Psalm 99
Preaching
A Journey Through the Psalms: Reflections for Worried Hearts and Troubled Times
Preaching the Psalms Cycles A, B, C
Object:
Former Secretary of Education, Richard Riley, once remarked that "We are the victims of the tyranny of lowered expectations." Secretary Riley went on to say that as a people, we have flattened out our expectations into a broad and bland sense of mediocrity. We, too, often settle for below average performance or something that we deem as "good enough." Rarely, if ever, do we call for -- much less demand -- excellence. Excellence, it seems, is not an option in our world today. Indeed, go to any public school and observe the treatment received by an "A" student at the hands of his or her peers. Ridicule, shunning, and even violence await those who excel.
Perhaps it is the mentality of the lowest common denominator at work. Fearful of being surpassed or failing, the crowd will attack and bring down any among it who show signs of moving ahead. Or maybe it is a misguided sense of democracy. Frequently in community settings, the lifting up of excellence is discouraged because it might make others feel badly. Instead, everyone gets the award -- so that no one might lose. But there is a sinister truth underlying all this. And that is that when everyone is excellent, there is no excellence.
In such a repressed environment as this, how are the people to consider a thing such as holiness? If greatness and creativity are not encouraged among the people, how then can the people perceive the greatness and creativity of their God? Holiness, after all, means something that is other than, or apart from, the common. God is holy because God isn't you or me. God is holy because ... as scripture reminds us, God is ... God.
In the muddied waters of modernity, what passes for holy these days? How is it that the people experience awe? What, aside from the next acquisition, gets the attention of people these days? At the risk of walking unsupported onto a fragile limb, this writer will suggest that in our dumbed down, numbed out mass consciousness we have lost the ability to perceive excellence. Worse still, we have ceased to yearn for it.
In days gone by, much effort was given to ridiculing the blandness of socialist culture. Unimaginative architecture, state controlled art, and tightly restricted education all lent to the fall of a once grand and idealistic system. But the question comes today to each one of us. Where is excellence? Of what -- or whom -- do we stand in awe? How do we find the holiness of God, and therefore the excellence to which each person is called?
Perhaps a new beginning might be made in the reading of this psalm as we claim without reservation the utter holiness of God. Perhaps, as we pause in awe of God, we might begin the work of becoming the people of God's dreams, a people committed to wonder, to awe, to excellence in every endeavor we undertake.
Perhaps it is the mentality of the lowest common denominator at work. Fearful of being surpassed or failing, the crowd will attack and bring down any among it who show signs of moving ahead. Or maybe it is a misguided sense of democracy. Frequently in community settings, the lifting up of excellence is discouraged because it might make others feel badly. Instead, everyone gets the award -- so that no one might lose. But there is a sinister truth underlying all this. And that is that when everyone is excellent, there is no excellence.
In such a repressed environment as this, how are the people to consider a thing such as holiness? If greatness and creativity are not encouraged among the people, how then can the people perceive the greatness and creativity of their God? Holiness, after all, means something that is other than, or apart from, the common. God is holy because God isn't you or me. God is holy because ... as scripture reminds us, God is ... God.
In the muddied waters of modernity, what passes for holy these days? How is it that the people experience awe? What, aside from the next acquisition, gets the attention of people these days? At the risk of walking unsupported onto a fragile limb, this writer will suggest that in our dumbed down, numbed out mass consciousness we have lost the ability to perceive excellence. Worse still, we have ceased to yearn for it.
In days gone by, much effort was given to ridiculing the blandness of socialist culture. Unimaginative architecture, state controlled art, and tightly restricted education all lent to the fall of a once grand and idealistic system. But the question comes today to each one of us. Where is excellence? Of what -- or whom -- do we stand in awe? How do we find the holiness of God, and therefore the excellence to which each person is called?
Perhaps a new beginning might be made in the reading of this psalm as we claim without reservation the utter holiness of God. Perhaps, as we pause in awe of God, we might begin the work of becoming the people of God's dreams, a people committed to wonder, to awe, to excellence in every endeavor we undertake.
