The Mission: Worship

Scripture Reading

New Revised Standard Version: Updated Edition John 4

4 Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard, “Jesus is making and baptizing more disciples than John” 2 (although it was not Jesus himself but his disciples who baptized), 3 he left Judea and started back to Galilee. 4 But he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.

7 A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.),* 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” 11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?” 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.”

16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come back.” 17 The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband,’ 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!” 19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming and is now here when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.”

Wondering with the Word

Introduction- Rehash the Mission

We’re continuing our series on the mission of Beulah Presbyterian Church.

A mission statement answers the question “Why are we here? Why do we exist?”

Our answer to that question is this:

Beulah Presbyterian Church glorifies God through it’s worship, by making disciples, and reaching out to welcome and serve others in the name of Jesus Christ.

Last week we reminded ourselves that God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.

We won’t bring glory to God through what follows if we aren’t enjoying what follows.

Because of course, this is the day the Lord has made!

Today we’re going to talk about what it looks like to enjoy worship, and we’re going to use an interesting text to do it.

Jesus at the well: The Five Moves of Worship-

This whole story ends with Jesus making a pronouncement about worship, and so I think the whole story is really about worship at it’s heart.

We’ll touch on this later, but I’m talking about worship, not church.

This is much bigger than just what we do on Sunday mornings!

And if that’s true, I see 5 major moves in worship, and I think they all play out for us too!

Movement One: Physical Rest

Jesus gets tired!

We tend to think of Jesus as this relentless, robot of a person who’s always working, always preaching, always on the move.

But that’s not accurate!

I had a seminary professor once who did some math:

It’s widely believed that Jesus’ earthly ministry lasted for about 3 years.

That’s 1095 days. 1096 if it covered a leap year.

My professor though went through all the gospel texts to see how many of those 1095 days are actually recorded in scripture.

He found…165.

That means that we have 930 days that we have no record of.

There were for sure travel days.

There were rest days.

There were laundry days.

There were goof off days.

And there were days where Jesus and his crew are just wiped out.

Jesus gets tired. That’s a thing that happens.

So do we!

I’ve seen the way some of you live!

Band practice

Soccer.

Doctor’s appointments.

Luncheons

Cleaning.

Laundry.

Travel.

Work. Work. Work.

Life is exhausting!

And I worry that sometimes because we have this robotic image of a Jesus who never gets tired, we feel like we can never be tired.

Worship, wherever and however it happens, should be physically restorative!

Sometimes when I invite someone to church, I hear folks say “Oh, I just can’t handle one more thing.”

And that makes me sad.

Not because they’re wimps or anything like that!

But because what we do in here should never be one more thing.

This should be a place where we catch our breath.

This should be a place where we can be physically restored, not just spiritually.

This should be a place that leads us out with more energy, not less.

Because God knows, we need it!

Movement Two: Breaking down barriers

Samaria and Israel didn’t get along…even though the were the same country…imagine that!

Really, just try to imagine a place like that.

A place where one country, Under God, Indivisible…oh sorry.

One country could be so split by it’s history and ideology and faith understandings that it seemed like it was at war with itself.

Imagine.

Jesus, quite simply, is not interested in those kinds of divides.

The Bible is God’s truth, but I think there’s an untrue sentence in this passage.

Jesus didn’t have to go through Samaria.

Jews and Samaritans were so at each other’s throats, there were well defined routes that went around Samaria.

And first century Isreal didn’t have PennDOT, so it’s not like he was re-routed.

No, Jesus wasn’t interested in the kind of divide that keep people apart.

So rather than ignore the divide, or try to go around them, Jesus goes straight through the heart of the division.

Our divides are dumb too.

We have plenty of divides in our world, and quite frankly, they’re not really helpful either.

Democrats and Republicans

Let’s name it what it is: those labels and distinctions have no place in here.

Jesus would neither have ignored that divide, or tried to side step it.

Jesus would have imagined a kingdom big enough for both.

Racial divisions

Again, in this place, in this room, racial divisions or prejudice's have absolutely no place.

Our worship should be big enough that everyone is welcome, no matter who they are, no matter the color of their skin.

And oh by the way, remember, this is about worship that is bigger than Sundays.

So everyone should be welcome all the time, all the place, because the whole world is the sanctuary of our God.

Worship wars- Traditional and Contemporary

With all of this in mind, for as much as I’ve preached about it before, it should be impossible for us to imagine a divide that born out of our worship services.

Some folks will pitch their tent in a particular worship style camp, and never move.

And in fact, they’ll turn that into a kind of loathing of the other style.

Jesus would have been irate at that kind of thinking.

He would have gone through it.

Even if you can’t enjoy the “other” style of worship, what does it look like to walk through it, to enjoy the way the Spirit meets your brother and sister in Christ?

Movement Three: Soul Nourishment (living water)

Our souls get as weary as our bodies.

On the second day of the bike trip a few weeks ago, we stopped for lunch in Confluence Pa.

I’ll leave the name of the restaurant out of the equation, to protect the guilty.

But the service was…so…unbelievable…slow.

And when you’re on a ride like that, you don’t want your legs to sit for too long.

They need to keep spinning.

So when the check finally came, 2 hours after we had sat down, I paid the bill and ran out to hop on the bike and get going.

I may have been impatient.

But I left so quickly, that I forgot to fill up my water bottles.

Ever been really thirsty?

Ever had that thirst in your soul?

When your soul thirsts for justice, and it just won’t be found...

When your soul thirsts for community, but you find yourself alone.

When your soul thirsts for a connection with God, and your prayers go un answered...

Our souls can get thirsty.

Jesus is inviting this woman, and us, to ask for help here.

I really appreciate that Jesus is saying that all we have to do is ask.

If you knew who I was, you’d have a request to make in this moment.

Hook me up with some of that thirst quenching living water!

Jesus has said this before, right?

John 14:13-14 “I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.”

Matthew 7:7 ““Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you.”

In Luke 18, Jesus tells a story about a widow who won’t stop pestering the judge until she gets what she wants, and Jesus says that’s about prayer.

Our worship can be a spring of living water.

If our souls are thirsty for living water, they should be able to find it in here.

If our souls are thirsty for justice, we should talk about it in here.

If our souls are craving real community, it should be available to us in here.

If our souls are craving everlasting life, without end, we can find that here.

We just need to be able to ask, and ask honestly.

Movement Four: Conviction

Jesus then challenges the woman, and says “Hey, go grab your husband for a chat.”

She says “I don’t have a husband.”

And Jesus says “Yup. You’ve had five, and you’re sleeping with a dude who’s not your husband now.”

The theological word here is “busted.”

I love the line “Sir, I see that you are a prophet.”

If you read the text in the right tone of voice, we should all be able to visualize this woman turning beat red when she says this.

Jesus has totally called her out, exposed her, and spoken truth over her.

And that can happen to us sometimes in worship.

Did you write that sermon for me?

Every now and again, when I preach a particularly challenging sermon, someone will come up to me afterwards and ask “Did you write that sermon for me?”

And I promise, at least 95% of the time, I’m actually preaching to myself.

I tell myself what I most need to hear, and if you all get something out of it, that’s swell.

But the Spirit convicts us in neat ways.

And the Spirit seems capable of doing that regardless of the preacher.

One time I preached a sermon on stewardship, about how to think about our time and our talent and our treasures.

And it was a challenging, difficult word, but I thought it went well.

And then someone came up to me and said “That was a great sermon on forgiveness pastor...”

Clearly the Spirit had something for that person that I didn’t have.

If we’re all sinners, we should be ready to bump up against conviction from time to time.

If it’s true that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, then every now and again we will bump up against the reality of that situation.

And we need to be careful, it’s not our job to do the convicting for others.

Some people live their lives as if it’s their job to be the bouncer for the Kingdom.

It’s not.

That’s the Spirit’s job.

Conviction belongs to the Holy Spirit, not you and not me.

Instead, we ought to have our radar up for how the Spirit is convicting US with the truth of our situation.

But always a conviction that results both in repentance, and in healing.

I have a feeling that Jesus spoke that word over this woman for one simple reason:

Her life was pain.

She was at the well at noon, because that’s when you come when you don’t want anyone else to see your shame.

She’s had her heart broken at least 5 times over.

Who knows what kind of quality of life her choices have led her to have.

Jesus calls her out and convicts her not to make her feel bad.

He calls her out and convicts her because he loves her too much to let her stay there.

And he does the same thing for us.

And that leads us...

All of this is prep work:

We have to rest our bodies.

We have to set aside our divides.

We have to allow our souls some nourishment.

We have to be open to conviction.

All of it so we can get at the heart of worship:

Movement Five: Spirit and Truth

The truth about ourselves.

I think when we’re in a place where we’re rested, where we are less focused on our divisions, where we’ve got some nourishment for our souls, and we’ve been open to conviction, then we’re left with the truth about ourselves.

We come to realize that we are all broken image bearers.

We’ve come to realize that we are the ragamuffins of the world. (Sign ups still available in the narthex!)

We’ve come to realize that we don’t earn or deserve anything about this.

And God loves us anyway.

God loves us when we realize that we are broken.

God loves us when we pretend that we are not.

God loves us when we’ve made unbelievable, horrifying mistakes.

God loves us when we’ve hurt those who are closest to us.

God loves us when those closest to us hurt us.

God loves us when we’re so ashamed of what we’ve done that we have to get the water at noon.

God loves us when we’re so ashamed of what we’ve done that we tremble to approach the throne.

Brennan Manning puts it this way:

My deepest awareness of myself is that I am deeply loved by Jesus Christ and I have done nothing to earn it or deserve it.

Simply accept the fact that you have been accepted. If that happens, you experience grace.

Worship is when we realize that God’s love is ours in Christ, not because of what we’ve done, but in spite of what we’ve done.

Worship is when we give thanks for Christ’s work in our lives.

Worship is when we are overjoyed by God’s pleasure in us, and so we take pleasure in God.

Worship is when we experience grace by accepting the fact that we have been accepted.

This is bigger than “church.”

This room is where we are most intentional about our worship.

Everything about our worship services is designed to be a reminder, because we are a forgetful people, aren’t we?

We are reminded that our bodies are part of this life, and we engage them with sitting and standing and singing.

We are reminded that our divisions are garbage, and that we are better when we are united under the banner of Christ.

We are reminded that the springs of living water are available to us all, and that they can nourish our thirsty souls.

We are reminded that we are indeed broken, and that we will need to come across conviction every now and again.

And we are reminded that in spite of it all, God loves us in Christ, and choose us for himself.

In here, in this hour, we are deeply intentional about our worship.

But we will worship God neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem nor in this sanctuary.

Some of my most worshipful experiences in life have happened in the cereal aisle at Giant Eagle.

You never know where the reminder that God is good and God’s love is for you is going to hit.

To be able to worship in Spirit is to be available to a Spirit that is everywhere, always, all at once.

So we have to keep our eyes open.

We could have a moment of deep worship when we are lucky enough to witness a sunrise.

We could have a moment of deep worship when we are content with the life that God has given us.

We could have a moment of deep worship on our morning commute when we notice the diversity of God’s people, rather than focusing in on our divisions.

We could have a moment of deep worship in the hallways of our church, at mission meetings or Bible studies or just taking it all in walking in the garden.

We could have a moment of deep worship alone in our room, overwhelmed by the tremendous love of Christ.

God’s love is everywhere, so worship can happen anywhere.

So let’s be a people of worship, because this is the day...