October 1, 2006
|
|
|
| Worship
and Knowing God Hear this prayer to the God we worship: "May all your people find favor with you this day, God of majesty and power. Turn our sorrow into gladness and our mourning into a holiday, a holy day, in which to praise you and find ways to help those less fortunate than ourselves. Lift us from our daily preoccupations that we may pray with earnest interest, both to thank you and to be changed by you. Let our prayers be powerful and effective. May our worship be alive and life-changing. May the service we extend find favor in your eyes, blessed God. Amen (Led by Love, Lavon Bayler. Cleveland: United Church Press, 1996, p.142). Today begins a five week sermon series on worship, and in these weeks, I want to invite us to reflect on what it means to celebrate God. We will in these weeks place special emphasis on what we do already when we declare through our presence here and in our daily lives, that God is the divine recipient of our worth-ship, that is what the word worship means. Scripture celebrates worship: "I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the
Lord’" (Psalm 122.1). "God is a
spirit and those who worship God must worship in spirit and truth" (John
4.26). And, "Christians, we have met to worship, and adore the living God" (Chalice Hymnal, #277).We praise and affirm other human beings and we should. We share our love and affection with family and friends, church and nation and other meaningful places and things and we should. Through our volunteering and in those things we love and are paid to do, we offer service to God and to others. We may put all that we have to a task, giving 100% over and over again. All of that is good and it’s all OK. We love and honor and serve a lot of things, but only God is truly worthy of all that we have. God alone deserves our highest praise, our deepest affection, our greatest service, our total being, and so we are. We come to church to worship God and to be fully who we are. William Sloan Coffin says, "a church is a place where we think, speak, act in God’s way, not the way of a fear-filled world. A church is a home for love, a home for brothers and sisters to dwell in unity, to rest and be healed, to let go their defenses and be free – free from worries, free from tensions, free to laugh, free to cry" (William Sloan Coffin in Credo. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004, p. 140). Our worship is not only about gathering, hearing good music, a decent sermon, and seeing our good friends, all of that may happen, we hope it will happen, it is marvelous when it does happen. But we gather together to pay honor to God and to share our faith. Worship is about our core values of knowing God, building relationships, and doing justice, no matter what else is happening in our lives. As we worship, we continue to know God. And as we know God, we are reminded about why we worship. We worship and know God when we remember what God requires of us. Certainly, we do not to be like the folks the prophet Micah addressed: they had forgotten how to be grateful for what God has done for them, they had forgotten how to treat people with respect and compassion, they lost their sense of humility, their worship life suffered and God is not pleased. In fact, God is so upset that a lawsuit has been brought against the people for their negligence. The people want to negotiate, and they make a settlement offer. But it is not a burnt offering or our finest calves, our first born, our homes, our new car. God requires three things from us as we worship. First, God requires that we act justly as God has acted justly with us. Justice is what we do so we worship God as we act as advocates for the poor and help them to be empowered; as we treat workers fairly and support businesses that do too. Justice requires that we treat everyone we meet as a beloved child of God, and that we number ourselves among God’s beloved too. Second, God requires that we love kindness, that means that we practice steadfast, loyal, consistent love and loyalty for God and for people. It is what God shows us and our worship returns that love to God and it expands that love to the rest of God’s creation. And third, God requires that we walk humbly with God. Humility is good, but the important word here is walk, which describes our relationship with God. We walk with God. I wish it were true that an hour and fifteen minute walk with God on a Sunday morning would spare us hurt, prevent any negative thing from happening, and make us all happy, wealthy, and wise. It won’t but worship can help us bear the weights and burdens of our lives, and it can help us celebrate the good success we know too, especially if we do so in the presence of other Christians. How else do we worship? In the presence of suffering and cheer, we sings songs of praise (v.3). We worship and know God as we sing, no matter what. Whether your mood is "Thank you Lord", or "It Is Well With My Soul", we acknowledge the presence and power of God, especially in those moments when knowing God is all that gets us through.In moments of joy and in moments of sorrow, lift up your voice to God who keeps the promise not to leave us alone. Knowing that God is with us excites a sense of gratitude in us, it helps us to find confidence and hope that puts us at the center of faith, and it makes it possible for us to stand in what a colleague calls the thin places. Those are those unsure, insecure, marginal places. The thin places are the sick rooms, the unfortunate incident, the "what do I do now moments", the roadblock, can’t get where we want to be moments. Songs of praise remind us about why we have this communion table at the head of the aisle, attention to God’s word is why we moved the pulpit to the center of the chancel, it is why the empty cross, high and lifted up joins the table and reminds us that God is here. We know God as we worship when we pray, no matter what. When there is sickness among you, in your body, in your spirit, in your well-being, call the elders of the church, call the spiritual leaders, the pastor, the elders and deacons, call on the faithful so that we can pray for you. The elders, the deacons, the visitors, those who pray on behalf of the congregation are the bridge between keep the sick person connected to the community. You understand that if you have ever seen the joy in the faces of our homebound members when they are visited by a member of the church – the contact with the church lets them know that they are cared for and connected. Still we wonder about the prayers that seem unanswered. We ask, "if the ‘prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective,’ why is my loved one still ill? Does that mean that prayer is not powerful? Or does it mean that my prayer failed because I am not sufficiently righteous?’" (Texts for Preaching – Year B. Louisville. Westminster John Knox Press, 1993, p. 527)The answer is no. Prayer is about talking to God about what we need and then trusting God to provide it. James says prayers of faith can save the sick and the sinner because God will lift them up. In the Greek, the work for salvation and heal is the same word. And often what effects the body effects the soul, and what effects the soul has implications for the body. That is why we get sick with worry, it is why deep betrayal and disappointment leave us heartbroken, it is why when we are happy, we have can hardly keep our bodies still. We know God as we worship and hold each other accountable, so much so that we are to find and bring back wandering brothers and sisters. The wandering is not the kind that takes people away from the church, we regret their absence, and we keep our doors open for their return, but we respect their choices. The kind of wandering James talks about is the kind that takes us away from the faith, from our commitment to being a welcoming, inclusive community. It is wandering from the good news of Jesus Christ as if it just does not matter. It matters that as we worship and work we let people know that we know God, build relationships, and do justice. And it matters that we live and confess what we believe. There are two understandings of confession. We confess our faults and fear to God; we lay ourselves bare before God so that God can re-clothe and put us back together. And confession means to be contrite, it is an admission to God and to people that we have done wrong and we want to lay it down and make it right. The other definition of confession is proclamation. It is to declare who we are and what we believe. It is what we do in Regional and General Assemblies and her from time to time, when we stand together and say: "As members of the Christian Church, we confess that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God, and proclaim him Lord and Savior of the world. "In Christ’s name and by his grace we accept our mission of witness and service to all people. We rejoice in God, maker of heaven and earth, and in the covenant of love which binds us to God and one another. "Through baptism into Christ we enter into newness of life and are made one with the whole people of God. In the communion of the Holy Spirit we are joined together in discipleship and in obedience to Christ. "At the table of the Lord, we celebrate with thanksgiving the saving acts and presence of Christ. "Within the universal church, we receive the gift of ministry and the light of scripture. In the bonds of Christian faith, we yield ourselves to God that we may serve the One whose kingdom has no end. "Blessing, glory and honor be to God forever. Amen" (Preamble to the Design of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). That is a God worthy of our worship; this God and God’s Christ helps us to speak the truth in love, hold one another accountable, remember the reasons we gather in this place. We are here to act, love, walk, pray, to know and worship God who is spirit, breathing life into us, and to leave this house still worshiping as we serve one another and our world.We are called to worship God this day. Thanks be to God. Amen.
|
|
Broad
Street Christian Church
|
