Our words
should be words that not only uplift, but show gratitude, praise,
encouragement, and comfort. There is a wonderful new song that says “I will
praise God in this storm.” It echoes
Psalm 92 which says “It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, to sing
and to sing praises unto thy name, O Most High.”
Good
and holy words are like anchors that stabilize us in our journey of faith. When
we are navigating troubled waters, good and holy words help us to hold on until
the storm is gone. Praising God with our words in a storm is a great way to
start this year. Verse 1 the prophet says that he must speak because his
speaking brings a light. He says speaking Godly words brings a vindication that
shines like the dawn. Godly speech brings a salvation whose light is as bright
as a burning torch. We all need light. We all need to see where God is leading
us. We need vindication from injustices. We need salvation from wickedness. We
need the light of God all the time, at every turn.
There is no need to keep our praises to
God and our truth and our holy words silent!! Before I became a preacher, I
learned a very, very good pastoral tip from a lay woman. We were talking during
a break in a workshop and she began to express her strong feelings about
preachers in general. I will never forget that she said, “Preachers talk too
much.” It can be true that preachers can get a little long winded. We are a
work in progress and often get told the sermon is too long. We go too far
sometime, but that may be a little better than being silent!
Jeremiah was God’s spokesperson who
thought about what would happen if he decided to keep silent. “If I say, “I
will not mention his word or speak anymore in his name,” his
word
is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding
it in; indeed, I cannot.” If he did not speak up and speak out, Jeremiah knew
he would be restless, uncomfortable, and unable to remain
silent.
You
may have heard our District Superintendent tell the story of how she stood up
in a meeting and volunteered to invite people to worship. No one else spoke but
she could not keep silent. Someone snarled to her from the back of the meeting
something like, “Sit down and shut up.” Her feelings were hurt, but the Holy
Spirit brought success to the things for which she volunteered. It is good that
she spoke up to honor God.
Jesus said it well in Luke 19, if the
people don’t praise God, the rocks will cry out. Or as Isaac Watt’s song “Joy
to the World” exclaims, “Let “Heaven and nature sing!!” It is good that ALL of God’s creation praise God. At
least three things happen when we praise God? First of all, our attitude of
praise and thanksgiving affects all of our relationships in a miraculous way.
Words
can create anything. With a word God spoke creation into existence. We have
power to use our words to create an atmosphere of love, to create wholeness
where there is brokenness, to create peace
when
there is confusion.
Goldie
and Abraham Plotkin conduct lectures on the Five Love Languages from the
Hassidic Jewish perspective. Goldie tells the story of a couple clearly in love
walking down the street together. Suddenly a man approaches them and greets the
wife in a warm and friendly manner. As they keep walking, the husband asks,
“Who was that fellow?” The wife answers, “That was Jacob Goldman. We used to
date years ago. The husband says to his wife, “Aren’t you glad that you married
me because I am the prime minister and he is a regular guy?” His wife replies,
“If I had married him, he would have become the prime minister instead of you.”
She had confidence that the words she carefully shared by the grace of God had
created a great leader.
A second thing that happens when we
humble ourselves and give thanks and praise to God is that the Lord draws near.
Psalm 22 says the Lord inhabits the praises of the people. As we are made in
God’s image, we too want to live where there is praise and appreciation. Seeing
each other with eyes of praise helps us to see the best in one another without
overlooking the places we need to improve and repent. Praise and appreciation
help us to be the best we can be.
Our lives are showered with blessings.
Children flourish when they are nurtured and praised and appreciated for their
efforts, for their ministry, for their giftedness. When we see our children
flourish and become good people, it is because they have been nurtured. They
have been praised and showers of blessings happen whenever there is praise.
Thirdly,
praise brings the power of the Holy Spirit. We are not weak and helpless
because God gives us the power of a Holy Spirit inside of us. Praising God
ushers in that power. As Ernie Arnold a Nazarene preacher put it: Praise destroys
walls. It tears down the walls of frustration, the walls of failure, the walls
of self-shame, the walls of loss and the walls of sadness…praise is a destroyer
of negativity. It takes things down and it builds things up. It takes down the
enemy and it builds up your confidence in the Lord. It magnifies your vision of
Jesus. It makes things new and possible. It cries out victory and it sings of
the love and blessings of the Lord. Praise is a game-changer.
When we speak the truth
in love, when we refuse to be silent when God is to be praised and the people
of God are to be uplifted, verse 4 says we are no longer azubah – the Hebrew
word for forsaken. We are no longer deserted. Instead, we become
hephzibah – the Hebrew word meaning the one that God delights in, the one with
whom God is in covenantal relationship. The one verse 5 says God rejoices over
like a groom rejoices over his bride. May we speak now and never hold our peace when
it comes to speaking the truth in love and for praising our wonderful and
loving God. May be go from azubah to hephzibah today and forever. Amen!
