The Joy and Wonder of Worship

May 28, 1992

John 4 / 2 Kings 6:12-23

I. A LESSON ON THE HEART OF WORSHIP

The story of Jesus at Sychar, of His conversation with the woman at the well of Jacob there, is itself a "well" to which we go again and again for an inexhaustible supply of refreshing truth.

Jesus is returning from the Passover holidays in Jerusalem, returning to Galilee, and He has chosen to go through Samaria instead of around it. Samaria is simply a no-man's-land to be hurried through, so far as the disciples are concerned. But to Jesus it is different.

Jesus engages a Samaritan woman in conversation; He asks her a favor, actually. She is not exactly a 'pillar in the community,' nor any expert in things holy. But she is precious to Jesus. He reveals Himself as Messiah. He tells her that He has a source of living water that eternally satisfies; He tells her that He is what LIFE is all about! She believes— she goes and brings back a crowd from the town. They prevail on Jesus, the Messiah for the pure Jews, and Jesus stays with them three days. Evidently Jesus believed He was their Messiah, too!

But during the course of the conversation the subject of worship was brought up by the Samaritan woman. It is perhaps not the main point of the conversation at all. But Jesus "throws away" a line which we may well ponder here this evening:

The woman is personally wounded by the knowledge that Jesus knows all about her, and her failures. She seems to try to divert the conversation, to "squirm" to one side or the other with a question about "religion." She lifts here eyes to the twin peaks above the well, Ebal and Gerazim, the mountains of blessing and cursing— the well and the two high hills are there at this very moment:

"Our fathers worship HERE," she says. "You (Jews) say that we need to come to Jerusalem for true worship. Which is true and right?"

Here comes the throw-away: "You worship what you do not know," Jesus says, "But we (Jews) know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews." But without a pause Jesus continues: "But the time is coming— in fact, it now IS, when neither here nor there will be the place to worship, for God is Spirit, and they that worship God must worship Him in Spirit and in truth! The Father is actually SEEKING such, those who will worship in spirit (Spirit!)"

Three ways to worship
1. IGNORANT WORSHIP; sincere, tradition - informed only; not to be despised, but to be superseded:
  Samaritans, polyglot; scriptural antecedents diluted and polluted by mixture; despised by Jews
  Innocents in our midst, informed second-hand; their ideas of God come from what they observe (Luther: "I did not like to think of God as "Father" because my father was so severe ..." )
  Danger of any second-generation from reality in revelation: if it departs from first-hand attention to revelation its worship is IGNORANT
2. INFORMED WORSHIP; based on God's Word; "salvation is of the Jews" Theirs was the Torah; theirs was the history of Exodus; theirs was the physical witness of Jerusalem, the Temple:
  Psalm One: Blessed is the one who meditates in God's Word day and night
  Levitical truth: Sacrifices, observances, .. all pointing to Schema: Hear, O Israel, the Lord is ONE!
3. INSPIRED WORSHIP: They that worship must worship in Spirit and truth. The true worship of God must both be INFORMED and INHABITED BY GOD HIMSELF!
SPIRITUAL WORSHIP is the intended way we shall worship.
Spiritual worship requires ONE THING! God's Presence! "When Messiah comes, He will take care of this dilemma!" "I that speak to you right now, I AM Messiah!"
The PLACE is not unimportant: "Our fathers worshiped here; you Jews worship in Jerusalem... which is right?"
Jesus did not say that the place means nothing: "This is My Father's house, and you have ... "Jesus went to synagogue as was His habit.. "My house shall be an house of prayer .. 1.a And the METHOD is not unimportant, either: The very coming together is ordered: "Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together... Prayer is proscribed: "Our Father ... Sacrament is ordered: "When you come together 2. But everything else is subservient to God's Presence The Spirit of Jesus The Spirit of glorifying HIM The Spirit of truth, guidance The Spirit that does His three-fold work of conviction, conversion, and inspiration (John 16:8)

II. A SURVEY OF THE STYLES OF WORSHIP

Worship defined by William Temple:

"Worship is to quicken the conscience by the holiness of God, to feed the imagination by the beauty of God, to open the heart to the love of God, to devote the will to the purpose of God." It is finding in God the real purpose of our being, and is the ultimate joy in all of Creation.

"His is my soul, redeemed from all sin His is my heart, purified within His is my life, transformed from above His my whole being, an offering of love!" -NYPS Theme Chorus '60- '64

Worship is the expression of one's true self in love before God. There is personal worship, with an intimacy known only to the two participants; and there is corporate worship, when individual bodies of believers express their worship.
And it is when two or more people expose their hearts in worship that potential disagreement and lack of trust begin to rear their ugly heads. For each true self is different from each other true self. There must be some give and some take.
The temptation is to make judgments of methods of worship in terms of value before God: i.e., "Cathedral worship" is better than "Banyan-tree worship" is better than "Appalachian worship."
1. The critical, judging spirit excludes "outsiders"
2. The non-discriminating spirit offends the Spirit: Jesus must be lifted up; excitement does NOT equal inspiration.
3. The Spirit will do what He will; there are "mixtures" of humanity and divine blessing in the best of worship, perhaps;
There is a temptation to imitate other methods and miss the vitality; to despise one's own roots/reality and see only the best/beauty in other ways. God wants us to give OUR best to Him!
William Willimon on "Episcopal converts;" "Baptists make overly-gung-ho Episcopalians.. "I like Episcopalians who were born Episcopalians..."

Conclusion:

Explore our own sincerity in worship; the element of trust in daring to bring OUR best to God, and not to despise others.
In the 6th chapter of 2 Samuel is a scene right out of a Shakespeare drama: David has been successful beyond his dreams; God has blessed him. He goes to the house of Obed-Edom with proper preparation and brings the Ark of the Covenant to the center of the capital city as a symbol of the fact that Israel shall be centered in God.
As the ark moves toward the city David is overcome with joyous emotion and begins to dance before the ark with all his might. He gets right down with the slave girls and the street people in a genuine expression of his delight.
But in an upper window, standing half-hidden behind the curtains, stands David's wife, Michal, Saul's daughter, intently watching. She is a princess, and not used to seeing the king mingle with the help. She is disgusted in her heart, and when David finally comes in she tells him as much. "You really distinguished yourself today, King David! It wasn't your finest hour!"
David's reply was, "It wasn't for your benefit! It was before the Lord! And I will give to God whatever I believe I should give to Him!"
And the account goes on: (23 And Michal, the daughter of Saul, had no child to the day of her death. She was barren from that time forward!
Even now, the way you are applying this scriptural message may tell you more about yourself than you want to know:
No doubt you are vindicating the way YOU love to worship, or the way that YOU believe is true worship. We are made that way— truth at first seems to reinforce our own position.

But however you consider worship to be ideal, there are those who truly worship in Spirit and in truth who on the surface of it would be uncomfortable with your style; and there are those who know God and worship in truth whose ways of approaching God would not be comfortable to you.

The most unattractive attitudes I know about have been (1) religious fundamentalists; and to a lesser extent, because I have had lesser exposure, (2) snobbish "High Church"-types, which I have usually written off as "liberals."

Please see that each one of us can be both the discriminator and the discriminated against; and it is imperative that we do not go the route of barrenness and despise those who are worshiping God in truth, even though in their humanness they may seem culturally out of it.
Please pray that the expression of our worship here will be the sincere expression of who we are in total love and obedience before the great God we love. Pray that the evolution of our worship will enable the tasks of the church, EVANGELISM and EDUCATION and FELLOWSHIP and SERVICE to flourish in powerful ways, for WORSHIP IS THE HEART OF THE LIFE OF CHRIST'S BODY, THE CHURCH!