6.3.39 8.20.2023 Ship Shape! Worship John 4.21-24 Hebrews 12.28
Ship Shape: Beginning to Serve • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Entice: The word Worship has come to mean several partly related things.
Some mean music
Some mean music
played in a formal church setting.
Others mean what goes on
in Church
in Church
Still others mean
any personal
any personal
or
any communal
any communal
“divine experience.”
“divine experience.”
When I say “worship” I primarily mean the regular, public, gathering of a local congregation focusing on the 4 benchmarks of worship from
42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
This is also emphasized when the Hebrew author urges us to gather in
25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
Another good guideline comes from the Reformation affirmation that the
“True Church is present where the true ordinances are observed and the true gospel is preached.”
“True Church is present where the true ordinances are observed and the true gospel is preached.”
Clearly, this is not what most people think when they hear the word “worship” in the year 2023. And some might add that how I describe worship is just as culture bound as anyone else’s description. Let’s discuss it and find out, shall we?
Here’s kind of a formal, dictionary definition:
The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary Worship, Early Christian
Christian worship can be understood as the reverent homage paid to God and Christ in the context of a Christian assembly
Engage: If we want things to be ship shape we sometimes need to fix some things. I will use the term worship and make some distinctions that some, perhaps many, will not like. Partly from observation and listening to foggy use of term, I think we create confusion and diminish the central role that corporate public worship has for the health of the Church.
I am tired of dealing with the consequences of such thinking.
If we wrongly teach people that anything that they want to do, anywhere, at anytime is“worship” then we shouldn’t be surprised when worship is marginalized or transformed into something more culturally palatable.
If we wrongly teach people that anything that they want to do, anywhere, at anytime is“worship” then we shouldn’t be surprised when worship is marginalized or transformed into something more culturally palatable.
Expand: I have a Long list of things that concern me:
Cultural influences
Unprecedented place of music in contemporary worship.
Failure to understand Music as an expression of culture. This ALWAYS the case. We need have self-awareness and humility about how the surrounding culture influences musical trends in the Church.
The Rock and Roll generations, the evolution of popular music and cultural associations.
Incorrect terminology. For many people music IS worship. By dismissing other aspects of worship, they diminish much of the experience. Historically music has been the background for the foreground elements of The Lord’s Supper, Preaching, Prayer, and Body life.
Architecture. (What does the place of worship say about the intent of worship?)
Environment. Sensory stimulation and deprivation. Dark? Flashing Lights? Volume? Smoke Machines? (Brain washing?)
Profit motive. How the WIC gets us to sing their songs. Radio airplay and concerts. Buying a ticket for a “worship experience” is a pretty good clue that you have actually bought a ticket for a concert. Concerts are fine! I love concerts! Concerts are not worship.
Excite: That long list of concerns has one commonality: the elevation of emotion at the expense of full engagement of the whole person. We have managed to take the outward, communal expression of the Body of Christ and transform it into something self-centered and inward looking. We need clear distinctions between individual pious practices (devotion) and corporate practice (worship).
As is often the case we miss the WHY?
Explore:
True Christian worship is a body-building exercise.
True Christian worship is a body-building exercise.
Expand: True Christian Worship
Body of Sermon:
1 Defines Unity.
1 Defines Unity.
This is a matter of Purpose or mission.
1.1 Acts 2.42
42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
1.2 1 Cor 12.27
27 Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.
Worship that righty defines the unity of the body
2 Provides Clarity.
2 Provides Clarity.
This is a matter of doctrine. For most of Christian history doctrine and practice has been linked. The WIC has done its best to minimize broadly agreed upon Christian doctrine as well as tribally specific emphases.
Listen to the case Paul builds for doctrinal clarity.
2.1 1 Cor 11.23-26
23 For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread,
24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”
25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”
26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
2.2 2 Timothy 4.1-5
1 I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom:
2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.
3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions,
4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.
5 As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
The unity of God’s people is expressed around the table and pulpit where the life and message of Christ become our life and message.
Finally, true worship
3 Creates Community.
3 Creates Community.
This invigorates our Pastoral function. Flock work begins in worship, extends throughout the “fold”, and on into the broader culture.
3.1 Ephesians 4.1-3
1 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called,
2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love,
3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
After these words Paul launches into a description of the work of ministry as expressed in worship.
Ephesians 4:4–12 (ESV)
4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—
5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
7 But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift.
8 Therefore it says, “When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.”
9 (In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth?
10 He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.)
11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers,
12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,
And Paul does address music as an element of this community creating aspect of worship. Our singing is not primarily directed at God, nor is it for our personal edification, it is specifically to engage in edifying, musical community.
3.2 Colossians 3.16
16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
Shut Down
Worship is done by the Church for the Church in extension of our mission, as an explanation of our doctrine, and as an expression of our pastoral purposes.
Individual devotion is essential to Christian growth.
Individual devotion is essential to Christian growth.
Individual worship is an oxymoron.
Individual worship is an oxymoron.
We all need both but if public worship has been reduced to just another opportunity to cater to a selfish and narcissistic generation, we will soon find we have neither.
The greatest musician of all time just happened to be the greatest Church musician of all time. J.S. Bach wrote all kinds of music. From secular cantatas to sacred cantatas complex musical riddles and entry-level primers. Bach wrote in virtually every contemporary form available to him. He reused some of his best stuff. Yet he was not confused about what went where. Every composition was signed the same way “To the Glory of God.” He knew that as in many other circumstances, context is everything. The coffee cantata was not played in church.