Trish's Hum
As Jesus was going towards Jerusalem just before His death, Luke 19:37 -41 tells us:
When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen:
"Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!" "Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!" Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, "Teacher, rebuke your disciples!" "I tell you," He replied, "If they keep quiet, the stones will cry out."
Please indulge me a little. I have travelled to London Bridge every day this week and have been awed by the amazing number of churches and places of Christian worship that one can see just from the train. The stone buildings are huge and majestic, solid and most have been around for many, many years.
And this thought came into my head – Surely every object that has come into contact with the Spirit of the Living God, has to have been impacted in a special way. Imagine all the singing and prayers and praise that these buildings have heard over all the centuries. What happens to this worship? Does it fade away when the sound is gone?
We know that God is not limited to time or space – do these buildings continue to hold something? Imagine the heritage of Christian worship in London alone over the past thousand years! Imagine the sound of every organ, worship team, Salvation Army band, church bells.
I have a habit of singing or humming to myself all the time and as I walked down the High Street, I was singing aloud because with all the traffic noise and everyone wearing I-Pods anyway – I’m sure no one could hear me:
"Crown Him with many crowns the Lamb upon the Throne
Hark how the heavenly anthem drowns all music but its own
Awake my soul and sing of Him who died for Thee
And crown Him as thy matchless King through all Eternity"
1 Peter 2:5 "You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ."
We are living stones. Praise and worship isn’t just singing etc. It’s the response of the new man – the new creation within us to the Presence of God. It’s a natural response of a child to his Father.
Our flesh man can get in the way, can be angry, try to blame God for things – but our renewed spirit – we as living stones cry out – we cannot help it –
"Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!"
"Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!"
Trish Smith 2007. Trish Smith is a teacher, from South Africa who moved into the area recently with husband Alan who was born locally.
