| Back To The Heart Of Worship |
“Back To The Heart of Worship”
Psalm 29
January 27, 2008
We gather this morning for any variety of reasons. Some of us are here
because there has been a trauma in our lives. We have experienced
hurt in one or more of its many guises and are responding to that hurt by
seeking a spiritual ointment that will take away the pain. We are here
because we have become overwhelmed to the point that we feel our
soul’s death is imminent. At times, it feels as if we are burdened by the
world collapsing and closing in around us. We are feeling very human.
We are crying out for someone - anyone - to stay in the struggle with us.
There is no doubt God answers our prayer. As one author wrote, “Your
helplessness is your best prayer. It calls from your heart to the heart of
God with greater effect than all your uttered pleas. God hears it from the
moment that you are seized with helplessness, and becomes actively
engaged at once in hearing and answering the prayer of your
helplessness.”
Some of us have returned this morning... like the one leper out of ten... to
give thanks for the healing that has taken place in our lives. We have
returned to celebrate that, at this moment in time, we do not hurt. We are
not struggling with the meaning of our existence. We are not empty
because of life...but full in spite of it and we want others to share in our
joy. As it says in the Great Thanksgiving from the litany of Word and
Table in our hymnal: “It is right, and a good and joyful thing, always and
everywhere to give thanks to you, Father almighty, creator of heaven and
earth.” When we celebrate the good things in our lives God celebrates
with us... as any loving parent would do.
And, to be honest, some of us have gathered in this room... on this
day... as a part of our weekly, or monthly, or annual, sojourn of
superstition. We want to make sure that all the bases are covered so
that fate is not tempted to treat us harshly. As the song goes, “All we like
sheep have gone astray,” and we want to make amends... or, at the very
least, pull the attention away from what has happened in our past or
might happen in our future.
As your pastor, I am blessed to be aware of a few of your myriad
reasons for being here. I have heard some of your hearts cry out as they
seek belonging, healing, forgiveness, and understanding. I too have
come many Sunday mornings seeking the same things. We gather here
this morning for any variety of reasons and God’s promise is that we will
be heard and our prayers will be answered.
However, allow me to suggest that the most essential reason for
gathering in worship is often lost.
George Gallup, Jr., in his book, The Next American Spirituality, which
looks at the spiritual lives of people in a 24 hour period, suggests that
our hunger for the divine places us in a bit of a quandary. We have
turned our search for spirituality into a search for self-affirmation. He
writes: “Perhaps a trend in magazine titles makes the same point: we
went from People magazine to Us to Self, in ever-spiraling concentric
circles of inward attention. Will there soon be a magazine called Me? Or
a devotional periodical called My Spiritual Self, as though I am the
center of the process and God is a debatable option in the quest for
spiritual fulfillment?”
I am here to suggest that it is time to return to the heart of worship... time
to return to the reason for worship... time to give God the glory and the
praise - not glory and praise for ourselves - glory and praise to God. As
David sings in the 29th Psalm: “Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his
name; worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness.”
How do you give the Lord the glory due His name?
The name for God found in this piece of scripture is a substitute for the
name Yahweh which is a name so holy that in Jewish sensibilities it
cannot be spoken aloud. Jehovah, the Lord, was used instead. Jehovah
the self-existent... the eternal... How do you give that which is so holy
you can’t even utter its name out loud the glory due its name?
David knew. King David understood. If you would turn to 2 Samuel
chapter 6, starting at verse 12 you would get a glimpse of how David
worshiped.
“David went down and brought up the ark of God from the house of
Obed Edom to the City of David with rejoicing. When those who were
carrying the ark of the LORD had taken six steps, he sacrificed a bull
and a fattened calf. David, wearing a linen ephod, danced before the
LORD with all his might, while he and the entire house of Israel brought
up the ark of the LORD with shouts and the sound of trumpets.
As the ark of the LORD was entering the City of David, Michal daughter
of Saul watched from a window. And when she saw King David leaping
and dancing before the LORD, she despised him in her heart.
They brought the ark of the LORD and set it in its place inside the tent
that David had pitched for it, and David sacrificed burnt offerings and
fellowship offerings before the LORD. After he had finished sacrificing
the burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, he blessed the people in the
name of the LORD Almighty. Then he gave a loaf of bread, a cake of
dates and a cake of raisins to each person in the whole crowd of
Israelites, both men and women. And all the people went to their homes.
When David returned home to bless his household, Michal daughter of
Saul came out to meet him and said, "How the king of Israel has
distinguished himself today, disrobing in the sight of the slave girls of his
servants as any vulgar fellow would!"
David said to Michal, "It was before the LORD, who chose me rather
than your father or anyone from his house when he appointed me ruler
over the Lord's people Israel I will celebrate before the LORD. I will
become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my
own eyes. But by these slave girls you spoke of, I will be held in honor."
David was so focused on worshiping God... so focused on praising and
giving glory to the Lord... that he was an embarrassment to his wife
Michal.
Now, my guess is that many of you husbands have been an
embarrassment to your wives at some point in your relationship. It would
also be my guess that not very many of you embarrassed your wife
because you praised God to much.
Michal valued dignity over Deity. In the process of transporting the Ark of
the Covenant... in the process of stopping every 6 steps to sacrifice a
bull and a calf... in the process of worship... David was transformed and
it was more important to celebrate before God with full abandon than to
be concerned with how the rest of the world thought he should act.
Imagine how you will be transformed if, when you worship, you seek God
rather than self?
God is at the heart of worship. God as understood in the person of
Jesus Christ is at the heart of worship. God as experienced through the
indwelling of the Holy Spirit is at the heart of worship. God is the heart of
worship.
Listen to the words of this song by Matt Redman:
“When the music fades, all is stripped away, and I simply come; longing
just to bring something that’s of worth that will bless your heart. I’ll bring
you more than a song, for a song in itself is not what you have required.
You search much deeper within. Through the way things appear; you’re
looking into my heart. I’m coming back to the heart of worship, and it’s all
about You. I’m sorry Lord, for the thing I’ve made it, when it’s all about
You.”
You are simply invited to come back to the heart of worship. AMEN
Psalm 29
January 27, 2008
We gather this morning for any variety of reasons. Some of us are here
because there has been a trauma in our lives. We have experienced
hurt in one or more of its many guises and are responding to that hurt by
seeking a spiritual ointment that will take away the pain. We are here
because we have become overwhelmed to the point that we feel our
soul’s death is imminent. At times, it feels as if we are burdened by the
world collapsing and closing in around us. We are feeling very human.
We are crying out for someone - anyone - to stay in the struggle with us.
There is no doubt God answers our prayer. As one author wrote, “Your
helplessness is your best prayer. It calls from your heart to the heart of
God with greater effect than all your uttered pleas. God hears it from the
moment that you are seized with helplessness, and becomes actively
engaged at once in hearing and answering the prayer of your
helplessness.”
Some of us have returned this morning... like the one leper out of ten... to
give thanks for the healing that has taken place in our lives. We have
returned to celebrate that, at this moment in time, we do not hurt. We are
not struggling with the meaning of our existence. We are not empty
because of life...but full in spite of it and we want others to share in our
joy. As it says in the Great Thanksgiving from the litany of Word and
Table in our hymnal: “It is right, and a good and joyful thing, always and
everywhere to give thanks to you, Father almighty, creator of heaven and
earth.” When we celebrate the good things in our lives God celebrates
with us... as any loving parent would do.
And, to be honest, some of us have gathered in this room... on this
day... as a part of our weekly, or monthly, or annual, sojourn of
superstition. We want to make sure that all the bases are covered so
that fate is not tempted to treat us harshly. As the song goes, “All we like
sheep have gone astray,” and we want to make amends... or, at the very
least, pull the attention away from what has happened in our past or
might happen in our future.
As your pastor, I am blessed to be aware of a few of your myriad
reasons for being here. I have heard some of your hearts cry out as they
seek belonging, healing, forgiveness, and understanding. I too have
come many Sunday mornings seeking the same things. We gather here
this morning for any variety of reasons and God’s promise is that we will
be heard and our prayers will be answered.
However, allow me to suggest that the most essential reason for
gathering in worship is often lost.
George Gallup, Jr., in his book, The Next American Spirituality, which
looks at the spiritual lives of people in a 24 hour period, suggests that
our hunger for the divine places us in a bit of a quandary. We have
turned our search for spirituality into a search for self-affirmation. He
writes: “Perhaps a trend in magazine titles makes the same point: we
went from People magazine to Us to Self, in ever-spiraling concentric
circles of inward attention. Will there soon be a magazine called Me? Or
a devotional periodical called My Spiritual Self, as though I am the
center of the process and God is a debatable option in the quest for
spiritual fulfillment?”
I am here to suggest that it is time to return to the heart of worship... time
to return to the reason for worship... time to give God the glory and the
praise - not glory and praise for ourselves - glory and praise to God. As
David sings in the 29th Psalm: “Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his
name; worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness.”
How do you give the Lord the glory due His name?
The name for God found in this piece of scripture is a substitute for the
name Yahweh which is a name so holy that in Jewish sensibilities it
cannot be spoken aloud. Jehovah, the Lord, was used instead. Jehovah
the self-existent... the eternal... How do you give that which is so holy
you can’t even utter its name out loud the glory due its name?
David knew. King David understood. If you would turn to 2 Samuel
chapter 6, starting at verse 12 you would get a glimpse of how David
worshiped.
“David went down and brought up the ark of God from the house of
Obed Edom to the City of David with rejoicing. When those who were
carrying the ark of the LORD had taken six steps, he sacrificed a bull
and a fattened calf. David, wearing a linen ephod, danced before the
LORD with all his might, while he and the entire house of Israel brought
up the ark of the LORD with shouts and the sound of trumpets.
As the ark of the LORD was entering the City of David, Michal daughter
of Saul watched from a window. And when she saw King David leaping
and dancing before the LORD, she despised him in her heart.
They brought the ark of the LORD and set it in its place inside the tent
that David had pitched for it, and David sacrificed burnt offerings and
fellowship offerings before the LORD. After he had finished sacrificing
the burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, he blessed the people in the
name of the LORD Almighty. Then he gave a loaf of bread, a cake of
dates and a cake of raisins to each person in the whole crowd of
Israelites, both men and women. And all the people went to their homes.
When David returned home to bless his household, Michal daughter of
Saul came out to meet him and said, "How the king of Israel has
distinguished himself today, disrobing in the sight of the slave girls of his
servants as any vulgar fellow would!"
David said to Michal, "It was before the LORD, who chose me rather
than your father or anyone from his house when he appointed me ruler
over the Lord's people Israel I will celebrate before the LORD. I will
become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my
own eyes. But by these slave girls you spoke of, I will be held in honor."
David was so focused on worshiping God... so focused on praising and
giving glory to the Lord... that he was an embarrassment to his wife
Michal.
Now, my guess is that many of you husbands have been an
embarrassment to your wives at some point in your relationship. It would
also be my guess that not very many of you embarrassed your wife
because you praised God to much.
Michal valued dignity over Deity. In the process of transporting the Ark of
the Covenant... in the process of stopping every 6 steps to sacrifice a
bull and a calf... in the process of worship... David was transformed and
it was more important to celebrate before God with full abandon than to
be concerned with how the rest of the world thought he should act.
Imagine how you will be transformed if, when you worship, you seek God
rather than self?
God is at the heart of worship. God as understood in the person of
Jesus Christ is at the heart of worship. God as experienced through the
indwelling of the Holy Spirit is at the heart of worship. God is the heart of
worship.
Listen to the words of this song by Matt Redman:
“When the music fades, all is stripped away, and I simply come; longing
just to bring something that’s of worth that will bless your heart. I’ll bring
you more than a song, for a song in itself is not what you have required.
You search much deeper within. Through the way things appear; you’re
looking into my heart. I’m coming back to the heart of worship, and it’s all
about You. I’m sorry Lord, for the thing I’ve made it, when it’s all about
You.”
You are simply invited to come back to the heart of worship. AMEN
DeWitt United Methodist Church
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |