“Tambourines and Trumpets” - August 28, 2016

Psalm 81:1-10

            Umberto Eco’s novel The Name of the Rose is a mystery set in a monastery in northern Italy in the thirteen century.  An English Franciscan named Brother William of Baskerville and his novice/sidekick Adso are investigating the death of a manuscript illustrator when they unexpectedly run afoul of the monastery’s self-appointed conscience, Brother Jorge.  In the movie version, this is how it goes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUUB96c6EpY

            Jorge is the sort of person that John Wesley had in mind when he remarked that “sour godliness is the devil’s religion”.  He’s the type of person – apart from theological definitions – that H.L. Mencken defined as a puritan, calling Puritanism “the haunting fear that someone, somewhere may be happy.” 

            For all the sincere admiration of holiness and all the true effort to be holy that such people display, that kind of attitude is not consistent throughout the Bible.  Sure, the book of Ecclesiastes emphasizes how life is fleeting and full of sorrow, and we are often urged throughout the scriptures to be serious and to use the time we are given for matters other than our own pleasure or gain, nevertheless one of the things that the Psalms enjoins on God’s people is that they should let themselves be happy and express joy. 

            That belief shows up over and over and over and Psalm 81:1-4 is only one spot, but it puts it well.

“Sing aloud to God our strength;
   shout for joy to the God of Jacob. 
Raise a song, sound the tambourine,
   the sweet lyre with the harp. 
Blow the trumpet at the new moon,
   at the full moon, on our festal day. 
For it is a statute for Israel,
   an ordinance of the God of Jacob.” 

This celebration is grounded in the awareness that God sets his people free from the things that weigh them down, as he freed the slaves held by Pharaoh.

“He made it a decree in Joseph,
   when he went out over the land of Egypt. 
I hear a voice I had not known: 
‘I relieved your shoulder of the burden;
   your hands were freed from the basket. 
In distress you called, and I rescued you;
   I answered you in the secret place of thunder…” [Psalm 81:5-7]

We’ve been through rough places and bad times and it’s good to express relief, even joy, in what God has done.  It’s part of being thankful. 

            How rarely we express joy at church, though.  I count myself in on this criticism, mind you.  I have been known to scream, “Yes!  Alright!  Way to go!” at a triple in the eighth inning.  I have never done that in church.  Honestly, I’m not about to start it, either.  An occasional “Amen” or “Hallelujah” is okay, and even a “Thank you, Jesus!” is in line when it is not forced or artificial.  The problem is that for a lot of us, it would take years before a lifetime of decorum would wear that thin.

            There are other ways, though, of expressing joy.  A friend of mine told me once about a woman he knew who always clapped when she got up from the communion rail.  Sometimes the joy that music expresses is irrepressible.  There are also such things as tears of joy.  There is even quiet laughter.

            But if a tambourine and a trumpet are your thing, go for it!  Joy finds a way of breaking through the clouds one way or another.  The Rev. Dr. Horace Allen was born in Sharon Hill and grew up as a devout Presbyterian, a branch of the Christian Church sometimes called “God’s Frozen Chosen”.  Eventually be became Professor of Worship at Boston University’s School of Theology, where he tried to find ways to express joy in the Lord, sometimes extreme ways.  A story I heard (and I don’t know how true it is) says that one Christmas Eve he had his clerical stole decked out with lights.  (I find myself imagining how he handled the extension cord.) Another story is that once he used champagne as the communion wine at Easter and timed it so that the sound of the cork popping could be heard at just the right moment:

                        “Lift up your hearts!

                        We lift them up to the Lord! [Pop!]

                        Let us give thanks to the Lord!

                        It is right to give our thanks and praise. [Fizz, fizz, fizz…]”

Again, we probably aren’t going to be doing that for several reasons.  All the same, there is something wonderful when we can be free to express the joy that is there in that expression about lifting up our hearts.

            I am not going to tell you exactly how you should express your joy any more than I am going to tell you when you should feel it.  I will, however, say that not only is there nothing wrong with being joyful, it’s something that happens when the Spirit of God catches up to you and says, “Knock, knock.  I’m here.”