Blessed Adoration

January 22, 2012 3rd Sunday of Epiphany

Winter Sermon Series

Winter Gifts: Blessed Adoration

Today we begin the first sermon in our winter sermon series called Winter Gifts. After just leaving our time of Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany, we realize that we have spent a great deal of time, energy, thought and meditation in considering the gifts that God gave us in sending Jesus. We have celebrated this gift in many ways. This sermon series is a continuation of our looking at other gifts that we have received because of the incarnation of Jesus Christ.

We will be looking at the gifts of worship, community, freedom and grace, all of which have been given to us because of the birth, life, death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We are a unique people, people who are most blessed and so throughout this sermon series I hope as we take a look at the benefits and loveliness of God's precious gifts to us we will all be reminded both of God's love for us, and God's desires for us.

So today we look at the gift of worship, the gift of blessed adoration. The first thing I want us to do is center our thoughts by closing our eyes… And hearing this melody sung by… (Play Melody.) You may open your eyes. Let these questions linger in your mind and heart: why am I here today? What exactly am I doing?

You might be wondering and saying to yourself, preacher why are you taking out time of the sermon for us to listen to music. One of the most wonderful gifts God gave humanity is the gift of worship. Within each one of us God has placed a yearning, a yearning to give praise, honor, and adoration to the most important thing in our life.

You and I, when we come to worship, come to give that praise, honor, and adoration to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, to God and the Holy Spirit. Worship is sacred and mysterious. We were created to worship God. And it is in this place (for most of us) that we come to fulfill our yearnings: our yearnings for transcendence, for refuge, for transformation, for redemption, and reconciliation.[1]I realize that these are weighty theological terms for us. So in a little bit we will unpack them some want.

Okay, I like to watch football. I'm not a huge fan but I like to watch it now and then. For the most part I know what's going on in the game, how the teams set up, how they score points, how field goals are made, etc. In Australia, Europe and New Zealand the game of choice is not football, but another game played with a similar kind of ball called rugby.

I knew a guy who said his daughter asked him to come and watch his daughter’s boyfriend play rugby. Aeing the good dad that he was, he joined his daughter at the game, but as he sat there watching the game he realized he didn't know anything about the game. He didn't know the rules of began aimed why the players were moving around the field like they were. Basically he said he was lost and confused and didn't really know what was going on on the field.

After I heard that story, I thought I’d look at rugby game. So I went online and found one, and I was just like the guy who went to his daughter's boyfriend’s game. I didn't know what was going on either. It looked like a big mess to me with people running every which way, throwing the ball here throwing the ball there, everybody running in the same direction. It seemed kind of messy and rough and was really foreign to me.

Sometimes, that's how we feel when we come to worship. Some of us have been coming to worship all of our lives and feel comfortable. But for some of us, worship is that thing we do that gives us the feeling that we aren't really certain what we're supposed to be doing. What does all of this mean?

But the thing is, you are not sitting on the sidelines, you’re in the game. You are the players. We who lead worship, our kind like the coaches. We lead you through the liturgy, following our bulletin, doing all the things that we do in worship, but it's you who are worshiping. None of us are the spectators in worship. The spectator in worship is God. God is in the stands watching us as we worship.

The questions from before: why am I here today? What am I doing? Do we know why we are here? Do we know what we are doing? If we have been given the gift of blessed adoration, what does that mean to us? And more importantly: what does that mean to God?

We have been created to worship. Even from the very earliest records in the Bible we find that worship was a part of the human experience. You remember the story of Cain and Abel, and how they brought sacrifices to God in order to honor God and praise God their Creator. As far as I can tell, this was the first record of worship. Of course the story of Cain and Abel ends badly, in that Abel brought the very best that he had to gift God, and Cain brought his leftovers. We could talk more about that story and the importance of giving our best in worship, but that's a sermon for another day.

All through the Scriptures, we find men and women giving praise to God: Singing songs, building altars, giving offerings, and praising God. The words praise, glory, and honor are found hundreds of times in the Bible. The book of Psalms gives us 150 songs of praise. God created each one of us to give praise to our creator. And so deep within us is a yearning to give glory and praise and honor to God.

The gospel scripture is Jesus’ words to the woman at the well. He said that the time was coming and now ere that worship was something that we do in spirit and truth. The place, the time, the building, the music style, the sermon…those things are not what is important in worship…what is important is that our worship is honestly and truthfully from our heart and is done in that spirit. Then worship fulfills our yearnings.

We yearn for transcendence. Transcendence merely means that we hope as we come together in worship that we will be able to transcend, moved above this earthly plane into a space closer to God. We yearn to experience the presence of the Almighty. We yearn to be with God in a way that changes us. No matter who you are, or whatever you think brought you here today, I say that a deep yearning, a deep longing to experience God on some level drew you here.

Also placed within us is a desire for refuge. How many times in your life have you thought to yourself: if only I could get away from the stresses of my life for just a few minutes; if only I could spend a little time with God, just me and God. Life is hard; life is stressful; life hurts us; weakens our spirits, and we hope that when we are here we will be able to rest in the peace we know that is in God.

A few months ago I had the honor of visiting a woman I know. She had been through quite an ordeal: health problems, stroke, becoming disabled, being displaced from the home she had lived in for over 60 years, and she was tired. She said, “I feel like a prisoner sometimes. They treat me like a child. At my age,” she said. “I should be able to say what I want to do, and be able to do it. Nobody understands.” She yearned for the refuge of God. She yearned for worship, for transcendence from life here.

Some of us come to worship looking for other things, but mostly we come looking for God and for the opportunity to connect with our Creator. And in those times we hope that we can somehow find redemption, that we will have an opportunity to lay before God the things we carry. It is here, in worship when we are free to speak to God spirit to Spirit. It is here, where we can place our sorrows over the things we've done and the things we have not done before God, saying: Lord, I'm sorry. Help me to do better. In worship, we hope that God will reach within us, and transform us; to make us more like Jesus.

I so wish that I could explain what God does when we worship. But worship is mysterious, it is awe inspiring. Yet, there are certain parts about the worship experience that remain the same. I want to highlight just a few of those this morning: notice the symbols.

o Altar – represents God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit

o Cross – Remembrance

o Music – Touches us

o Pastoral Prayer – Pray for and with

o Scripture and Sermon – Word given and interpreted (God speaking to us)

o Offering – Gifts adoration (Responding to God)

o Acolytes – Light in, light out

o Blessing – Benediction

Amongst the symbols, images, music, prayers, and participants of our worship, mysteriously God connects with us, touches our hearts and minds

Story of bad worship… The Israelites.

Moses had gone to the Mt. , and the people asked Aaron to make them a God. Which he did.

A golden cow.

God was angry. Why?

Because they had not worshiped who created them, rescued them, or sustained them, but they worshiped instead…something of their own, something they had made, they worshiped…themselves and not God.

Worship is like dancing with God. It is where we:

o Tell our story

o Pass down our beliefs and practices

o Come together to express our common faith

o Where we say yes to God

o Where we demonstrate our devotion and love to God

Closing…with invitation to dance.

Amen.

[1] Christ Church Video: Gloria: We are created for this.