What is Worship?

March 18/19, 2017              What is Worship?

Psalm 100, Romans 12: 1

Today we continue our journey to Easter where we will celebrate the life-changing resurrection of Jesus Christ. And along the way we’re exploring some common words and practices in the church that help us better experience God’s presence in our lives. Today we’re looking at the topic of worship.

I was a fairly good athlete in high school. I spent my summers playing baseball and memorizing the statistics on the back of bubble gum cards, and I could name little known facts about the Pittsburgh Pirates. I knew baseball- the game, the rules, the objective, like the back of my hand. But the summer after my sophomore year, our school’s soccer coach (we had just gotten a team for the first time) called me up to ask if I’d try out. I wasn’t playing football that year, so I agreed. And the first time I stepped on to the soccer field, I felt like a spectator watching everybody else go about their business. The only thing I knew about soccer was the main objective: get the ball past the goalie. Everything else felt as if I had been dropped into a foreign country where the other players were speaking a language I did not know. I didn’t know the rules, the positions, or the play calls and felt quite out of place.

It’s dawned on me that some of us might feel that very way about worship. We go to church and watch somebody read out of an old book, then we listen to the preacher say a few words and sing a few songs that may or may not be familiar, and then we go home and do it again, hopefully, the next week. But my hope for you, after today, is that leave with a greater understanding of the meaningfulness of this practice. And so my goal for today- to help you understand what worship is, why it’s significant and what’s supposed to happen because of it.

So one of the first question need to ask is this: What do mean when we say “Worship?”  As you saw from the video, our word worship is taken from an old Anglo-Saxon word that means “worth-ship.” It’s a word meant to declare how much something or someone is worth. In other words, “worth-ship” signifies the respect or reverence due to a particular person. And we see this lived out uniquely in different cultures, whether we’re talking about divinity or humanity. We’ve heard stories and watched movies where the servant kisses the king’s ring, or the younger man bows before speaking to the older man, or the gentleman holds the door for the lady. These are all ways of showing respect, and humbling your self in order to “lift up” the other. I don’t recall when I heard the following example, but somewhere along my journey I was told that when a person would approach the kings or queens of old to be “knighted,” he would take a knee in the presence of royalty and expose the back of the neck, the most vulnerable part of our bodies. It was a deep sign of respect, but also a means of offering one’s life to the service of the king or queen.

When we think about divine worship, we’ve seen people participate in similar actions. Some bow their heads, close their eyes or drop to their knees in prayer. Maybe we’ve even fallen prostrate on the ground. All of these are way of saying to God, “There is no one worthier than you. And the greatest way I can bring attention to that is to humble myself before you and bend my heart to your will.” So let me ask you a question. Is that what you think about when you come to worship? Do you come to humble yourself before God? That’s the primary reason we do this week in and week out. It’s our proclamation that God is worthier than anyone or anything else in our lives.

Now when we worship, we are not just spending an hour or so of our time singing songs and hearing a message, but in the midst of our time we’re also drawn to God’s goodness. A few weeks ago, I came to worship tired and weary after a long day. And to be quite honest, I would’ve been just fine to stay at home, put on some comfy pants and veg out. But then Lauren led us in a song called “What a Beautiful Name It Is,” and I felt my energy increase and the tears began to flow down my face when I remembered the goodness and faithfulness of God. This is the heart of Psalm 100. The writer calls attention to the goodness of God. All of creation is invited to gather for worship with joy and singing, to remember who God is. And how can we not? There is joy that wells up when we remember that no matter how crazy life gets, God still holds all things together. And no matter how messed up I seem to make life, God somehow manages to pick up the pieces and delicately put me back on the road to abundant life.

Worship is important because it asks us to stop and see the work of the God again. If worship isn’t a priority, or we’re simply too busy to stop and pay attention, then we will miss out on God’s creativity and craftsmanship. And we might even miss out on God’s presence. When I traveled to Zimbabwe last summer, I was awestruck by their night sky. With no ambient light, I could see stars and planets and constellations that we could never see in the northern hemisphere. There was a moment when Bob and I just sat in silence for a half hour, taking in the beauty of God’s creation. It was absolutely breathtaking, almost as if we had traveled to a holy place. I found myself thinking about the words of another Psalm, Psalm 8: “When I consider the work of your heavens, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, who am I that you are mindful of me? O God, how majestic is your name.” Worship creates space for us to consider God, to turn our hearts and minds toward him. Worship reminds us that God is good and faithful and everlasting. Do you sometimes forget who God is? Do you sometimes get so bogged down that you forget his goodness and faithfulness? Maybe you need to remember God’s goodness today? Worship gives us space to remember. And when we remember those characteristics, we can’t help but turn to God in praise.

There’s one more point I’d like to make about worship, and this is what makes worship such a significant event: Worship exposes us to God’s radical love. We can sing our hearts out and hear positive sermons, but unless we’ve encountered the radical love of Christ, we haven’t truly worshipped. The ancient Hebrews had a common refrain in their worship that sounded something like this: God’s steadfast love endures forever.” In Hebrew, that phrase is found in one powerful word: hesed. It’s a word that conveys God’s everlasting faithfulness that stands true no matter the difficulty, the challenge or the situation. God’s love endures. Today God’s love endures and lives on through the presence of Jesus, and we recall that love through the work on the cross.

There is no greater testimony of God’s love than the sacrificial death of Jesus. Every time we worship and humble ourselves and remember God’s goodness, we eventually find our way to the cross, where Jesus gave up his life for ours. And worship has fully been experienced when we pour out our words, our songs and our prayers of gratitude. And this is NOT a foreign concept to us. Every year, we take time out of our schedules to thank the men and women who give of their lives so that we can live. On Veterans Day and Memorial Day and the Fourth of July, we shut down our schools, block off streets, stay home from work, throw parties and attend parades and push the pause button on our daily lives to simply remember. We even have slogans like, “We Will Never Forget” because we understand the significance of someone giving up his or her life to someone else. It means something and deserves our recognition.

Every time we worship, we hit the “pause button” and offer our best “thank you” to the One who has given up his life for ours. We stop every week to worship with gratitude the One who as the old creed says, “suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried.” And with thanksgiving, we praise the One who overcomes sin and death and makes it possible for us to spend an eternity with him, where there will be no more mourning, or crying, death or pain. And I don’t know about you, but that’s worthy of worship not just once a week, but every day of our lives.

 So after we’ve done all this, what should happen in worship? What should happen when we humble ourselves and offer God our praise and gratitude? We should experience a deeper relationship with Christ. You might hear a sermon that tugs on your heart, or you might not. You might sing a song that moves you to tears, or you might not. That’s not the point of worship. The point of worship is to “offer ourselves” to Christ. Sometimes we miss that. Sometimes we get caught thinking that worship is about God doing something for us, but it’s actually the other way around. Paul puts it this way in Romans 12: 1- “In view of God’s mercy offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.”  But here’s the thing: When you do this, God can’t help but move toward you in life-giving ways. That’s just his nature. A few years ago, I spent the day with Reagan. We played and giggled and laughed and she had my attention and I had hers. When I put her to bed that night, she looked up and said, “Thank you for playing with me daddy.” And when she said those words, I wanted to hold her tight and tell her how much I loved her and always would. And I couldn’t wait to do it all over again, to give her my full attention on another day. That, I think, is what happens when we worship well. It’s when you get up off your knees, say your final amen and head home for the evening knowing that you’ve just spent time with the most important person in the world, and He’s spent time with you. And more than anything, God can’t wait for it to happen again. That is worship. Amen.