Psalm 103.
Bless the Lord, O my soul.
1. O Lord my God, you are very great.
You are clothed with honor and majesty,
10 You make springs gush forth in the valleys; they flow between the hills,
11 giving drink to every wild animal; the wild asses quench their thirst.
12 By the streams the birds of the air have their habitation; they sing among the branches.
13 From your lofty abode you water the mountains; the earth is satisfied with the fruit of your work.
14 You cause the grass to grow for the cattle, and plants for people to use, to bring forth food from the earth,
15 and wine to gladden the human heart, oil to make the face shine, and bread to strengthen the human heart.
24 O Lord, how manifold are your works!
33 I will sing to the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have being. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Praise the Lord! AMEN
Sermon:
“Say a little prayer & count our blessings one by one.”
This old Psalm from the Old Testament is a jubilant praise of God and all creation, this world that we live in and the daily blessings that we encounter. This old Psalm 103 is a joyous song and a grateful prayer for everything that has been given to us: the creation, nature, the streams, the oceans, the harvest and the abundance. Yes, even the wine to gladden our human heart, and the baked bread to strengthen the human heart.
Say a little prayer and count your blessings one by one…… this is a line from a wonderful song by Sir Elton John and Brandi Carlile on their new album “Who believes in Angels?”
This line of the song “ A LITTLE LIGHT” have been ringing in my ears these past weeks, as I have been feeling the weight of fear and frustration, anger and apathy in a time where we so often are discouraged and forget to say our prayers and count our blessings. In a time of uncertainty and division that makes it hard to count our blessings……
Elton John sings and reflects on our time:
I see the sorrow in the headlines.
And the worry on your face
I guess it is no fun to have a heart.
While we are living through these days
But there is still a lot of beauty.
Dancing circles round this place
That is why we are gonna get up.
Point our chin toward the sun!
Say a little prayer!
and count our blessings one by one.
Do not hide yourself away!
Do not grow hard from what you have heard!
you gotta break your heart wide open.
Let a little light into the world.
Today we break our hearts wide open to listen, to celebrate, to be in this sacred moment of prayers, Baptism and Faith. Today we let a little sparkling light into the world that desperately needs light, beauty, beginnings, and goodness.
We celebrate a new light that came into your world as parents and family and friends – and a new little life that came to church this morning to be blessed, to be called, to be prayed over and to be counted as a blessing. To you and to the world.
Today we point our chins towards the sun, we break our hearts wide open and let light and love mark this moment and day. And then we say a little prayer and count our blessings one by one….
It is Sunday. It is time to celebrate hopeful baptism and blessed beginnings.
It is Harvest Sunday. It is that time a year when we celebrate the harvest and abundance that we live by and count the many blessings in our lives.
I love the season of Harvest and the celebration of Harvest as it is our reminder to be thankful, mindful and grateful for all the blessings that come to us.
We sing about this in our beautiful Harvest hymns; we think about it when we might recall the time of Harvest in Denmark.
The Danish Philosopher Soren Kierkegaard who lived most of his life in Copenhagen with his nose and eyes deeply focused on his writings and thoughts, he had a profound appreciation for the Fall. “Why I much prefer autumn to spring is that in the autumn one looks at heaven – in the spring at the earth.”
That is a good observation of Kierkegaard that at springs time we are constantly looking at the earth, at all the green sprouts, the blooming flowers, the signs of life and spring, while in fall we look to the blue blue skies. We look further with faith and appreciation. With prayer and a sense of blessing.
I once read some advice for Preaching sermons on harvest when you’re not a farmer. Don’t pretned to be a farmer if you are not. Preach fom what you know and how your experiences and reasltionships shaped you.
Well, I am certainly not a farmer, but I am a farmers daughter. My father was a farmer, both of my grand fathers and according to our Ancestry Book I am out of a long line of farmers in Denmark back to 1500. So I might not be a farmer, but I have farmers blood in my veins. And I loved the season of harvest and fall too.
As a child there was nothing better than that time when the blue blue august and spetember skies were endless and high: when the air was fresh and smelled of grain, hay and earth. When we were allowed to jump in the hay, hold the golde ngrains in our hands and slip it thrugh our fingers – and many eat a free grains of the abuandce of harvest.
The taste and smells of harvest are stsrong and intoxicating. The small of grains and hay is one of the most lovely smells to me: it reminds me of harvest and work and family. Images of golden fields, harvested fileds, stack of hays and grains. Smell of happiness and blessings.
Harvest time is such a time of blessings and prayers.
I am holding some wheat straws. You can smell and taste it and you know if part of the bread is we will share later. There is something sad about harvest, grains and flour. It is the story about a summer that is gone. It is the story of us and our lives, that we too will wither like the grass and the grains. But it is also hope. It can be shared wit hthe humghy, it points to a new season of fall and winter with light and presence and then a new spring and new summer, a new harvest. Life never just ends…. Maybe that is something we need to remmeber and let us fill by. We may be afraid of loosing, dying, for dooms days.. but we are told that life does not stop it continues. In our daily lives; a little child is a hope that strecthed far into the future, futher than we can see and imagine.
Jesus himself says that he is like a grain of wheat, lain into the eatht to die, to give new life that may sprout and grow.
I am so old that I have been part of placing the hay stack on the wagon to transport them back to the farm. I will not pretend that I di any of the hard work, lifting and stacking, but I witnessed it and knew how informtant it was that it was done right. Otherwise, the stack would fall if the path was rocky or filled with holes. And then it is not fun to be the small girl sitting on top of the stack!
Life can be rocky, uneven and filled with holes to avoid. Sometimes the load will be swaying dangerously. The foundation needs to be laid and to be good. WE have to try to give our lives a foudnation so we can mange some holes on the way, a trust and a faith that shows us the way. It is all about sowing and harvesting in our lives: love, compassion, faith and joy and have our fundamental faith and hope ingrained in our hearts.
The marvelous Sir Elton John and Brandi Carlile close their song with these words;
There is such a fine line between faith and apathy
Pain can put you on your feet or bring you to your knees
If you are locked inside the end of days and darkness pulls your mind
Bend the bars and hold the fire let every corner shine
That why we are gonna get up
and let a little light into the world
…… and then the last line in the song goes:
And sing into the darkness like a Sunday morning bird.
So, let us sing into the day, the darkness, the fear and the division of our times like strong Sunday morning birds full of hope, full of faith anf full of Love. Filled with the bluest skies of september and faith.
Let us say a little prayer and count our blessings one by one.
Amen