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the freeing, supportive presence of God. So your experience of God may
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"What’s Behind Worship?"
January 22, 2006
Last week we were reminded that Christ Jesus came to earth for those in need of a physician, while those brought up in the faith and remaining faithful, were asked by Jesus to follow him — a genuinely true expression of God.
This week we are reminded that Jesus came to earth principally for the Jews because they were already the people of God. He was their promised Messiah who came to point them toward the truth and power of God’s Word. This was necessary because the Jewish leadership had failed them by promoting ritual law over compassion and relationships.
Our Scripture from Mark this morning shows this need when it quotes Jesus while in the Jewish town of Galilee as saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.” It seems fairly obvious that he said this to those who had deviated from God’s original intensions for humankind.
The word “repent” in verse 15 is used without further adjectives, adverbs or descriptive terminology. Rather, it was followed by the phrase, “believe in the good news.” For a believer, a person of God, this is an invitation to examine oneself for the purpose of finding shortcomings of which we might not have been aware, and then to assure us that following Jesus would indeed put us back on the right path.
Remember, also, that belief in Jesus is not only an intellectual state of mind, but is an action word. Jesus wants Peter to fully understand this when he asks him, “Peter do you love me?” When Peter replies with the intellectual answer of “Yes,” Jesus says “Feed my lambs.” This was an important enough message that Jesus asked Peter the same question three times in a row followed by “Feed my lambs.” Jesus was making it clear that in order to truly believe, we must love, and in order to love we must provide and care for others.
This is the powerful background which leads us into our message of the morning, “What’s Behind Worship?” If we were to worship a place like, say, the Grand Canyon, we would want to spend committed time in it and around it. Chances are, we would begin working for its benefit — to preserve it, to promote it, and make it all the more worshipful.
This ought to be true of us when we come to worship God through Christ. We should want to spend committed time in and around God’s presence. We should become so involved in his worshipful presence that we want to preserve it, promote it, and make it all the more meaningful. Wanting to please God should be the end result of worship.
We come to worship to ask for forgiveness for our shortcomings and our self-centeredness. We come to worship to find the strength and assurance that we need to live successful and generous lives. We come to worship to be inspired and challenged to be about the business of God’s kingdom work. If no one is doing God’s kingdom work, what is the point of intellectual faith in God?
What is this kingdom work? First, it is the presentation of hope and salvation to those without much, such as in our Scripture from Jonah this morning. The lesson here is that nothing is ever too difficult or too hopeless to ignore or to avoid. If Nineveh can find hope and salvation, anyone can!
What is this kingdom work? It is work so essential to God that it should never become less than a first priority. It should never be placed on the proverbial back burner for attention later. Our Scripture from 1 Corinthians this morning speaks of the urgency of this kingdom work saying that, after all, “the present form of this world is passing away.” So why wouldn’t we place priority on God’s kingdom work?
What is this kingdom work? From our Scripture in Mark we discover that Jesus also refers to this work as “the good news.” We have to look no further than the teachings of Jesus himself to find God’s expectations for us: food for the hungry, clothing for the naked, providing for the needy, healing of the ill, pure justice for all, equality and fair treatment for all people, compassion, forgiveness and hope brought to everyone throughout God’s world.
Worship is a time that we come together to publicly acknowledge the power and presence of God, to seek encouragement and strength from God and from one another, to be reminded of God’s work and actions throughout history, and to be inspired and challenged to move out of the worshiping community and back into the world, ready, willing, and able to actively continue the work of God in whatever ways God has gifted us. Without this challenge, without this commitment, our faith is anemic and lacking in real substance.
If worship is to spend time with, and be committed to, the God of our salvation, then we should be in a state of worship every moment of the day—not just when we gather on Sunday. God’s Holy Spirit is with us each moment of the day, prompting and urging us to be regularly responsive to the world around us and all of his creation within it.
In conclusion, God has given you certain gifts to use for the work of his coming kingdom. It should not consume your every waking moment, but it should have you prepared for when God presents you with opportunities for action.
What’s Behind Worship? Worship includes honoring God, finding strength and encouragement from God’s actions throughout history in Word and Music, and receiving the challenge to take action in your belief. Jesus says to us today, “follow me!” He is the example. Amen.
