2512AFC03212 – Stoking the Fire of Praise
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Exodus 3:13-14 – 13 But Moses said to God, “If I come to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” 14 God said to Moses, “I am who I am.”[a] He said further, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘I am has sent me to you.’”
Psalm 103:1-2 (GNT) [1] –
1 Praise the Lord, my soul!
All my being, praise his holy name!
2 Praise the Lord, my soul,
and do not forget how kind he is.
1 Corinthians 10:12 – 12 So if you think you are standing, watch out that you do not fall. (See also 1 Corinthians 10:12 for more versions)
Luke 13:6-9 – 6 Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. 7 So he said to the gardener, ‘See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?’ 8 He replied, ‘Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. 9 If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’”
Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father’s Son, in truth and love. We are now approaching the third week of Lent. I hope you have had a chance to go over the readings for this coming Sunday. If not, you can find them here. (↔ Click Link) These are the readings for Year C. This Sunday, Catechumens will be entering The Scrutinies, and readings from Cycle A will be used. Next week, the Fourth Sunday of Lent, will be Laetare Sunday. More about that next week. It’s often suggested that we look into the readings 1-3 days before Sunday – that would take us to Thursday. Today I invite you to carefully read the link I gave you for Sunday’s reading before you continue. With that said, let’s get into the Word again.
The first reading this Sunday is the account of “Moses and The Burning Bush.” Those of us of a certain age have seen Charlton Heston in the 1956 movie The Ten Commandments, the story of the Israelites’ Exodus out of Egypt. The scene about the burning bush is an easy one to recall. You can see that with this clip (Follow this link) – part of “The Bible According To Cecil B. DeMille.” It was in that Fire – that burning, speaking, prophesying bush whereby God commissioned Moses to deliver Israel to be the People of The Lord. The phrase I glom onto every time is “He revealed his Word to my mind, and the Word was God.” That starts at about 4’ 50” And after that my heart leaps at “It is not by the sword that they shall be delivered but by the staff of a shepherd.” Indeed. And so it was from the Dawn of Creation. Perhaps we are reminded of the words of Psalm 103:1-5 (featured in 2508AFC022125) –
Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and all that is within me,
bless his holy name.
Over the years we have written about what it means to bless God. It means to make him happy; to love, serve, and obey him; and to praise him for his Majestic Being, Incomparable Wisdom, and Immense Creation – and everything else that we learn and know about him. And yet, somewhat like Moses, we are usually at a loss about what to say. How do we fittingly bless and praise God? Our human tongues have no words that are even minimally sufficient. As is common among earthlings, we might be looking at the wrong thing. Sufficiency is not what is important. What is important is acting on it, trying it, doing it as well as we can. God knows our hearts (↔ Music Link). He knows our words long before we speak them. His endless love burns brightly in our souls and yet consumes and reduces to ash only that which is not harmonious with his Love. Praise the Lord for that! Bless his Holy name!
Now, like that burning bush that was not consumed by flame (Why? Remember, it was growing on Holy Ground, all of which was harmonious with his Love; because his love was all there was to burn, nothing could have been reduced to ash), we can be set afire by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. This intimate, exciting, glorious experience really can be truly life-altering. For example, when we are Baptized, we receive Gifts of the Holy Spirit. When we are confirmed we receive the Person of the Holy Spirit into our hearts. In these, and all other encounters with the Holy Spirit, we receive the Gifts of his Love and the Fruit of his Presence. Just as a refresher for all of us (yep, me included), here are those two lists again.
Gifts: Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Fortitude, Knowledge, Piety, and The Fear of (Reverence For) the Lord.
Fruit: Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self-Control. Taken altogether, these are the charisms of the Holy Spirit.
Now, think of those Gifts as something like kindling, and the Fruit as something combustible that will give light and warmth like a home’s hearth. We might also consider that those things might become the fire that rises up to destroy that which is ungodly and evil in the World. All of us – each and every one of us – has at least some of the charisms incorporated into our lives by our Creator. Isn’t that amazing? Praise the Lord for that! Bless his Holy name!
For just a moment, let’s “hark back” a couple of weeks to this excerpt from 2510AFC030725 (↔ Click Link) ~~ Always, always, all ways remember this: John 14:15 – 15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And also Those who love me, I will deliver. Loving Obedience is extraordinary Praise. Obedient Loving is extraordinary Praise. Praise is extraordinary Obedience to Love. That gives us reasons to give God our permission to Love us, and to save us. Praise the Lord for that! Bless his Holy name! From whom are we saved? We are saved from being the broken persons we have become because of our cooperation with Satan and his agents – willingly or unwillingly. For that we sing Praise To The Lord, the Almighty (↔ Repeat WOWZER Music Link!) Now, I can feel that Flame of Love being kindled, and I know you just might feel it too. Praise the Lord for that! Bless his Holy name! But, we’ve said our words just seem so inadequate. Again, like Moses, we might ask God, “What am I supposed to say?” Would we be willing to accept a suggestion list from one of God’s most favoritest Prophets ~~ from King David? Try reading this OUTLOUD:
Psalm 150:1-6 –
1 Praise the Lord!
Praise God in his sanctuary;
praise him in his mighty firmament!
2 Praise him for his mighty deeds;
praise him according to his surpassing greatness!
3 Praise him with trumpet sound;
praise him with lute and harp!
4 Praise him with tambourine and dance;
praise him with strings and pipe!
5 Praise him with clanging cymbals;
praise him with loud clashing cymbals!
6 Let everything that breathes praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord!
In summary: Praise him with all of everything he’s Gifted you!
And we can find a whole slew of other ideas in 1 Chronicles 16:8-32. (↔ Click Link) Please set that link aside for your next Quiet Hour of Prayer (↔ Music Link) sometime and use your own Lectio Divina or just marinate in the beauty and Power of that passage. Praise the Lord for that! Bless his Holy name! Our Lord has given us everything we need to know about how to Praise and Bless him – we just need to learn it and use it. A Daily Offering (↔ Learning Link) is one place to start, but really the simplest thing to do is to just be mindful to thank God every time our senses detect something beautiful. Praise the Lord for that! Bless his Holy name! Do you love the place where you live? Praise the Lord for that! Bless his Holy name! Do you hate the place where you live, but still have his strength to help you endure it? Praise the Lord for that! Bless his Holy name! Is there someone in your family, your neighborhood, your church, your workplace who inspires you to do a better job of being a joyful Christian? Praise the Lord for that! Bless his Holy name! Would you like to know the best way to stoke the fires of prayer?
That best manner of Praise to and of our Holy Triune God is summarized for us in Matthew 22:37-40 – 37 b “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the greatest and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the Prophets.” To coin a phrase (not really), “ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE.” When our hearts are overcome with the Joyous Love of our Savior, we are like the man described in Jeremiah 17:8-10 – (GNT)
8 He is like a tree growing near a stream
and sending out roots to the water.
It is not afraid when hot weather comes,
because its leaves stay green;
it has no worries when there is no rain;
it keeps on bearing fruit.
9 “Who can understand the human heart?
There is nothing else so deceitful;
it is too sick to be healed.
10 I, the Lord, search the minds
and test the hearts of people.
I treat each of them according to the way they live,
according to what they do.”
Let’s apply that to what we hear in Jesus’ Parable of the Barren Fig Tree. The owner looks at it for the third year in arow and finds no fruit. He’s ready to cut it down. What might happen to a fig tree that is cut down? How might it be treated in accordance with its fruitless life? It might be used for firewood, or for artistic carving, or perhaps even for kitchen utensils, but never again for being fruitful. It has “forfeited” its chance for that. The gardener says, “Let me give it a little TLC and we’ll see. If it doesn’t improve, it’s a goner.”
OK. Quick parallel lesson here. It’s been dead on the job 3 years. A body 3 days old was considered dead and on the fourth day a stench would arise. At the end of the 3rd year, the gardener steps in to resuscitate the tree with food and water. It is called back to life at the brink of decay. Hmmm. Might we also be called back if we do not stretch our roots out to the Stream of Living Water? (↔ Music Link) Do we dare to believe that is possible? OF COURSE WE DO! Praise the Lord for that! Bless his Holy name!
If we think we’re standing so firmly in God’s Good Graces that we have nothing to worry about, we better go back and READ OUT LOUD Ezekiel 3:17-21 (← WORD to the Wise!) Again, a terrific way to Praise the Lord is to Love and Obey him. Or, make like the Psalmist and Sing your praise:
Praise him! (↔ Music Link) Or start every day praising him as The Blesséd Trinity (↔ Music Link) or even proclaiming the Greatness of God’s Faithfulness (↔ Music Link). We can just play that on the little radio in the left back corner of our brain while we do our daily chores or travel to work, school, or shopping. Whatever we do, however we decide, either to give it just a little try. or to tackle it full throttle, Praise the Lord for that! Bless his Holy name!
This is already too long, so I will double up on The Person of the Week next time. Until then ~~ a hui hou! And remember: Everything we do, or think, or say that honors and resounds God’s Love for us is a great method for Stoking the Fire of Praise and we can (guess what’s coming?) Praise the Lord for that! Bless his Holy name! THEREFORE, the very next time you hear someone say, “The Body of Christ,” as you say AHHHHMEN! (↔ Music Link) listen for that little voice in the right back corner of your brain as it declares
Praise the Lord for that!
Bless his Holy name!
Please pray with us here at Share-a-Prayer.
Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture passages are from the New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE) New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Biblical languages inserts from Bible Hub (Bible Hub: Search, Read, Study the Bible in Many Languages) Visit at http://biblehub.com
Aloha Friday Messages by Charles O. Todd, III is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License
[1] Passages marked (GNT): Good News Translation (GNT) are from the Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition)© 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved. For more information about GNT, visit www.bibles.com and www.gnt.bible.
