Each week we come to worship, each week we do similar things and, for an hour, we allow the holy to overtake the mundane in our lives. This evening, in the second sermon in our series about being "strong through worship" I want to explore some of what we do in worship, and show why we do it.
Last week I said that worship is something we do for our benefit, not for God's. I said that God has no need of our praise, but that, instead, we are made by God to worship. St Augustine said that our hearts are restless until they find their rest in God. In worship we have an opportunity to rest and experience God.
Our internet discussion list has been rather quiet this week but one question on it was about worship styles. The questioner said that the verb "to worship" in Hebrew also means "to lean forward to kiss" and stressed the intimacy of worship as well as the joy of worship which is associated with the intimacy of two lovers. The questioner asked if worship is about this level of intimacy, why our worship is not more intimate and intoxicating, she wondered if most British people find more intimate worship rather more difficult than other cultures. This got me thinking a little about both how we worship and how we conduct our romantic relationships.
When I first fall in love, I am rather strange. I get very fired up with romance, I hear birds singing in the trees, the world feels wonderful, I smile at everyone and I end up doing crazy romantic things. However, as the relationship deepens I find that I might not do the crazy things anymore and I do find that I don't smile at absolutely everyone, but my love has grown deeper. As our relationship has grown deeper so the things we wish to do have changed and developed. We prefer to spend money on our home, and most recently on our puppy, and not on clubbing. We prefer to spend money on holidays not on candlelit dinners for two. This does not mean our love for each other is any less, but that the first flush of romantic energy has given way to something deeper, longer lasting and more stable.
So it is for many of us with worship. When we first fall in love with God we do all sorts of crazy things. When I first became intoxicated with God and with the Church I wanted to express that through "high energy" worship. I attended a church where they, quite literally, danced in the pews - this was rather dangerous as it played havoc with both the kneeling cushions and my shins! Worship lasted for a very long time, the music seemed exciting and relevant and there was a lot of emotion about the place.
This afternoon, as I was working in my office I had the joy of listening to the Zimbabwean church which meet in the social room each Sunday afternoon. Their worship, as far as I can make out, involves much clapping, singing, shouting, and sometimes screaming. This morning I came to mass at St John Chrysostom's where there was not so much shouting and screaming! Yet I would not wish to judge the spiritual depth of either the congregation of St John Chrysostom's, nor the Zimbabwean church by simply hearing their worship.
We do a variety of things in worship which are common to whatever tradition we come from. When we come together we use words and music to offer our praise to God. This starts a process of re-orientation as we leave behind the cares and concerns of our lives in order to concentrate on God and on worship. Like Isaiah in the Temple, we leave behind our own worlds and concentrate on God. In our own lives and relationships we find we do similar things. When Ian and I come in from work we have a little ritual, of talking about how our days have been. This means we start a process of communication, of letting go of our days and starting to concentrate on each other and what is important for us in our life together.
Also like Isaiah, as we start to worship a God of holiness we become conscious of our own lack of holiness and worship affords us a chance to ask God to forgive us our sins. We might do this in a number of ways - in the silence of our own heart, in a formal confession, in some other ritual of repentance - but the goal is always the same - to ask God to forgive us our sins so that we can start again.
Often in our most intimate relationships we need to do the same. We realise that we have offended the other - sometimes the other is quite good at alerting us to this oversight - and we have to ask for forgiveness and often show how sorry we are.
After we are forgiven by our loved ones we feel a variety of things. We might feel relieve, we might feel that we have to atone for the hurt we have caused, we may find it difficult to forgive ourselves, but we will always express thanks to the one who has forgiven us. Similarly in our worship we usually sing a form of the ancient prayer of thanks for forgiveness called the "Gloria".
Having been through a process where we have started to refocus on God, where we have become conscious of the barriers we ourselves put up between ourselves and God and having asked for, accepted and given thanks for that forgiveness, we are in a place to start to hear from God. In our personal relationships we can't truly communicate until we are focused on the other and have got away from any feelings of pain, anger and resentment towards them. We hear from God through the scripture reading and through the sermon. This is our chance to reflect on what God is calling us to do, our chance to respond to different ways to live out our faith in the world.
In our own relationships we need to spend a lot of time listening and communicating with the other - many relationships flounder because we don't spend enough time talking and hearing the other - we just get on with the business of our lives. I was talking to two people I know and care about a lot recently and they were expressing frustration at the fact that they have a long distance relationship. I could empathise as Ian and I lived in different cities for the first 4 and a half years of our relationship and I know the challenges and frustrations this causes. But I also know that it gives a chance and opportunity for good communication - our patterns of communication made British Telecom a small fortune, but it meant that when we eventually moved in with each other we had an established pattern of talking which serves us well. I think if we had moved in as soon as we got involved we would not have learnt that lesson as well.
But communication is a two way process and after hearing from God we need to respond to God. We might do this in a variety of ways - we might resolve to live our life differently, to forgive someone we have held a grudge against, we might choose to make some different ethical decisions, we might choose to re-order our priorities, to change our lives in some way. We also respond by giving back to God a part of our income. The Bible teaches us that all things come from God and we are called to give back a portion of what has been given to us in order to extend God's work. I am fortunate to be the pastor of an incredibly generous church which gives so much money each week to extend the Realm of God.
Similarly, in our relationships we find we need to respond to what we hear. If Ian comes in and wants to unload about a difficult day I need to respond in some way. Sometimes the response is simply to listen, sometimes it is to suggest we go and do something to help him unwind, sometimes it is to offer some advice, similarly when I come in I value the different ways he responds to what is going on for me. As we get to know the needs and aspirations of those we love we find we respond to them in different ways, but we do respond to them.
After our response in worship we bring to God our needs and prayers. We ask God to change the world, and to help us change it, we remember the needs of our families and loved ones, we remember the joys and challenges of our city and our world, we remember our church throughout the world and the people being changed through it. We ask and we trust God to hear us.
In our own relationships we ask for things - often we ask, either directly or indirectly as it gets near birthdays and Christmas! But good communication in our close friendships and relationships helps us, just as good communication does with God.
After our prayers we remember the night before Jesus was crucified and the meal he shared with his disciples and left to us as an everlasting sign of the promise he makes to forgive us our sins and call us into community. As we receive bread and wine we are united both to Jesus and each other, and in some way, we are united to the Church throughout the ages, from those first disciples who shared with Jesus in the simplicity of a meal to the saints and martyrs who sing with the angels in heaven. In this table the Church in Earth and Heaven finds a common meeting place.
It is often through the simplicity of a meal that we are joined with those we love. When friends come round, we offer them food. When we want to celebrate special occasions we share bread and wine - in a different way to the way we do in church, but we still share it.
And then, at the end of worship we find that we are sent out again. We have our time in communion, in worship, in the tenderness of God's presence and share this time with our fellow believers, but the point of worship is to make us stronger through mission. We are called back to our jobs, our homes, our friends, our loved ones and we are called to make the world a better place, a place to love and to laugh, a place to listen to those in pain, to get alongside those who grieve, to work for justice and peace in our world. These things are part of our mission and we only have strength for them if we have been nurtured in worship.
There is a song by Bette Midler, "you are the wind beneath my wings" which sums up how the song writer feels about her partner - someone who listens, encourages and gives her the strength to live her life. In worship we meet God who is the wind beneath our wings, the one who gives us the strength to continue the journey of faith on which we are called. Amen.
This sermon was first preached in the Metropolitan Community Church of Manchester. Click here for further information.