The window that inspires our meditation for today was intentionally placed behind the choir stalls. It was to remind us of the importance of music and singing for worship. The fact that King David does not hold a battle axe in his hand, nor does he look after beautiful women, but he holds a harp, is to underline the importance of music for our worship life.

But I don't want to speak about King David this morning. He was a colourful character, which would be difficult to do justice to in a brief meditation. And indeed, his military and sexual adventures and exploits are better analysed and discussed in a bible study or in a lecture room than in a worship service.

So we turn to the text in the window. It gives a text: "Praise ye the LORD. I will praise the LORD with my whole heart, in the assembly of the upright, and in the congregation." And then is says Psalm 3:1. But in fact the text does not come from Psalm 3:1, it comes from Psalm 111:1. Obviously the artist took the numeral "111" to mean "3". So the basis of our meditation today is Psalm 111.

Our worship, indeed our celebration of life, is grounded in God's being for us. God is not out there, living in splendid isolation. God is not nowhere. We are not surrounded by death, darkness and nothingness. The confession of believers has always been that in life and in death we are surrounded by the colourful grace of a good God.

The Psalmist reminds us of that by thinking and talking "God" together with "Covenant". God "is ever mindful of his covenant," we read, and "he has commanded his covenant forever."

Why is it, that "covenant" is such an important theme in the Bible. Why is God represented as a covenant making God? God seems to make covenants all the time!

with Noah, including the promise that God will look after the whole of creation. And every time you see a rainbow in the sky, it is a reminder of God's commitment!

with Abraham. He chose Abraham to carry God's ways beyond the confines of his immediacy.

with Israel to be God's special people. "I will . deliver you from slavery .. I will redeem you .. I will take you as my people, and I will be your God. You shall know that I am the LORD your God, who has freed you from the burdens of the Egyptians." (Exod 6:6f.)

with David promising his steadfast love to the house of David forever.

with us through Jesus. Every time we celebrate the Lord's Supper we confess that our life is grounded in the new covenant which God made with us and indeed with all of God's creation.

Covenant! It stands for God's togetherness with us. Do you remember the believer who wanted to run away from God? This was his discovery.

"Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. If I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me fast. If I say, 'Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light around me become night,' even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is as bright as the day, for darkness is as light to you." (Psalm 139:7-12)

And do you remember Job, the brother of all who are suffering, the friend of all who are struggling with God. There was a time when he wanted to finish with life and when he was tired of God.

"Will you not look away from me for a while, let me alone until I swallow my spittle? If I sin, what do I do to you, you watcher of humanity? Why have you made me your target? Why have I become a burden to you? Why do you not pardon my transgression and take away my iniquity?" (Job 7:21ff.)

Job wanted to lie down in the dust of the earth and be no more.

.now I shall lie in the earth; you will seek me, but I shall not be.

Become a "burden"? Job, have you not heard that God is a burden carrier? Hide is the dust of the earth - from God? Job, have you not heard that God is the creator and sustainer of that dust? And indeed, underneath the frustration, Job knew who God was! Listen to this:

"What are human beings, that you make so much of them, that you set your mind on them, visit them every morning .?"

God sought and God found Job, because God has made a covenant with his creation. We may break the covenant. We may become godless, but God will not let his people go.

That is the first thing that we need to remember. God's covenant stands for God's almighty and unconditional YES to us. It covers our good times and our bad times.

What do you do, what can you do, when you have discovered that God does not only exist, but that God exists for me; that God's unconditional covenant includes me. That God is not only the abstract ground of my being, but that he is like a good father, a loving mother, a caring shepherd, a faithful friend, a burden carrier? What else can you do, but to join the Psalmist:

"I will give thanks to the LORD with my whole heart"

Faith is the discovery that God is there for me. And faith issues into thanksgiving. And since it is God whom we respond to, we can only give thanks with our "whole heart"!

That is a great challenge! We don't like responding with our whole heart. We don't like opening our whole being to God. We like our privacy. And tiredness, sleepiness, lack of willingness to adjust our thinking to the values of God's ways are all too familiar to us.

But the invitation stands, to respond and thank God with our "whole heart". The more we are willing to open our being to God, the more God will become meaningful to us.

Such thanksgiving takes place in the community of God's people.

"I will give thanks to the LORD with my whole heart, in the company of the upright, in the congregation."

God loves community. Indeed God is community. So when God created humanity, he created us as community beings. Individualism is a distortion of who we are. Our culture, our economy, our politics focus on the individual. And there is truth in that. We are to discover and develop our gifts and talents. We are to strive to be the best we can be.

But we do it, not to rule, but to serve. Not to dominate, but to build community. It is one of the most terrible illusions that we carry around in ourselves, that we can make it alone and on our own. In fact, life is community. We need friends, we need air and food and water. We need God. Withdrawing from friends, from nature, from God - is the way of death. Opening ourselves to friends, to nature, to God - is the way of life.

Worship is a way of life. It happens in community. "I will give thanks to the LORD . in the congregation."

Did you notice that God made many covenants - as if God continually spills over. The presence of God is often symbolised with water, but it must be flowing, moving water. That is indeed the case. What is meant by "covenant" in the Hebrew Bible is captured in the New Testament with the confession: "God is love".

And love, as we know, cannot be contained. It is like an ever flowing well. Lovers want to please each other. They don't want to be themselves apart from the other and without the other. Lust uses the other. Lust can bring two people together and yet they remain themselves. Love creates community. Love needs to be shared or it dies.

That is the reason why when God becomes an event, sharing begins. The church at the centre of its being is sharing.

In our Psalm, the people tell each other and confess to the world that "the LORD is gracious and merciful", that "his righteousness endures forever", that "he provides food" for people in the wilderness.

That is the reason why it is so sad what is happening in Afghanistan. There are people who have followed the invitation of love. They wanted to share their life. They have done what comes natural to lovers of life. And now they are imprisoned by religious fanatics. We saw it last week with our meditation on Stephen and Paul, how religious fanaticism can make us blind and afraid of love and freedom and non-violence.

But we do not have to look to Afghanistan to hear the pain and the pleading of love. There are two important things on the love agenda in our own country.

How can we treat women, men and children who come to our country as refugees or seeking asylum with the dignity that we would expect if we with our children were seeking a place to live and breathe?

Last weekend indigenous leaders from our country but also from other countries met in Sydney and raised the claim of compensation for people and their families and communities from whom they have been forcibly removed.

Love is not only a romantic feeling. Love is hard work. It cost God his son and it cost Jesus his life. Are we ready to entertain the claim that love may make upon us? Let us not run away or retreat into the luxury of isolation.

God is a covenant making God because he wants to be together with us. God is love. We respond to God in faith and thanksgiving. Then God places us in a community of friends and in and with that community we tune into God's love for the world. Worshipping God, caring for each other and looking after the people who are in need - all of that belongs together, because God is not only the creator, but also the burden carrier of what he has created.

Rev. Dr Thorwald Lorenzen, 19/08/01

Last updated: 19 August 2001