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.  

"One Thing I Need from My Church: Worship" Psalm 99

Should I admit that this preaching series came about because when the January newsletter deadline arrived with its demand for the sermon titles for the Sundays in January and I looked at the calendar and realized that I would only be preaching three times before Lent arrived, I quickly thought, "What might be interesting to preach about for three weeks?"  The answer that came in the rush to the deadline was, "What do I need from my church?"  Easy in, easy out!  Now I get to preach the first week on worship.

Why do we need worship?  Why do you come to worship?  Or why do you choose not to come to worship?

As I have been pondering that thought, I was reminded of what Phyllis Tickle noted in a speech I heard several years at General Assembly:  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 -- small church, big church, traditional 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.

Worship can bring out the best in us!   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!”  

Worship informs our call to mission and vice versa:  “I have come (not very originally) to envisage the two poles of Christian living in terms of mission and worship. The two flow into each other: worship without mission becomes self-indulgence (and might even imply worship of a god other than the one revealed in Jesus); 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) 

How do we bring the awe back to worship:  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

Do we need organized worship?  George Hedley: "It is possible to worship God on the golf 

course, or driving along the highway or in a baseball park. If, however, we raise the question of statistical probability, we scarcely shall maintain that the worship of God is quite as frequent there as in houses built in his honor and devoted to his praise. To illustrate, there is the story of the
father who said, "Come on, we can sing hymns on the beach." to which the  little girl replied, "But we won't, will we?"

What thoughts to you have about worship?

Reflections on "The Older Folks" LUke 2: 25-38

I enjoy doing sermons like this when I imagine beyond the text.  The goal, of course, is to have the listeners think beyond the text as well, which could lead to their identifying in themselves things that connect with the people in the text.

This was one of those weeks when the Chapel sermon flowed better than the Sanctuary sermon.  I sometimes try to figure out why each group responds the way they do, and of course, haven't quite figured it out.  But I think that sometimes the Chapel gets my dry humor better than the Sanctuary service.  My commentary on older folks was supposed to be fun observations, which seemed to work in the Chapel given their chuckles and smiles; but in the Sanctuary, it seemed to come across more as a serious study of the older generation, and I'm not sure they all agreed with that study!  It also seems to me that in the Chapel service the sermon has more of a feel of sitting around the family room telling stories, while in the Sanctuary it feels more like a sermon most weeks. I'd be curious what those of you who rotate between the two services feel about the differences between the two.

"The Older Folks” January 4, 2015; FPC, Troy; Bit Players series; Luke 2: 25-38

Introduction: Here comes Simeon. People recognize him as he arrives at the Temple. And if they do not recognize him in person, when they hear his name, they know him by reputation.

Simeon is one of the good guys. There are stories about what a righteous man he is and how devout he is. When they put together a panel of adults to share with the youth about faith journeys, they always ask Simeon to be one of the adults because he has lots of stories from his life that point to his faithfulness.

Lately when Simeon talks about staying alive just so he can see the Messiah, people sort of dismiss it as the silly talk of an old man, but that day when we tells someone that the Holy Spirit has told him to come to the Temple, the person has no doubt that God could and perhaps has spoken to Simeon.

As Simeon enters the Temple, he passes by Anna. Again, someone who is known throughout the congregation as one of the faithful. Anna is viewed less as one of the people who gathers at the Temple, and more as a fixture in the Temple. Sort of like one of the pews. She's there no matter when you go to Temple. It sort of makes people feel good to to see here praying when they arrive. Makes you think that god really is out there listening.

Simeon and Anna – the last bit players we meet as part of this preaching series.

Simeon and Anna, two people who have their one scene in the Christmas story. A small part, to be sure, but an important one.

They are the two who are away from the excitement of the birth of Christ; they have not been swayed by angels appearing in the night. They are the “outside, neutral observers,” if you will, who confirm that the baby born in Bethlehem, this child Jesus whose parents bring him to the Temple, that this is indeed the Messiah, the Son of God sent to save Israel.

And did I mention that they are old. We don't know exactly how old Simeon is, but Anna is at least 84 years old.

Move 1: That's right, two of the older folks confirm who Jesus is.

a. Not surprising, I suppose that God uses older folks to confirm Jesus' identity and announce it to the world.

     1.Older folks have seen it all.

     2. they've seen the priests come and go.

     3. They re there years ago when the rabbi was teaching those new ideas and got kicked out of the Temple.

     4.  They were there when the new rules came into being – in fact, both of them had shared their opinion to the priests putting together the new rules.

     5.  They've seen generations of younger kids misbehave in Temple, grow up, move on, and some even move back.

     6.  they remember the fight that almost split the congregation over renovations to the worship space.

b. Marj Carpenter (1/5/15, Presbyterian Outlook, 9) "In a Sunday school class for seniors, one grandmother laughingly reported: My grandson asked me if I knew how much alike God and I were. I was so please and tried to think what I had done that he would think was so good. And I asked him, "How?" And he promptly answered, "You're both old."

     1.  Simeon and Anna fit that category,.

     2.  which also means that when they announce that this child is the Messiah, they have credibility.

    3.  they've lived through the fads, seen the next great rabbi come and go, they've seen it all, and now they've seen the Messiah.

Move 2: Stop for a moment and think about older folks in the congregation. Not sure if Anna and Simeon were like this, but I suspect they were.

a. I am reminded of all the older folks that watch, support, and encourage the younger folks in the congregation.

     1.  Sometimes we think of older folks as being the ones who do not want to change, etc..

     2.  I could share a few stories about those folks.

     3.  but my experience also has been that some of the older folks help form the foundation of the local congregation.

     4.  They are the ones who are there year after year, and they are the ones who support the next generations.

     5.  They are the ones who are secure enough in who they are, or maybe they are just old enough to not care what others think, to share the truth – whether it be words of praise, or thoughts on how to improve.

     6. Can you think of some folks like that in a congregation where you have been a member?

     7.  when I read about Anna I am reminded of a woman in the church I served in KY. She show up 30 minutes early for worship each week and sat in the sanctuary praying. As the congregation wandered in each week, there she was on the next to the back pew on the right-hand side of the sanctuary praying away.

b. Baptismal vows

     1.  The congregation takes those vows whenever a child is baptized in a Presbyterian congregation.

     2. In some ways, it feels a bit like what takes place when Jesus is presented in the Temple that day.

     3.  Not that Simeon and Anna are taking vows to raise Jesus in the faith, but they are there to proclaim God's presence in their midst and Jesus as the Messiah.

     4. Important to have people like Anna and Simeon around.

     5.  Do you know what fiddlehead ferns are? (Didn’t you?) To clean fiddleheads before you cook them, you put them in water and rub them up against each other. The dark outer layer – dirt, skin, whatever – comes off leaving a beautifully bright green skin that sparkles in the sauté pan. They don’t clean up well one by one; they have to rub up against each other to be transformed (donteatalone, 9/3/2007, Milton Brasher-Cunningham, http://donteatalone.com/fiddlehead-faith/)

     6.  We need older folks like Anna and Simeon to rub off on us, so that what they see in Christ will transform others.

Move 3: But before I get to sentimental about older folks, I want to point out that their importance is not found in their being older, but in their recognition of who Christ is..

a. Their age and wisdom may help them, but ultimately proclaiming Jesus as the Messiah is not about being old.

     1.  If they were old fuddy-duddies who resisted anything new, they would not have recognized him.

     2.  When we tell Simeon and Anna's story we celebrate the older folks who can still envision the future and see God at work.

     3. Their words confirm that Jesus, the baby being presented by his parents, is the long-awaited Messiah.

     4.  That vision, of course, is not limited to any one generation.

b. Simeon and Anna arrive at the Temple on this day long after the excitement of Elizabeth's pregnancy and then Mary's pregnancy is a thing of the past.

     1. the angels and shepherds have come and gone.

     2. the post-Christmas routine has settled in for everyone.

     3. You know that feeling. There are no more presents to buy, no more meals (maybe) to make, no more gifts to wrap.

     4. All that’s left is to figure out what's next.

     5.  Simeon and Anna lead us into the what's next.

     6.  Now we who have celebrated Christ's birth need to announce him to the world.

     7. we need to follow him into the world and participate in the salvation of the world.

     8. Christmas is over, but the task of Jesus the Messiah and the tasks of those who will follow him has just begun.

( I read an article by Karoline Lewis, Associate Professor of Preaching and Alvin N. Rogness Chair of Homiletics, Luther Seminary, St. Paul, MN, which talked about praise being the only response left after Christmas. Although I did not focus on praise, her thoughts spurred my thinking for this last point. https://www.workingpreacher.org/craft.aspx?post=3469)
Conclusion: Simeon and Anna get it.

Do you?

"The Older Folks" Luke 2: 22-38

This is the final sermon of the "bit players" sermon series.   We finish with Simeon and Anna, who have been waiting to find the Messiah.   Their words confirm that Jesus, the baby being presented by his parents, is the long-awaited Messiah.

Simeon is apparently waiting to see the Messiah before he dies.  The Holy Spirit guides him to the temple on the day when Jesus' parents bring Jesus to the temple.

I am reminded of all the older folks that watch, support, and encourage the younger folks in the congregation.  Sometimes we think of older folks as being the ones who do not want to change, etc., but my experience has been that some of the older folks are the foundation of the local congregation.  They are the ones who are there year after year, and they are the ones who support the next generations.  Can you think of some folks like that in a congregation where you have been a member?

Not sure if it will make the sermon, but I ran across this story from Marj Carpenter (1/5/15, Presbyterian Outlook, 9) "In a Sunday school class for seniors, one grandmother laughingly reported:  My grandson asked me if I knew how much alike God and I were.  I was so please and tried to think what I had done that he would think was so good.  And I asked him, "How?"  And he promptly answered, "You're both old."

Note that Simeon and Anna are not important just because they are old; they also are able to recognize who Jesus us and announce it to the world.  If they were old fuddy-duddies who resisted anything new, they would not have recognized him.  The older folks who can still envision the future and see God at work are the ones that can pave the way for future generations!