Scripture Reading: Luke 4:8
Jesus answered him, ‘It is written, “Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.” ’
Sermon Title: "MORE THAN A SONG" Sunday, March 9, 2008
PASTOR HUDSON: Today we want to talk
about worship because that's the theme for our
children's emphasis today. They've been working us
through the idea that, indeed, worship is about much
more than any one of the particular pieces that are a
part of what goes in to make a worship service. The
title is simply the idea that it's more than a song
because certainly in our culture, we're probably very
wired to be aware of music, and I think we have come
by that honestly.
Music is just an unconscious part of our life
every single day. We hear it in commercials. We hear
it as back music in our favorite television programs.
A lot of our offices and places of work it's in the
background playing over the elevators that we ride on,
and the list goes on and on.
As we think about worship, we need to be careful
not to just automatically assume that worship is all
about music. It's really not, that's just part of the
story, and it's a background piece in reality. So I
want to share with you for just two or three minutes
kind of a summary of the things that we've been hearing
from the youngsters that have been ministering to us
today.
The first is that worship is not about style.
It's about love. That's something that is so easy for
us to lose sight of because we all have our style
preferences no matter what it is. We may enjoy a
style that's very laid back and relaxed, and we may
enjoy a style that is very high church and formal.
We may like music, for example, that is
representative of the great classic works of hymnody,
or we might enjoy something that's far more modern and
contemporary. We may enjoy southern gospel music that
reminds us of those days of camp meetings and brush
arbors and the Blackwood Brothers and all the rest
that was a part of our heritage, or we may enjoy materials that
are far more edgy and hard-hitting, kind of that heavy
metal kind of Christian music, but worship is not
about style. It's about love.
When we focus on the styles, when we focus on the
issues and the trappings, it's very, very easy to lose
sight of the fact that what we're really about is
offering something to God. Now there is a subjective
component to worship, without a doubt, and that's the
part that simply says, boy, I really enjoyed what
happened today, or I related well to it. It was
relevant to me.
There is also that objective part where we simply
understand that when we gather in this sanctuary, we
have come to simply love God, to affirm our connection
to the Lord, our debt of obligation, and not even
obligation so much as to affirm simply, I love you,
Lord, for all that you've done in my life, and that
that needs to be the front burner in our mind.
Worship is not so much about style. The truth of
the matter is I have discovered over the years that
it's possible -- and I know many of you have as
well -- it's possible to worship in almost any setting
that we go into.
We may go to one of those Gaither concerts, and
we might go to a Jars Of Clay concert and find that
those are very, very different, yet they draw us into
worship because worship is about finding the way to
say simply, Lord, I love you. I love you for what you
are to me.
Now secondly, we may let those kinds of things
become barriers to us. I think it is also important to
remember that worship is not a performance. Sometimes
that's very easy for that to become the case. Have
you ever found yourself going to worship in any
setting, traditional or contemporary, and you find
yourself becoming very passive?
What's happening in a default kind of way is you
are now a spectator watching the people on the
platform -- the musicians, the choir, the
instrumentalists, whatever the case might be, the
preacher. You are watching worship play out and yet
you're not engaged in it.
Worship is never a performance. I think that's
one of the great dangers, quite frankly, of worship,
especially worship that is more contemporary.
Oftentimes, the praise band becomes kind of like a
concert that's playing out, and people enjoy it the
same way they do a concert. They just kind of sit
there and listen to the music and enjoy the music.
I think we need to guard against that because the
reality is worship is never a performance. It is
always a participation activity, and we need to lead
our congregation, and our congregation needs to invest
themselves into loving worship.
Third, worship is never a job. It ought to
always be a joy. Now this may not be so much of an
issue for people that are in the congregation, per se,
but I'll tell you that it is a true occupational
danger for people, like myself, or Kris, or Sandra, or
choir members, or people in the praise team and people
back in the booth when worship becomes a task that we
want to get done really, really well.
The danger is we can begin to think of worship as
a job. You know, you're always thinking three or four
movements down the line, what comes next, what's going
to happen, you know, are the ushers in place, are the
acolytes coming in when they're supposed to, is the
choir in place ready for the hymn or the anthem and so
on and so forth, and we find ourselves beginning to
see it as a task. If we are not careful, we rob
ourselves of the joy.
When we enter into worship,
there ought to be enough flexibility, enough
relaxation in our hearts that no matter what
transpires, we do not miss the joy of simply
worshipping and letting it become a joyful time of
celebration regardless. If that's true for people in
these key areas, how much more should be the truth for
every person that enters the sanctuary?
Never let worship become so much a task to be
done, something to move through on your way to lunch,
as it is the opportunity to simply say I am here to
celebrate and to have a wonderful joyous moment in the
presence of my God and to be willing to kind of move
out of those comfort zones in order to do so. Once we
just simply release ourselves, relax and go with the
moment, there is a great deal of joy in the
celebration.
Fourthly, worship is not about me. Yet the truth
of it is, is it not so, that so often worship really
is about us. It's not what I like, or what I relate
to, or what I enjoy, it's about me having this moment.
Truly speaking, worship historically, as well as in
this present time, is always about God.
Have you come to worship God? If we can embrace
that question as we enter the sanctuary on Sunday
morning, it's amazing how it puts in perspective all
of the other stuff that goes on. Somehow or another
that stuff recedes into the background in the presence
of the majesty of God.
As we think about worship today, I hope that what
the Holy Spirit will do for us this morning is allow
us to renew our commitment to be joyous in worship, to
be flexible in worship, to be loving in worship, to
focus truly on God in worship, and let it revitalize
what we do on Sunday morning in a way that gives
ourselves permission to simply celebrate in the
presence of God.
Hear these words and receive them. In the name
of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, amen.