May 15, 2011

Text: "The time is coming and now is when the true worshipers will(John 4:23)

worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks

such as these to worship him."

Preached at the First Presbyterian Church of Kilgore

by Rev. David Handley

May 15, 2011

What Jesus has to teach us today is of extreme importance. Because it straightens out our thinking about the nature of "true worship." Many Christians, either consciously or sub-consciously, have a totally backwards view of what corporate worship is. When we talk about our church and worship to other people, for example, let’s listen to what we say. We might say something like, "We have an awesome organ and a really gifted organist." Or we might say, "The inspiration of the choir just lifts us into the presence of God each and every week." You might talk about the preacher…well, you know what you say. Or we may talk about the beauty of the sanctuary. All these things are natural in the flow of conversation, and that kind of healthy pride is good for a church. I do a good deal of it myself as I describe our worship to others.

But is what we describe "true worship"? Is it "worship in spirit and truth," as Jesus puts it? Let me suggest that what Jesus teaches us this morning, as we listen in on his very interesting dialog with this Samaritan woman, reveals that our attitude toward Worship may be totally inverted…in this way: We talk about worship like a performance, as when we go to a concert, the symphony, or a theatrical production…where the performers are on stage and the audience is in the seats …or here we call them pews. Jesus seems to be saying here that the way we are to think about Worship is that the worshipers are the performers, and the choir, the organist, the lector, and the preacher simply give the cues. Then who is the audience?...Well, the audience, of course, is Almighty God. "The Father seeks true worshipers like these to worship Him."Now isn’t that an amazing statement! Did you ever think, as you come into the sanctuary on a Sunday morning, that the Lord is seeking you out, searching your heart, looking and hoping He will find you a true and sincere worshiper?

If we would take Jesus seriously would not file out of the sanctuary asking the question, "Well how was worship today?", or asking our friend on the way out to the parking lot, "What did you think of that last hymn?!" or "How did you like that anthem?," or "How do you think the preacher did this morning?" Rather, if we took Jesus seriously here, we would leave worship asking ourselves, "How did I do today in worship? Did I worship truly? Was I the kind of worshiper the Father was ‘seeking’ this morning?"

The fact is, the quality of your experience in worship has a whole lot more to do with your attitude than with the "performance" of the worship leaders. And getting this right is absolutely crucial to the life of the Church…especially in the transition to a new pastor. Getting this right had to happen when Dan Goodwin turned the reigns over to Bill Ingersoll; it had to happen when all of you were heartbroken over losing Bill and I became the new kid on the block. And it will happen again as Scott Nowack becomes your new pastor, probably with a different voice and style than either Dan Goodwin, Bill Ingersoll, or Dave Handley.

OK, then, so what does it mean to "worship in spirit and in truth"? Let me suggest three things: EXPECTATION that God will speak to you; DESIRE to hear the Truth God reveals; and then the COURAGE and determination to actually put it into action. I will have the time this morning only to comment on the first of these; but the rest is up to you to reflect upon as you go from here. Expectation that God will speak…Desire to hear what God has to say to your life…Courage to go out and obey what He says.

Expectation. Jesus had a lot to say about the Holy Spirit, especially in the Gospel of John. Jesus indicated that the coming of the Holy Spirit would change everything…in individual believers, and in the Church corporately. For the individual, Jesus said, "When the Helper comes, the Spirit of Truth, He will remind you of the things that I have said, He will help you do the works that I do….You know Him, for He is with you now, and shall be in you." (Summary of John 14:12-18.) For the individual believer, the Holy Spirit is not an impersonal force of some kind, is the very personality of Jesus living within us.

Corporately, for the gathered Church, the Apostle Paul says we are each like individual members of the Body of Christ. We have more of an experience of Christ when we are together than when we are separate. Now both of these Holy Spirit promises change worship majorly! Because when we come to worship, we can EXPECT more than simply an intellectual experience, more than a lecture or a concert. There is a Presence of Jesus here that enlivens worship, that interacts with us as the Scripture is read, that translates things to heart and mind that we had hitherto not understood, that makes the words of the hymns lift our hearts to praise.

I had a conversation with a fellow clergyman this week. He posed to me this question: "What would happen in worship one Sunday morning if the people came in, and just as the opening hymn was about to be sung, the organ went out. So one of the choir members stepped forward and led the congregation a capella in the hymn. When it came time for the sermon, the lector got up to read the scripture, and there was no sound! So all she could do was shout, "TAKE OUT YOUR BIBLE AND FOLLOW ME." The people got out their Bibles and followed along closely, because they really couldn’t hear much of what she said. So they read.

Meanwhile the preacher is scratching his head trying to figure out what to do with the sermon. He gets up and shouts "Keep your Bibles open, please!" And he shouts, "Take five minutes to ask God what verse 21 means!" And then there is five minutes of silence…The people read and pray silently. After five minutes of silence, the preacher shouts again, "Ask God what verse 22 means!" Five minutes of silence. The people read and pray silently. And finally, the preacher shouts, "Now ask God what verse 23 means!" The people read quietly to themselves, "But the hour is coming, and now is here when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship Him."….And there is silence for five more minutes as the people read and pray.

My friend asked me, "Do you think true worship happened that Sunday as people filed out from the sanctuary?"…Well, what do you think? If you had been there on that Sunday, as you left the sanctuary it would be the most natural thing in the world for preacher, music director, and parishioners alike to yak and yak and yak, with good humor probably, about "what a disaster worship had been that day…Everything went wrong!" But of course, we wouldn’t be talking about Worship. We would be talking about the acoutrements of worship; we would be talking about the human institution we call the church (with a small C)….but we would not be talking about Worship "in spirit and truth" as Jesus understood it.

But, if you left the sanctuary having learned to ask yourself the question, "How did I do in worship today?"…what do you think your experience might have been?...You came with EXPECTATION that God would be speaking to you and to the Church (with a BIG C). Because you had nurtured your expectation that, when you come to Church because Jesus said He would be there when even two or three were gathered, He would be there, you entered into Worship like a great Treasure Hunt, looking for what God was saying to you and to the Church. You left, then, with the question…or even better, the prayer: "Lord, what were you saying to me this morning?" Just maybe, then, you were experiencing "true worship"…because the people were gathered, hymns were sung, the Word of God was read, the people prayed, and the Holy Spirit was at work. This is "true worship." When we come with the Expectation that God will be speaking; when we come, tuned in by a Desire to hear a Word from the Lord; when we come asking for the Courage (come hell or high water) to go forth faithfully to do what God said.

Martin Luther summed it up in a simple sentence: "In God’s will is our peace; in His Love is our rest; in His service is our Joy." Alleluia! Amen.