IN UNEXPECTED PLACES

#1 · September 4, 2007, 1:42 pm

Quote from Forum Archives on September 4, 2007, 1:42 pm
Posted by: bhfbc <bhfbc@...>
IN UNEXPECTED PLACES

August 26, 2007

Evening Service

Text: Romans 12:1-8

As the collection plate was being passed one Sunday, a little boy leaned over and whispered to his father, If we put more money in the plate, will the preacher talk less? There are many such humorous comments attributed to children about church services. There are things that happen in church services that seem strange to children. But I do not think that it is only children who do not always connect with worship. Adults have their moments as well. When we honestly appraise the situation, we sometimes fail to fully appreciate the meaning of worship.

Worship has always been central in the relationship between God and His creation. It continues to be so in our day. We gather for the purpose of worship on Sunday mornings and many evenings - just like a lot of other churches do. We gather together, and that is good, but what are we gathering for? What is worship? How do we worship? What does it mean to worship God, and how does it impact our lives? Or does it impact our lives?

The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible begins its article on worship this way: "Worship is homage - the attitude and activity designed to recognize and describe the worth of the person or thing to which the homage is addressed. Worship is thus synonymous with the whole of a reverent life, embracing piety as well as liturgy. The range of meaning is therefore very great." (v. 4, p. 879)

Well, it seems that it's rather apparent that "the range of meaning is very great." After all, how many different worship services were held this morning within the short range of, say, 50 miles from us? Each of them probably differed from our service of worship - some slightly and some significantly. Yet, ask almost anyone attending a church today why they were there, and we'll likely hear that they were there to worship God. So, we're back again to asking what it means to worship God.

Before proceeding further, let me first make a distinction a style or form of worship and an act of worship. One of our problems with understanding worship is that we confuse a style of worship with the act of worship. Although these two are intertwined, there is a difference between them. In fact, we really cannot have an act of worship without displaying some kind of style of worship. But we can have a style of worship without being involved in the act of worship.

Fasting, for example, has played a very important part in Biblical worship rituals. In and of itself, though, fasting is only a style of worship. This is why God says in Isaiah 58:4-5: "Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fists. You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high. Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for a man to humble himself? Is it only for bowing one's head like a reed and for lying on sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord?" God makes it clear, then, that there's more to worship than just style.

First, we are called to worship. The focus of our thoughts and our activities are to be upon God. As is written in Psalm 95:6-7, "Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker; for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care." We are called by God to be involved in the act of worship. There is something deep within our existence that creates restlessness for God, even though we live and move and work in a culture that seeks to reject a need for God. We are pulled toward a spiritual experience and environment because we have a hunger for holiness which comes, I believe, from that "image of God" in which we have been created. We are drawn, then, into worship by the very Creator whom we are called to worship.

The call of God to worship Him forms the first part of the act of worship. The second part is what I call the mystery of worship. It is in the mystery of worship that the dramatic interchange between God and person occurs. I call it a mystery because no one knows exactly when or how it happens. In fact, it may be very difficult to express the experience of worship to someone else simply because words become an inadequate means of communication at that point. I can neither adequately nor completely explain my contact with the Holy. It is a mystery which cannot ever be completely disclosed outside of me.

But this does not mean that every element of the meaning of worship must remain hidden or unexpressed. In fact, the very opposite is true, because I have a very real object and focus in my worship. Simply put, I come to worship God, my Creator, Savior, and King. No one comes to worship Pastor Chuck or a deacon or anyone else. We all come to express our devotion only to God who has revealed Himself in Scripture.

In this we see another part of the mystery of worship. That is, worship, even when dull and routine, holds out a hidden promise of transformation in the midst of change, suffering, and death. We are drawn together to be made a holy people. Paul wrote to the Romans that "therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - which is your spiritual worship." Paul saw clearly through the smoke of ritual - the style of worship - into the deeper significance of the meaning and mystery of worship. "Don't be fooled," he warns us. "You don't have to go on great pilgrimages or build huge temples in order to have worship. Your very bodies have become the temples of worship. Offer them as living sacrifices; that is your spiritual worship."

The mystery of worship plays a very important part in our act of worship. It is that point of interchange and communion with God where the unholy is made holy and brought into the presence of the Holy One. Our worship is formed by remembering and contemplating the incomprehensible love of God in Christ. It is not that we first loved God, but that God first loved us and bought us for a price. Worship is something we must do together, not out of duty or habit or vague obligation but because it is the way God has given us to remember and to express life through Christ, with Christ, and in Christ in the unity of the Holy Spirit."

Even though we have been called to worship and have entered into the mystery of worship, we must recognize that our worship remains incomplete. We do not complete our act of worship until we respond to worship. Maybe its like an electrical circuit. We can have everything run to give light to a room, for example, but until the switch is thrown, meaning that all of the connections are made, we will not have light. Similarly, we need to do the will of God. As Paul put it: "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." Don Saliers, professor of worship and theology at the Candler School of Theology, has written: "To experience worship fully requires us to perceive Christ in the midst of daily life, our places of work, and in the parabolic gathering and scattering of the church... Worship is a school for learning how to refer all times and places and persons to God... Worship empowers for ministry in unexpected ways." (Weavings, vol. II, no. 5, pp. 24-28)

Now this does not mean or imply works righteousness. Keep the order straight. God calls us to worship; God leads us into the mystery of worship; God enables us to respond to worship. The patterns of the Old Testament sacrificial systems of worship teach us that true worship requires a sacrificial response. Leviticus 5:14-15, one of the many passages dealing with sacrificial system, reads: "The Lord said to Moses: 'When a person commits a violation and sins unintentionally in regard to any of the Lord's holy things, he is to bring to the Lord as a penalty a ram from the flock, one without defect and of the proper value in silver, according to the sanctuary shekel. It is a guilt offering.'"

The New Testament attitude to the response to worship is even more significant. Paul makes his appeal knowing completely the Old Testament requirements of worship. "Offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - which is your spiritual worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is - his good, pleasing and perfect will." No longer do we bring only a sacrificial lamb or bull or dove or tithe for the worship - we bring all that we are! We are the living sacrifices to offer God.

And, after entering into the mystery of worship, we carry our response to worship with us as both attitude and action. "For by the grace given to me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you." We are called to gather for worship; we enter into the mystery of worship; but we do not stop there. Our response to worship is carried by us into the arenas outside this sanctuary. The definition of worship I read earlier said that "worship is homage - the attitude and activity designed to recognize and describe the worth of the person or thing to which the homage is addressed. Worship is thus synonymous with the whole of a reverent life." Part of our homage - our honor - to God is going into His world with the attitude that we are the living sacrifices who will offer ourselves for His sake and the sake of others. It means that we will feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the prisoner, house the stranger, comfort the sick. It means that we will be active in bringing about reconciliation and making restitution. Our response to worship is really more than just a response; it is also a part of the act of worship.

Song writer and singer Pam Mark Hall has recorded a song titled Unexpected Places. The last verse and chorus go like this:

      God made love for us to share

    The more we give the more we keep

          Show each other care,

          we'll find him there

           And touch eternity.

          His light pours down

           On this whole world

       On a hundred billion faces

     And God will meet you anywhere

          In unexpected places.

From what Paul has said, it follows that we are the Lord's; on this account we should be holy: to be careless in God's service is as much a sin as offering unclean beasts upon the altar. In addition, that holiness which is to be the mark of the life devoted to God is not expressed in ritual observances only, but in the disciplines of ordinary experience and a part of daily life. In the middle of life, we serve God.

This is the true worship of God; it is the homage - or service - to others in the name of God. It is service which points the way to God. Good people are always tempted to believe that God is pleased with them if they multiply outward acts of religious observance. This is not completely so. To worship God completely is to dedicate ourselves to him without reserve - "living sacrifices" - in order that the moral quality and actions of our life will correspond to what we see to be the revealed will of God.

The call to worship, the mystery of worship, and the response to worship all form the act of worship. They form an integrated whole upon which we can base our lives. As we offer our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, then this is our life of spiritual worship. And when we dedicate our lives to the worship of God, then we can be sure that we will find Him, both in the expected and the unexpected places.

Rev. Charles A. Layne

First Baptist Church

PO Box 515

170 W. Broadway

Bunker Hill, IN 46914

765-689-7987

bhfbc@bhfirstbaptist.com

www.bhfirstbaptist.com
-- To unsubscribe, send ANY message to: abesermons-unsubscribe@welovegod.org   

Posted by: bhfbc <bhfbc@...>

August 26, 2007

Evening Service

Text: Romans 12:1-8

As the collection plate was being passed one Sunday, a little boy leaned over and whispered to his father, If we put more money in the plate, will the preacher talk less? There are many such humorous comments attributed to children about church services. There are things that happen in church services that seem strange to children. But I do not think that it is only children who do not always connect with worship. Adults have their moments as well. When we honestly appraise the situation, we sometimes fail to fully appreciate the meaning of worship.

Worship has always been central in the relationship between God and His creation. It continues to be so in our day. We gather for the purpose of worship on Sunday mornings and many evenings - just like a lot of other churches do. We gather together, and that is good, but what are we gathering for? What is worship? How do we worship? What does it mean to worship God, and how does it impact our lives? Or does it impact our lives?

The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible begins its article on worship this way: "Worship is homage - the attitude and activity designed to recognize and describe the worth of the person or thing to which the homage is addressed. Worship is thus synonymous with the whole of a reverent life, embracing piety as well as liturgy. The range of meaning is therefore very great." (v. 4, p. 879)

Well, it seems that it's rather apparent that "the range of meaning is very great." After all, how many different worship services were held this morning within the short range of, say, 50 miles from us? Each of them probably differed from our service of worship - some slightly and some significantly. Yet, ask almost anyone attending a church today why they were there, and we'll likely hear that they were there to worship God. So, we're back again to asking what it means to worship God.

Before proceeding further, let me first make a distinction a style or form of worship and an act of worship. One of our problems with understanding worship is that we confuse a style of worship with the act of worship. Although these two are intertwined, there is a difference between them. In fact, we really cannot have an act of worship without displaying some kind of style of worship. But we can have a style of worship without being involved in the act of worship.

Fasting, for example, has played a very important part in Biblical worship rituals. In and of itself, though, fasting is only a style of worship. This is why God says in Isaiah 58:4-5: "Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fists. You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high. Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for a man to humble himself? Is it only for bowing one's head like a reed and for lying on sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord?" God makes it clear, then, that there's more to worship than just style.

First, we are called to worship. The focus of our thoughts and our activities are to be upon God. As is written in Psalm 95:6-7, "Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker; for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care." We are called by God to be involved in the act of worship. There is something deep within our existence that creates restlessness for God, even though we live and move and work in a culture that seeks to reject a need for God. We are pulled toward a spiritual experience and environment because we have a hunger for holiness which comes, I believe, from that "image of God" in which we have been created. We are drawn, then, into worship by the very Creator whom we are called to worship.

The call of God to worship Him forms the first part of the act of worship. The second part is what I call the mystery of worship. It is in the mystery of worship that the dramatic interchange between God and person occurs. I call it a mystery because no one knows exactly when or how it happens. In fact, it may be very difficult to express the experience of worship to someone else simply because words become an inadequate means of communication at that point. I can neither adequately nor completely explain my contact with the Holy. It is a mystery which cannot ever be completely disclosed outside of me.

But this does not mean that every element of the meaning of worship must remain hidden or unexpressed. In fact, the very opposite is true, because I have a very real object and focus in my worship. Simply put, I come to worship God, my Creator, Savior, and King. No one comes to worship Pastor Chuck or a deacon or anyone else. We all come to express our devotion only to God who has revealed Himself in Scripture.

In this we see another part of the mystery of worship. That is, worship, even when dull and routine, holds out a hidden promise of transformation in the midst of change, suffering, and death. We are drawn together to be made a holy people. Paul wrote to the Romans that "therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - which is your spiritual worship." Paul saw clearly through the smoke of ritual - the style of worship - into the deeper significance of the meaning and mystery of worship. "Don't be fooled," he warns us. "You don't have to go on great pilgrimages or build huge temples in order to have worship. Your very bodies have become the temples of worship. Offer them as living sacrifices; that is your spiritual worship."

The mystery of worship plays a very important part in our act of worship. It is that point of interchange and communion with God where the unholy is made holy and brought into the presence of the Holy One. Our worship is formed by remembering and contemplating the incomprehensible love of God in Christ. It is not that we first loved God, but that God first loved us and bought us for a price. Worship is something we must do together, not out of duty or habit or vague obligation but because it is the way God has given us to remember and to express life through Christ, with Christ, and in Christ in the unity of the Holy Spirit."

Even though we have been called to worship and have entered into the mystery of worship, we must recognize that our worship remains incomplete. We do not complete our act of worship until we respond to worship. Maybe its like an electrical circuit. We can have everything run to give light to a room, for example, but until the switch is thrown, meaning that all of the connections are made, we will not have light. Similarly, we need to do the will of God. As Paul put it: "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." Don Saliers, professor of worship and theology at the Candler School of Theology, has written: "To experience worship fully requires us to perceive Christ in the midst of daily life, our places of work, and in the parabolic gathering and scattering of the church... Worship is a school for learning how to refer all times and places and persons to God... Worship empowers for ministry in unexpected ways." (Weavings, vol. II, no. 5, pp. 24-28)

Now this does not mean or imply works righteousness. Keep the order straight. God calls us to worship; God leads us into the mystery of worship; God enables us to respond to worship. The patterns of the Old Testament sacrificial systems of worship teach us that true worship requires a sacrificial response. Leviticus 5:14-15, one of the many passages dealing with sacrificial system, reads: "The Lord said to Moses: 'When a person commits a violation and sins unintentionally in regard to any of the Lord's holy things, he is to bring to the Lord as a penalty a ram from the flock, one without defect and of the proper value in silver, according to the sanctuary shekel. It is a guilt offering.'"

The New Testament attitude to the response to worship is even more significant. Paul makes his appeal knowing completely the Old Testament requirements of worship. "Offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - which is your spiritual worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is - his good, pleasing and perfect will." No longer do we bring only a sacrificial lamb or bull or dove or tithe for the worship - we bring all that we are! We are the living sacrifices to offer God.

And, after entering into the mystery of worship, we carry our response to worship with us as both attitude and action. "For by the grace given to me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you." We are called to gather for worship; we enter into the mystery of worship; but we do not stop there. Our response to worship is carried by us into the arenas outside this sanctuary. The definition of worship I read earlier said that "worship is homage - the attitude and activity designed to recognize and describe the worth of the person or thing to which the homage is addressed. Worship is thus synonymous with the whole of a reverent life." Part of our homage - our honor - to God is going into His world with the attitude that we are the living sacrifices who will offer ourselves for His sake and the sake of others. It means that we will feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the prisoner, house the stranger, comfort the sick. It means that we will be active in bringing about reconciliation and making restitution. Our response to worship is really more than just a response; it is also a part of the act of worship.

Song writer and singer Pam Mark Hall has recorded a song titled Unexpected Places. The last verse and chorus go like this:

God made love for us to share

The more we give the more we keep

Show each other care,

we'll find him there

And touch eternity.

His light pours down

On this whole world

On a hundred billion faces

And God will meet you anywhere

In unexpected places.

From what Paul has said, it follows that we are the Lord's; on this account we should be holy: to be careless in God's service is as much a sin as offering unclean beasts upon the altar. In addition, that holiness which is to be the mark of the life devoted to God is not expressed in ritual observances only, but in the disciplines of ordinary experience and a part of daily life. In the middle of life, we serve God.

This is the true worship of God; it is the homage - or service - to others in the name of God. It is service which points the way to God. Good people are always tempted to believe that God is pleased with them if they multiply outward acts of religious observance. This is not completely so. To worship God completely is to dedicate ourselves to him without reserve - "living sacrifices" - in order that the moral quality and actions of our life will correspond to what we see to be the revealed will of God.

The call to worship, the mystery of worship, and the response to worship all form the act of worship. They form an integrated whole upon which we can base our lives. As we offer our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, then this is our life of spiritual worship. And when we dedicate our lives to the worship of God, then we can be sure that we will find Him, both in the expected and the unexpected places.

Rev. Charles A. Layne

First Baptist Church

PO Box 515

170 W. Broadway

Bunker Hill, IN 46914

765-689-7987

bhfbc@bhfirstbaptist.com

http://www.bhfirstbaptist.com

-- To unsubscribe, send ANY message to: abesermons-unsubscribe@welovegod.org