One Sunday morning in church, the
older Pastor glared at the young new
worship leader they had just hired. It
was the worship leader’s first Sunday. The
pastor said to the congregation: "Please
disregard our worship leader’s instruction when he said: “During the next hymn,
I want you to clap your hands, stomp your feet, and boogie till you drop.”
This morning well over a billion
people around the world will go to worship God in cathedrals and chapels, sanctuaries
and schools, storefronts and living rooms or gather in the great outdoors.
I prefer the phrase “Going to
worship” rather than “Going to church.”
It’s a subtle difference I agree.
Why? Going to worship implies
going to do something, going to participate in a sacred activity. Going to church focuses on going to a
building, a location. The question Christians face each Sunday is: “Am I
going to worship God this morning?”
Now there are 168 hours in a week. And it has inspired me over the years at how
many believers worship God regularly each week, but it also has amazed that
other people can’t commit to spending one hour a week or even one hour a month
worshipping God. I realize there are
good reasons for having to miss
church
What is worship? What does it mean to worship God? The word is derived from the Anglo-Saxon
language and it means “to ascribe worth.” To worship God is to ascribe to God supreme
worth. It is as the Psalmist says, “to
give unto the Lord the glory due His name.”
Who is God? God is that which nothing greater can be
conceived. The 16th century Reformer, Martin
Luther wrote: “If you have a God, you must of necessity worship Him.” “Oh,
God, I believe in you, thou art my God. You
are worthy to be glorified.” If
worship acknowledges God’s supreme worth, then worship is the expression of our
faith, our belief, our love for God.
Christian worship is our faithful
response to the living God, the triune God: God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Worship expresses our trust and gratitude for
God. It expresses our thankfulness for
what God has said and for what God has done, is doing and will do. Worship is an encounter between people of
faith and the living God. We worship
God privately and publicly. But worship
is always personal, a personal encounter, with a personal God.
People respond to God in worship
in a variety of ways. A young mother
writes: “An elderly woman was sitting with eyes closed and hands raised in
prayer and praise. Our three-year-old
son was standing on my lap in the pew in front of her. Suddenly, he turned around, raised his arm, and
gave her a high-five!”
The Bible says: “God is a
Spirit and we must worship God in spirit and in truth.” Worship flows in two directions: the
downward movement of God’s revelation and presence and the upward movement of
our response to God in Christ through the Spirit. Worship is the response of our whole being to
God’s amazing love and mercy.
According to the Bible and the
tradition of our Christian faith, both individual and community worship are
necessary in the Christian life. Now
this differs from the opinions of some in our culture today. Some people say: “I can worship God at the
beach or at home reading the newspaper or on the golf course. I don’t need to go to church.” That’s of course our culture talking, not our
Biblical/Christian tradition. Can you
really play golf and worship God at the same time? Not the way I play golf that’s for sure.
The letter of I Peter says: “You
are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special
possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of
darkness into his wonderful light.”
Psalm 22 says: “Yet you God are holy, enthroned on the praises of
your people.”
God is here. We are standing on
sacred ground. God invites you to worship Him.
God desires for you to worship Him.
God is glad you have come to worship Him. God is open to your joys and concerns, your
gladness and needs.
What is the tone or mood of
worship? It’s a celebration. The psalmist captures it beautifully: “Make
a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth.
Worship the Lord with gladness; come into His presence with singing. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his
courts with praise. Give thanks to him, bless
his name. For the Lord is good, His
steadfast love endures forever and His faithfulness to all generations.”
The psalmist says: “God made
you, you belong to God; you are His people and the sheep of His pasture.” Worship says God is my creator, redeemer, and
sanctifier. I am here to thank God and
honor God. To worship anything else in
this world is idolatry. Many things
compete for our worship and allegiance in this life. The first commandment is: “You shall have
no other gods before me.” This
commandment is as applicable today as it was 4,000 years ago. Worship is praising God.
Like the story of a poor, elderly
lady who sometimes visited a church. The
elders of the church were always embarrassed when she did, because she got so
excited in the service. She would shout
“Praise the Lord,” “Hallelujah.” That
was more than the dignified members of this congregation could stand. One Sunday morning the elders greeted her at
the door and promised her a brand new heavy coat for the winter months if she
would not shout in the service. She
agreed, and took a seat near the front of the sanctuary. She held her silence at first, but as the
pastor got into his message, and as the choir enthusiastically praised God, she
was overcome with joy, stood up and shouted – coat or no coat, Amen!
We worship because God sent his
son Jesus to earth, to live for us, to die for our sins, to save us, to forgive
us, to restore us to fellowship with God and to promise us eternal life. Worship is the heart of the church. Like the heart beating in your chest, worship
is the heart-beat of the church’s life. And
music is that life-blood which courses through our veins, lifts our souls, and
stirs our hearts. And I am so
appreciative of our music here at PBPC. Everything
– our desire to learn, to give, to witness, to serve arises out of our worship
of God.
Does worship require spiritual
discipline? Absolutely. There are so many things that compete for
our time on Sundays. To worship takes
spiritual discipline. What is your attitude when you come to worship? Are you coming expectantly? We offer ourselves to God in humility and
gratitude and love because in Jesus Christ’s life, and death on the cross on
Good Friday and resurrection on Easter, God first loved us. Jesus says: “Love God with your heart, soul,
strength and mind.” In the 17th
century, in Puritan New England, it was customary for preachers to preach two
to three hour sermons. It may have taken
a little more spiritual discipline in their day than in our day.
God is deeply concerned about the
attitude we bring to worship. God
invites us to offer to Him our doubts and struggles, as well as our joys, to
listen and to raise our voices. God
says: “Come to seek my will for your life, come and draw closer to me, come
and seek my power to change things about yourself.”
We worship as a member of God’s
family. Worship is individual yes, but
it’s also communal. It is both/and. This is where our culture differs from our
Biblical and Christian tradition. Our
culture says you can worship by yourself, you don’t need the church. Christian tradition and the Bible says
worship is communal, the celebration of the family of God, the body of Christ. The psalmist says: “We are God’s people.” It’s a time to celebrate that we belong to
the same family of God. We are spiritual
brothers and sisters.
In worship we find encouragement
and support. We pray to God for one
another, for our community and our world.
We sing together and affirm our faith in Christ together. We laugh together and cry together when
fellow members have passed on. Worship
reminds us that we are a covenant community.
We are stronger together than separately. In worship, we are saying: “You are my
brothers and sisters in Christ, you are important to me; I have come to worship
with you as members of my spiritual family.”
When we worship we witness to
others. Worship is also a witness to God. Going to worship shows others that you value
God, you value the church, and that God is central in your life. Going to worship demonstrates to God, to the
congregation, to neighbors and friends that God is important to you. It says we care about one another and God.
I truly believe God blesses us in
the context of worship. God surprises us
with His grace. I have heard many times:
“Pastor , I just feel
better after I’ve been to worship; it gets my week started off right.” Frances Roberts wrote: “Rejoice in the
lord always, for as you rejoice and give thanks, you release heaven’s treasures,
and shower upon your head the blessings of a delighted Father in heaven. Nothing so thoroughly delights the Father’s
heart, as the praises of His children.”
The meaning of Christian worship
is captured brilliantly by the 19th century Danish theologian and philosopher
Soren Kierkegaard. He wrote: “Worship
is a drama. Some people think of God as
the director, the worship leaders as the actors, the stage as the chancel and
the people as the audience. Worship is a
drama. However, the stage is the
sanctuary, the worship leaders are the prompters, the people are the actors and
God is the audience.”
Make a joyful noise. I close with psalm 150: “Praise the Lord, Praise
God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty firmament. Praise Him for his mighty deeds; praise him
according to his surpassing greatness. Praise
him with trumpet sound, praise him with lute and harp, praise him with
tambourine and dance, praise him with strings and pipe, praise him with
clanging cymbals, praise him with loud clashing cymbals, let everything that
breathes praise the Lord.” Amen.
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