A Disciple Worships

John 4:21-24 (The Message)

“Believe me, woman, the time is coming when you Samaritans will worship the Father neither here at this mountain nor there in Jerusalem. You worship guessing in the dark; we Jews worship in the clear light of day. God’s way of salvation is made available through the Jews. But the time is coming—it has, in fact, come—when what you’re called will not matter and where you go to worship will not matter.

“It’s who you are and the way you live that count before God. Your worship must engage your spirit in the pursuit of truth. That’s the kind of people the Father is out looking for: those who are simply and honestly themselves before him in their worship. God is sheer being itself—Spirit. Those who worship him must do it out of their very being, their spirits, their true selves, in adoration.”

Every day I take time for a couple of devotions and a Bible in a year program.

I am doing a program that is a little different than the one that is sent each week in the weekly email.  The one I am doing has you read about 3 or 4 chapters of a book each week and then a shorter second reading (usually from the Wisdom literature of the Bible)

So while I started in Genesis, the second book I read was the Gospel according to Mark.

I just finished Leviticus earlier this week

          (You should all either be impressed or wonder if I am just crazy)

But what struck me about Leviticus are all the rules about how the community is to live and worship together.

And at the center of all those rules is one thing --- YAHWEH and everything --- from how to live --- to how to dress --- direct us toward how we are to worship God.

Everything related to God really revolves and has its beginning in how we worship

As we talk about a Discipleship Path --- the starting point for many people is showing up to a worship service

          We come because we are interested or intrigued by this idea of God

The truth is, probably at this point we have yet to really encounter God, or have just begun that relationship

So we come to church with the idea that worship is there to FEED ME

          Worship is to provide my needs and scratch my itches

It is as if --- worship is just a component or box in our life

It almost is an experience unto itself that takes place one hour a week and its sole purpose is to take care of ME

George Barna, who created a Christian market research firm specializing in studying the religious beliefs and behavior of Americans, and the intersection of faith and culture says:

Most adults will contend that a Christian has a responsibility to worship God. However, when asked to define what worship means, two out of three are unable to offer an appropriate definition or description of worship.

Among adults who regularly attend church services, one-half admit that they haven’t experienced God’s presence at any time during the past year. Remember, this is not among the Easter-and-Christmas-only church attenders, but among people who attended an average of more than two dozen worship services last year.

For most Americans worship is to satisfy or please them, not to honor or please God. Amazingly, few worship-service regulars argue that worship is something they do primarily for God; a substantially larger percentage of attenders claim that attending worship services is something that they do for personal benefit and pleasure.

Those are challenging and damning words for all of us.

It’s not bad to start there --- we just don’t want to stay there

And the idea that worship is about ME is certainly not the biblical understand of the purpose or function of our worship of God

Worship has morphed and changed since the days of Moses

          We don't bring animals to sacrifice to appease an angry God

Just the other day, during our Ash Wednesday service we read from Psalm 51 where we are reminded of the sacrifice that God is seeking

(Psalm 51:15-17  NRSV)

O Lord, open my lips,

    and my mouth will declare your praise.

For you have no delight in sacrifice;

    if I were to give a burnt offering, you would not be pleased.

The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit;

    a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

Or as Paul reminds us in his letter to the Church at Rome

(Romans 12:1-2   MSG)

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

In the Hebrew Bible, the word used for worship (Shachah) literally means to bow down --- to fall down flat --- to show humility before God.

God is constantly telling us throughout the Torah, where God spends enormous amounts of energy explaining what worship is to be like --- God is constantly reminding us that God is to be at the center of worship

That central core statement of Judaism, the Shema maybe says it best:

Hear O’ Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

More than anything else --- those few words define what our worship is to be like

          CENTERED on God

And Jesus reminded us of the same thing when he told us what was central to our faith

Every part of our being --- every part of our life is to be focused on putting God first

And the struggle for many of us --- is what gets in the way of our worship

It's a beautiful day outside --- and I imagine many of us are wanting me to get on with it so we can get out and enjoy the day --- and forgetting why we are here

As we grow in our discipleship --- we see worship as less and less for ME (getting me fed) and more and more as an opportunity to learn about God

As we continue to grow, we look forward to the opportunities to be challenged in our faith and recognize that it is through worship that our life is actually shaped.

Finally comes the realization that worship is not only necessary but essential to my life --- and I begin to realize that I am called to worship God in totality of life and in every place and space of life. 

No one articulates this as well as Richard Rohr in his book The Universal Christ, in which he helps us to see God in everything

But until we get there, we need to keep focusing on what worship is all about ---

          The CREATOR --- not the Created

As Dr. Robert Webber has said:

. . .worship stands at the center of the church’s life and mission. It’s the summit toward which the church moves and the source from which all of its ministries flow. It’s the most important action the church is about. Worship informs the church’s teaching, gives shape to its evangelistic mission to the world, and compels the church toward social action. Worship is the context in which the true fellowship of Christ’s body is realized and where those who participate can find real healing. The single most important thing the church can do is worship. A vibrant worship life will glorify God, edify the faithful, and engage the seeker.

I love what Henri Nouwen said earlier this week in his daily devotion

Everything we know about Jesus indicates that he was concerned with only one thing: to do the will of his Father. Nothing in the Gospels is as impressive as Jesus’ single-minded obedience to his Father. From his first recorded words in the Temple, “Did you not know that I must be busy with my Father’s affairs?” (Luke 2:49), to his last words on the cross, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit” (Luke 23:46), Jesus’ only concern was to do the will of his Father. He says, “The Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees the Father doing” (John 5:19). . . .

Jesus is the obedient one. The center of his life is this obedient relationship with the Father. This may be hard for us to understand because the word obedience has so many negative connotations in our society. It makes us think of authority figures who impose their wills against our desires. It makes us remember unhappy childhood events or hard tasks performed under threats of punishment. But none of this applies to Jesus’ obedience. His obedience means a total, fearless listening to his loving Father. Between the Father and the Son there is only love.

I really struggled with how we should have this CONVERSATION today --- when it was first suggested to be at the end (or really a part) of the worship service --- I balked.

          I wasn’t sure it belonged

And then I was reading the Torah --- and if there is any message in it is that all of life is God’s

God demands justice in how we live

Moses would call the people and remind them of what God expected as a part of worship

And it is clear that without justice --- our worship is hollow

As is in front of us every time we enter the Welcome Center

Micah 6:8   (NRSV)

He has told you, O mortal, what is good;

    and what does the Lord require of you

but to do justice, and to love kindness,

    and to walk humbly with your God?