Reflections on "One Thing I Need from My Church: Worship" Psalm 99; Revelation 22:1-5

I struggled with this sermon.  The text of the sermon below is probably not that close to what was  1.preached in either service.  Since I wasn't happy with the sermon as it was written, I freelanced quite a bit in both sermons.  I still was not satisfied with the final product.

An administrative note:  Our service next week does not have a sermon, and then I will be out of the pulpit on January 25th.  The next sermon blog will appear the week of February

“One Thing I Need from My Church: Worship” January 11, 2015; FPC, Troy, Psalm 99

Introduction: A few years ago I heard Phyllis Tickle, a scholar who has been studying the historical shifts in how we are the church, speak. One of the things she noted is the shift that is taking place in worship patterns. For instance, she mentioned that on any given Sunday, 20 million Americans will have their worship experience come over the Internet. I suspect that number has gone up by now.

Think about the ways you can worship now in Miami County -- small church, big church, medium-sized church; traditional worship with liturgy, Spirit-filled worship, contemporary worship, worship by satellite, worship at home with a televangelist.

not to mention special events like worshiping at Kirkmont Camp and Conference Center, or at weddings, or funerals.

In the day of the Psalmist, they worshiped God. IN the future vision of heaven described in Revelation there is worship.

Move 1: We need a place to worship because it shapes us as persons.

a. I hear comments about why people come to worship.

1. “Get my week started right.”

2. after the long week, I need a place to come and get recharged.

3. Gas station model for worship – come and get filled up for the next part of your journey.

b. I hope that being in worship does shape us and prepare us.

1.   I asked a liturgist (the person shall remain nameless) once if the person felt weird being liturgist when the person's parents were in worship. The  person responded: “Well, we’re more likely to call each other names than read Scripture to each other!”  

2. Worship reminds us of our calling as followers of Christ.

c. We need a place to come and be touched by God.

So we come to worship God.

Move 2: We need a place of worship because worship provides a foundation for what we do as a church.

a. Worship helps us put what we are doing as the body of Christ into its proper context.

2. mission without worship generates into various kinds of do-goodery, following agendas that may be deeply felt but are by no means necessarily connected with Jesus” (The Meaning of Jesus: Two Visions, Marcus J. Borg and N. T. Wright, 208)

3. Of course, wright also reminds us that our worship also leads us to act or else it becomes a form of self-indulgence (and might even imply worship of a God other than the one revealed in Jesus);

b. community

1. We see in our own Sanctuary each week the importance of community.

2. the conversations that take place before the worship service as you greet one another and check in on one another, or the little gatherings that take place after worship around the Sanctuary speak to the importance of community that we need and that we find when we gather for worship.

3. The prayers we lift on behalf of others connect us in powerful ways.

Move 3: We worship because of who God is.

a. When we worship God we worship a Being our life experience does not give us the tools with which to understand. If we could, God would not inspire awe.” Blue Like Jazz, Donald Miller, 202

1. we worship God because we do not know what else to do with his mysterious God whom we cannot fully understand.

2. Yet the God who has proved again and again to be worthy of our praise.

b. We work hard to make God accessible to people in our worship.

1. you don't have to wear a suit and tie if you're a man or a dress if you're a woman to worship God.

2. Children in worship are encouraged so that they might discover God. Even have a time with Young Disciples to make God's word more accessible to kids.

3. We try to break down barriers to God.

4. we don't need a priest to mediate for us in our relationship with God (I wont' turn my back on you in worship).

5. Ironically, in that effort to make God accessible, we may also have taken some of the awe out of worship.

100. As we read Psalm 99 this morning, we read the words that would have been uttered in the worship context.

1. the Psalm is broken into three sections, all of which end with a refrain of praise (Bobby Morris, Adjunct Faculty, The Jerusalem Center for Biblical Studies Jerusalem, Israel, Israel http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=1534)

2. the first section declaring God's sovereignty.

3. the second section lifting up God’s holiness.

4. The third section noting God's desire to work with us.

5. The God who we cannot fully define or know, but the god who comes to us.

6. the God who is worthy of our praise.

We worship God because the only appropriate response to the majesty and mystery of God is worship and awe.

Move 4: We need to worship because That's what God calls us to do.

a. As some of you may know from some other settings, I have been fascinated for several years now about the role of worship in the Exodus story.

1. When God sends Moses and Aaron to talk to Pharaoh about why Pharaoh needs to the the Israelites go, the main reason given is so that they can worship God in the wilderness.

2.  If we back up to the why the Israelites were crying out to be rescued from slavery in Egypt, we get this strange dialogue – the Egyptians are demanding more bricks and more work from the Israelites, and the Israelites cry out, “let us go and offer sacrifices to God.”

3.  How do those two fit together?

4. Or remember the words for which Moses is famous "let my people go.” do you know what the next part of the sentence is? “Let my people go so that they may worship me in the wilderness” (Exodus 7:16)

5.  Loses some of the drama of the moment. No wonder they left it out of the movie!

6., and what do the Israelites do as soon as they cross the Red Sea and are in the wilderness? Break out into song and sing praises to God. They are free, let the worship begin.

b. Why do they need to go tot eh wilderness to worship God?

1. couldn't they have tried to get Pharaoh to let them worship God in Egypt?

2. Is this God's way of reminding the Israelites how important worship should be to them?

3. God in sort of a round about way saying, “hey your worship of me is so important I will lead you out of slavery!”

Conclusion: In a world with lots of options for worship, lots of demands on our time, I am glad you here in worship with us this morning.

I hope our worship has filled you.

But even more than that, we gather here to worship because God is worthy of our worship and God desires that we be people who worship. Amen.