Worship and Bow Down

John Wesley said, “Sing lustily and with a good courage. Beware of singing as if you were half dead, or half asleep; but lift up your voice with strength. Be no more afraid of you voice now, nor more ashamed of its being heard, than when you sung the songs of Satan.” This is one of Wesley’s Directions for Singing found at the beginning of the United Methodist Hymnal. I love looking at his directions and thinking about what he was trying to instill into those early Methodists through these words. But, when you read the directions for singing, they still apply to us today.

Of course, as I read these words my first thought is not to lust after anything. We know in the 10 commandments that Moses brought down the mountain from God, we were told not to covet our neighbor’s wife. We have studied this and learned that it means not to lust after another human being, especially when you or the other person is married. We are to avoid thinking about others in ways that are inappropriate. I could go on and on regarding this commandment but that would get us completely off track this morning.

But, I’m pretty sure that I can say that is not what Wesley meant when he said lustily. In fact, he probably meant something closer to how dictionary.com defines the word, in a strong, healthy, vigorous way; heartily. Think about that by changing the word from lustily to something else like, Sing heartily. Or how bout Sing in a strong, healthy, vigorous way. Would you truly be able to say that you sing this way for every hymn we sing. But, why is this important? What does singing have to do with Worship and Bow Down? Let’s turn to our scripture for the morning, . Hear the words of the psalmist this morning.

Psalm 95 NRSV

O come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise! For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods. In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also. The sea is his, for he made it, and the dry land, which his hands have formed. O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker! For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. O that today you would listen to his voice! Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, when your ancestors tested me, and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work. For forty years I loathed that generation and said, “They are a people whose hearts go astray, and they do not regard my ways.” Therefore in my anger I swore, “They shall not enter my rest.”

The Psalmist calls us to “sing out to the Lord.” Now, I have to say with a statement like this from the psalmist along with me talking about Wesley’s directions for singing, you may think that this would be an advertisement for joining the choir. But, as you will see and hear, that is not the case but I will take this opportunity to say Pace and the choir would love for you to come and make a joyful noise with them.

While the focus of the sermon this morning is not singing it is part of our weekly gatherings. I think it is something that we miss understand more than anything when it comes to Christianity. Sometimes I feel like we have a grasp of it but then we lose that grasp and return to our old ways. Was that a little strange? Did I confuse any of you?

Well, lets talk about the confusion then. Each week we gather in worship. Christ calls us to gather in groups to grow as disciples. This gathering allows us to support each other, learn the scripture, and hear the Gospel message proclaimed. Sounds pretty simple doesn’t it? I mean, sounds like we do that each week, so how do we confuse this idea of worship?

First we confuse by thinking that worship is about us and for us. When we do this we come with expectations about how everything should be done from the prelude to the postlude, this includes how long everything should be. We look at our watches to see how long things are taking in order to know if we are going to make it to our lunch date on time. We think the service should end exactly at a certain time each week and the hymns we sing should be the ones we know well.

The problem with this type of thought is that it is incorrect to why we gather for worship. Worship is not about us or for us but it is about God. We gather to worship the one true God. We cannot worship God if we are focused on whether or not everything is being done in the right amount of time. If you were to view worship as a play then God should always be the audience while we are all part of the cast. We all have different parts within the play. Our minds and hearts should be set on the things of God.

When we begin to realize and act with the idea of we are worshipping God then we actually begin to experience worship in a different way and we will typically get more out of the service. How is that possible though? I mean how can we get more out of worship if we become the actors and actresses of the event? Well, we begin to allow our heart to move with the prayers, hymns, and message. This opens us up to hear the Spirit speak through the words to us and to have a deeper stronger worship experience.

When we begin to realize we are singing praises to God, then the hymns do not matter. I can tell when we sing a hymn that congregation does not know. You can probably tell too. But, that is not what Wesley and the psalmist are telling us to do. They are saying to sing songs with joyful and full voices even when we do not know them. They are saying to come prepared to worship the God that offers us hope and salvation. The fact that we have the opportunity to worship the One True God should be enough to make you want to shout amen.

But worship is not just about our voice, it is about our whole being. We tend to think of worship as just an event that touches our minds and voices but it should be an event where are whole being is involved and affected. The only way this can happen is if we come to worship prepared to worship. John Wesley was big on connecting the head and heart, we as Methodists have lost this concept in our worship over the years. I believe this is because we come to worship with a focus on what we get out of it and not how we worship.

When was the last time you came to worship filled with joy before the service because you knew you were going to be worshipping God? When was the last time that you sang every hymn lustily in order to make a joyful noise to the Lord? When was the last time that you came prepared to worship with your whole being heart, mind, body, and soul? Yes friends, your body is part of worship. Your posture and stance helps you to worship God with to your fullest ability. The psalmist says to worship and bow down. The bow down reminds us that our whole body is part of worship.

Friends, if we were to come to worship each time prepared to worship then our worship experience would change. If we were to focus our worship in the right direction then we would get more out of worship. If we were to come to worship with a joyful heart to worship our Savior, then there will be a large change in worship. The challenge is to Selah, pause and change how we worship. Will you join me in making this change?