John 4: 7-15
I want everyone to think back for a moment on the best worship service you have ever attended. What did you love about it? What touched you? Probably the best worship service I’ve been to lately was the opening worship service at the UCC Annual Conference in Seattle. The service took place in the University Presbyterian Church. We saw old friends in the narthex and shared warm greetings and excited hugs. Then as we walked into the sanctuary we were greeted, given bulletins and then immediately my eyes were drawn toward the front of the sanctuary where the edge of the chancel was lighted, and the lights shined down on about 30 drummers. After we took our seats, one lone singer, Amy, called us to worship by singing the words of Siahumba, (sing) “We are marching in the light of God”, and the drummers kept cadence and rhythm as we all joined our voices in song. You could just feel the excitement and the anticipation building as the service progressed. By the time the preacher came to the pulpit to preach we were ready for anything. She was incredibly talented and definitely had all of us eating out of her hand. By the time we reached the closing hymn, we felt as though we had been to the moon and back. I think all of us left that worship service walking about three feet off the ground. Oh how I wish it were like this for you every Sunday!
Later that night I was telling my daughter about the service and how wonderful it was and her response was something like “Of course it was that way mom, you were in a room full of pastors and church workers!” “Hmmm.” I thought. Well, that deflated my balloon just a little bit. But I continued to ponder, I wondered what were the elements that made that service so wonderful?
Obviously, we the participants were practiced worshippers. We planned to participate, we planned to enjoy ourselves, we generally knew how to sing, and we knew a good sermon when we heard one. We “amen-ed” “uh-huhed?” and “oh noed” in all the right places. We came prepared to worship. We came expecting to meet God, to be lifted up, to find hope in one another.
The worship leaders had planned a good service, gotten prepared, and practiced. The musicians picked good music. The instruments were tuned. The drummers rehearsed. The lighting was perfect. The microphones worked. The pace and movement of the service was good. The children had been thought of.
Of course we don’t need everything to be perfect to have a great worship service. Any of us can worship anywhere, any time. I’m sure that all of you can name great private worship experiences you’ve had: singing in the car, walking at priest point park, sailing at Black Lake, planting in your gardens, walking the labyrinth at the Priory, meditating in the grass. All we need for worship are hearts that are ready and open to experience the life-giving presence of God. When we worship together we experience the life-giving presence of God in the presence of others.
As you can probably see by now, passionate worship involves the efforts of everyone in the sanctuary. To practice passionate worship we all make every effort to prepare for this most important hour of the week. All of us who serve in worship whether as usher, greeter, musician, choir member, lay leader or preacher arrive early and with care and eagerness prepare together. To practice passionate worship members and friends arrive with an attitude of expectancy, ready to receive what God has to offer and to offer themselves in response. When we come with an attitude of expectancy we ask ourselves “What is God saying to me through the words of the scripture, even if they are read imperfectly, through the sermon, even if the illustrations are weak, through the unifying power of the music, even if we think the organ is too loud?
Like anything else, worship takes practice. The regular practice of passionate worship gives us a different way in which to look at the world. Good, regular worship helps each one of us see the world through God’s eyes. Just think for a moment the kinds of connections that we make with one another when we worship together. We join our voices together either in word or in song. That means that we listen to each other and try to match our voices to each other’s voices. Think of the times when you have heard harmonies sung around you, different voices collaborating together. Think of the times we’ve gotten absolutely lost together and have even sung different verses at different times, ending in a giggle. We listen together. We dialogue. We tell each other about our joys and concerns. We laugh together and we cry together. I can’t count time times I have had to remind myself to breathe as one of you has lit a candle and shared a concern that has tugged at my heart. I am especially moved when our children light a candle and ask us to pray for them. We weave our stories together, we find commonality, we remember that we are not alone. We are not alone. And like any other practice, the more we do it, the better we become at doing it.
To further reflect on this practice of Passionate Worship I have selected for our hearing today stories from our sacred texts about being thirsty and about slaking that thirst. I asked you at the beginning of the sermon to remember the best worship service you have ever attended. I invite you also to remember a time when you were really thirsty. We live in the part of Washington state with an abundance of water, so perhaps it is hard to imagine life for the Israelites wandering in the wilderness following their Exodus from Egypt. Their wandering left them without resources, especially the life-giving resource of water. They were literally dying of thirst and rose up in their anger against Moses: “Did you bring us out here to die?!” Moses was a bit freaked out by the people and probably felt let down by God. But he had just enough trust to follow the directions, and bravely struck his stick upon the rock and water gushed forth. Now that is showing up with an air of expectancy! Water, life giving water, gushed forth.
Thirst is the theme of our New Testament lesson as well. You know this story. We usually get caught up in the number of husbands that the Samaritan woman had and pay little attention to the thirst of those gathered at the well, Jesus even asked for a drink. He then encouraged the woman at the well by offering her living water so that she might never be thirsty again. It would be an internal spring that would always bring refreshment. The Samaritan woman responds with a mixture of surprise and delight “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.” In worship our spirits are watered, our thirst is slaked.
Why do we need to come here and worship together? Can’t we just take a walk in the woods, or put our toes in the lapping waters of the Sound or attend Bedside Baptist or Pillow Presbyterian as I like to call them? Why is being together important?
An Old man came home to find him son warming himself by the fire. “Son” the old man said, “I didn’t see you at church this morning.” “Ah, Dad” said the son, “I get just as much from sitting here an thinking about God. Beside, it is warm and comfortable. What is the big deal anyway?” The old man didn’t say a word. But he took the shovel from beside the fireplace and found a hot ember near a burning log. Carefully he lifted the ember and separated it out, leaving it alone on the hearth. The old man and his son watched in silence as the hot red glow suddenly died, losing all it’s light. All that was left was a cold, black lump. With that, the old man got up, walked over to his son, and laid his hand on his son’s shoulder.
What do you think? What does this parable say to you? Why did the old man put the ember on the hearth? What was the intended message for the son? What is the message for us?
When we join together in community and engage in passionate worship, when we come expectant, open, prepared and ready to listen to God…when we open ourselves to God and invite God in and make room for God, God is faithful. God will use worship to transform lives, to heal wounded souls, to renew hope to shape decisions and to provoke change, to inspire compassion, and to bind us to one another. We together will experience that inner spring of living water that never dries up. We will never thirst again. We need to come expectant. We need to come prepared. We need to come ready to participate. We need to come.
JUL
