Worship

Throughout this season of Advent, we have been looking at the Gospel of Luke and the story it offers to us on the birth of Jesus. We have been focusing on one word each week that is a characteristic of what it means to be a Christian with the idea of us being able to ask ourselves this question, “How can I grow in that part of my life?”

We began with the word “Truth” and how we should be ready to receive the truth, accept the truth, and act on the truth. We next focused on the word “Faith” and how we need to have the faith to accept the plan that God has for us as both individuals and as a church even if it seems to big or impossible, and also be willing to take actions that show our faith.

For the third week of Advent the word was “joy” and how we should have joy, joy, joy, joy down in our hearts because of the grace God has for us and the love he has showed us.

Last Sunday our focus was on “love” and how the word love should not have to be said and how it should be recognized through our actions both within our church community and outside of the church walls. You can find each of these sermons on our You Tube Channel if you would like to check them out.

(Transition)

For this evening the word that we will be focusing on is “Worship.” When the word “worship” is used within Christianity it is often looked at as the event that occurs, usually on a Sunday morning. Where believers meet together and have a service in which we sing, pray and hear someone express words about the scriptures. Worship should be much more than a Sunday morning and Christmas Eve event.

After all, if we believe that God is our creator, and Jesus is our Savior than we should be worshipping God all of the time. We worship God when we praise God, spend time with God, and follow God. We should spend all of our time trying to do at least one of these things throughout the day.

We should be doing this at all times because we have a Savior that came down for all people. We can recognize this through our scripture for this evening. The angels didn’t appear to just anybody, the angels appeared to every day working class people right in the middle of their shift.

(Transition)

The first announcement of the birth of the Savior was to shepherds out watching their sheep at night. This would have not been the expectation of the Jewish people. They would not expect that the announcement of his birth would be given to some lowly shepherds. The announcement should have been made to the priests, or to the Pharisees, after all these were the important religious figures.

They also would not have expected that if the Christ child was going to be born, he wouldn’t have been born to a common woman like Mary. They would have expected that God would be working through the life of someone like the wife of a Pharisee.

Someone who was more closely connected to the Temple. Someone whose husband was seen as an important figure within Judaism. They would not expect that the Messiah would be the earthly son of a carpenter.

(Transition

God doesn’t choose to follow human expectations. We can seethis through the life of the Savior, through Jesus. Jesus does not go out looking for people that will just follow the religious rules, God wants to find people that will follow him; not that will only be focused on the rules the people have been told by the Pharisees to follow.

Jesus showed us that the rules God had passed down to the people matter, but serving others matter more. Jesus will go up to lepers and touch them. This would have been considered an act against the rules.

In fact, it was up to the lepers to announce that they were there to make sure that no one touched them. They were unclean and therefore untouchable and in many ways considered unlovable. Jesus chooses to heal them so that they can become a part of the community instead of following the rules.

Jesus should not touch the sick, but he does. The rules say that if someone is sick you need to leave them alone. Jesus chooses to show compassion for the sick instead of choosing to follow the Jewish rules. He wants to see them healed. He wants their suffering to be relieved.

Jesus also shows us that the rules matter but loving others matter more. Jesus chooses to love instead of condemning the woman caught in adultery. The law says that the woman should have been stoned. Jesus instead shows her love and tells her to leave and sin no more.

Jesus chooses to interact with the Samaritan woman at the well instead of ignoring her. The Samaritans were hated more by the Jewish people than the gentiles because they were Jews that had chosen to marry and interact with those outside of Judaism.

This did not stop Jesus from being willing to talk to her, interact with her, and guide her into an understanding of who he was. He showed her love instead of the unworthiness of interaction that was expected of someone who was following the Jewish law.

When we follow Jesus’ example, when we show compassion and love to those that society deems as unacceptable of deserving love and compassion we are worshipping God. We are showing God that we care more about following him than following the ways of the world.

(Transition)

Tonight’s scripture shows us that even the heavenly angels worship God. The one angel announces his birth and is then joined by a group of angels singing “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” They are worshipping the newborn Savior who will end up changing the rules for society forever.

The shepherds after they are told the good news decide to go and worship the newborn king. They go right to him, visit with Jesus and his family. But they don’t only visit they share the message given to them by the angel.

We worship God when we share the good news of what God has done for us and for those around us. It is through sharing the good news that people can begin to understand who God is and what God has done for them.

What does the scripture say, “Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.” Sharing with others the love of Jesus through words and actions allows for those around us to treasure these words and to ponder what they may mean to them.

We have a God that wants his love shared with all the people inside and outside of the church. The life of Jesus showed us that and should become our example of how we should be with those that we meet.

(Transition)

The shepherds leave the family alone and the scripture says that they returned to their fields “glorifying and praising God.” Just seeing this baby lying in a manger leads to them worshiping Jesus.

Later in the story we have who we call the wise men come and visit Jesus. They are Gentiles who have been told by someone that the Jewish king would be born at this time, so they were looking for a sign. They saw a star they hadn’t seen before; they followed the star for it is believed at least two years.

They find Jesus, they present him with gifts and begin worshipping him. There is no one who shouldn’t be worshipping Jesus. It doesn’t matter if you are religious or not, rich or poor, a heavenly body or an earthly being. We should be worshipping Jesus in what we do and in what we say.

(Transition)

We are here worshipping God today because of events that occurred many, many years ago. The word wasn’t only spread by the shepherds and by the wise men. We have the disciples of Jesus and those early followers continuing with the message.

We are here today because someone told you about this man who we believe died for our sins. Most, if not all of you are here because someone spread that message to you. Letting you know that you could be saved from the power of sin.

There may be some here today either in person or online as a part of our You Tube worship experience who is hearing this message of love for the first time. If that is you consider asking for the one who came to earth as a baby, lived and taught humanity about hope, love, and peace allow for your sins to be forgiven.

May you decide today that you want to be in relationship with him so that you can receive the hope and joy of following the one who came and died not just for me but also for you.

Let us pray...