HERE WE ARE TO WORSHIP

 


Scriptures:  Psalm 84:1-4,10

                  John 4:23-24

 

What does it mean to worship in spirit and in truth?

 True worship comes from within when we are present to the presence of God.  It is a sincere response to God’s love expressed in our own love for God and gratitude for all that God is and has done. 

 

It is informed by who God is and what God is like.  When it comes from the heart, worship can happen anywhere at any time and in many different ways – in church with hymns and liturgy,  around a fire pit on a clear, starry night, on the shores of Lake Michigan or at the kitchen sink. 

 Worship initiates an unspoken dialogue between our spirits and the Spirit of God in which we experience God’s unconditional love in action within us – healing, affirming, comforting, forgiving, challenging, and always life changing.

 And worship in the community of the Body of Christ should also be an expression of nurture and outreach.  A time in a place where people feel welcome, emotionally safe, accepted just as they are and loved.

 Psalm 84:3  says:

 

Even the sparrow has found a home,
And the swallow a nest for herself,
Where she may lay her young—
Even Your altars, O Lord of hosts,
My King and my God.

 

Swallows are beautiful, graceful birds.  Sparrows have a beauty of their own, and they’re small birds with a very big attitude – boisterous, rowdy, and ready to chase other, bigger birds from local bird feeders.  Not exactly the kind of bird you’d expect living in a sacred place, but still, according to Psalm 84, they have a place in the house of the Lord along with the swallow.

 I was raised in a very traditional United Methodist Church.  Through the hymns and the liturgy, I first experienced worship.  When Tom, my husband and I first moved to the Cedar Rapids, Iowa, area, I visited several United Methodist Churches as I looked for a new church home.  Dressed in my Sunday best, I walked in to find worship taking place in a large multi-purpose room with folding chairs.  People were dressed in jeans, tee-shirts and sweatshirts.  The service was very informal with music provided by a praise band. 

 Most of the people, I found out later, had never been in a church other to attend a funeral or a wedding before they started attending this church.  I was in a worship service quite different from what I was used to, surrounded by people who were very different from me.  And yet, their worship was just as sincere and heartfelt as the worship I was used to.

 A thriving church is one that welcomes and makes space for both the sparrows and the swallows.  It offers relevant worship services that lead people into the presence of God where they are inspired to worship in spirit and in truth.

Worship is a heartfelt response of our love for God and our gratitude for all God’s love has given us and done for us.  It is based on the truth of who and what God is.

 Worship is also an opportunity to share Christ’s love with others in how we nurture and welcome both the swallows and the sparrows whom God sends into our lives and to our church.

 

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