Key Verse: Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song. Psalm 95:1-2 This psalm is an invitation to worship God. It was probably a hymn sung as the community made its way to the Temple for the Festival of Tabernacles. It is one of several psalms known as the enthronement psalms because they (as does this one) celebrates the Lord as king. (Other enthronement psalms include Psalm 47, Psalm 50, and Psalm 81.) The psalmist here, as often elsewhere, stirs up himself and others to praise God; for it is a duty which ought to be performed with joy and excitement; not because we have to but because we want to. So how is God to be praised? With holy joy and delight in him. The praising song must be a joyful noise, Ps. 95:1 and again Ps. 95:2. Spiritual joy is the heart and soul of thankful praise. We give all glory to him because of his great love for us, and at the same time, rejoice in him as our Father and King, and as God in covenant with us. With humble reverence, and a holy awe of him (Ps. 95:6). Let us worship, and bow down, and kneel before the Lord our Maker. We need to worship God as Creator. He created us but more so he created the world around us. Stop, look around you as you go through your day. What have you not noticed before? God speaks to you; God calls to you. Whenever you recognize God at work, praise him and his creation. With our voice. We must praise God with our voice; we must speak forth, sing forth, his praises out of the abundance of a heart filled with love, and joy, and thankfulness Sing to the Lord; make a noise, a joyful noise to him, with psalms whether you are driving down the road and are listening to the radio or you are sitting in the quiet of your own home, praise God through voice or song. 1 P a g e
In community. We must praise God in concert, as we join with others whether during the Sunday worship experience, small group, or other Bible study: Come, let us sing; let us join in singing to the Lord. God is in community and as such calls us into community with him and with others. Thank God for those he brings into your life. Whenever we come into God s presence we must come with thanksgiving that we are able to come before a holy God because he calls us to be with him. God desires our presence, our gifts, and our service. 1 Read Psalm 95 in its entirety. How do praise and entering God s presence interact with one another? What does worship mean to you? The key idea for this week is I worship God for who he is and what he has done for me. But what is worship? The United Methodist Member s Handbook 2 describes worship in the following ways: Worship is an opportunity to meet God. We come into worship full of expectation that through the Spirit, God will be present, we will speak to God, and God will speak to us. We praise the Lord, our Creator and Sustainer. In ritual and song and prayer, we address God. But we also take time to listen to receive God s forgiving love, to respond to the quiet stirrings of the Spirit in our hearts. Worship is a two-way communion with the living God. 1 Based on Matthew Henry s Commentary: https://www.biblegateway.com/resources/matthewhenry/ps.95.1-ps.95.6 2 Koehler, George E. The United Methodist Member s Handbook, Nashville. Discipleship Resources. Page 14 2 P a g e
Worship is also a time of celebration. In a way it s like a birthday party or parade. We remember the wonderful things that God has done and rejoice. We give thanks for God s many gifts, especially for the gift of Jesus Christ, alive now in our midst. We dedicate ourselves anew to lives of Christian discipleship, to ministry with one another and in the world. Our celebrations are organized around an annual calendar of remembered events, the church year. We relieve crucial episodes of God s revelation in Christ in a cycle of six seasons: Advent, Christmas, Sundays after Epiphany, Lent, Easter, and Sundays after Pentecost. Through Scripture, drama, music, colors, and other means, we take part in the ancient story. We take part especially through singing. We United Methodists love to sing the songs of faith. Our Hymnal is a collection of hymns for all seasons in a variety of styles traditional, gospel, spiritual, and ethnic. In the spirit of our Methodist founder, John Wesley, we make a joyful noise to the LORD (Psalms 98:4). What allows you to come into worship with joyful expectation? What is your favorite part of a Sunday worship service? Why? Of the six cycles in the church year, which is your favorite? What makes it special to you? Which hymn is your favorite? o Is this hymn one that you lean on during times of trouble? Why? o Is this hymn a hymn that allows you to recollect your times of closeness to God? o What is it about this hymn that brings you comfort? 3 P a g e
Worship is a way of making connections between the Bible and our lives. The Bible is our book, the story of our origins, the written account of God s relationship with humankind. As we read the Bible with curiosity and openness, we find that the Holy Spirit speaks to us. As we hear the Bible in worship, through prayer, and through the sermon, the biblical message is brought into contact with the issues of everyday life. Worship is not a time to put on our best face and leave behind our personal concerns. It s a time to bring these concerns and those of the world before God, and to listen for the Scriptures direction. 3 Which Scripture passage speaks more to you than any other? Does it surprise you that worship is not a time to put on our best face and leave behind our personal concerns? Why Do We Light and Extinguish Candles during Worship 4 From Worship Matters: A United Methodist Guide to Worship Work, Vol. II by E. Byron Anderson: "Jesus said: "I am the light of the world" (John 8:12). The presence of the light reminds us of Jesus' coming into our world and into our lives. The light is carried into the worship service as a symbol of Jesus' coming into the presence of the worshiping community. Many congregations use two candles on the altar to point out that Jesus was both a human being and God. At the end of the service, the light is carried out into the world to show that Jesus Christ is for all people everywhere; the acolyte leaves the worship service at the pastor's direction, carrying out the lighted 3 Koehler, George E. The United Methodist Member s Handbook, Nashville. Discipleship Resources. Page 14 4 http://www.umc.org/what-we-believe/why-do-we-light-and-extinguish-candles-during-worship 4 P a g e
candlelighter. This symbolizes the light of Jesus Christ going out into the world where believers are to serve." From The Acolyte's Book by Hoyt Hickman: "Since ancient times, light and fire have reminded people that God is here with us. When you bring the light (fire) into the place where people are gathering to worship, and when you light the candles, you are reminding the people that God is with us at home, at school, and at work, as well as in the worship service; Lighted candles also remind us that Jesus Christ is the Light of the world. Many persons like to think of the two candles on or beside the Lord's Table as reminders that Christ is both human and divine." What is your usual response as the acolyte lights the candle? o Does the lighting of the candle bring you into a more worshipful experience? Did you realize that the two lights are a reminder that Christ is both human and divine? Our Heritage of Worship 5 Worship in Methodist churches has always been a mixture of many and varied approaches. Here, as in other areas of our discipleship, our tradition displays a certain creative tension. Methodist societies in England in the eighteenth century met at times that did not conflict with the regular worship services of the Anglican parish churches. The 5 Watts, Ewart G. We are United Methodists. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1998. Page 38 5 P a g e
Methodist society services followed a very informal pattern of hymn singing, Scripture reading, prayers, and preaching. In additions, members of the societies were encouraged to participate in the more formal liturgical services of their parish churches, especially in the sacrament of Holy Communion. John Wesley wrote to his fellow Methodists in America, I believe there is no Liturgy in the world, either in ancient or modern language, which breathes more of a solid, scriptural, rational piety than the Common Prayer of the Church of England, Along with this statement, Wesley sent an adapted order of worship from that Book of Common Prayer. He titled it, The Sunday Service for the Methodists of North America. He also suggested rituals for baptism, confirmation, Holy Communion, marriage, and burial of the dead. The informal Methodist society services, however, were already so well established in the American colonies that the Sunday Service of Wesley was never widely used. Yet the 1792 Discipline did include the other Offices of the Church or rituals suggested by Wesley. So a tendency developed to be more formal in the service of the Lord s Supper, baptism, matrimony, and burial of the dead as well as in the ordination services. For many years, however, most of the other services followed the informal evangelistic pattern of the Methodist society meeting. This article states that Worship in Methodist churches has always been a mixture of many and varied approaches. Is this a good thing? o Why or why not? What about the theory of that events that happen in sequence can also be events that happen simultaneously? o Is this more realistic or easier to explain or understand? 6 P a g e
What do the Articles of Religion say about Worship? NOTE: When the Methodist movement in America became a church in 1784, John Wesley provided the American Methodists with a liturgy and a doctrinal statement, which contained twenty-four "Articles of Religion" or basic statements of belief. These Articles of Religion were taken from the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England the church out of which the Methodism movement began and had been the standards for preaching within the Methodist movement. When these articles were voted on by the American conference, an additional article was added regarding the American context, bringing the total number of articles to 25. These articles became the basic standards for Christian belief in the Methodist church in North America. First published in the church's Book of Discipline in 1790, the Articles of Religion have continued to be part of the church's official statement of belief. 6 Article XXII Of the Rites and Ceremonies of Churches 7 It is not necessary that rites and ceremonies should in all places be the same, or exactly alike; for they have been always different, and may be changed according to the diversity of countries, times, and men's manners, so that nothing be ordained against God's Word. Whosoever, through his private judgment, willingly and purposely doth openly break the rites and ceremonies of the church to which he belongs, which are not repugnant to the Word of God, and are ordained and approved by common authority, ought to be rebuked openly, that others may fear to do the like, as one that offendeth against the common order of the church, and woundeth the consciences of weak brethren. Every particular church may ordain, change, or abolish rites and ceremonies, so that all things may be done to edification. 6 7 http://www.umc.org/what-we-believe/foundational-documents http://www.umc.org/what-we-believe/the-articles-of-religion-of-the-methodist-church 7 P a g e
Even from our very beginnings, Methodists have declared that our worship services may be changed according to the diversity of countries, times, and men s manners. How forward thinking was this philosophy? Worship is really all about building one another up within the Word of God. Taking a look at our different worship services, how does each one do that (e.g., 8AM is more contemporary and 11AM is more traditional)? o What are the benefits of having multiple types of worship services within one church body? What does the Confession of Faith of The Evangelical Brethren Church say about Worship? NOTE: The United Brethren Church (Evangelical and Brethren churches) merged with the Methodist Church in 1968 to form the United Methodist Church. The Confession of Faith above comes from the United Brethren Church and became a part of who we are today as United Methodists. The Confession of Faith of the Evangelical United Brethren Church is one of three established Doctrinal Standards of the United Methodist Church, along with the Articles of Religion and the Standard Sermons of John Wesley. The United Methodist Church adopted the Confession of Faith in 1968 when the Methodist Church merged with the Evangelical United Brethren Church to form the United Methodist Church. The Confession of Faith covers much of the same ground as the Articles of Religion, but it is shorter and the language is more contemporary. 8 8 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/confession_of_faith_(united_methodist) 8 P a g e
Article V The Church 9 We believe the Christian Church is the community of all true believers under the Lordship of Christ. We believe it is one, holy, apostolic and catholic. It is the redemptive fellowship in which the Word of God is preached by men divinely called, and the sacraments are duly administered according to Christ's own appointment. Under the discipline of the Holy Spirit the Church exists for the maintenance of worship, the edification of believers and the redemption of the world. What is our duty as a church community to ensure that the Church exists for the maintenance of worship, the edification of believers and the redemption of the world? o How does that transcend into our personal lives? 9 http://www.umc.org/what-we-believe/confession-of-faith 9 P a g e
Additional Resources: 1. Worship and Workout One church has found a way to incorporate physical and spiritual fitness together by worshipping at a local YMCA in Ohio. Stillwater United Methodist Church http://www.umc.org/news-and-media/umtv-worship-and-workout 2. Who is in charge of worship in the local church? The short answer is the pastor. http://www.umc.org/what-we-believe/who-is-in-charge-of-worship-in-the-localchurch 3. Seasons of the Church Year The following link comes from the Global Board of Ordained Ministry and is a worship resource. It particularly highlights the current season. http://www.gbod.org/worship/seasons-of-the-church-year 10 P a g e