“Laughing and Singing in Difficult Times”

I Peter 3-9

More years ago than I like to admit, there was a television commercial for Hush Puppy shoes. In that commercial a young man, who can only be described as a country bumpkin, has discovered the comfort of those Hush Puppy shoes. This leads him to exclaim, “I can wear shoes. I can go to school. I can be somebody!”

Today’s text was part of a letter written by the Apostle Peter to the persecuted Christians of Asia Minor. In the eyes of the world those Christians were nobodies. They were scorned and derided for their faith. They were at the bottom of society’s pecking order. They were being harassed and hounded by their friends and family because they chose to follow Jesus, because they had abandoned the ancient gods of their homes and communities.

Part of Peter’s message to them was that they were indeed somebody. As he wrote in chapter two, verse ten, “Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” Or as Eugene Peterson paraphrases it, “… from nothing to something, from rejected to accepted.”

And what had brought about this change in status? Again according to Peterson, “… the night-and-day difference [God] made for [them].”

This night-and-day difference is addressed in this morning’s text. Reading from The Message, which is Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase: “What a God we have! And how fortunate we are to have him, this Father of our Master Jesus! Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we’ve been given a brand-new life and have everything to live for, including a future in heaven – and the future starts now! God is keeping careful watch over us and the future. The Day is coming when you’ll have it all – life healed and whole.

I know how great this makes you feel, even though you have to put up with every kind of aggravation in the meantime. Pure gold put in the fire comes out of it proved pure; genuine faith put through this suffering comes out proved genuine. When Jesus wraps this all up, it’s your faith, not your gold, that God will have on display as evidence of his victory.

You never saw him, yet you love him. You still don’t see him, yet you trust him – with laughter and singing. Because you kept on believing, you’ll get what you’re looking forward to: total salvation.”

In a sense Peter was telling those persecuted Christians, “You’re not perfect. The world you live in is not perfect. But this life and this world are not all there is. Somewhere beyond all this God will re-create the world in his image. A time will come when you will live perfect lives in that perfectly re-created world. Rejoice in the reality that God’s time of perfection is coming. Rejoice in the reality that you will be part of it. This world is a place of testing and temptation. This side of heaven there will always be moments of doubt and failure. This world is sometimes a place of persecution for those who will serve no Lord but Jesus. This world holds for you more than your fair share of sorrow, suffering, and pain. Hang in there. A new world’s coming: God’s world, the real world.”

Hang in there. A new world’s coming. Meanwhile, the reality of salvation – the reality of being God’s own people – offers God’s people both joy in the present and a living hope in the future that is waiting on the far side of all the suffering. Furthermore our inheritance in Christ is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading. This present joy, future hope, and guaranteed inheritance enable us to maintain a genuine faith even in difficult times, enable us to remain faithful during times of sorrow, testing, and persecution. This present joy, future hope, and guaranteed inheritance enable us to “rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy.” This present joy, future hope, and guaranteed inheritance enable us to trust in a Lord we have not seen “with laughter and singing.”

Let’s take a moment and ponder on what is being described here: people undergoing persecution who respond to it with an indescribable and glorious joy, with a trust in the Lord so deep that in the face of their suffering, they can laugh and sing. We are not strangers to joyful Christianity. We’ve seen, heard, and been part of bodies of Christians who rejoice in the Lord, who laugh and sing as they praise him. What is strange to us is the notion of such rejoicing in the face of persecution. How can anybody do that? What enables such joy?

A genuine faith that grows out of gratitude toward the God who has saved us, claimed us, shown us mercy, and given us an exalted status that is impossible to experience outside of Jesus Christ. A genuine faith in a resurrected Savior. A genuine faith in God’s promise that this world and this life are not all there is. Such genuine faith enables us to rejoice no matter what our circumstances.

This being true, then why do so many Christians in America – Christians who are abundantly blessed and free of persecution – not know how to rejoice? Why do so many Christians in America have such difficulty laughing and singing and praising God? Genuine faith is expressed through praise. Such praise is a witness to our risen Lord. It’s a form of evangelism.

I’ve said before that all too often when Presbyterians have to choose between decency and order, they choose order. And sometimes the same is true when we have to choose between order and praise. Order must be maintained even if it means stifling our praise, taming our rejoicing, moderating our singing, and rationing our laughter.

Over the past almost seven years at Grace I’ve had some great worship experiences. I love watching and listening to our CWF as they swing, sway, beat drums, and dance. Bunny Greer’s funeral and the anniversary celebration of Seek His Faith Ministries exposed me to African-American ways of worshipping. In the case of Bunny’s funeral, it lasted two hours and still ended too soon.

And then there’s our praise team, which leads me to a confession. Prior to coming to Grace my experience with praise music had been limited. To be honest I didn’t like it very much and derided it as essentially being limited to four notes, ten words, and endless choruses. Well you guys have cured me of all that. The great irony is that here I am preaching about praise on a Sunday when the praise team, choir, and CWF aren’t singing.

I am not advocating liturgical anarchy – the Apostle Paul got on the Corinthians about that. Nor am I advocating doing away with the beautiful, meaningful, and historically bountiful liturgies of the church from ages past. Good liturgy is a form of praise. So too are classical music and the great hymns of the church. I don’t want to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

What I do want is worship that comes from the hearts of people who know beyond the shadow of a doubt that their Savior lives and reigns; who know beyond the shadow of a doubt that they are God’s people, recipients of his grace, mercy, and love; who know that in Christ they have an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading.

So when we share together in those ancient liturgies, let us do so with a smile on our faces. When we sing our hymns and praise songs let’s do so with passion in our voices. When someone is baptized let’s joyfully welcome him or her into the family of faith. When we celebrate Communion let’s remember to taste and see that the Lord is good. Let’s not be afraid to laugh together, and when appropriate, cry together.

Let us always remember these words of Scripture: “What a God we have! And how fortunate we are to have him, this Father of our Master Jesus! Because Jesus was raised from the dead we’ve been given a brand new-life and have everything to live for…” Now that’s something to sing about! Amen.