Worship is for God's sake

Just a quick sermon post as I rest up after a hospital run and before watching the Vikings game this evening. I'll be at a conference all week and I don't know about internet access so I wanted to make sure I posted this today.

The readings for this week were Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10, Psalm 19, 1 Corinthians 12:12-31a and Luke 4:14-21

All the texts have themes of worship and community which is where I went with my sermon, or at least tried to. Enjoy!

Jesus was in the synagogue teaching. Jesus went to church! This may seem like an amazing thing for some people – why would Jesus need to win brownie points with God, and why did he need to come to a place of worship in order to pray or hear God? But Jesus being in worship is not an abnormal thing, in verse 15 of our gospel: “He began to teach in their synagogues.” Synagogues – plural, and in verse 16: “he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, as was his custom.”

As was his custom – that is kind of a funny phrase. Every translation I have of the Bible, except one, uses the phrase “as was his custom” or “according to his custom.” So what makes something a custom? Because you have done it once before? Because you have always done it that way?

So I ask you: Why did you come to church today? Why didn’t you sleep in, go grocery shopping, get some stuff done around the house or the other laundry list of other things you could be doing right now? So seriously why did you come to worship today?

It is important to know why we worship. We worship at times because we want to thank God for what we have been given. We worship at times because we want to pray for someone who is ill or dying. …. And sometimes we worship because someone made us, or because we always come and the week just isn’t the same when we don’t go to worship on Sunday. Sometimes we go because it is our custom.

We worship and don’t worship for a variety of reasons. We find a church because it has the programs we want, or our friends go there, or we like the people. We stop going because we are frustrated with what is going on in and outside of worship, we don’t like the music, we don’t like the new pastor, we don’t agree with what others at the church or within the denomination have to say about some political/social statement. The reasons why we worship or don’t worship change throughout our lives, sometimes those reasons even change week to week.

And sometimes you may just force yourself to be here physically even if you are not here mentally, spiritually or emotionally. But I want you to think about this. Have you ever been in worship and out of the corner of your eye you see someone who obviously does not want to be there? They are standing in a bored defensive posture, checking their watch every few minutes, never opening up the hymnal, never responding in the liturgy, (which by the way means the work of the people). How does that make you feel? Does it distract you? Does it keep you from truly praising God? From singing as loudly as you may otherwise?

Or have you been in a worship service with quiet a few people but you can’t hear anybody singing? What does that do to your singing? To your voice as you praise God?

When you worship with others who are there to worship, there to praise God, there to sing and pray and commune with those around them, something magical, awe-inspiring, dare I even say spiritual happens. When you worship with people who are not checking the time or worried about everything they have to get done that day and instead are able to truly turn their hearts and minds to God whether they are full of praise or lament, joy or grief. When we all are able to give up whatever we have on our hearts and minds to God you can feel the Spirit moving. You can feel Christ here with us, you can feel God in your heart, you can feel the Holy Spirit moving your body, mind and soul and you can feel the presence of God in others who are there worshiping with you.

Because worship is not about us! Worship is about God. Worship is what happens to us, by God, when we think we are praising God with songs, prayers and scripture. Worship is what happens to us when we are given new insights about what God is calling us to do, or about where the Holy Spirit is leading us, or what a parable Jesus told two thousand years ago has to do with us today.

Worship is for God’s sake. In worship we sing hymns together as a community. In worship, we pray as a community and for the community, both individuals members and the whole body of Christ. Worship is a communal event, it builds community, it brings us together in a way nothing else in society does. We pray together, sing together, read scripture together, eat at the Lord’s Table together, and then go out into the greater community knowing that we will be supported by these people who worship with us and that we are supporting them.

Through worship, we are individuals but we make up something so much greater than anyone of us alone. Through worship, we commune with Christians of every time and every place. When we receive that body and blood of Christ we are communing, eating, sharing time, with both Christ and the others physically in this room around us, but also we are communing with people throughout the world and throughout time. Right now there are people in Haiti, people who have been devastated by two earthquakes, have had family and friends died during those quakes but who are right now, right this instance worshiping. Through Christ, the people of Haiti are here worshiping with us and we are there worshiping with them. And we are worshiping, communing with people on the other side of the world who may actually be in bed right now, people in China and Australia. And we are worshiping with people throughout time, with our parents, grandparents, and other ancestors and even the twelve disciples who were at Jesus’ Last Supper.

Through worship we become the body of Christ, we become Christ’s hand who do Christ work in the world; we become Christ’s feet walking in the way of Christ and leading others to him; we become Christ’s ears, listening to those in need and hearing the gospel; we become Christ’s eye, seeing the good in those around us; we become Christ’s lips, praising others and speaking the good news; we become Christ’s shoulders, bearing the burden of others; and through worship we become Christ’s heart, loving all people.

In worship, through worship, God comes to us and we become part of a community, part of the body of Christ. And that is why we worship.