Introduction
Let’s think about commercials for a moment. We just saw the best day for commercials a week ago on Super Bowl Sunday, and on Monday that was a main media highlight—especially since there really weren’t that many highlights from the Super Bowl.
I’ve always wondered why advertisers don’t employ Super Bowl level creativity, engagement, appeal, cleverness and fun to all commercials all the time. Instead we get advertisements that just make us want to turn the channel. Unless you are watching something on Hulu or YouTube and you have no choice but to watch them.
So let’s imagine we are watching television and on comes an annoying commercial for mouthwash (and you can’t change the channel.) The ad shows a woman leaning to pet her dog, and the camera zooms in for a close-up of pet and owner and the dog then cowers away because the woman has bad breath. If you look carefully and quickly you will then see in small print— but quite visible— the disclaimer “actor portrayal.”
And why do we see this message? Well believe it or not, we see it because mouthwash companies have a hard time finding “real people” willing to go on TV and show the world they have breath so bad dogs recoil when they get too close. The actors in these portrayals also want viewers to know, “Hey, I’m acting here. I don’t really have breath so bad animals run away.”
We see this “actor portrayal” disclaimer in all kinds ads— promos for feminine hygiene products, male performance issues, foot fungus powders, and medications for a host of health issues that are deemed “embarrassing.” Real people are just not lining up to endorse these products, no matter how helpful and beneficial the items may be.
Conversely however, some companies have no trouble finding “real people, not actors” to endorse their products. From Dove soap, to Chevy Trucks, to eHarmony, to Peloton exercise equipment “real people” can be found who willingly praise and endorse commercial products or concepts.
But why the need for real people? Because if we’re convinced the person in love with herbal, eco-friendly shampoo is a real, average middle-class person like us, there is a greater chance we will buy the product. We’ll put down cash for stuff because a person of our own tribe and status loves the product— not some phony Hollywood actor/celebrity.
This is called social realism. It was given birth by social media— platforms on which everyone’s authentic ideas, opinions and feelings are revealed. Yes, social media is a web of gossip, innuendo and outrageous claims, but it’s our gossip, innuendo and outrageous claims—created by real people, not the media, not celebrities, not corporations— and we love it; we believe each other, at least those in our own social or political clan. This is why most people prefer real people over actors in commercials. It’s more authentic. We look for authenticity all the time and we are dismayed when we think we find it, but later find out we are misled. We look for authenticity in our everyday lives, just as we ought to look for authenticity in our spiritual lives.
The writer of today’s psalm is a real person, like us. Not a professional troubadour, hired to sing praise to Yahweh. This guy is real people, and he becomes for us an example of how to live an authentic faith.
Move 1
If you read Psalm 111, and get the feeling the writer is something of a millennial texting or posting on Snapchat, Instagram or WhatsApp, you might be onto something. I reread this text within these hyperactive social media days and can’t help but think if the Psalmist were writing this kind of impassioned text today it would be on a YouTube channel or a Tik-Tok video. Maybe he has a guitar and this is the song! Not some random text or posting; this psalm is a work of art! It’s going to get countless likes and go viral.
In just 175 words, the singer summarizes the whole history of God’s deliverance of ancient Israel as his poetic homage to God. He’s definitely a Millennial or Gen Zer. Sure, it might be a little long for those generations, but character counts hadn’t become a thing yet. The bottom line is Psalm 111 is not a voice-over by a paid performer. There’s nothing fake or contrived about this person. He’s real. He’s authentic. And he wants to tell us something.
So what does he say? What does he want to tell us?
The first three words summarize the entire song: Praise the Lord! Or literally from the Hebrew: Hal-Lu-Yah. Hallelujah. This psalm is a praise song to God, and it is all about God. It’s not about us. And this is the essence of our worship. It is one thing to praise God in the privacy of one’s home, or in one’s thoughts. But God wants us to offer praise publicly. God wants us to be “real people, not actors” because such a witness is believable. It has credibility. It is real. It is authentic And authentic faith will never ever mislead.
Move 2
“Praise the Lord! I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart, in the company of the upright, in the congregation.”
This verse describes what the writer intends to do with his psalm post. He’s going to praise the Lord.
The writer contends that the “works of the Lord” are great and people who love God’s work actually study them and examine them in detail. They look at every aspect of the works of God, deconstruct them, analyze them, conjecture, hypothesize, extol and rhapsodize.
He then argues that these creative wonders project the honor and majesty of their Creator and that God’s marvelous deeds have earned God a well-deserved reputation: God is a God of enduring righteousness, and moreover, is “gracious and merciful.”
To sum it up: the writer asserts that God is a God of “wonderful deeds” (v. 4), clothed in grace and mercy. This is what the writer of Psalm 111 enthusiastically and authentically says about God.
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So if asked about God’s wonderful deeds what would we say? If you were to send a 240-character tweet praising God, what would you write? What would your video posting say?
It would be cheating to copy and paste Psalm 111. That would be like hiring a professional actor to say something on your behalf.
What would you, the real authentic you, say if asked to offer a “God endorsement” with some peer-to-peer marketing sound bites?
A hashtag is a good start— maybe #PTL, for “Praise the Lord!” But then what?
For many of you this exercise is easy. But for some, not so much, which might be a sign that we’re not fully engaged with, or connected to, God, and thus don’t have the words to be real, honest and authentic, which will result in us sounding fake, and people (especially Millennials and Gen-Zer’s) can spot fakes from a mile away.
In fact, this is one problem Millennials and Gen Zers have with “real people” commercials: sometimes the real people don’t seem really real.
So we would do well to ask ourselves, “Am I real? Is my faith authentic? Or am I just trying to appear real and authentic?”
Move 3
Fortunately, if we have some growing edges that we need to tend to so as to cultivate a more authentic faith, it’s not as hard as we might think. The writer provides examples to support his contention that God is a God of “wonderful deeds” that are clothed in grace and mercy.
God provided food, he writes, a reference to the Israelites’ experience in the wilderness when manna and quail sustained them for many years. God also provided water in the desert, which is nothing short of amazing. God also kept covenant with them, a covenant that began with Abraham and was renewed at Sinai. God’s works were never private, but exceedingly public— neighboring nations learned of the great God of the Hebrews. God is faithful, just and trustworthy, a reference not only to how God delivered the Israelites time and again, but to the Mosaic Law that codified the righteousness of God and the expectations God had for the people. And finally, the writer tells how God saved them, redeemed them from destruction. If these are not examples of the “wonderful deeds” of God, then what is? The point is, writer needed to only look around and see how God worked, responded, acted, gave, and forgave to see the wondrous deeds of grace and mercy.
And this is how we can see too. We can look around and see how God’s goodness surrounds us. We can see it in the abundance we have been blessed with, the relationships we have surrounding us, the opportunities before us. If we look around and see all that is good, and remember all goodness is from God, then we can’t help but create and show an authentic faith.
Conclusion
Psalm 111 is the testimony of the Psalmist. He starts with #PTL and he ends with, “His praise endures forever.”
So what is our testimony? We really need to know, and be ready, because we are called to be real people, not actors, in our relationships and interactions with others. People are looking for real people, people who are not showing off, not putting on airs of superiority or self-righteous hypocrisy.
People we cross paths with are looking for authenticity because that’s what they want and need in their lives. They’re going to look for it somewhere, so why not make sure they find it in us, and not in something that’s just misleading them?
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Social realism is real, and people today can spot a fake from a mile away.
So maybe we think of displaying our spiritual lives like a Super Bowl commercial. We show our faith in the wondrous deeds of God as creative, engaging, and appealing—maybe even clever and fun. For if we do, people will want to know more; they’ll be talking about it the next day; and they’ll know it’s real.
Aim to display our faith in such a way, and I have faith others will see our faith as authentic faith. Amen.
Pastoral Prayer, February 14, 2021
Gracious and loving God, on a day when we celebrate the loves of our lives—be it spouse, partner, children, parents, family, or friends, we would be amiss if we forgot your love, and the unconditional love that comes to us from you, through your Son Jesus.
We give you thanks for the love you pour out upon us each day—love that is without condition, without bounds, and filled with grace and mercy and wonder. We love you too Lord.
And yet while this day leads us to think about and honor the loves of our lives we pray you implore us, for a few moments, to think about and honor those in this world who are having a hard time finding much love today.
We lift to you those who have lost the loves of their lives—their spouse, their partner, a child, a beloved family member or friend. May they find peace knowing their loved one now abides in your eternal love.
We lift to you those who have seen love fade from their lives—a love that was pledged to them by another—but now that love was taken away, and they are left wondering if they will ever love or be loved again. May they know your love will always lead them to deeper love.
We lift to you those to whom love is a stranger—the homeless, the mentally ill, the orphan, the child who is bullied or sits alone at lunch, the homebound, the addict, the imprisoned. May your spirit-filled love make its way to them all, and may their hearts be filled by you in ways that this world does not offer them.
God of love, your son showed us how to love—yes, to lay one’s life down for a friend, but he showed it too through his willingness to accept all, seek out ways to bring healing, tending to needs, and simply being present to those who were without love. May you empower us to live and love and Jesus has shown us.
Hear now, we ask, the prayers of our hearts, as we lift them to you in this time of Holy Silence.
All this we pray in the name of Christ Jesus, who loves us without condition, and who taught us to pray saying, “Our…”