IT S NOT ABOUT US A CALL TO PASSIONATE WORSHIP Text: Psalm 22: 23-31 March 8, 2009 (Second Sunday in Lent) Faith J. Conklin Annie Dillard in her book, Teaching a Stone to Talk, writes On the whole, I do not find Christians outside of the catacombs sufficiently sensible of conditions. Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke? Or, as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it? The churches are children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT to kill a Sunday morning. It is madness to wear straw hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews. For the sleeping god may wake someday and take offence or the waking god may draw us out to where we can never return. 1 I read those words one Sunday before Pentecost. I used them as a welcome to worship and suggested that during the coming week we think about what it means to come into the presence of God. After the service I went home and thought nothing more about it. Next week I stepped forward to give the welcome. There sitting in the front pew with his arms folded and with an expectant look on his face sat John Plemons. He was wearing a life preserver and a crash helmet and he had a signal flare. Seeing my surprised (stunned, astounded) look he said, It s what you told us to do last week, isn t it. I could only nod. That s more than a wonderful memory for me. It s a reminder. John understood. He witnessed to his understanding even if it meant looking foolish before his family and friends. To worship is to come intentionally into the presence of God. When we do, we should be prepared for something to happen. We re continuing our Lenten series, Take Five: A Pause to Renew. Our theme today is entitled Passionate Worship. Bishop Schnase, the author of our study book, Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations, writes: Worship describes those times we gather deliberately seeking to encounter God in Christ. We cultivate our relationship with God and with one another as the people of God. We encounter a fresh vision of God s reality in Christ so that God s Spirit can reshape our lives and form us into the Body of Christ. 2 1 Annie Dillard, Teaching a Stone to Talk, pp.40-41 2 Robert Schnase, Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations, p. 33 1
Worship is about God. It s about what God has done for us in Jesus Christ and our response. It s about encountering God and letting that encounter transform and shape us. John was right to dress as he did. God meets us as we are and wherever we are. God doesn t leave us there. We can never be sure what might happen when we confront the awesome power and presence of the living God in our midst. We do know we won t be left the same. At the heart of the Temple in Jerusalem was a room called the Holy of Holies. It was so sacred that only the high priest, was allowed into it. He only went once a year, on the Day of Atonement. The room was empty except for a single throne, which was also empty. Two gold cherubim spread their wings above it, facing each other. When the high priest entered the Holy of Holies, he only had to do one thing. He prepared for months. He was to say the name of God, a name so holy that no one really knew how to pronounce it. Ordinarily no one even dared say it aloud or even whisper it. Its meaning was wrapped in mystery. Maybe it meant, I am who I am. Some said it was simply the sound of breathing. When the high priest went into the Holy of Holies on that one day, all he really had to do was stand in the presence of God and breathe. Tradition also adds this detail: Before the high priest went into the Holy of Holies, other priests tied a rope around his leg. In case he was struck down in the presence of God, they would have a way to drag him out without risk to themselves. How do we enter into God s presence? Do we understand that there is risk? Do we think anything will happen? Our Prayer of Invocation is an invitation to God to be with us. Do we expect God to answer it? What might happen if God did? What if we even just acted as if God would? Our text for this morning is a portion of Psalm 22. Psalm 22 is a traditional Lenten psalm. It falls into that category known as psalms of lament. It s frequently read as part of the Good Friday service. Its opening words echo those of Jesus from the cross, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? The first 18 verses of the psalm are a cry of despair and a plea to God to hear and answer. The author is writing out of a time of suffering and pain. He tells how he s cried out to God and been met by silence. Trouble surrounds him and he says he s poured out like water. We understand what he means. We ve been there also. In verse 18 the tone begins to shift. The author expects to be rescued. He speaks as if God has already acted on his behalf. His cries of despair become songs of praise. He concludes with a call to the community to worship and proclaim to future generations what God has done. 2
You who fear the LORD, praise him! All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him; stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel! For he did not despise or abhor the affliction of the afflicted; he did not hide his face from me, but heard when I cried to him. All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord; and all the families of the nations shall worship before him. For dominion belongs to the LORD, and he rules over the nations. The psalmist reminds us. Worship begins and ends in gratitude. It s grounded in God s goodness and grace. We remember what God has done and we give thanks. Even when we can find little or no evidence for it in the present, we anticipate what God will do. Out of that hope we offer our gratitude and praise. Michael Lindvall in his wonderful book, A Geography of God, says that often the problem in our worship is that we re facing the wrong direction. He reminds us that worship isn t to be oriented toward the worshipper. It s to be oriented toward God. Worship isn t about us. He writes: At its most profound, worship is nothing but a deliberate and repeated activity in which we are called to turn away from self and turn toward God. He adds, Worship is no less than a weekly practice at not being God. 3 It s not a new idea. Over 150 years ago the Danish philosopher and theologian Søren Kierkegaard also wrote about the role confusion that occurs in worship. We said that we usually see the congregation as audience, the minister and worship leaders as performers and God as the prompter. He suggested we turn this around. The congregation is the actors, the minister and leaders are the prompters and the audience is God. Worship is our gift to God. Our prayers, singing, giving, preaching, silence, praise, even our worries, tears and sorrows are offerings to God. They re presented in response to God s welcome and love of us. They re acts of gratitude and thanksgiving. God does with them, as God will. God works through them to transform, change, shape and bless us. God is so good, gracious and loving that in giving we receive even more. We come in sorrow and we find comfort and hope. We come broken and are reminded that we have a God who wants to mend us and make us whole. We come hungry for purpose and meaning and hear through scripture, song or sermon that God needs and wants us for the work of his kingdom. We get confronted with the truth of our lives and our living. We see ourselves in the light of God s love and 3 Michael L. Lindvall, A Geography of God, p.63 3
Christ s teachings. We get a new vision of God, ourselves and the world. We begin to see everything economics, ecology, politics, social issues, and our relationships with others, through the lens of God s love for us in Jesus Christ. Worship turns us toward God. In that turning we re also re-connected to one another. Worship reminds us that God wants to be in relationship with us. It also tells us that God wants us to be in relationship with one another. It enhances and deepens our community life with one another. It also widens and expands our understanding of what community is. Through our worship we learn of God s love for us and also for the stranger, the enemy, the poor, the rejected, the outcast and the unwanted. We read how Jesus extended God s love to all. We can t cast others aside as unlovable. We pray asking God to forgive our sins and have mercy on us. Practicing those words each week they become part of our language in the world. We begin to share that mercy and forgiveness. We offer others the same kindness, care and compassion we seek from God. We hear the preacher say we re all God s beloved children. God values us. We grow alert to the ways and places in life where people aren t treated as the miracles they are. We re led to challenge those structures and systems. Worship opens our eyes to the glory that s hidden in each moment of every day. It also opens our ears to hear the cries of need around us. Little by little worship becomes what Tom Long calls, the soundtrack for the rest of life. The words, music and actions of worship inside the sanctuary forever play in the background as we live our lives outside in the world. Worship is a dangerous undertaking. It has radical implications. The more passionate we are about it, the more risk-taking it involves. Passionate worship does indeed need life preservers, crash helmets and signal flares. To encounter God is to be changed. God then uses us in ways that change the world. Worship gives us a vision of life that s fuller, richer, more joyful and more abundant than any we have known. It pushes us to make that vision a reality. Barbara Brown Taylor shares a wonderful story of what happened in her congregation one Sunday in Lent. I hear it as both a reminder and a promise. At the last Church I served, it was traditional to stage a dramatic reading of the Palm Sunday narrative. The solemn occasion began with the announcement of the gospel. Then the lights went down and even the children in the congregation fell silent as the red-robed participants moved into their places. The principal readers stood spotlit in the chancel. Other players were seated throughout the dark Church beside unsuspecting parishioners. The only prop was a ten-foot-tall cross 4
made of rough wood full of splinters that towered at the top of the chancel steps, and was draped with a blood-red stole. On the Sunday I m remembering, the drama had built steadily toward its dreaded conclusion. Jesus stood in front of the cross with his head bowed as Pilate addressed the crowd. Then what should I do with Jesus who is called the Messiah? he asked us. Players leapt to their feet in the dark pews. Crucify him! they shrieked, one after the other, their fury erupting like hot geysers throughout the congregation. Let him be crucified! Come fully to life, the story was awful. It was always awful, but those of us who d endured it before knew it would soon be over. Hunching our shoulders against what was to come, we were waiting for the end when a strange, new voice began to make itself heard over the din. Oh my Lord, no! wailed an unrehearsed woman's voice. Don't kill my sweet Jesus! You've got to stop! You can't kill my sweet Jesus! O Lord, make them stop! The ushers at the back of the Church peered into the darkness, trying to find where the voice was coming from. The one nearest her finally located her and sat down beside her. People all around her patted her hand and whispered to her. Accepting their offer of a cup of coffee, she let them lead her out of the Church just as Jesus gave up his spirit with a heart-splitting howl. It turned out that she d wandered in off the street, still high from the night before. She d taken a seat without knowing what was about to occur. I tried to tell her it wasn t real, said a teenaged girl who was sitting next to her, But I realized that for her, it was. 4 We forget. What we do here isn t just mere routine or ritual. It s reality at its deepest, highest and best. It s rehearsal for the rest of life. God meets us here. In that encounter we re formed and made new. That s as real as it gets. All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord; and all the families of the nations shall worship before him. It s not about us. It s about God. Now and always let us praise, worship and give him thanks. Amen. 4 Barbara Brown Taylor, The Preaching Life, pp. 63-64 5
PASTORAL PRAYER (3-8-09) O God, with praise and thanksgiving we come into your presence. We name ourselves before you with awe and humility. You are creation s Lord and its Savior. You hold past, present and future in your hands. Holy One, we know that our words are too inadequate to describe you. Our minds are too small to fully comprehend you. Like the psalmist we cry, Who are we that you care for us? Nevertheless you love us. In Jesus you take our flesh and make yourself known to us. He reveals your power and your grace. He shows us how important we are to you. Lord, receive our worship. Take it as an offering of our heart. Do not judge us by our lack of perfection but judge us with your mercy. Forgive us when we think too much of ourselves and encourage us when we think too little. Remind us again that we are yours and do with us what you will. Father, hear the prayers we bring this morning. We lift them in hope and in faith. We trust in your goodness and in your good will toward us. We pray for those who are ill, suffering and in need of healing We pray for those who have died and those who grieve their loss. We pray for those made fearful and anxious by this time of economic crisis and transition. We pray for our nation and its president struggling to find a new way We pray for our Church as we seek to grow in faithfulness and service and to claim more fully the ministry you have given us O God, we ground and center ourselves in your unfailing, unshakable and unending love. Shape us to be your holy people. Give us the courage to live by the teachings and truth we have seen in Jesus. In his name we pray saying, Our Father 6
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