Holy Synchrony

A sermon delivered by Rev. Dr. Randy K. Hammer, March 3, 2019

2 Chronicles 6:12, 14-21 NLT

Over the course of my ministry, I have had a number of people say to me, when trying to give a defense for having no interest in church services or church involvement, “I can worship and feel closer to God on the mountaintop as much or more than I can attending church services.”  I remember well, although it has been forty years ago, a man who lived beside the first small church I served saying that exact thing to me.  Well, I can understand such a comment – to some extent.  Because I, too, feel close to God or the Sacred whenever I am able to be on a mountaintop or stand somewhere like Zion Canyon or Yosemite Valley or find myself in some other national park that leaves me feeling awestruck and amazed.  Evidence of God and the presence of God certainly are not limited to the interior walls of church buildings, although such is the way that some of us may have been conditioned to think in our early years.

Wise Solomon, as he dedicated the Jerusalem Temple that was built during his reign, realized that the “highest heavens” cannot contain God, much less the Temple he had built, as magnificent as that temple was.  In other words, God’s presence is everywhere – everything on earth, across the heavens, as far away as the Milky Way Galaxy, and beyond!  So wherever we find ourselves – on a mountaintop, beside a tranquil lake, within a grove of old growth hardwood trees, or even in Death Valley’s Mojave Desert – we can see evidence of and worship God as solitary creatures. 

I am reminded of the testimony of Admiral Richard Byrd.  In 1934, Admiral Byrd spent five months by himself in a tiny hut in Antarctica, 123 miles away from the rest of his men.  While living alone at the South Pole, Admiral Byrd sat in his tiny hut and wrote these words: “Though I am cut off from human beings, I am not alone.”  Could Admiral Byrd have meant that though he was completely separated from everyone else in the world, he could feel the Divine Presence, the presence of God?  And if that is so, if we can feel the presence of and worship God in isolation at somewhere like the South Pole, then what, indeed, is the benefit of attending church and corporate worship?  Such is a question many of our day might ask.

Well, here is the answer: Solomon, wise as he was, also realized the benefit and importance of a house dedicated to the service of God and the importance of corporate worship.  And so, he had built a magnificent structure that would serve as a focal point for Jewish worship for years to come.  In the Temple that Solomon had built, the doors into the shrine area were made of olive wood, and they were covered with carvings of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers, and overlaid with gold.  The inside walls of the nave were lined with boards of cedar and the floor of the building was covered with boards of cypress.  The cedar planking had carvings of gourds and open flowers.  And the wooden lining of both the shrine and the nave was also overlaid with pure gold.¹

Solomon said in his dedicatory prayer to God, “May you hear the humble and earnest requests from me and your people Israel when we pray toward this place” (2 Chronicles 6:21 NLT).  Although God certainly can be honored and/or experienced anywhere we might go on this earth or up in space, there is something inspiring, something harmonious, and something wonderfully synchronous about coming together with others of like mind and spirit for corporate worship.  So when I write or speak about experiencing God or the Sacred in the world of Nature (which I often do), it is in addition to, and not in opposition to or in exclusion of, experiencing God or the Sacred in the context of Christian worship.  Something unique can occur in the context of collective worship that is not possible in solitary worship.  Allow me to illustrate.

Have you ever observed a flock of starlings flying together in a whirling, ever-changing pattern, and been amazed at how they all fly this way in unison, making turns and changing their course, all at the same instant?  How in the world do they do that?  How do hundreds or thousands, perhaps, of birds coordinate such a complicated choreography while in flight?  Such is a question I have asked more than once.  Do you know what that is called?  That phenomenon is called murmuration.  Scientists think this wonder of nature may have something to do with physics, but in the end scientists cannot explain murmuration, confessing it is a mystery.

Or have you ever marveled at a large group of fish that do a similar thing – they all seem to turn in unison, changing directions in a split second’s notice.  I was not aware of it until this past week, but a group of fish just congregated together is called a shoal, whereas a group of fish swimming and turning in unison is called a school.  And their actions of swimming and turning in unison is called “schooling.”

Well, what might these examples from nature have to do with God and worship? you may be wondering.  Just this:  One starling alone can still be a starling, and do all the things starlings normally do, such as eat, fly,whirl, etc.  And one fish alone is still a fish, and can do all the things fish do, such as eat and swim.  But when starlings congregate and fly together, something extraordinary happens.  As they fly in unison, the starlings create a beautiful phenomenon of nature that can leave onlookers speechless.  And when fish school together, they, likewise, put on a show to leave onlookers amazed. 

So it is with humans.  One human alone can still be a human, doing all the things humans do, including religious worship.  But when humans congregate and worship together, something extraordinary can happen as we join our voices in song, offer our prayers and mediations in unison, collectively offer our financial gifts, and harmoniously join our spirits with like-minded spirits around us.  And we can aptly term that experience “holy synchrony,” or “holy synchronicity.”  That is, an experience when our acts of worship and our spirits are all in sync, like the pieces of a symphony, or like a flock of starlings whirling in unison.  Some might prefer to call it “holy synergy.”

When we gather for worship and a spirit of harmony and love and kindred spirit are evident; and the music is wonderful and soul-stirring; and a prayer that is offered speaks to hearts; and the sermon is half decent and strikes a chord – such experiences give evidence that we are more, we are greater than our individual selves; we are greater than the sum or our parts.   We become a living organism that enlivens us so that we leave here refreshed, energized and, hopefully, with a new perspective on life and with new energy to face the week ahead.

So yes, as Solomon realized, the presence of God or the Sacred can be experienced and worshipped all across this beautiful earth.  But that experience doesn’t negate the benefits of and need for a house dedicated to the service of God where people gather for corporate worship.  When we come together, there’s always the possibility that something might happen to leave us amazed or speechless.  Holy Synchrony or Holy Synchronicity.  May it be so.  Amen.

¹The New Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, S-Z, Volume 5.  Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2009, p. 497.