Praise God! From whom all blessings flow

Ephesians 1:3-14
James McTyre
Lake Hills Presbyterian Church (USA)
Sunday, July 16, 2006

Praise God, from whom all blessings flow;
Praise Him, all creatures here below;
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.

Praise God! Let the people say, “Praise God!” Stand up and say, “Praise God!” The people on the left (speaking physically, perhaps politically, perhaps not), stand up and say, “Praise God!” The people on the right, stand up and say, “Praise God!” The people who don’t know which side they’re on, stand up and say, “Praise God!”

The beauty of standing up and saying, “Praise God!” is you can do it, no matter which side you’re on. No matter whether you’re on the left or the right, the red or the blue, the orange and white or the shades of some other, less fortunate state. Even if you’re not sure which side you’re on. Even if you’re not aware there are sides at all, you can stand up and say, “Praise God!” Can I get an, “Amen!”?

Everybody, turn to your left. Say, “Praise God.” Now, everybody, turn to your right. Say, “Praise God.” What are you talking to? The back of the person’s head. That’s what happens when everybody turns the same direction at once. You stop seeing face to face. You start seeing face to backside. Is that rewarding? (Depends on the person.) Parents, have you ever had a discussion with the back of your teenager’s head? Husbands and wives, have you ever had a discussion with the back of your spouse’s head? Is it rewarding? Of course not. You can’t communicate with that side of a person. You can’t see their eyes. You can’t hear their words. It’s hard to pay attention. And do you think they’re paying attention to you? It’s funny, but when we’re all turned the same direction, all facing the same way, all in mutual agreement, we see the exact same posture as when someone turns their back on us in dis-agreement. Did you ever think of it that way? People who face the same way, who agree completely from the get-go, communicate about as much as people who disagree completely. Like the kids say, “Talk to the hand, ‘cause the ears aren’t listening.”

Now, stand up, and start shaking the hands (or hugging) the people around you, and say to them, “Praise God!”

Was that better than talking to the backs of their heads? I hope so. God thinks so. In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul talks about God’s overall plan. God’s overall plan for you, and for me. God’s overall plan for everybody and everything on earth. God’s overall plan for everybody and everything in heaven. God’s overall plan for overall everything, everywhere. Paul starts out his letter to the Ephesians around this verse, which says,

With all wisdom and insight he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

God’s plan is not to have us sit around, staring at the backs of peoples’ heads and thinking, “I’m so glad I’m not like them.” God’s plan is not to have us sit around, pointing at the wretched sinners, and say, “Looks like they’re headed for the smoking section.” God’s plan isn’t to have us post bouncers at the front door of the church to check IDs. God’s plan – God’s master plan – set forth in Christ, for the fullness of time, is to gather ALL things up in him. To gather all things up in him, things in heaven and things on earth. So that ALL things, all people, can say, “Praise God!” the way God intended us to in the first place. That’s how Paul begins his letter. That’s what Paul wants to say to the Ephesians. That’s what Paul wants to say to us, too. Paul starts with this massive Doxology, this massive, “Praise God from whom all blessings flow.” In Paul’s beginning, he jumps ahead to the end, the final end of God’s great story. On his first page, Paul shows us the last page of the book. Does he spoil the mystery? No. He just makes it more intriguing when he says…

With all wisdom and insight [God] has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ…

And it is a mystery. It is a mystery how God can have this massive, overarching plan for all of creation. It’s a mystery when we look at the world and see so many people dividing into niches and factions, and cells. It’s a mystery why God would even want to gather up this crazy world that’s getting crazier. But God does. The Bible tells us so. God wants us all singing doxology, singing, “Praise God!” Singing loud and clear. Singing with angelic opera voices. Singing with voices that make dogs howl. Singing on the left and the right, the dark and the light, the sinful and the saintly. The greatest mystery in the world is that God will find a way. We’ll all be gathered up in his master plan. And we will all sing God’s praise, forever. Everybody say, “Praise God!”

The beauty – one of the beauties – of meeting to worship in a place such as this, is that we get out of our routine. We’re freed from our routines of traveling the same roads, walking the same steps, sitting in the same pews. Even talking to the same people. I’m always amazed when the people who sit on one side of the sanctuary don’t know the people on the other side of the sanctuary. Or those who sit in the back only recognize the people in the front when they see the backs of their heads. Say, “I don’t know his name, but that gray-haired, balding guy three rows up has been absent the past three weeks.” We come up here, into the foothills of God’s holy mountains, and we look different. We wear different clothes; we physically look different. But we also look different-ly. We look differently at the people around us because they aren’t the people who are usually around us. Those normally on the left may find themselves sitting on the right. Those usually in the back may find themselves sitting up front. It’s like Jesus prophesied, the first have become the last, and the last the first – literally. Up here, out of our routines, our praise of God, our doxology, sounds different. And it isn’t just because we’re singing bluegrass gospel. (Can I get an “Amen” for the band?) The birds sing God’s praise. The flower petals paint God’s praise. The creek babbles God’s praise, and splashes its blessing of accidental baptism on the kids and adults who lose their footing and get soaked from head to toe. Out here we’re reminded in vast, beautiful ways that God’s plan is so much bigger than our routines. Out here the world prophesies that God’s word is so grand that it can only be described as a mystery. Out here, where earth and sky join hands in praise, where we are so obviously small in relation to all nature – Out here, we realize God’s love must be unspeakably big to even want to include the likes of you and me. Out here we see the majesty of creation, and realize how out of sync we are with God’s plan.

And so, Paul says, not by nature, but by adoption, God brings us in. By adoption, God makes us part of Christ’s nature. By adoption, God wraps his arms around us and says, “You are mine.” Not by right. Not because we’ve aligned ourselves with the correct political or theological side. Not because we’ve shunned those who should be shunned and separated ourselves as sheep from the goats. Not because of anything we could ever do. But because of God’s great, mysterious love, and only because of God’s love, we are God’s children. Praise God.

Paul says, not by nature, but by adoption, God brings us in. But at the same time, again, not by nature but by adoption, God sends us out. Blessed few of us are “born” missionaries. But all of us – by God’s baptism, by Christ’s crucifixion – all of us are adopted workers, brought in and made part of God’s plan of redemption. All of us have a job in showing, and spreading the praise of God’s glory. Like the birds that sing and the flowers that paint, we can proclaim God’s glory. In our jobs, in our homes, in our church, we’re called to be workers for the kingdom of heaven. Are we skilled labor? Not really, when you consider the scope of the job. But workers we are. Workers we shall be. Because that’s what the people of God do. That’s what the church of Jesus Christ does. Our job is to sing doxology, sing praise to God, from our first days to our last. In our waking and in our sleeping, in our daily grind and in our leisure, our job is to praise God. And maybe, by the grace of God, others like us – and not so like us – will join, and sing along.

The people on the left, turn to the people on the right and say, “Praise God!”

The people on the right, turn to the people on the left and say, “Praise God!”

Everybody, stand up. And say, “Praise God!”

Praise God, from whom all blessings flow;
Praise Him, all creatures here below;
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.