Sing Praises

“Sing Praises” was preached at Sunnyside Presbyterian Church on June 2, 2019. This sermon was inspired by Scripture, commentaries, LGBTQ+ Pride month, chosen families, the Ascension of our Lord, and Graduation Sunday.  You can listen to an audio clip of this sermon here. You can watch a video of the entire worship service here.

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Luke 24:44-53

44 Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.” 45 Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, 46 and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, 47 and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things. 49 And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”

50 Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and, lifting up his hands, he blessed them. 51 While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven. 52 And they worshiped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy; 53 and they were continually in the temple blessing God.

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Psalm 47

1 Clap your hands, all you peoples;

    shout to God with loud songs of joy.

2 For the Lord, the Most High, is awesome,

    a great king over all the earth.

3 He subdued peoples under us,

    and nations under our feet.

4 He chose our heritage for us,

    the pride of Jacob whom he loves. Selah

5 God has gone up with a shout,

    the Lord with the sound of a trumpet.

6 Sing praises to God, sing praises;

    sing praises to our King, sing praises.

7 For God is the king of all the earth;

    sing praises with a psalm.

8 God is king over the nations;

    God sits on his holy throne.

9 The princes of the peoples gather

    as the people of the God of Abraham.

For the shields of the earth belong to God;

    he is highly exalted.

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RuPaul Charles; a gay performer, LGBTQ+ activist, and a drag queen – yes, I’m about to quote a drag queen for my opening line for this sermon – RuPaul Charles, after hearing how a younger gay man, a mentee of his, was abandoned by his mother at a bus station, famously said, “You know, we as gay people, we get to choose our family. We get to choose the people we’re around. You are my family.”

It was a moment of love and affirmation for this young gay man; after the trauma of being abandoned by his own blood family; this was the moment he was told that the people that surrounded him, those who did support him and love him, those people were his family. People he chose and the people that chose him; that’s his chosen family.

Chosen families are a well-known concept in the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Plus community. They publicly date back to the 1920s but really emerged in the 1960s, as young queer people were abused, assaulted, and disowned by their own blood families. Homeless and abandoned, they would move to cities, mostly along the northern east coast, including New York City. Those who were fortunate would be “adopted” by other queer people. In apartments and studios full of queer people, houses and families were formed. And usually, there would be a head of each family, respectfully called Father or more often, Mother. These families were not united by blood, but by a common experience, similar stories, and most importantly, love for one another.

I admire this about the history of LGBTQ+ community and their creation of chosen families… but I no longer believe they are alone in this. The healthiest of churches – communities of faith – are also chosen families, something we might have subconsciously learned from the LGBTQ+ community.

There was a time, and some of you remember this time, that going to church was the thing to do. Every Sunday morning, families were to be in church. Not only was it a normal practice; it was an expected practice. Over time, due to shifts in culture and a secularization of Sundays, what was once expected became more optional. Families with children and youth, due to busy weekend schedules for sports or performances, jobs and vacations, attending church became a less frequent practice. And as those children and youth became adults and due to even greater shifts in culture and a further secularization of Sundays, many of them quit attending church altogether.

Now as part of our Engaging Young Adults research grant, we at Sunnyside in collaboration with other Indiana churches, have learned that spirituality and the belief of a higher power has not decreased among young adults compared to earlier generations, but instead, it’s their participation in a church that has significantly decreased. Along the way of the generational shift that church is now optional, many young adults came to the conclusion that coming to church even occasionally is not necessary to the praise and worship of God.

And to an extent, I can agree with that. Coming to church is not a requirement for a Christian to follow Christ nor is it the only way any of us can praise, worship, or have a relationship with God.

Yet you all are still here, sitting in church this beautiful Sunday morning. Children, youth, and adults; young and old alike—all here gathered together in the name of Christ.

And I’m sure each of us have our own reasons as to why we are here this morning, but I think for some of us, especially here at Sunnyside, we are here to sing praises for God with people who share a common experience, similar stories, and most importantly, love for one another. This is our own chosen family.

Our Psalm today, an actual song of praise, glorifies this; how God chooses to be with God’s people and how God chooses for us to be together. The Israelites, God’s chosen people, are glorifying God in this Psalm. With shouts of certainty and joy, they are celebrating that God is in control. This Psalm has no moments of doubt or distress, no moments of lament or desperation; it only lifts up the confident trust in the authority that God is their God and they are God’s people. And since God is their God and since they are God’s people, they proclaim that God is in control, God is in power, and God is in charge; a king over them, a king they love and trust and celebrate and glorify!

And this is incredible, because when we think of kings or rulers today, we might associate them with controlling dictators or aggressive authoritarians or as the youth might put it, downright haters. But not here; not God. This ruler is one that holds all authority and power, but does so with love and mercy. And the best way they describe their king, the king of the earth and the king of the nations, is by saying their king, their Lord, the Most High, is awesome. Our God is an awesome God.

I’m hoping I’m painting this picture in your head, how great the Israelites viewed their God, the same God that rules over us today. Because it’s why they were so thankful to be a part of God’s family, brothers and sisters and siblings part of one chosen heritage. God chose them; God chose them! And so together, since they were a part of the chosen family, they praised God together. They sang God’s praises, with shouts and trumpets; they sang God’s praises.

And so we do that today, in joy and celebration, we sing God’s praises, for we too are part of the chosen family. God’s chosen family, and our own chosen family, our Sunnyside community. As I said earlier, we all have our own reasons of why we are here together this morning, but in those reasons, whatever they are, our chosen family is here singing praises to God.

And I don’t think our family came to be by accident or by chance or even by luck; that it is something God created and chose for us from the very beginning. The Israelites praised how much power and control God has; so we too can praise that God did this.

And God does this often, the creating and the choosing – the big picture planning – we see it in Christ and his ascension into heaven. This story is sometimes skipped over each year. This is because the Ascension of the Lord, according to the Christian liturgical calendar, is to be celebrated on the 40^th day following Easter. Since Easter always falls on a Sunday, the 40^th day after Easter falls on a Thursday. And since many churches don’t worship on Thursdays, including Sunnyside, sometimes we just miss this story. That is unless we take what was supposed to be celebrated on Thursday and celebrate it on the following Sunday, like we are doing today.

But this story is important and shouldn’t be skipped over because it’s the conclusion to the earthly life, death, and resurrection of Christ. The Ascension isn’t the end to Christ’s divine story or his relationship with humankind; it’s the beginning! The point of the Ascension is not that Jesus left this world and is somewhere off in heaven waiting for us to die to go meet him there, but rather the Ascension closes the door to Jesus’ earthly life where he was only with his chosen family in Jerusalem over 2000 years ago and opens the next door in which Jesus is now with his chosen family in every time and place, including this time and place. The Ascension completes the theology of who Jesus is. Jesus withdrew from his disciples not to leave them, but to finish his plan; Jesus the Incarnate Son of God who has been resurrected and glorified ascends into heaven to fulfill his role and take his proper place at the right hand of God as the Lord of Creation, the king of all the earth and the king over the nations.

And we already lifted up this today, our Lord of Creation is one who rules with power and might but also with love and mercy, the head of our Chosen Family, the Mother of our house.

I lift up chosen families for many reasons this day: I heard it in our Psalm. I feel it our Gospel reading. It’s Pride Month, and we need celebrate our queer siblings. And because I want us to be reminded that no matter what we go through; pain or celebration, transition or transformation; we too are a chosen family.

And for our graduates today, remember that. We are your family, and we celebrate you and give thanks for you and love on you. But! But soon, you will go out and make new families, maybe new church communities or clubs or teams or organizations or friends or partners; new chosen families. And so we send you forth with a blessing; a blessing that is ongoing.

We too get to choose our family. Or maybe God chooses it for us. But still, we are here together, surrounded by people whom we love and who love us. I give thanks for this chosen family. Sing praises. Thanks be to God. Amen.

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