   |
Recent SermonsAugust 22, 2010 “Sing lustily and with a good courage.” (John Wesley, IV in the “Directions for Singing,” Select Hymns, 1761)
“I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing,” Visit Dixborochurch.org for sermons, Preacher Notes and e-CHIMES e-mail: Preacher@Dixborochurch.org
“…the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that he was doing.” (Luke 13:17) (After the prelude, bringing in a carton of Coke, see the people already here, and sing…) “If I knew you were coming I’d’ve baked a cake….” (“If I Knew You Were Coming I’d’ve Baked a Cake, Al Hoffman, Bob Merrill, and Clem Watts, 1950)
When the congregation worships God it makes me want to say, “I’d like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony.” (Pause to bring out a Coca-Cola, open it, and take a slow drink) If you are visiting today you’ve already seen the regulars react to something we’ve done before.
Many here know that means, “Cokes for everyone.” (Drink more coke)
I’d like to teach the world to sing In perfect harmony I’d like to hold it in my arms And keep it company (verse 2)
I’d like to buy the world a home And furnish it with love Grow apple trees and honey bees And snow white turtle doves (verse 1)
I’d like to see the world for once All standing hand in hand And hear them echo through the hills For peace throughout the land (verse 3) (This and the Coke story information from Wikipedia at the reference)
Until I do, I’ll sing my heart out in worship with you. Today there will be lots of parts of songs - things I’d like to teach the world to sing. In the first church, “…they devoted themselves to the apostle’s teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” (Acts 2:42) Teaching the world to sing today might change what we get out of worship and, when we change – one by one into - what God intends, eventually we will change the world. We’ve got some work to do for Christ. It’s God’s passion.
Sometime during this service, come forward and get a Coke. It’s absolutely free. Free to you. Free of any charges - up front or hidden. You aren’t paying for your Coke through your generous support of the budget. I am not turning the bill in. (Later, Charles Engle pointed out that the free Coke was, “…even less than free because everyone will get 10 cents back for the can. You come out ahead!”)
Being generous, you might like to get a can of Coke to share with the hungry and homeless in our area. You can. Leave a dollar here and we’ll channel your dollars to and through the Food Gathers who’ll leverage them into a lot of food. They’ll give us credit for “4 pounds of food for every dollar.” A Coke for free for everyone, because I’d like to sing, “I’d like to teach the world to sing.” And an opportunity to share with others.
Message
“I’d like to teach the world to sing.”
Some of us remember when, “once upon a time,” in August of 2006 in order to make a point during the message, I said, “I’d like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony.” Then, reaching down underneath the top of the pulpit I pulled out a Coke and popped the top. (Drink more)
Faster than I thought we would, many of us connected to the old 70’s TV commercial. It is one of the most popular of all time.
That day, I said something like, “My mother taught me if you have something, share it.” So we gave out Cokes to every one. It was probably the first time that had been done here. But, it wasn’t the last. Each August, we’ve returned to, “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing,” because it’s just such a good idea and because it’s so much fun. Every August since we started this, the song and the Cokes are the same but we used different scriptures, different points, and different illustrations during the message. Today will be, something old and some thing new.
Some won’t know the background of the song, so I’ll start with that. About 1970, Bill Backer, an advertising man worked on the Coca-Cola account. Flying to London to meet with others to make radio commercials, heavy fog in London forced the plane to divert to Ireland’s Shannon airport. You’ll know many flyers were upset. “By the next day, Backer saw some of the most irate in the airport café. Brought together by a common experience, many were now laughing and sharing stories over snacks and bottles of Coca-Cola.” (underline mine) “So that was the basic idea: to see Coke not as it was originally designed to be – a liquid refresher – but as a tiny bit of commonality between all peoples, a universally liked formula that would help keep them company for a few minutes.”
For me, something about that commonality between people laughing and sharing stories makes me do this over and over with a Coke. Join me! One wondrous thing about repetition is that the same ritual, over and over, leads to multiplying the strength which leads to habit. We change our attitudes with new habits.
“I’d like to teach the world to sing…” Mister Bluebird’s on my shoulder,
“God is good!” Congregation, “All the time!” “And all the time…” “…God is good.” “Everything is “satisfactch’ll.’’ God makes things “good.” God gives us good things. We have enough. Apostle Paul wrote to his friends at the church he started in Corinth, “And God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that you may always have enough of everything and may provide in abundance for every good work.” “He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your resources and increase the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way for great generosity, which …will produce thanksgiving to God….” (2 Corinthians 9:8 and 10 RSV) “Everything is “satisfactch’ll.’’ God bless Grace Parker. She’s gone now. But, I’ll never forget her faithfully sitting here week in and week out, rain or shine. I’ll never forget Grace telling me about a tradition that when her family got together for some occasion and they’d gather together for a blessing, a prayer, a grace before the meal, some one, son Ron, I believe, would start the singing… Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay,
In the front of every Methodist Hymnal you can find John Wesley’s “Directions for Singing,” written in 1761. “Sing lustily and with good courage,” old John wrote. I’m imagining Grace’s heavenly “amen,” to that one as the family found a wonderful way to practice Paul’s advice about singing, “…spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” (Colossians 3:16 RSV) Mister Bluebird’s on my shoulder, “I’d like to teach the world to sing…”
Oh, we ain’t got a barrel of money
“I’d like to teach the world to sing…” that we do it together. Whatever the “It” is. No one stands alone. No one makes it alone. We “…get by with a little help from (our) friends.” (John Lennon and Paul McCartney, 1967)
We help one another. We support each other. We encourage, guide, and correct the people around us. Sometimes we lead. Sometimes we follow. But, we do it together, “side by side.”
Together we sing, “Happy Birthday, to you,” (Words first in print in 1912. “…the most recognized song in English.” Guinness Book of World Records, 1998) Don Staebler as you celebrate your 100th birthday. There’s an Open House today at the farm starting at 1:30. There will be a crowd because no one travels alone.
As followers of Jesus Christ, we are his body. (1 Corinthians 12:12 and 27) What God does, we do. There are no “wishing rocks,” (a reference to the Sermon on the Steps and the banded rocks supposedly good for one wish). We feed the hungry. We hold the hurt. We help the hopeless. We laugh and we cry with one another, “side by side.”
“He’s got the whole world in his hands….” John Wesley said, “...my part is to improve the present moment.” (John Wesley in a letter March 25, 1747) “To each (one of us) is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” (1 Corinthians 12:7) We all have a job to do. (1 Corinthians 12:8, 27-30)
Speaking of jobs to do and doing our part, I was thinking this week about retiring next July 1st. I was not only thinking about, “what am I going to do?” but also, as Jerry Lee Lewis’ sings, “Whose gonna play this old piano when the killer’s gone?” (“Whose Gonna Play This Old Piano, Ray Griff) I don’t know who will be standing here, but, in the meantime, it’s, “Hi ho, hi ho, it’s off to work we go….” (This common version seems to be an incorrect hearing of, “…it’s home from work we go….” from Walt Disney’s 1937, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”)
What is our work? “I’d like to teach the world to sing…” “It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood, a beautiful day for a neighbor, would you be mine?” (Fred Rogers, 1967)
Jesus made all his followers “fishers of men.” (“Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Matthew 4:19) He’s the One who said, “All authority in heaven and in earth has been given to me. Go therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you….” (Matthew 28:18-20)
“I’d like to teach the world to sing…” and this is a stretch, “Clang, clang, clang went the trolley. Ding, ding, ding went the bell….” (“The Trolley Song,” from “Meet Me in St. Louis,” 1944) from here the song breaks down into a love song, but it was the closest I could come to a train song this week.
Madeline and I took grandson, William, to Greenfield Village a couple of summers ago to see “Thomas the Train.” William was a big fan of Thomas and all his train friends. Grandma and grandpa paid for tickets so we could ride around the Village on Thomas. What a day. I am still reverberating from seeing a little boy later, walking hand in hand with is dad. As they walked the boy stopped and seeing Thomas chug around the Village again, seeing at a distance greater than I would have thought a child could and would take in, the boy waved and called out, “Hello, Thomas.”
My mother says I was one of four boys. I know because I remember it, and because over the years mom told the story often of how when one of us wanted some attention or wanted to run away from home, we went next door to Marg and Tom’s. They were an older couple, probably in their fifties. They had no children of their own and when mom and dad moved into their first house next door, Marg and Tom sort of adopted all of us as we came along, adopted us as their own. They became God parents for some of us. We could go there freely when we wanted to. I’d go over to Aunt Margie’s and sitting on her lap in the wingback chair in her living room, Margie would pull down a little red book from the shelf to read. She always had to read it exactly as it was no changes, no shortening. I still have that book.
“I’d like to teach the world to sing…” and this is a stretch, “Clang, clang, clang went the trolley….” and I’d like to teach the world, “I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.” Because, best of all is the truth, “I thought I could, I thought I could, I thought I could,” and “The Little Engine That Could” chugged on down the mountain and into the village with help. (“The Little Engine That could,” Watty Piper, 1930)
I’d like to teach the world the solid Methodist theology of John Wesley who said that God doesn’t ask of us anything we cannot do. No loving father would ask of a son or daughter the impossible and hold them accountable for the failure.
“If you think you can, you can,” adds credence to Jesus’ words, “Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.” (Luke 6:36 RSV)
“I’d like to teach the world to sing…” “Breathe on me, Breath of God, fill me with life a-new, that I may love what thou doest love, and do what thou wouldst do.” (“Breathe on Me, Breath of God,” Edwin Hatch, 1878)
This apostle would like to teach, “you’ve only got so many breaths. Pick your battles.” John Wesley claimed there were only three Rules required of the first Methodists: “…doing no harm, by avoiding evil of every kind….” “doing good of every possible sort, and, as far as possible, to all….” and “…attend upon all the ordinances of God.” (2008 Discipline, paragraph 101) As Bishop Reuben Job tells our General Rules in his work and book for us moderns, he uses, “Do no harm. Do all the good to can. Stay in love with God.” (“Three Simple Rules,” Reuben Job, Abindgon, 2007)
“Stay in love with God,” makes me want to teach the world to sing…
In the summertime, when all the trees and leaves are green (“In the Summertime,” Roger Miller, 1960) “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is (God’s) faithfulness.” (Lamentations 3:22-23)
God’s love is for you. For everyone. Don’t make God “…blue ‘cause you don’t want (that) love.”
“I’d like to teach the world to sing…” “His eye is on the sparrow, and I know he watches me….” (Civilla D. Martin, 1905) Jesus taught his disciples that God is loving and watchful and we don’t need to worry. “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them falls to the ground without your Father’s will….You are of more value than many sparrows.” (Matthew 10:29-31. Se also Luke 12:6-7)
“I’d like to teach the world to sing…” “To God be the glory, great things he hath done! So loved he the world that he gave us his Son, who yielded his life an atonement for sin, and opened the flood gates that all may go in.” (Fanny Crosby, 1875) “S. D. G.” Bach didn’t sing the three initials, but he wrote them on page after page of his finished manuscripts – three letters, “S. D. G.” for the Latin, “Soli Deo Gloria,” “To God alone be the Glory.” And so, “I’d like to teach the world to sing…” “Amen, amen, amen,” or “so be it.” _________________________________
“Every serious man, who peruses these (sermons), will therefore see in the clearest manner, what these doctrines are, which I embrace and teach, as the essentials of true religion.”
“To candid, reasonable men, I am not afraid to lay open what have been the inmost thoughts of my heart.”
John Wesley, the Preface to the 52 Standard Sermons
|
