Lynne Baab

Worshipping God the Creator: the Creation invites us to join in praise

Thursday June 9 2016

I wrote last week about how the Creation calls us to praise the One who made it. This has been a theme in Christian singing for centuries. In this post I will give you the words to two hymns that speak of Creation’s praise of God and our invitation to join in.

In 1912 Frances W. Wile wrote a winter hymn, appropriate for us in New Zealand right now, but perhaps not as timely for my Northern Hemisphere readers. The words are wonderful whatever season it is:

All beautiful the march of days, as seasons come and go;
The Hand that shaped the rose hath wrought the crystal of the snow;
Hath sent the hoary frost of Heav’n, the flowing waters sealed,
And laid a silent loveliness on hill and wood and field.

O’er white expanses sparkling pure the radiant morns unfold;
The solemn splendors of the night burn brighter than the cold;
Life mounts in every throbbing vein, love deepens round the hearth,
And clearer sounds the angel hymn, “Good will to men on earth.”

O Thou from Whose unfathomed law the year in beauty flows,
Thyself the vision passing by in crystal and in rose,
Day unto day doth utter speech, and night to night proclaim,
In ever changing words of light, the wonder of Thy Name.

In the second verse Wile evokes the angel hymn to the shepherds at Jesus’ birth, which reflects the experience that I mentioned in the post last week. Nature helps me to put my own struggles in perspective and experience God’s peace and goodness. In the last verse, Wile quotes from Psalm 19:2 and then says that nature proclaims God’s name “in ever changing words of light.” What a call to praise!

“All beautiful the March of Days” is usually sung to a traditional English tune, Forest Green, arranged by Ralph Vaughn Williams. You can listen to it here. 

Another well known hymn from the same time period invites us to join with the Creation as it praises God. Rev. Mathbie D. Babcock these words in 1901:

This is my Father’s world, and to my listening ears
All nature sings, and round me rings the music of the spheres.
This is my Father’s world: I rest me in the thought
Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas;
His hand the wonders wrought.

This is my Father’s world, the birds their carols raise,
The morning light, the lily white, declare their Maker’s praise.
This is my Father’s world: He shines in all that’s fair;
In the rustling grass I hear Him pass;
He speaks to me everywhere.

This is my Father’s world. O let me ne’er forget
That though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet.
This is my Father’s world: the battle is not done:
Jesus Who died shall be satisfied,
And earth and Heav’n be one.

In the second verse, again we see that creation praises God, and the implication is that we are invited to join in: “The morning light, the lily white, declare their Maker’s praise.” This hymn, like the first one, talks about creation communicating to us: “to my listening ears all nature sings, and round me rings the music of the spheres.” I love Babcock's words, "He speaks to me everywhere." So many people hear God more clearly out in nature than anywhere else.

The concluding verse has always helped me reaffirm that evil will not triumph and that God is still working, even when all I am experiencing is pain. God will have the last word. This is an interesting parallel to the angel’s words at Jesus’ birth, mentioned in the previous hymn, because nature so often gives us the peace and perspective to cope with the sorrow and sadness in our own lives.

“This is my Father’s World” has three more verses that you can find here, and you can listen to the tune here.

I’ll close this post with Psalm 95: 5-7, which mirrors these two hymns and makes a seamless transition from the fact that the creation is made by God to the relational truth that God is our shepherd:

The sea is his, for he made it,
   and the dry land, which his hands have formed.
O come, let us worship and bow down,
   let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!
For he is our God,
   and we are the people of his pasture,
   and the sheep of his hand.

(Next week: The Bible and Creation. Illustration: Queenstown winter day by Dave Baab. Those of you who are Lord of the Rings fans will enjoy the fact that the hillside in the background of Dave’s painting was the setting for a scene in one of the movies. If you'd like to receive an email when I post on this blog, sign up under "subscribe" in the right hand column.)

Worshipping God the Creator: the first post of a series

Tuesday May 31 2016

A few years ago, I was talking with a friend from childhood. I asked her about her sense of faith, and she said that she was basically a druid. I asked her what she meant, and she replied that she experiences God in nature. For her, nature enables her to experience a sense of transcendence, and nature is her church. Any worship she experiences is in nature.

I said to her, “I can really relate to that. I often experience God in nature.”

She replied, “Wait a minute. You’re a Christian. How can you say that?”

I answered, “God created everything. When I look at the world he made, I see it as his handiwork. We can learn something about artists from looking at their artwork, and, in the same way, we can experience something of God in nature. That doesn’t mean nature equals God. It just means it reveals something about God because he made it and sustains it. Because nature is so beautiful, it speaks to me of God’s beauty.”

Christians have often been wary of talking too much about finding God in nature because it sounds like they might be pantheists instead of Christians. Pantheism asserts that God is everywhere; in fact, to a pantheist the universe in its totality is God. Christians believe that God made and sustains the physical world, and God is present everywhere through his Spirit, but God is also separate from creation, just like artists are separate from the artwork they create.

Pastor and writer Gordon MacDonald describes the way his grandmother helped him learn to enjoy birds, trees, animals, and plants, teaching him “the things we were seeing were God’s gift, God’s expression of his character, and God’s artistry.” He writes:

"As I became more acquainted with theology, I began to realize that Grandmother had been teaching me one of the most fundamental truths of the Bible: God had created something out of nothing. That creation reflected a signal part of his nature: order, beauty, energy, growth. I saw that the world was a vast sanctuary where one, stimulated by his or her senses, could be caused to worship and behold a primary revelation of God the Creator." [1]

For many Christians, the physical world is a sanctuary that enables us to praise and worship God.

This is not a new idea, yet it is an idea that was largely lost in the twentieth century church. Over and over again, the psalm writers are moved to adoration and worship because of the splendor of nature. Psalm 33:1-9 calls us to “rejoice in the Lord” and “sing to him a new song” for several reasons: his word is upright, he loves righteousness and justice, and he made the earth. “Let all the earth fear the Lord . . . for he spoke and it came to be” (Ps. 33:8, 9).

The whole creation belongs to God by virtue of the fact that he made it. “The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it; for he has founded it on the seas, and established it on the rivers” (Ps 24:1, 2). Everything about it belongs to him: the animals and plants, the stars and planets, even the rhythms of nature. “Yours is the day, yours also is the night . . . you made summer and winter” (Ps 74:16, 17).

The creation helps me put my own life into perspective. “Long ago you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you endure” (Ps 102: 25, 26). My own life on earth will end. All the beauty of nature is temporal. Nature itself is definitely not God, because nature will ultimately perish. Only God is eternal.

(This is the first post in a series on worshipping God as Creator, excerpted from my book, A Renewed Spirituality. If you’d like to receive an email when I post on this blog, sign up under “subscribe” in the right hand column. Illustration: "Bright rowboats, Lake Alexandrina," a watercolor by Dave Baab.)

[1] Gordon MacDonald, “Foreword,” The Best Preaching on Earth: Sermons on Caring for Creation, Stan L. LeQuire, ed. (Valley Forge, Pa.: Judson Press, 1996), p. xvi.

Praise to the Trinity in four movements

Thursday May 26 2016

Last Sunday was Trinity Sunday. Here are my words of praise as I reflect back on my life.

1. Late elementary school. My parents take me to church every Sunday but we never, never talk about God at home. Prayers and hymns at church leave me with the idea that God is a bit mysterious in his holiness, and that humans can rest in this mystery and enjoy God’s otherness. The notion of the Trinity enhances this sense of mystery. I love the analogies of water in three forms (steam, liquid and ice) and the three leaves of one shamrock. How can we understand this three-in-one? Why would we want to? Our job is to enjoy God. My childhood heart is lifted up because of this great mystery.

2. My thirties. I am a student at Fuller Theological Seminary, and my favorite professor is Ray Anderson. In his theology classes, he often talks about the relationship between the three persons of the Trinity. Jesus, he says, is eternally submissive to his Father, obeying his Father and giving him glory. After the Incarnation, he says, the Holy Spirit is permanently stamped with the personality of Jesus. To experience the Holy Spirit is to experience Jesus. We are invited to obey the Father, like Jesus did and does. We are invited to serve and love in the world like Jesus did and does, through the power of the Holy Spirit. We are invited to join with each member of the Trinity, giving praise and glory to the other members of the Trinity. My heart is filled with wonder because I am invited to join into something so huge and beautiful.

3. My forties. I write several books about congregational issues, and my publisher, The Alban Institute, markets to Unitarian as well as Christian congregations. So, along with my interviews in Christian churches, I also interview numerous Unitarians and visit several Unitarian Universalist congregations. The Unitarians I meet are lovely people: good hearted, caring, deep thinkers. Along with my interview questions about how their congregations work, I ask questions about their spirituality. Later I reflect on the differences between what they say as Unitarians and what I believe as a Trinitarian Christian, and I come to the conclusion the difference is the location and personality of the holy/sacred. Christians believe that the holy/sacred has come to earth from heaven in a person, Jesus Christ, and that through the sending of the Holy Spirit, God remains present with humans. God is here in the Holy Spirit, stamped eternally with the personality of Jesus Christ. God is also in heaven. My heart sings with joy at the generosity of a God who would be so close to us and yet also transcendent, holy and exalted.

4. My fifties. I am hired as a lecturer in pastoral theology in a department with two systematic theologians who have a lot to say about the Trinity. I listen to them, and the graduate students they supervise, as they present seminars and public lectures. The theologians and students emphasize the communal nature of the Trinity, that we are called into relationship with a relational Trinity, who then empowers us to be in human community. I am invited to write a chapter for a book on online community, so I read Being as Communion by the great Eastern Orthodox theologian, John Zizioulas, who argues that to be human is to be in relationship because of the nature of the God in whose image we are created. I am stretched by this call to love, and my heart rejoices at the beauty of this communal God, whose three-in-oneness has illuminated my life ever since childhood.

Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!
All thy works shall praise thy name, in earth and sky and sea.
Holy, holy, holy! Merciful and mighty,
God in three persons, blessed Trinity.
(Reginald Heber, 1783–1826)

(Here's an earlier post on the Celtic Christian perspective on the Trinity with some beautiful Celtic Trinity prayers. Next week I will begin a series on worshipping God as Creator of a beautiful world. If you'd like to get an email when I post on this blog, sign up under "subscribe" in the right hand column. This post originally appeared on the Godspace blog.)

Thoughts for Pentecost: the significance of the Holy Spirit today

Tuesday May 17 2016

I was so angry. And it was such an odd thing to get angry about.

The setting was the Friday after Pentecost about a dozen years ago. The church staff was debriefing about the various events that had occurred as a part of our Pentecost celebration. The senior minister asked us for feedback about every aspect of the day, and I told him how upset I was that he had chosen to continue his sermon series in one of the Gospels rather than preach about the Holy Spirit.

Here’s my memory of what I said: “Pentecost is a really important day because the Holy Spirit is the person of the Trinity most necessary for Christians to understand in these postmodern times. I can’t believe you didn’t take advantage of the opportunity to talk about the Holy Spirit! Back in the sixties and seventies, it was really important for Christians to focus on Jesus and his character because Jesus had been neglected for so long, but for our times, the Holy Spirit is central. So we’ve got to take every opportunity to help people understand who the Holy Spirit is and why the Holy Spirit matters!”

As I look back on that day when I spoke with way too much energy, I can see that it was not appropriate to criticize this very competent senior minister for the topic he chose to preach on. Quite apart from that aspect my response, I’ve been pondering if I still believe that the Holy Spirit is the most important person of the Trinity to focus on in our time.

I wrote last year for Pentecost that I have observed that people tend to view the Holy Spirit through the lens of their perception of Jesus. I argued that our view of Jesus – wise guide, lover, healer, one who convicts of sin, or sender into mission – influences our view of the Holy Spirit. I believe that Jesus is all these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, but I have observed that each of us tends to focus on one aspect more than others.

I believe that the Holy Spirit is Jesus’ presence with us (John 14:15-19), so it makes total sense that we would perceive the Holy Spirit as very closely related to Jesus. Why then did I feel so strongly a dozen years ago that the Holy Spirit needs to be emphasized in our time? Here’s what I think about that question today:

1. We need to let people inside and outside the church see the authenticity of our faith. We need to live and talk as if God’s presence in our lives matters. And the Holy Spirit is God’s presence with us.

2. We need wisdom and guidance for ministry and mission. In the face of an increasingly secular culture and enormous social and political problems, we need to serve and love and minister in focused and effective ways. Only God, through the Holy Spirit, can guide us into the best ways to do that.

3. We need power. Problems are so complex and multifaceted, and it’s so easy to get overwhelmed and discouraged. We need power from beyond ourselves to address challenges, and that power comes to us through the Holy Spirit.

4. We need love. With people so polarized, with an influx of people from all around the world and with racial tensions escalating, love is more necessary than ever. Jesus’ love, poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, is essential.

The list could go on. I wonder what you would add to it. A dozen years ago, I was thinking mostly about authenticity and power. I see the world now as even more complex than it was then, with even greater needs. Therefore, God’s empowering presence, made possible by Jesus’ life, death and resurrection and the sending of the Holy Spirit, is more necessary than ever.

(This coming Sunday is Trinity Sunday, and next week I’ll write about my love for the Trinity. After that, I’m going to start a series on worshipping God as Creator. If you’d like to receive an email when I post on this blog, sign up under “subscribe” in the right hand column.)

Sabbath Keeping a decade later: What I do on the Sabbath

Thursday May 12 2016

The question about the Sabbath I get asked most often is what I do.

I’ll back up a bit and say that my book Sabbath Keeping: Finding Freedom in the Rhythms of Rest came out in 2005, and immediately began to sell well. In its first year, it sold more copies than all but one of my other books have sold in their lifetimes. Because of the strong sales, I got asked to write articles, I was interviewed by magazines, and I have gotten lots of emails from people I don’t know.

In the book, I described my Sabbath pattern in the decades since my husband and I lived in Israel and experienced a Jewish Sabbath first hand. Here’s a summary of several decades of Sabbath observance. This is my last post in a series of reflections on what I've learned about the Sabbath in the decade since Sabbath Keeping came out.

When we returned from Israel, we decided to have a Sunday Sabbath. In the first decade back in Seattle after our time in Israel, I had young children and I was studying part time toward my masters degree. On the Sabbath, I didn’t study or do housework, gardening or home repairs. I tried to enjoy my children and my husband. Despite the Old Testament prohibition of cooking on the Sabbath, I did cook sometimes because we loved to have people over on our relaxed quiet day.

After ten years of Sabbath observance, I finished seminary and got two part time writing/editing jobs. I continued my previous Sabbath pattern but added one more discipline: I didn’t walk into my home office. Seven years later, I was ordained as a Presbyterian minister and I got my first book contract. At that point, our Sabbath shifted. Our kids were older and often had their own plans for Sunday, and Sunday mornings were now hard work for me. So our Sabbath became Sunday about 2 pm until Monday at 2 pm. Dave wasn’t working Mondays, so that worked well. I mostly had down time on my own on Sunday ("down time" = reading), and he and I went on a long walk on Monday mornings and ate lunch out.

About three years later, our church added a Sunday evening service, so I shifted my Sabbath to Mondays all day. About this time, Dave started having to work Mondays, so we had separate Sabbaths. This was very hard on our marriage! Dave was able to join me in a Monday Sabbath after a few years of separate Sabbaths, for which I’m very grateful.

I have continued to have a Monday Sabbath through my PhD studies and 9 years of teaching. But I have to say, now that I’m older and my energy level is less, my Sabbath usually starts on Sunday afternoon and goes until Monday evening, so it’s more than 24 hours long.

Why Monday? I guest preach about once a month, and that means those Sunday mornings are work. When I’m not preaching somewhere, we often have people over for Sunday lunch, which is wonderful but definitely has a work component to it. So I view Sunday morning worship as a pre-cursor to my Sabbath, a foundation for the day, but not really Sabbath time.

What do I do on this wonderful day? Sunday afternoons and evenings, and for much of Monday, I read. And read. And read. Novels mostly, the big weekend newspaper, magazines, online articles, poetry. I also usually spend some time on Sunday or Monday playing the piano.

First thing Monday morning I check my email, and I only answer essential messages. Then I let it go for the rest of the day. Mid-morning on Monday Dave and I pray at length, usually for about 45 minutes. We spend half of that time in prayers of thankfulness, and that long, leisurely time of thanking God for big things and small things is a foundation for my week. Dave and I eat dinner Sunday evening and lunch and dinner on Monday at home (often leftovers so I don’t have to cook), and we talk in a leisurely fashion over these meals. We have a printed list of prayers for grace for our Sabbath meals, and using a printed prayer rather than extemporaneous grace makes the day feel different and special.

Here are the things that I sometimes do on my Sabbath day:

• read Facebook (if I haven’t looked at it all week)
• go to the gym (if my schedule for the week has gotten too complicated to allow a gym trip on Tuesday)
• cook (if I want to)
• balance the checkbook (this is something I enjoy!)

I do all these things in a different spirit on the Sabbath than I do on the rest of the days. I do them slowly, without pressure.

I describe Sabbath time as “down, down, down,” and I can feel myself letting down and letting go of worries and responsibilities. I wrote a couple of weeks ago about what I consider to be the most profound lesson the Sabbath teaches us: that God will keep the universe going without me. That God is God and I am not. That I am not indispensible. Therefore I don’t feel a lot of pressure to make my Sabbath deeply “spiritual.” The prayer time with Dave is great, but other than that I simply read things I enjoy and I let God keep the universe running without my help.

I have been reluctant to write this post because I don’t want to communicate that I think my form of Sabbath observance is best. The key concept is stopping a lot of what we do on the six days, then choosing to add activities that provide rest and balance. That may look quite different for you than it does for me.

(Drawing by Dave Baab of me on my Sabbath day. This coming Sunday is Pentecost, and next week’s post will be reflections for Pentecost. The following Sunday is Trinity Sunday, and the post that week will focus on the Trinity. Three weeks from now I’ll begin a series on worshipping God as Creator, with ideas for encountering God in Creation. If you’d like to receive an email when I post on this blog, sign up under “Subscribe” in the right hand column.)

Resources I’ve written about the Sabbath

Articles:
A day without a “do” list
The gift of rest
Sabbath Keeping—it’s okay to start small
The gift of the Sabbath
Stopping: the gift of the Sabbath
Gifts of freedom: the Sabbath and fasting

Blog posts:
Of clouds and attentiveness
Grace gifts versus guilt-inducing obligations
Sabbath Keeping a decade later: What to do on the Sabbath
Sabbath Keeping a decade later: Gardening 
Sabbath Keeping a decade later: Stopping
Sabbath Keeping a decade later: Relationships

My Bible study guide, Sabbath: The Gift of Rest