Gathering. WEEk 1 SERIES INTRO:

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Gary Mason
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1 Gathering WEEk 1 SERIES INTRO: This eight-week study is based on a sermon series on worship and the psalms called Grace and Gratitude: Worshiping a Gracious God with a Grateful Heart. Worship is our response to God and the grace and love he shows us in Jesus. Worship is how we relate to God gathering, singing, confessing, hearing God s Word, celebrating our unity with him through baptism and the Table, professing our faith to one another, and then re-entering the world as those who are ready to be part of God s mission. The psalms lead us into worship, reminding us that God not only hears and understands all our many different prayers, needs, and emotions, but welcomes us and rejoices with us as we draw closer to him. Mark Labberton, a contemporary pastor/theologian, calls worship a dangerous act. He writes, When worship is our response to the One who alone is worthy of it Jesus Christ then our lives are on their way to being turned inside out. Every dimension of self-centered living becomes endangered as we come to show God s self-giving heart. Centuries earlier, Augustine said the gathering for worship is the fundamental and original form of the church, for it is through this gathering that the church expresses to itself and to the world its nature, its purpose, its mission, and its role in history. I believe both are correct! A few years ago, followers of Jesus from around the world worked together to create a document called Worshiping the Triune God that attempted to explain the amazing potential of worship through a series of contemporary proverbs. I was asked to write a commentary on these, and the book Wise Church: Exploring Faith and Worship with Christians Around the World came into being. We will be using some excerpts from this book as the basis for our small group study throughout this series. Each week there will be different types of questions. Some might be better for longer-term small groups and others might be more useful for the new groups formed through Taste & See. Leaders may pick and choose what they want to focus on depending on the make up of their small group. May all we say and do over these next weeks encourage us all in our lives of grateful worship! ped 1

2 WEEK ONE INTRO: Even in its simplest forms, Christian worship is multi-dimensional. Throughout the history of the church, followers of Jesus experience at least three realities whenever we gather for worship: We bring our context with us: trauma (natural disaster, violence, oppression, political upheaval, unemployment, relocation, death) combines with triumph (births, graduations, new jobs, new relationships) to make us who we are on any given day. Even the most stable worshiping community will be different each time it gathers because our world is constantly changing and so are we. Consciously or not, we are logging on to the unending worship of God across creation and throughout time. No matter how edgy or how stodgy our particular worship may seem, no matter how connected or how isolated any group of worshipers may feel, we are all part of the cosmic reality the hymn writer Maltbie Babcock once called the music of the spheres. ( This Is My Father s World st. 1) By the gift of the Holy Spirit, we can participate in the community of God. This is possible because of the ongoing work of Jesus the Christ. There is only one offering acceptable to God and it is not ours. It is the offering by which [Christ] has sanctified for all time those who come to God by him. (Hebrews 2:11, 10:10, 14) Authentic Christian worship, like the Word of God on which it is centered, is living, breathing, changing, vibrant, vital, refreshingly unpredictable, and always transformative. The blessing of worship, the life-changing experience of encountering and praising the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is available to disciples of Jesus every time we gather for worship. This blessing we receive is not dependent on our resources, the beauty of our location, the approval of our culture, or any other temporal circumstance. It is purely a gift from God. Proverbs for the Week Blessed are the people of God who are deeply aware that they are both called by and address the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit who gathers, protects, and cares for the Church through Word and Spirit, a God of splendor and majesty perfectly revealed in Jesus Christ, the image of the invisible God. (Colossians 1:15) 2

3 Blessed is the community that gratefully acknowledges that the triune God not only receives our worship, but also makes our worship possible, prompting us through the Holy Spirit, and sanctifying our offerings through the perfect priesthood of Jesus Christ, who during his life on earth offered praise to the Father, full of joy in the Holy Spirit, (Luke 10:21) and even now ever lives to pray for us. (Hebrews 7:25) Blessed is the congregation that insists that believers gather to worship God, not in order that God might bless them, but because God has already blessed them. Blessed is the congregation that then discovers that God does indeed bless them as they worship the triune God who nourishes, teaches, convicts, and corrects them, and strengthens bonds that unite believers with Jesus Christ and with each other through the sanctifying actions of the proclamation of the word and corporate prayer, through baptism and the Lord s Supper, through fellowship, offerings, and testimony. Taken seriously, these first four proverbs alone would be enough to rock the world of many contemporary worshipers. This is especially in North America where, nurtured by a consumer culture, we have come to believe that, if we choose to worship God at all, it is because we have taken the initiative. God should be pleased that we have made that choice! How ironic that we would consider worshiping the triune God and yet be so self-absorbed! [L]ike an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea (C. S. Lewis), we can easily miss the astonishing truth that God is deeply invested in a relationship with us; the Creator of every universe that has ever existed revealed himself to us in Jesus Christ; the Spirit who hovered over pre-creation chaos is the same Spirit that drags us out of bed (or out of ourselves), into a posture of praise. This is where the first and last words of Psalm 147, a word that we find throughout the psalms, can help us greatly: HALLELUJAH means to boast in or rejoice in God. This is a true call away from ourselves a call to worship. Hallelujah! For it is good to sing praises to our God, for he is beautiful, and a song of praise is fitting. Psalm 147:1 3

4 God created us to worship. Worship is our home, praise is our voice, and prayer is the air our lungs were designed to breathe! God calls us to worship and makes our worship possible. We do not love, serve, or worship God in order to attract his attention, avoid his wrath, or secure his blessing. God in Jesus Christ has come to us, redeemed us, and blessed us it s a done deal. Worship is a sacrifice of praise; our grateful response to these blessings. Questions for Discussion (Choose one of the first three as a warm-up) 1. Why might those who are intentional in worship be blessed? What helpful parallels can you draw between the proverbs in this discussion and Jesus teaching in the Beatitudes? (Matthew 5:3-12) 2. How do we gather for worship at First Pres? What kinds of scriptures are read and songs are sung? How would a visitor describe the spirit of the gathering? Would it be clear that we have gathered in response to God s invitation, with joy for what God has already done? 3. As we gather for worship, how do we celebrate the great reality of God s splendor and majesty? God s perfect revelation in Jesus Christ? God s activity as the Holy Spirit moves through the congregation? (Now that you re warmed up ) 4. In the sermon, we stressed the distinction between approaching God as we might approach a business associate finding him useful for addressing the things that concern us, and approaching God as a lover finding him glorious, gracious, wise, amazing, beautiful. Have you ever considered that difference? How do you approach God most often? Why? 5. Where do you go to find the type of beauty that can pull you out of yourself? What is it about that place or thing that awakens something within you? 6. What does this quote from St. Augustine (b.354-d.430) say to you as you think about gathering for worship at First Pres? Great are you, O Lord, and exceedingly worthy of praise; your power is immense, and your wisdom beyond reckoning. And so we, who are a due part of your creation, long to praise you. You arouse us so that praising you may bring us joy, because you have made us and drawn us to yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you. Confessions, Book 1 4

5 Scripture Texts Psalm 147 Praise the Lord! For it is good to sing praises to our God; for he is beautiful and a song of praise is fitting. 2 The Lord builds up Jerusalem; he gathers the outcasts of Israel. 3 He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. 4 He determines the number of the stars; he gives to all of them their names. 5 Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure. 6 The Lord lifts up the humble; he casts the wicked to the ground. 7 Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving; make melody to our God on the lyre! 8 He covers the heavens with clouds; he prepares rain for the earth; he makes grass grow on the hills. 9 He gives to the beasts their food, and to the young ravens that cry. 10 His delight is not in the strength of the horse, nor his pleasure in the legs of a man, 11 but the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love. 12 Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem! Praise your God, O Zion! 13 For he strengthens the bars of your gates; he blesses your children within you. 14 He makes peace in your borders; he fills you with the finest of the wheat. 15 He sends out his command to the earth; his word runs swiftly. 5

6 16 He gives snow like wool; he scatters frost like ashes. 17 He hurls down his crystals of ice like crumbs; who can stand before his cold? 18 He sends out his word, and melts them; he makes his wind blow and the waters flow. 19 He declares his word to Jacob, his statutes and decrees to Israel. 20 He has not dealt thus with any other nation; they do not know his decrees. Praise the Lord! For Additional Thought 1 Peter 2:9-10 (compare with v. 20 above) 9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Acts 2:42-47 (Consider this in with the Augustine quote in the Series Intro.) 42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 43 And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. 44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common. 45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. Scripture for this session is from the English Standard Version ESV Text Edition: Copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. 6

FIRST SUNDAY AFTER CHRISTMAS Year B RCL A READING FROM ISAIAH. Isaiah 61:10-62:3

FIRST SUNDAY AFTER CHRISTMAS Year B RCL A READING FROM ISAIAH Isaiah 61:10-62:3 I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my whole being shall exult in my God; for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation,