it was a hard week of other stuff happening that kept me from focusing on the sermon as much as I would have liked. But, Sunday arrives no matter what has happened during the week.
The importance of worship to the Israelites has been a growing theme for me in the past ten years or so. it showed up again in this sermon. Worship was fundamental to who the Israelites were as God's people. As much as we like the fellowship associated with worship, I think it was more than that. I hope this sermon expressed that truth.
the NT Wright quote has been a powerful reminder to me about the purpose of the church, including its worship. Although he did not specifically label worship as the primary vehicle for the church in its witness, I think that's a fair interpretation.
“Sabbatical snippets: the Church Habit;” November 10, 2024; St. Andrew Presbyterian Church; I Corinthians 14: 26-32; Exodus 8:1
26What should be done then, my friends? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up. 27If anyone speaks in a tongue, let there be only two or at most three, and each in turn; and let one interpret. 28But if there is no one to interpret, let them be silent in church and speak to themselves and to God. 29Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others weigh what is said. 30If a revelation is made to someone else sitting nearby, let the first person be silent. 31For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all be encouraged. 32And the spirits of prophets are subject to the prophets, 33for God is a God not of disorder but of peace.
Exodus 8:1 Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Go to Pharaoh and say to him, “Thus says the Lord: Let my people go, so that they may worship me.
Introduction: The rhythm of my sabbatical was quite different than the normal rhythm of serving in a congregation.
As you might expect, one of the significant changes was not having responsibility to lead, or even show up for worship on Sunday morning, certainly not St.Andrew, although I did cheat a little and watched the livestream service when my daughter preached.
the first few Saturday nights seemed rather odd to go to bed without any thoughts or concerns about the worship service the next morning, particularly the sermon.
But then I got used to it. in fact, it took me a few weeks into my return to adjust back to Saturday nights being the eve of a significant part of my work.
I also discovered the whole going to church on Sunday mornings felt differently when my job did not require me to show up for worship.
if we were traveling on Sunday, we could not get to worship. Or, if the people staying with us were traveling, we would not go to worship.
The option of livestream made it both easier and more difficult to worship. Easier, because I could livestream while driving down the highway on Sunday morning, which I did on a couple of occasions or watch later.
Harder, because I probably did not pay enough attention to the worship when live-streaming while in the midst of doing other things. Driving down the highway while listening to worship is certainly divided attention.
Over the course of my sabbatical, I probably averaged one worship service a week if you count a couple of funeral services, a wedding, and a few times I watched worship in various places on live stream, so the habit of going to church on Sunday mornings was not completely broken, but it caused me to reflect on why people come to worship.
Let me stop right here and say “thank you” to everyone in worship here at St. Andrew, or everyone on the livestream joining us in worship this morning, or those of you who will be watching the live stream later in the week.
I have new appreciation for the effort you are making and the commitment you show by being part of our worshiping community.
Move 1: is it a good thing to show up to worship out of habit, or should there be more to it?
a. Renowned American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, who wrote The Nature and Destiny of Man and Moral Man and Immoral Society and greatly influenced MLK, jr
known for began his career as pastor of Bethel Evangelical Church in Detroit, Michigan, where he served from 1915-1928.
Neibuhr wrote about his experience as a pastor serving a congregation in his book Leaves from the Notebook of a Tamed Cynic.
he notes that: “It may be a good thing that people attend church as a matter of habit and because of a general sense of obligation to the institution. If churches depended only upon people who must make up their minds each Sunday whether or not they will attend church, our attendance would be even smaller than it is. Yet habitual actions easily become meaningless, and institutions which depend upon them lose their vitality. If habitual actions are not continually revitalized by the compulsion of ideas and the attraction of the values involved in them, they may easily become useless.Ó (135, Leaves from the Notebook of a Tamed Cynic)
1. admittedly, he wrote long before the live stream option, some of the distractions we have today, but I suspect they had plenty of reasons to skip church in his time as well.
2. He suggests that going to church out of habit is probably a good habit (maybe even a necessary habit) but there needs to something more to worship than being the place you go to at 1045am on Sunday mornings.
b. Why did you come to church today? Or turn on the livestream?
1. I bet for some it is partly because that’s what you do on Sunday mornings.
2. Or, you want to see those people that make up part of your support system in life. it is wonderful to see people greet each other and overhear the the congregation sharing their lives with each other.
I went to several different worship services while I was on sabbatical - some worship I liked better than others.
but, the churches that felt like they had some energy and life were those churches where I could see the people connecting. I could feel the energy of the people connecting.
3. Maybe your are here because you want to set an example for your kids.
4. You come here each week for the music. St. Andrew is a pretty good place to hear wonderful suit sung, or played on the piano or organ, other hadnbells, or whatever special music we have on any given Sunday.
5. Maybe you come to worship to step away from your daily pressures and recharge for the coming week.
6. lots of reasons we show up for worship.
I remember talking once to a high school student who had suddenly gotten into the habit of attending church.
I got into a conversation wiht her and noted how great it was to see her on Sundays.
she said, “oh yeah, she was coming to church every Sunday now.” She went on to explain that she had gotten her driver’s permit and her parents would so busy that coming to church was one of the few times in the week she could get to drive.
Apparently, she was not showing up for the sermons!
move 2: the two passages we read this morning show very different, but important reasons for worship.
a. I have always found it fascinating that the argument Moses consistently makes as to why Pharaoh should let the Israelites leave the slavery of Egypt is so the Israelites can worship God.
1. We hear God’s command to Moses before Moses goes to talk to Pharaoh:
Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Go to Pharaoh and say to him, “Thus says the Lord: Let my people go, so that they may worship me.
2. If you were going to make the argument let my people go, how would you fill in the reason why?
Let my people go because we are tired of slavery.
Let my people go because we have been outsiders in Egypt and it's time to return to our own place.
Let my people go because there will be a revolution otherwise.
3. But instead Moses says, “Let my people go so that they may worship God.”
and the first thing they do when they flee Egypt is worship God.
the first thing they do when the cross the Red Sea is dance and sing praises to God.
when does the psalmist worry about when the Israelites are in exile in Babylon? How can we sing to the Lord a song from a foreign land?
4. A powerful reminder to us that worship of God is foundational to who we are as God’s people
and a reminder that God is worthy of our worship.
5. When Neibuhr writes that If habitual actions are not continually revitalized by the compulsion of ideas and the attraction of the values involved in them, they may easily become useless, I think he is reminding us that our worship attendance may be partly a habit,
but what takes place here is more than a habit - it is what we do because we are God’s people and because God is worthy of our worship.
b. Fast forward to the early church and we hear Paul’s words that he writes to the church in Corinth about their worship experience.
1. Apparently, Paul has heard stories about worship being rather chaotic.
2. Sometimes, I think Paul is the first Presbyterian in history, particularly when we read his words this morning and recognize he is trying to bring order to the worship.
for example, when people bring prophecy, let them do it orderly so all can learn from each other.
or, if someone speaks in tongues, there needs to be someone to interpret the speaking in tongues.
If we read further in the letter, Paul will also have comments about who can speak in worship. We’ll save that conversation for later!
4. Why does Paul have the need to call the Corinthians to have order in their worship? Because, as Paul explains, “God is a God not of disorder but of peace.”
Paul would have loved the Book of Common Worship with its structured liturgy and order of worship.
I attended several churches this summer during my sabbatical that did not have much liturgy and even a couple of Presbyterian churches that seem to not know the Book of Common Worship exists.
I missed how we worship, which may seem chaotic some weeks but is at least organized chaos!
5. But do not miss the point - the chaos is caused by lots of people participating in different ways in worship.
Paul does not suggest they stop having people participate in worship;
or that worship become the sole domain of the preacher;
he wants worship to be the worship of the people,
but he wants them to work together so that all can learn and benefit from the worship.
We worship together because God is worthy of worship and because God calls all of us to be a part of the worship.
move 3: Final thought
a. IN his book “Simply Christian, N. T. Wright reminds us that the early church did not understand itself to exist for the primary purpose of providing a place for developing spiritual potential.
Nor did the church understand itself to exist for the primary purpose of being a place to escape from the world.
Nor did it understand itself to be a place where people would come to get saved.
Now all those things could and did happen, but they were by-products to the church’s primary purpose.
b. Primary purpose was to announce to the world that God had acted in Christ to save and redeem the world, and that by the power of the Holy Spirit God was still at work in the world.
1. The church stands as a witness to the world that God is alive and in our midst, joining with us and working through us to redeem and save the world.
2. Our worship acts like a giant billboard or FB post or Tweet and says,
“God is alive.”
“God is at work”
“God is saving the world.”
That is why we baptize
that is why we gather around the Lord’s Table.
to announce that God is still at work.
Conclusion: On any given week we come as hurting people
or people full of joy
or grieving people.
We come with different worldviews and from different experiences.
And we gather here to worship God and proclaim God’s saving grace.
Worship - a habit worth having.
*“According to the early Christians, the church doesn't exist in order to provide a place where people can pursue their private spiritual agendas or develop their own spiritual potential. Nor does it exist in order to provide a safe haven in which people can hide from the wicked world and ensure that they themselves arrives safely at an otherworldly destination. Private spiritual growth and ultimate salvation come rather as the by-products of the main, central, overarching purpose for which God has called and is calling...that through the church God will announce to the wider world that he is indeed its wise, loving and just creation; that through Jesus he has defeated the powers that corrupt and enslave it; and that by his Spirit he is at work to heal and renew it” (203-204). N.T Wright, Simply Christian
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