Calvary Presbyterian Church
The Rev. Debra May Cerra
September 13, 2009

This is a rough sketch of a sermon given at our Riverbank Service. The sermon itself was done extemporaneously. dmc

Psalms 100:1-5 (NRSV)
Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth. 2 Worship the Lord with gladness; come into his presence with singing. 3 Know that the Lord is God. It is he that made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. 4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him, bless his name. 5 For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.
Psalms 100:1-5 (MSG)
On your feet now—applaud God! 2 Bring a gift of laughter, sing yourselves into his presence. 3 Know this: God is God, and God, God. He made us; we didn't make him. We're his people, his well-tended sheep. 4 Enter with the password: "Thank you!" Make yourselves at home, talking praise. Thank him. Worship him. 5 For God is sheer beauty, all-generous in love, loyal always and ever.

Make a Joyful Noise

This morning we’re going to talk about making a joyful noise. The psalm that we just heard starts out “Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth.” Notice that it doesn’t say all people or all frogs or all rivers. It says “all the earth.” The next verse says: “Worship the Lord with gladness; come into his presence with singing.”
So how do we make a joyful noise? Let’s see if we can figure out how to make a joyful noise to the Lord!

I want to do an experiment. Will you help me? Big people, I need your help too.
You need to watch carefully. Look at my lips. (I whistle). What did I just do? (whistle). Now I want you to close your eyes really tight. Now listen carefully. (whistle) OK, open your eyes. What did I just do? (whistle). But how do you know? You couldn’t see me, your eyes were closed. (heard). OH, you heard me whistle.

OK, so let’s do another experiment – this one will be all about hearing. You need to listen real carefully, ok?  Can you hear the leaves wiggling in the breeze? Shhh, listen and see if you can hear them. (I can). Good!

Now I need you to listen for something else. Can you hear any noises coming from the river? Listen carefully. (yes) What did you hear? (boat, water lapping…) Alright – GOOD!

Now we’re going to have to listen even more closely. But I know you can do it! Ready? Can you hear a bird singing or a cricket chirping. Listen carefully. Raise your hand if you can hear a bird or a cricket. Sometimes they are more difficult to hear when there are other noises.

So you are good listeners – you have ears that can hear those sounds.

The words in the bible are written different ways by different people. A man named Eugene Peterson wrote the words of the Bible in a simple way – a way that is easy to figure out. Listen to the way he wrote the beginning of Psalm 100: “On your feet now – applaud God! Bring a gift of laughter, sing yourselves into his presence.” Mr. Peterson gives us some ideas on how we can make a joyful noise to the Lord.  He says, “Applaud! Laugh! Sing!” I want to remember these three ways so repeat after me: applaud (applaud), laugh (laugh), sing (sing).

OK – another experiment! Isn’t this fun? Adults, be ready because we need you to help, too!

We’re going make a joyful noise by using Mr. Peterson’s first idea. We’re going to applaud God! We’re going to pretend that we’re cheering God on – like we do the Eagles at their football games. Come on, let’s try! Let’s make a joyful noise! (everyone applaud and cheer!)

That was fun! Makes me smile. How about you? And I bet God loves it!
Now what was Mr. Peterson’s second idea? (laugh) Oh, yeah, laugh! OK, are you ready to try it out! Let’s just start with a little giggle. (giggle). That’s good…now how about a little more – like “hee-hee-hee!” Good. Now can we get a laugh going? Come on, everyone, let’s laugh! (give time for laughter)

Super!!! God’s probably laughing along with us!!

Now the third idea is to sing! So, we’re going to sing! How many of you like to sing? Raise your hands! Ooo, not everyone raised their hands! Well, of those who raised their how many of you have a decent voice? I few less hands. We’ll we’re going to sing anyhow!

But – we’re also going to play instruments! (surprise looks) Did you bring your instruments? Well, don’t worry, I have a plan!

Now, I really need your help. I need each person here to get one of these combs in this basket. AND I need each person to get a piece of wax paper. We’re going to make a joyful noise to the Lord with our combs and paper. (have children hand out combs and adults the paper)

Let me show you how this works. Put the wax paper over the comb. Put the teeth of the comb between your lips. Now hum. Hear it? Your making music.

Let’s try this with a song. How about Jesus Loves Me…we all know that tune. Let try the first verse, “Jesus love me, this I know…” Great!

So, let’s do the song one time through. (hum it together using combs). Now let’s sing the three verses while Diana and Dorothy play. Unless, of course, you’d rather play. Then please, go ahead.

Do you know what we did hear today? We applauded God! We laughed with God! We sang with God! We played with God! We made a joyful noise to God!

So now you know how easy it is to make a joyful noise! Isn’t it fun to have fun with God!

Amen and amen!