Worship ProblemsDr.
James Mayfield
Text: Exodus 20:2-6 (also, Ps. 5:1-8, I Kings 21) What is the target we are trying to hit? What is the goal we are trying to achieve? What is the organizing principal in our living? What is at the center? What does our daily living revolve around? What determines our priorities regarding what we do with our time and our money? Or, as the passage we read this morning would state the question: "What do we really worship?" The problem presented in the first commandment ("You shall have no other gods before me.") is a worship problem. This worship problem has little to do with our style of worship and everything to do with the content of our worship -- what we really worship. What is most important to us? That is what we really worship. What do we believe gives our lives meaning? This is what we really worship. What do we believe makes us a success? That is what we really worship. One of my problems is I play games with myself. Because I spend a lot of time preparing sermons and getting ready to lead worship services, it is easy for me to assume I really worship God. But as the Bible declares in a variety of ways, as important as our services of worship are, as much as we need to be involved in services of worship, the question about what we really worship has more to do with the way we live Monday through Saturday than what we do an hour or two on Sunday. The Ten Commandments in Exodus 20 begin with God saying to us: "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me." The problem is we do. The problem is we do not worship God, and God alone. The problem is we worship and bow down before false gods. The problem is we are continually being seduced by those selling the illusions of various types of idolatry. We go to church on Sunday, but what we give ourselves to, in the pursuit of being important is all the ways the world judges importance. All too often what determines our priorities is not seeking to live in harmony with God as much as in grabbing the gold. In our society, one of the false gods that has many adherents and a very persuasive sales staff is materialism. How easy it is to be seduced into believing that being a success in life is related to money and to the things money can buy; and so, without making an intentional choice we find ourselves feeling unsuccessful if we are not making as much money as some friend or sibling. We find ourselves feeling depressed because we cannot afford what some people we envy can afford. Who of us has not been seduced into this kind of undeclared worship of the false god of materialism? We worship this false idol, without even recognizing this is what we doing. Because we go to church and give money left over after we have purchased the things society has taught us to want, we live in the illusion that we worship God. All too often, a more appropriate description would be that we are merely giving tips to God the way we leave extra change on the restaurant table for the server; after all, we do not want the waiter to think we are stingy. But sacrificial giving for the sake of helping those who are in need? Well, isn't this carrying church stuff a little too far? A symptom of how committed we are to our unconscious worship of the false god of materialism may well be gauged by the degree of discomfort we experience when preachers talk about money, or when someone in the community asks us to do more than make a token contribution to help those in need. In the passage we read this morning, there is a warning. If we allow false gods to set the agenda for our living (that is if we worship false gods), the destructive consequences of our choices will reverberate through the lives of our children and our children's children. When we "get it wrong," we unconsciously teach our children "to get it wrong," and when they have "gotten it wrong," they pass the error to those who follow them. I have recently been reading the cheating culture by David Callahan. The central issue presented in story after story is that there is an increasing collapse of integrity in our culture. The economic end is being used increasingly to justify the means of obtaining wealth. The code of behavior has been shifting from "Is it right or wrong?" to "What is the economic incentive of cheating? and What is the probability of my being caught?" Callahan points to the damage done to individuals and society by survival of the fittest mentality gone amuck in the business world. He is aware the road we are on inevitably leads to the kind of collapse of trust that will undermine all of society. Toward the end of the book, he pleads for teaching integrity to the young. But who is going to teach them? The society needs more than some modest behavior modification. It needs a change of heart because unless hearts change, behavior changes will not last. It is what we as a society worship - really worship - that needs to change. "I am the Lord," God said. "the one who brought you out of slavery in the past. You shall have no other gods before me. And if you do, life is going to be so messed up, your children and grandchildren and great grandchildren will have to deal with the consequences of the choices you have made." In the midst of this harsh news, where is hope for us and for our children? One of the other passages of scripture that is recommended for this Sunday is this story told in the Gospel of Luke. Jesus was eating a meal in the home of a man who was very religious. They were not sitting in chairs as we do, but were sort of reclining, the way we might do at a picnic -- lying on the ground, sort of propped on one arm, with our head toward the food and our feet behind us. While they were eating, a prostitute somehow gained entry and came to Jesus. She was in tears. As the story progresses, we discover she was aware that her sins were forgiven, and her tears were more than tears of regret; they were primarily tears of joy and relief and deep gratitude. Sanding behind him, her tears fell on his bare feet. She knelt down and wiped his feet with her hair. Then she took the little vial of perfume that women of the street would wear around their necks, hanging between their breasts and giving off the pleasing odor that advertised their trade. She poured the perfume on Jesus' feet, in a kind of anointing. In doing this she was doing even more than that; according to Kenneth Bailey, her pouring out her perfume was a symbolic act declaring that she was abandoning her life of prostitution. She was pouring out her means of advertising her trade. In accepting the forgiveness Christ offered she accepted the grace needed to repent. The woman repented; that is, she changed her way of living. The woman had been aware of her sin. She was aware of the offer of forgiveness in Christ. In accepting forgiveness, she received God's grace, and empowered by grace she changed her way of living. In this we can discern the way to hope for ourselves and for our children. First, we have to be aware we need to change. First, we have to be aware of our sin, admit our sin; confess our sin. First, we have to acknowledge we are separated from God and not living as God intends. First, we have to be aware we have been giving ourselves to the worship of false gods. Second, when we are aware of the wrong choices we have made, we are then able to recognize our need for forgiveness. And it is when we are aware we need to forgiven that we are at last able to accept the merciful gift of forgiveness offered in Christ. It takes faith to accept forgiveness when we know we have done wrong. We need faith so we can believe this amazing truth: God is more concerned about the potential in our future than the mess in our past. This is not to say forgiveness exempts us from the consequences of what we did or failed to do yesterday, but it is to say, that in our struggling through those consequences, we now have access to the resources of God redeeming grace -- life transforming grace. In the acceptance of God's forgiveness, we are able to receive what God has been offering all along. And third, in receiving the grace God offers, we are able to repent; empowered by grace, we are able to make changes in the way we live. This is what repentance is; it is changing the way we live so that God's grace and God's will are what shape our priorities. In repentance, we change our way of living so that God is at the center. Rather than allowing the false gods our society advertises and endorses to dictate our view of success, we focus on discerning God's will for our lives. Hope is possible for us; but having this hope involves us in confession of our sin -- facing the fact that we need to change - in accepting forgiveness -- realizing it is never too late to be embraced by God's grace - and third, in repenting -- that is, to make the changes in our living that are pleasing to God. God, enable us to confess our sin, to accept your forgiveness and to repent. Help us put aside our false gods so that day and night, all the time, you and your will are shaping what we desire, what we think, what we say and what we do. Amen. Pastoral
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