‘Praise the Lord, all you Nations’ ‘Praise the Lord, all you Nations’ ICEL, Leuven October 6, 2013 Pieter Boersema

ICEL Psalm 117 IntroductionIntroduction Psalm 117 is a wonderful Psalm which embodies the spirit of ICEL. Praise the Lord, all you nations; extol him, all you peoples. For great is his love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever. Praise the Lord.

ICEL Psalm 117 Praise the Lord all you Nations   The ultimate goal of the creation: praise the Lord all you nations.   Praise, worship and adoration all ethnicity.   The smallest Psalm but the summary of the Psalms.   Psalms about gladness and thankfulness but also mourning, the struggle of human nature and the injustice in the world.   Psalm 117 combines these in: His Love & Faithfulness   Mercy and Truth.

ICEL Our life and God’s Love and Faithfulness   Jesus as the Saviour and King of the world.   Jesus the Lamb of God (John 1:29).   The wisdom and Bible knowledge in the Middle Ages still present in Flanders.   Continuation of the painting ‘Het Lam Gods’ of the brothers van Eyck (April 2013).   Diversity in ICEL as a symbol of the diversification related to the Lamb of God in the central picture.

ICEL The Adoration of the Lamb Hubert and Jan van Eyck, 1432, St. Bavo, Gent

ICEL Four different groups of people around the centre   The figures to the left of the fountain represent witnesses from the Old Covenant, to the right the New Covenant.   Foreground, five Jewish prophets dressed in pink robes kneel and read aloud from open copies of the Bible.   Pagan philosophers and writers stand behind them. Oriental faces of some, different styles of headdress.   To the right are the twelve apostles, and behind them male saints, with the Popes and other clergy at the front.   Female martyrs in the distance to the right. Identifiable biblical figures carry palms (Hosanna, praise the Lord).   To the upper left the saints with palms in their hands.   A beautifull sight of the unity in diversity.

ICEL What can we learn from this painting by What can we learn from this painting by the brothers van Eyck? De vision of the apostle John in the book of Revelation is an inclusive view. It is the story of the beginning of creation, beginning of mankind but also the story of eternal life. Western view on a linear development. Diversity in the church may not be overruled by a particular cultural religious preference.   It is so easy to measure the other with our ideas of what is right. To understand unity we need diversity.

ICEL Diversity and unity in Ephesians 3: I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

ICEL

The story of the two thrones: Revelation 22:1-4 1 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. 3 No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him.

ICEL The Holy Communion   The need to come to the table with our sins and mistakes in the process of living together.   To praise God is essential for our life.   To praise God all you nations is essential for the reconciled creation.   On the painting in the centre: The blood of the Lamb flows into a chalice.   The daily reconciliation with God through the sacrifice of Jesus, the Lamb of God.