Sermon for Sunday, March 15, 2009

Sermon: "Declaring God's Glory"

Scripture: Psalm 19

Reverend Larry Gerber

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer, Psalm 19:14 (NIV).

We stand in awe when humans attempt something great, but nothing is as awe-inspiring as the world around us.

Skyscrapers are so passé. Sure we still build them, we still marvel at them, and the tourists crowding the streets of New York, Taipei, Shanghai and Kuala Lumpur still crane their necks to see them. But gone are the days when really big buildings become really big news.

Nowadays it's another man-made marvel that's becoming the must-have, newsworthy symbol of modern ingenuity: the flagpole.

In December 2006, real estate mogul Donald Trump sued the city of Palm Beach, Florida, for $10 million, because the local zoning board objected to an 80-foot flagpole and 15 x 25-foot flag he'd put up in front of his Mar-a-Lago Club.

It seems local zoning regulations restrict flagpoles to 42 feet. In his signature style, The Donald had to make sure he had a pole that was bigger than anyone else's.

Even some members of Mar-a-Lago were unhappy with Trump's addition to the club, complaining that the flag is so big, it blocks the sun for those at poolside. "It's like a giant red-white-and-blue eclipse," said one. "How are we supposed to get a tan with the stupid flag blocking the sun?"

For the past eight years David Chambers has been in the business of building the world's largest flagpoles, with his small company at the center of a "monster-flagpole boom" sweeping across Central Asia and the Middle East. His latest project, a pole that is slated to stand some 532 feet tall, is located in the Azerbaijan capital of Baku. When completed, it will hold the record of world's tallest flagpole - but not for long. Clients are lining up, especially in the oil-rich areas of the world, each requesting that theirs be the last to hold the coveted title of "tallest."

While Chambers believes he's currently capable of building a flagpole some 720 feet high (the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, by comparison, is 630 feet tall) he's too shrewd a businessman to go there just yet. In fact, he's told his clients that each new pole will rise just 3 feet higher than the previous. It's a decision sure to keep the flagpole frenzy, as well as David Chambers' one-of-a-kind company, alive and well for the foreseeable future.

But we can be sure that Chambers won't be the only one cashing in on the craze. Competitors aside, the world's newfound obsession with flagpoles is bound to spur on other related opportunities and even more means for mankind to display its unmatched, creative abilities. Think about it: Every giant flagpole requires a giant flag and longer and stronger ropes, and giant clips to hold it?

Of course our drive to build the biggest and the greatest - be it skyscrapers or flagpoles - is nothing new. It's a uniquely human "thing," never really going out of style but rather shifting its focus. Whether it's the undeniable magnificence of the Taj Mahal in Agra, India, or the curious accomplishment that is the world's biggest ball of twine (located just off Highway 12 in Darwin, Minnesota), it's clear that something inside us just loves to build big.

We've a flagpole fixation, you could say; it's a part of our wiring. We want to build higher and higher, go deeper and deeper into space, to stand on the earth and crane our necks to scan the upper balconies of the highest buildings - as though looking for that which, let's face it, is hiding in plain sight.

We are good at building tall things. And yet surrounded by such accomplishments, it's all too easy to lose perspective, isn't it? That is, when surrounded by the biggest and best of what we, the "crown of creation," have been able to pull off, it's relatively easy to gloss over what the Creator has accomplished.

-The stars speak of a scope and size to the universe that is beyond our grasp.

-The mountains give hint of a maker more powerful than comprehension.

-The colors found in a single autumn day display an artistry unmatched by the most skilled of human hands.

But so often, apart from the family vacations to the Grand Canyon or the occasional Discovery Channel special that catches our attention, even the "great and profound works of his hands" (Psalm 92:4-6) just seem so, well, ordinary. We might as well go build a flagpole.

No doubt David wrestled with the same lack of wonder that overtakes us all from time to time. One can also be sure that he, too, occasionally came down with a case of "build-it-bigger-itis." After all he was king of Israel, a man with a lust for the luxuries of life. He was a guy with divine dreams of building a temple. One can only assume that David, too, loved to press the limits of human abilities. But in Psalm 19, we catch David in a different mood. In this psalm we hear a man who - at least for a moment - is grounded in his humanity as he takes in the wonders of God's creativity:

The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world, Psalm 19:1-4a (NIV).

David nails it. Creation speaks to us, doesn't it? Whenever we take the time to take in something bigger or more beautiful than that which is built by mere mortals, there's a proclamation that takes place. There's a declaration that surpasses the boundaries of language and says something to every single soul. "I am small. God is big. I am weak. He is strong. The sun is always on time. I, however, am often late. I am creation but He, He is Creator."

And in a society where the word "awesome" can be used to describe everything from the work of Picasso to a peanut butter sandwich, we need those words. In a world where the works of our own hands are not just to be admired but constantly outdone, we need those words. Yes, as a people for whom a sense of true and total "stop what you're doing, put down the Blackberry and the I-pod, the test messaging and the computer games,, and say ?wow'" sense of wonder is hard to foster and so easily lost, we desperately need those words.

What David grabs a hold of in this psalm is the fact that the wonder of creation, unlike the work of our own hands, has an ability to draw us outward and upward - toward the truth of God in a way that skyscrapers, balls of twine and insanely large flagpoles simply can't. Think about it for just a moment. The Eiffel Tower, the Great Wall of China and soon the Palm Islands of Dubai, while magnificent, manage mostly to declare our glory. But the rising sun that each morning chases away the moon? (Psalm 19:5). Well, that speaks of someone other than, someone greater than, any of us.

Not to downplay what we're capable of. Our ability to create is itself a reflection of God's ultimate, creative power. Made in God's image and likeness, we are "mini-creators" doing our thing on a much smaller but still impressive scale (Genesis 1:27). But when we come face to face with the unmatched, creative power of God, words are spoken that - if we allow them - offer us a good dose of awe-filled humility. Let's be honest, you and I spend a great deal of time proving to those around us and to ourselves "who" we are. We fill our days fighting to leave some kind of legacy that matters. But sometimes the best thing we can do is press the "pause" button on proving who we are and instead remember who we are not.

...The psalmist declares God's glory

This is the moment in which we find David. The speech of the sun and the message of the moon have struck him deep, and like the Law gives "light to the eyes" it has revealed a stark contrast between Creator and creation (19:8). The gaps, the faults and the inadequacies that we try to fill with everything from flat-panel televisions to giant flagpoles are put plainly on display and we see ourselves as we really are.

And it's in moments like those that the real glory of God's creation can be found. Through it God brings us to a place where we're ready to receive the gospel. Confronted by the glory of God, we're ripe for an encounter with the Son of God, who stepped into creation and filled the gaps of our imperfect existence with the perfection of his. We're ready to receive and able to appreciate the "firstborn of all creation," whose death on a cross forgives our constant attempts to put ourselves on the world's tallest pedestal (Colossians 1:15). Yes, when we take the time to stare at the stars that hang over our baseball and football game on any given night; when we remove our nose from the so-called important things in life long enough to notice the picture of God's faithfulness that is the rising sun, we again encounter a Maker who creates from nothing and has redeemed our nothing, through the work of Christ.

 Our drive to build the biggest and the greatest is nothing new. For David Chambers it's flagpoles; for you and for me it's something else. And we're good at it. But it might just be time to take a trip to the Grand Canyon or to DVR a little something from the Discovery Channel. Give yourself permission to stop building and just stare.

David closes his song with a simple request. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer, Psalm 19:14 (NIV).

Sources:
RE: the monster flagpole boom: wsj.com/article/SB121883827130345579.html.

RE: the Palm Islands of Dubai: palmsales.ca/new_properties/index.html.