About Being The Church, part 4:
WHY WORSHIP?

Dr. James L. Mayfield
Tarrytown United Methodist Church

March 28, 2004

Text: Isaiah 1:14-17 & John 4:23-24

A few years ago, during one of the Christmas Eve services there was a fellow sitting toward the back, who by facial expression and body language was clearly here under duress; he dealt with it by the retaliation of talking on his cell phone during much of the service. And I can remember times in my growing up years when my "going to church" was less than a joyful choice.

Why are we here this morning? Why gather for worship? I have heard and even said, "I can worship God anywhere and especially where I am awestruck by the beauty of nature." Of course we can. We do. And we should. Why not just go it alone? Why gather with other people once of week to join together in worship?

In fact why worship at all? After all is it not true that what pleases God the most is doing what pleases God in our daily living? In the passage we read Isaiah tells us God wants more than fancy worship services. God tells us to "... cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan plead for the widow." As the prophet Micah told us, we are to do justice, and love kindness, and walk humbly with God.

This being true, why gather together once a week to worship?

One might respond quoting the fourth Commandment that tells us to keep the Sabbath Holy by resting our bodies and refreshing our inner being by remembering who God is and who we are. Certainly we are the kind of people who easily drift off course, forgetting both who we are and whose we are. We need to pause to refresh our bodies and our souls. But why gather together to do this? Can we not do this in solitude?

Of course, we can. And sometimes we do. But most of the time we do not. We not only need some sort of structure, some kind of discipline to help us, we also need both the support and accountability of a community of faith that cares about us. There are times when discouraged in our faith, we need the witness of the physical presence of others to encourage and inspire us, and mediate to us the grace of God. Without both support and accountability, the Sabbath gets lost in the crowd of other activities, and we lose sight, we even forget who we are and whose we are. In fact, without involvement with such a community we may not even know who we really are, much less whose we are.

It is through corporate worship that some of our most lasting theological education takes place, a little bit at a time. Some years ago I led a group of lay people in a process that was intended to help them be more sensitive both to the way God's grace was at work in their lives and to ways they could better serve God in the midst of their daily living. Most of the individuals who participated were not those who had been involved in special studies the church offered. When the sessions began, many of them confessed with some embarrassment that they did not know the Bible and were theologically ignorant. However, during the sessions they would often say something like this: "I think somewhere in the Bible it says ....." and then they would go on to share scriptural wisdom. Or they would say: "Doesn't the gospel tell us ....." and then go on to share a profound theological insight. Through the sessions it became very obvious, -- not just to me but even to them -- that they knew more scripture and theology than they had given themselves credit for knowing. When I asked: "Where did you get all this knowledge of the Bible and your Christian theological insights?" their response was stated with a tone of surprise. "I guess we learned it through worship." Across the years, participating in worship Sunday after Sunday, bit by bit they had learned more than they realized about the Bible and Christian theology. So, one of the reasons for being in worship is not merely to remember who and whose we are, but to learn and relearn time and again what the Scriptures have to say about who we are and whose we are.

Another reason we involve ourselves in worship regularly is we know enough about ourselves and the Gospel to know that without regular reminding we drift away from God and away from being our best selves. Along with the Apostle Paul, we who strive to follow Christ discover that the good we would do, we do not do; and the wrong we did not set out to do, we did. We know we need more than mere forgiveness. At some level within us, we know we need to begin afresh, once again. We need the gifts of grace that will enable us to pick ourselves up and try again. By the way, this is why each week, early in our worship, we confess our sin and we remind each other about God's merciful grace.

In worship we are also remind about God's expectations. Each week through hymn, scripture and sermon we are confronted with the claims of Christ on the way we live our daily lives. We are both instructed and reminded about what it means to be a child of God and a follower of Christ in today's world. We learn about who God intends us to be. Not only that, but when we have tried to be faithful and have been hurt, betrayed, taken advantage of, we need to hear again the Gospel's declaration of hope. We need to be reminded God's grace finally wins. And as important as this learning and remembering are, there is yet another reason we gather for worship. Like many of you, I have had some times in my life when the load I had to carry was so heavy and my heartache so intense, it was all I could do to make it from one hour to the next. I remember a time when I was district superintendent and was in worship more often as a participant than as a leader. This was during a time when the problems and pain in my life had driven me to my knees. In those day I was very much aware that I went to worship for reasons deeper than the fact that I was expected to be there. I went because of my need. I was painfully aware of my finitude, my inadequacies and my failures. I longed for some kind of help or strength or healing. What was amazing to me was, that even in worship services where the preaching was a lot of rambling in search of a point, the music set my teeth on edge, and the scripture reader mumbled and stumbled, I found myself being given what I needed. A phrase in a prayer, a sentence in a sermon, a line from a hymn, a verse from the scripture would come into my soul like the healing balm of Gilead. One of the reasons we come to worship, is because our need brings us here.

While we are always in need of God's grace, all too often we are unaware of our need. One of the ways we can enrich our experience of worship is for us to prepare ourselves to worship by assessing why we are here. I hope you have noticed in our order of worship that the call to worship comes before the prelude. Why? Because the prelude is not merely entrance music. When the prelude is well chosen, as it usually is, it relates, at least in mood, to the church season, and as I see it, the purpose of the prelude is to help us prepare for the work of worship. It is a time for us to clear our hearts and minds of clutter, to get in touch with our need, and to focus on getting our hearts and minds ready to receive what God has to offer.

But it is not only being aware of our need that makes worship meaningful. There are times when joys in life lead us into deeper sensitivities, and awaken profound gratitude within us. For some this is when a child is born, especially when the first child comes into the life of a couple and they are engulfed in a profound experience of awe and wonder and mystery and a gratitude too deep for words to express. And with this comes a sense of responsibility -- not a heavy burden responsibility but a joy filled sense of responsibility. In awe and gratitude for the gifts of grace and in a renewed desire to be their best selves, they find themselves experiencing the need to be with others to celebrate in the worship the amazing grace of God. Sometimes the cause of profound celebration and the awakening of this joy filled responsibility is something else that awakens within us the need and the desire to respond to the grace of God through worship.

It may well be that it is at this level that our most profound worship happens, because at this level our focus is on God, our joy filled gratitude toward God, and our joy filled longing to be the persons God intends us to be, making the most of our lives in ways that are pleasing to God.

So, why are we here? There can be several very appropriate responses. Why are we here for worship? It is a question worthy of our contemplation.

God, rescue us from playing games with you in worship. Help us worship you in spirit and in truth, so that we will live pleasing you and find joy in our relationship with you. Amen.

Pastoral prayer:
It is easy for us to be so preoccupied with our agenda we are insensitive to yours. We can be so intent on listening to the voices around us and so in bondage our live styles of hectic activity that we are unable to be still and listen -- unable to hear you speaking to us from deep within. Help us hear what you are trying to tell us. Enable us to discern what you want us to do and give us the will to do it. Enable us to live as you intend. God when we pause to think about all the ways your grace is at work in our living, we are more than amazed. We are awestruck with a gratitude that is beyond our ability to express. God we give you thanks for those who have been baptized this day and those who have become part of this church family. God, some of us are carrying heavy loads; help us deal with all that is causing us problems. We pray for the safekeeping of all those who are going in harms way on our behalf, and especially those from this congregation serving in the military. We pray for all leaders, both formal and informal leaders, both those who we view as enemies as well as those we view as friends; may each of them become instruments of your grace whether they are aware of it or not. And we also pray for our president and his advisors that they too may make decisions that are in keeping with your will. All this we pray, remembering the one who was teaching us to live when he taught us to pray: "Our Father …."