Sermon Tone Analysis

By Pastor Glenn Pease

It was before my time, but I remember my parents talking about going to see silent movies.

The movies made no sound, but according to Sam Levinson in his book Everything But Money, the audience made plenty of sound.

As the hero and the villain shot it out, each firing two thousand shots without loading, the audience would be providing the sound effects.

When the hero appeared everybody cheered, and when the villain came on everybody booed.

When the hero kissed the girl 400 kids would kiss their elbows and fill the theatre with kissing sounds.

He made it clear that silent movies were far from noiseless.

He goes on, "We screamed warnings, we screamed approval, we screamed at each other.

Fights broke out, We stamped, we whistled, we wept when the faithful dog whined over his master's wounded body."

The point is, it was by making noise and movement that the people entered into and participated in the drama unfolding on the screen.

This is the same idea that we see in the worship experience of the Old Testament.

It was not a passive experience, but one where the people participated and became very active by adding sound and movement of the body.

There was also a place for silence and a quiet worship experience where the people would be still and sense the presence of God.

Most of the songs of the Old Testament, however, were songs calling for sounds of all kinds.

Psa.

47 for example begins, not with quiet meditation and prayer, but clapping of the hands and a shouting to God with cries of joy.

The noise level was likely something like that of the old theatre where people got their body involved in the experience.

Body involvement in worship is a subject we do not often think about, but the Bible is full of it.

It is of interest that most of the hand clapping in the Bible is evil.

That is, it is of the wicked clapping and rejoicing at the suffering of the people of God.

Clapping was an expression of delight and approval, and evil people clap at evil for they approve of it and get pleasure in it, just as people today clap for comedians who use the foulest of language and ridicule God.

But in contrast to man who claps more for evil, the world of nature is always pictured as clapping its hands for the glory of God.

In Psa.

98:8 we read, "Let the rivers clap their hands, let the mountains sing together for joy."

In Isa.

55:12 we read, "You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace.

The mountains and the hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands."

Nature makes a lot of noise in praising God.

The bottom line is, where there is a lot of noise, there is action and involvement, and so worship was noise oriented because man was to make sounds to express his praise of God, and joy in the Lord.

Nature joins him, for nature by its very being and beauty praises its maker, just as any work of art is the glory of its creator.

The Bible answers the age old question: "If a tree falls in the woods, and there is no one there to hear it, does it make a noise?"

The answer is yes, because there is always someone there to hear it-God.

He hears every clap of every tree in the forest.

This Psalm was part of the New Years Day celebration in the synagogue where they sing it 7 times and then blow the trumpets.

The same Hebrew word for clap here is used over 40 times for blowing the trumpet.

The idea is to make a joyful noise.

In order to do that you have to go beyond the heart, mind, and soul, and love God with all your strength.

That means with the instrument by which you produce energy, which is your body.

You can pray silently but in a public expression of worship praises are to be fairly loud, for they are symbolic of enthusiastic thanksgiving.

What if you went to a Fourth of July celebration and they said that this year we are going to have a quiet celebration and just light candles?

The protest would be wild because noise is necessary to convey the joy and gratitude for our freedoms in this land.

How much more should there be noise of joy when we celebrate the grace of God?

The volume that comes out of the mouth seems to be a Biblical issue.

Listen to these verses:

Psa.

98:4, "Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all the earth; make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise."

Psa.

32:11, "Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, ye righteous, and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart."

The New Testament does not tone it down at all, but keeps the volume of praise on high:

Rev. 7:10, "And cried with a loud voice, salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb."

Rev. 19:1, "I heard a great voice of much people in heaven, shouting hallelujah!

Salvation and glory and power belong to our God.."

Praise in the distant past and in the infinite future is loud because it is to be an emotional release of joy.

It is to be like the feelings we have when our team wins a great game, and we are thrilled and shout for joy.

This, of course, explains why we do not do a lot of clapping and shouting.

We just do not generate the internal energy needed to move the body to these levels of intensity.

Different cultures and different people in each culture develop the levels of emotion they feel is appropriate.

In England for example, Dr. Baxter says, for a certain type of Englishman to say that something was not without interest would be equivalent to saying there was "A Frenchman dancing in the streets with garlands in his hair."

Most Americans are not that stuffy, but neither are we so free as those in the Bible lands.

They kiss and hug in ways we do not feel comfortable about.

When Boaz let Ruth glean in his field, and let her eat with his workers, she was so grateful she fell on her face and asked, "Why have I found favor in your sight?"

You can do a lot of nice and generous things for people, but I can guarantee they will not be falling on the ground at your feet to thank you.

It is too radical and too emotionally expressive, and too much bodily involvement for our culture.

A handshake and a thank you is quite sufficient in our culture.

There are many examples of Biblical customs where the body is used to express emotions that we do not follow.

In other words, we are products of a culture different from the Biblical culture.

We do not fall at the feet of anyone as was a common custom of people in the Bible.

If their king visited, they would bow and kneel, but in our culture we do not bow to leaders but merely stand and clap to honor them.

We honor people by standing in their presence rather than bowing.

That is an obsolete bodily movement in our culture.

It does not mean we honor people less.

We just have a different way of showing it.

We cannot escape the fact that the Bible does command and urge us to use the body to make noise and movements to communicate our honor and praise to God.

In Psa.

134:2 we read, "Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, and bless the Lord."

In Psa.

141:2 we read, "May the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice."

What does this mean?

How can lifting your hands be like a sacrifice?

The first part of the verse helps us get an idea.

"May my prayer be set before you like incense."

Just as prayer ascends to God like incense, so the lifted hands represent the body being lifted up in sacrifice to God's service.

The steeple points up to God to represent a place of worship, and the hands uplifted represents a person who longs to ascend also to worship and be pleasing in God's sight, like a ascending incense.

It is a symbol of the heart and mind.

The body pictures what the mind thinks and the heart feels.

The body is a tool for the heart and mind to express themselves.

You know that in the male and female relationship it is not enough to just think nice thoughts about each other.

It is not enough to feel loving toward one another.

The heart and mind can be all they ought to be in feeling and thought, and yet nobody would be satisfied.

Love has to be expressed to be real and adequate.

This means the body has to be the tool by which the heart and mind express love.

The body through the mouth speaks forth the love.

The body kisses, caresses, and develops the deepest possible intimacy with the one loved.

The heart and the mind need the body to fulfill their love.

The reason both the Old Testament and the New Testament use the husband and wife relationship to illustrate the God and man relationship is because the body becomes the key to the full expression of love in both the romantic and religious experience.

Both need the body to be complete.

God is not content for you to feel love for Him, and to think loving thoughts about Him.

He wants it expressed through your body, for your body is the visual revelation of your love.

The body makes love incarnate where it can be seen and heard.

Incarnation was the way God revealed His true love for us.