There is a church in Albuquerque, and on their marque it says “church like it used to be,” and I have a guess what that mean by that, but I’m not quite positive that I understand what that means. Several years ago, I took a month off in order to study worship, and in that time I went to 12 different churches in the Albuquerque area. One of the 12 was the Greek Orthodox Church. As I was listening to the divine liturgy, which, except for being primarily in English now, has been the basically the same for the last 1500 years or so. Is that what they mean by church like it used to be? Probably not. But I do think much, or even all, that church like it used to be has to do with worship. Indeed, when someone says they are going to church, what they nearly always mean is “I am going to worship”, the immediate circumstances being an exception. I heard last week that 90% of churches have gone to some type of alternative worship, with the vast majority being online. I don’t know about the other 10%, perhaps some of them never stopped worshipping in person, or more likely they stopped worshipping at all. Can you be church and not have worship? I think the two are inherently linked together, and worship is at the heart of the matter for who we are as a people.
What we hear in the passage from Luke for today is that after the disciples watch Jesus ascend, which Luke doesn’t really describe, that they then worship him. This has been a common theme of the post resurrection Christ, and then they return to Jerusalem with great joy and end up in the temple blessing, or worshipping God. Luke’s gospel both begins and ends in the Temple, but there is a distinct difference between the beginning and the ending, of course because of Jesus. In the first temple, or under the old covenant, sacrifice is made at the temple with animals, but under the new covenant, under the covenant of Christ, in which we are called to make sacrifices of praise of adoration to God in acknowledgment for what God has done for us. Joy in celebration of love and forgiveness. Jesus has already given a preview of this change when he encounters a Samaritan woman in the gospel of John, also sometimes called the story of the woman at the well. She says to Jesus that her people have worshipped God on their mountain, but that he says that people should worship on the mountain in Jerusalem, meaning the Temple. But Jesus says, the time is coming when people will no longer worship on either mountain, but they will worship the Father in Spirit and truth, and that’s where we are, no longer in the temple, but worshipping in spirit in truth, making worship the heart of the matter. But what does that look like?
Well, obviously, at the moment, that worship looks nothing like what most of us have ever seen. Of course there has been worship outside of the church for a long time, whether it was radio broadcasts or then television and then online worship, but those services were all originating with actual worship services, with people participating, but we have been doing something a little different. And the western church, especially the Christian church, has emphasized the sacredness of the gathered body of Christ. That community is important, and fellowship is important, and being with others is important, after all Jesus says where two or more are gathered in his name that he is there with us, although that particular statement comes from Jesus giving instruction on how to deal with someone causing trouble in the community, so perhaps it’s a little overused. We certainly see worship in the early church being a collective gathering, and there are things that can happen, and do happen, in community, in a gathered body, that can’t happen alone. But, we have to ask if that means that worship is the basis of community, is in integral to worship? Or is it simply a form of worship, a means to worship? I would have to answer it’s a little of both. That while what we are doing now is not ideal for many people, including me, I still think that what we are doing is worship, because what worship is ultimately about is giving praise and thanksgiving to God, lifting up our burdens and turning them over to God, and most importantly connecting to God and with God, and in that being transformed and changed by God. As I have said before, we should have the expectation every time we come to worship that we will encounter the divine, that we will meet what is holy, that we will be connected with something bigger and deeper than ourselves. And while that’s easier to do, I think, when we are together, it can also be done when we are separated spatially but connected through the Spirit in this experience.
And so one of the things that worship should do is to bring us out of ourselves. Often one of the things I will hear about worship, whether it’s something that we are doing wrong, or a complaint, or even sometimes about what we should be doing, it’s about a personal preference. I like this or I don’t like that. There are no particular forms of worship given in the New Testament. But worship, just like in saying the Lord’s Prayer, is not about the I, but about the we. It’s about recognizing that some things might not work for us, but they might work for others, and not only being okay with that, but celebrating that reality. I know there are some people who don’t like our Easter dance party at the end of worship, but there are others who also do like it, and like being able to be involved in worship and use their body. Because remember that we are to love the Lord our God with all of our hearts, mind, soul and strength, with everything, and that’s the primary way we are to come to worship.
There is a great scene of worship in the 7th chapter of Revelation, and every tribe is gathered together shouting praises to God and waving palm branches. What does that worship service sound like? What does it look like? What does it smell like? What does it feel like? This image has people raising themselves in praise and glory to God, and the angels are bowing down at the throne. I imagine that the people bow down as well, because that is the meaning of worship in Hebrew, to literally bow down, to pledge our allegiance and loyalty and faithfulness to God. not to the things of the world that what us to worship them, not to the people in the world who want us to pledge our loyalty, not to groups that want us to give them our fidelity, because that’s all forms of idolatry, but to give ourselves to God, to offer our sacrifice of praise, and that’s what we do in worship. It’s an act of praise and adoration to God in response to what God has already done for us. It’s acknowledging our need for God, and remembering God’s all-embracing love and kindness and peace and compassion and generosity or power, all the things that are at the heart of the matter that first come to us from God.
And we don’t gather together to praise God because God needs to hear how great God is, as if God is a narcissist. In Acts we read, “The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortal’s life and breath and all things.” (Acts 17:24-25) So, our worship doesn’t meet a need in God, it meets a need in us, and so the act of worship, the work of worship, requires our work and our efforts and, yes, even our needs. Because we need different things from God, and we come to worship needing to say or express or receive different things. Some of us come in here this morning celebrating, and some of us come, perhaps, experiencing the dark night of the soul, and so that means that worship will be different for all of us, and needs to, in some ways, try and capture the full range of human emotion and experience. But it is the us that makes a difference and the expectations that we have in being here. Are we here just for ourselves, or are we here as one body? Are we here just because that’s what you do? Or do we come in expecting to be touch by God and to be transformed through the Spirit in the renewing of our minds.
Richard Foster says that we have not worshipped until Spirit has touched spirit. That is until we have connected with God is some meaningful way. Now let’s be honest and admit that that is not going to happen every time, but I certainly hope it’s happening most of the time, and that also means that we have to recognize that all of us play a part in worship. Worship is not like the old Nirvana song, “here we are now, entertain us”, and there are some churches that want to do that, but I cannot make you worship. I, and the others who help plan and lead worship can help set the scene and provide opportunities, but much of the work is up to you. I cannot make you experience God, much of that work is up to you. I cannot make you prepare for worship, much of that work is up to you. I cannot make you open yourself up to experience new ways of worship, or new ways of seeing God, or new ways of experiencing God, or new ways of encountering God, much of that is up to you, to be open to worshipping in Spirit and in truth.
John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement, was transformed by an experience of God on this date in 1738, and although the Methodist movement was already started, his heart warming experience was transformative for him and the church. He said that worship was a means of grace, that is a way that we communed with God and a way that God’s love is made known to us. But, worship is also a response to God. A response to God’s love and what God has done for us. What we see time and time again in scripture, and in other testimony, is that people who encounter God always go away changed. They are never the same, and worship should do the same. It is a sacrifice of praise, a time to pledge allegiance, and a time to encounter the holy, so that we too might be changed and transformed and renewed. And once we have learned to love God with all that we are, then we fall into the second part of the commandment to love our neighbor as ourselves, for worship leads to service, it leads to offering God’s love to the world and it leads to greater obedience. So may we be filled with joy as we worship, so that “with the eyes of our heart enlightened, we may know the hope to which we have been called, and the riches of God’s glorious inheritance and what is the glorious power for those who believe in the one who has been raised from the dead and is seated at the right hand in the heavenly places, where he is praised and glorified,” for worship is at the heart of the matter. I pray that it will be so my brothers and sisters. Amen.
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