The Practice Of Passionate Worship – Loving God In Return
Ann Beaty
Tarrytown United Methodist Church
March 20, 2011
Text: Matthew 22:37-38
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment.”
Last week Ron covered the first theme for our Lenten series from Robert Schnase’s book, 40 days of Fruitful Living; Practicing a Life of Grace. The practice last week was entitled “Radical Hospitality” – the idea that we are offered radical hospitality from God who loves us unconditionally. One of the most moving things I read in seminary was a sermon written by theologian Paul Tillich entitled “You Are Accepted.” The sermon is all about accepting that we are accepted – believing that we are loved unconditionally by God. This reality that we are loved unconditionally by God is a concept that is always more than we can fully comprehend. It is at the core of our faith journey - learning to accept that we are loved by God NO MATTER WHAT. No matter what mistakes we have made. No matter what shame we might carry with us. No matter what we do or don’t do in our daily living. We are still loved by God without conditions.
We’ve all been wounded in some way and we all have parts of us that send us messages that we aren’t good enough or smart enough or beautiful enough or whatever enough. BUT, none of this matters when it comes to God loving us. God’s love is a free gift. We came into the world with it in the core of our being and it’s pretty much all we take when we leave this place. It’s not easy to take in this truth that God could really love us that much, and that is why it must be a “practice” – something we learn and re-learn our whole lives.
The message today about practicing passionate worship and each sermon that follows in this series for Lent and Easter is about living our whole lives grounded in Christian practices that support our awareness of and acceptance of God’s unconditional love. When we practice accepting God’s unconditional love for us, then we are more able to practice loving God in return with our gratitude. It is in that spirit of gratitude that we are then more moved to practice reaching out to others in service. This being loved by God, loving ourselves, loving God in return, and loving others is a dance that we do our whole lives.
This week we move to the practice of passionate worship – loving God in return. Remember… our relationship with God begins with God’s unconditional love for us. When we are “struck by grace,” as Robert Schnase refers to it in his book, we experience gratitude for this gift from God. In gratitude we respond by loving God through worship.
Worship expresses our love for God, our devotion to the creator, redeemer, and sustainer of life. Our response to God’s great love for us is, of course, to love others and to serve them and we will focus on that in the next few weeks. Today, we are talking about expressing our adoration to God.
Think for a moment about why you come to worship. We come for many reasons and those reasons change from week to week and from season to season in our life, but whatever the reasons may be, we come because it is one of the primary Christian practices where we gather with the community and intentionally seek God’s presence and guidance.
Jesus taught the disciples the importance of worship. In the Gospels, Jesus and his followers regularly attend temple, read from Scripture, speak of giving, practice prayer, retreat to God, give thanks, and observe the Sabbath.
So we follow that model by practicing the discipline of worship. Do we always feel like coming to worship? – probably not. When I started doing yoga about 5 years ago, I was struck by something my yoga teacher said about that discipline as a practice: “you don’t come to yoga because you always feel like it. You come because it is a practice. Yes – sometimes you would rather go home and watch TV or sleep in or whatever else, but you’ve made a commitment to this as a practice in your life and so you come – even when you don’t feel like it. That’s what a practice is. You do it – when you feel like it and maybe even especially when you don’t.” She’s right – now, not that I don’t skip yoga from time to time – I do. But, if I went only when I felt like it, I might never go or go only occasionally. That does not make a practice. And how could I ever build on what I learned the week before or strengthen the muscles that I used one week in yoga if I don’t go back again and again as a regular practice.
Worship is like that. We don’t always feel like it, but most of the time (I hope) just like I feel with yoga… I’m always glad after the fact that I’ve been there. My body, mind, and soul are nourished there and I feel good because I know I’ve done something good for myself – something that feeds me.
Worship feeds us in our walk with God and as Christian disciples. Worship intentionally connects us to God. Worship sustains and changes us. It gives us spiritual food for the week ahead – for our regular daily living. It gives us a space and a place to open ourselves to God.
In my 20 years of worship I’ve seen time after time when God has used worship to crack open closed hearts, reconcile broken relationships, renew hope, heal wounded souls, shape personal decisions, interrupt destructive habits, stimulate spiritual growth, and transform lives. God shapes and re-shapes the human soul through worship.
Showing up with community in worship also helps us in the first practice: to “accept that we are accepted”. Coming to worship is a lot about being in a place where we know we are supported and surrounded by community.
The biblical word used for worship is “synagogue” and that word literally means “to bring together.” In some mysterious way, God lives IN people gathered in devotion and covenant and that is spread around and shared when we are together.
In theological terms we call the study of church “ecclesiology”. You can throw that one around with your friends the next time you’re talking about church! It comes from the root word “ecclesia” which means “called out of the world.”
God calls us out of the ordinary life of work, family, and leisure into the presence of the sacred so that we can develop the spiritual resources that guide and sustain fruitful living. When we come to worship we come with heart, mind, soul, and strength – and offer all that we are in love to God.
Worship isn’t all about showing up on Sunday. I’ve been talking here primarily about corporate worship that we do together on Sunday’s, but many of us have “worship” experiences all over the place – on retreats, in our own backyard, with our children, in far and distant lands in cathedrals, on beaches, in mountains and in even in hospital rooms. Personal prayer and devotion deepen our relationship with God and prepare us for community worship.
People who practice loving God in return carry their daily lives with them into prayer and worship, and carry worship and prayer with them into their daily lives. Their whole life praises God.
We worship because we love God. We do it to connect to other people, We do it to find ourselves. Worship fosters joy, connection, self-understanding, and meaning. Worship fundamentally changes us.
So, again, I ask you… why do you come to worship? It’s a question to ponder as you consider how worship is a practice in your life. Consider when and how you closest to God in worship. Is it in the fellowship, the prayer, the music, the scripture, the sacrament? Whatever it is, God is using that to love you into knowing that you are accepted.
Your Grace Is Enough (Chris Tomlinson)
Great is Your faithfulness oh God
You wrestle with the sinner's heart
You lead us by still waters and to mercy
And nothing can keep us apart
So remember Your people
Remember Your children
Remember Your promise
Oh God
Your grace is enough
Your grace is enough
Your grace is enough for me
Great is Your love and justice God
You use the weak to lead the strong
You lead us in the song of Your salvation
And all Your people sing along
Your grace is enough
Your grace is enough
Your grace is enough for me.
Heaven reaching down to us
Your grace is enough for me
God I see your grace is enough
I'm covered in your love
Your grace is enough for me.
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