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Psalm 29 1 Ascribe to the Lord, you gods, 2 Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his Name; 3 The voice of the Lord is upon the waters; 4 The voice of the Lord is a powerful voice; 5 The voice of the Lord breaks the cedar trees; 6 He makes Lebanon skip like a calf, and 7 The voice of the Lord splits the flames of fire; 8 The voice of the Lord makes the oak trees writhe 9 And in the temple of the Lord all are crying, “Glory!” 10 The Lord sits enthroned above the flood; 11 The Lord shall give strength to his people; This year, Monday Matters will focus on wisdom conveyed in the treasures of the book of Psalms. We’ll look at the psalms read in church before Monday Matters comes to your screen. |
Honor
Someone once told me that preachers have only one sermon. That may be hyperbole, but I confess that I probably do have only one wedding homily. I find that a key word in the liturgy for the Celebration and Blessing of a Marriage is the word “honor.” And it bears repeating. As a couple enters into the covenant of marriage, they commit to a relationship, to another person, not to a bunch of rules. Key to making that work is to hold the word “honor” at the center of life together. On a daily basis, a couple might ask: How can our interactions this day honor each other, speak well of each other, seek the best for each other? They could do worse than to post the word “honor” all over the place. By the door. On the bathroom mirror. Over the dashboard. As a screen saver.
This call to honor is not limited to marriage. In baptism we promise to seek and serve Christ in all persons and love neighbor as self. That’s a way to describe honor. We commit to strive for justice and peace and respect the dignity of every human being. Not just those human beings who we like, or who can help us get ahead. Everyone we encounter deserves to be honored.
The idea is echoed throughout the scripture. As St. Paul is giving instructions to the community of Christians in Rome, he tells them how to live in community, how to live in response to the gift of God’s grace, love from which we can never be separated. In Romans 12, he says: “Outdo one another in showing honor.” What would that competitive spirit look like in your interactions this week? With your family? At work? In traffic? Waiting in line at the grocery store? In your social media posts?
And it’s not just about honoring the people around us. In the Hebrew scriptures, we read again and again a call to ascribe to the Lord the glory (or honor) due his name. The word for glory in Greek is doxa which means to honor someone’s name or to make much of that person’s reputation. That verse shows up in the psalm we read at church yesterday (on Trinity Sunday. See above. It’s a psalm often read in church as offertory sentence, i.e., at a time when we invite those present in church to share their financial resources. That’s certainly one of the ways we honor the Lord. But there’s more. We give honor due God’s name in our sacrifice of thanksgiving, our expressions of praise and gratitude, in our service to those in need, in the ways we use our time, in the ways we use our God-given gifts, in love of God with heart, body, soul, mind, strength.
Reflect on the word honor this week. It can seems to be a quaint, old-fashioned word. It may seem out of fashion in a world where people are encouraged to look out for themselves first and foremost. It may have been cheapened in a world where we speak of honoring credit cards. But it gives a great way to think about our love of neighbor. How are we honoring the people around us?
And as part of that reflection, perhaps the heart of that reflection, what would it mean to ascribe to the Lord the honor due his name? What exactly is due the Lord in this regard? Many of us, even professional religious folk (not naming any names), spend part of our time as functional atheists. We forget that God (not the church, not ourselves) is the star of the story. I have a hunch that if we begin with a recognition that our lives unfold in the presence of the God who created us, if we ascribe to the Lord the honor due his name, our ability to honor others will follow. In doing so, we may find the way God intends for us.
How does that sound to you this Monday morning? I’m glad to hear your thoughts on the word “honor.”
-Jay Sidebotham
