Worship

Introduction

I’m going to do something very out of character as I begin. I’m going to read something to you, it’s a prayer and

The prayer is from the Book of Common Prayer

As you may know at the beginning of a Holy Communion service in the prayer book the priest prays this

ALMIGHTY God, whose kingdom is ever-lasting, and power infinite: Have mercy upon the whole Church; and so rule the heart of thy chosen servant ELIZABETH, our Queen and Governor, that she (knowing whose minister she is) may above all things seek thy honour and glory: and that we and all her subjects (duly considering whose authority she hath) may faithfully serve, honour, and humbly obey her, in thee, and for thee, according to thy blessed Word and ordinance; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with thee and the Holy Ghost liveth and reigneth, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

Now, dare I say it, it is a bit of an odd prayer and I don’t really understand why we pray for the sovereign so early on in the service. But I don’t bring it up for the sake of interesting liturgical discussion.

But I bring it up not because I enjoy rattling the cage of the prayer book society, for who would enjoy such a thing… not I.

But because of it’s content and so rule the heart of thy chosen servant ELIZABETH, our Queen and Governor, that she (knowing whose minister she is) may above all things seek thy honour and glory: and that we and all her subjects (duly considering whose authority she hath)

Kings, Queens, emperors, presidents, Prime Ministers it doesn’t matter who any authority they have is received from God

We are continuing our series looking at David and leadership under the Holy Spirit.

We’ve looked at a number of qualities that David has which I believe we can be inspired to ask the Holy Spirit but, probably, the chief mark of what separates a leader with the Spirit from the rest is a heart of Worship.

That’s at the heart of the prayer for the sovereign in the prayer book. That the Sovereign would know who they belong to, that their authority really belongs to God and would above anything else seek to give honour and glory to God

The Ark

We’ve got a picture of the Ark for us on the screen.

The Ark of the Covenant you’ll remember was a special box in which

Hebrews 9:4 (ESV)

and the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold, in which was a golden urn holding the manna, and Aaron’s staff that budded, and the tablets of the covenant.

The ark is this special box which was both symbolic of God’s covenant faithfulness and also his presence with his people.

It was constructed and placed in the tabernacle in the wilderness

The ark would always go with the Israelites into battle as reminder of their identiy and God’s faitfullness

However, the Ark was captured by the philistines before being recaptured by the people.

They kept the Ark for safe keeping in a place during for 20 years and during the reign of Saul we are told

1 Chronicles 13:3 ESV

Then let us bring again the ark of our God to us, for we did not seek it in the days of Saul.”

The ark as the focal point of God’s presence was not on high on the priorities of king Saul.

So fast forward David is now reigning as king. He has won some significant battles in particular he was able to retake Jerusalem.

Our reading then is one of the most symbolic acts that David ever took during his reign

The first few verse tell us that

2 Samuel 6:2 ESV

And David arose and went with all the people who were with him from Baale-judah to bring up from there the ark of God, which is called by the name of the Lord of hosts who sits enthroned on the cherubim.

In David’s moment of victory. When everyone has seen David’s skill as a leader.

He chooses to go and get that unusual box that’s be locked away for all those years.

Why because that box is the sign that God is holy and faithful. That God is with them. That the battles that David fought it was God who won them. It reminds the people that God is worthy of praise.

So we read on and we see that after the first unsuccessful attempt to bring the Ark to Jerusalem (you can read the verses we didn’t cover this morning this afternoon)

We see that David is eventually sucessful and the most incredible festival of praise breaks out

2 Samuel 6:12–13 (ESV)

So David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-edom to the city of David with rejoicing. And when those who bore the ark of the Lord had gone six steps, he sacrificed an ox and a fattened animal.

There we have some formal liturgical worship offered by the priests but then

2 Samuel 6:14–18 ESV

And David danced before the Lord with all his might. And David was wearing a linen ephod. So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting and with the sound of the horn. As the ark of the Lord came into the city of David, Michal the daughter of Saul looked out of the window and saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, and she despised him in her heart. And they brought in the ark of the Lord and set it in its place, inside the tent that David had pitched for it. And David offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord. And when David had finished offering the burnt offerings and the peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord of hosts

I’m reading a fantastic book about worship at the moment.

It’s called Spirit and Sacrament: An invitation to Eucharismatic worship by Andrew Wilson

What I like about it is in his chapter on joy he comes after everyone.

I’m going to read a lengthy portion

Read from p.52 (bottom of)

Biblical Worship is varied and I don’t really want to make the case for worship only being a joyous funfest nor do I want to argue for a constant bowed head contemplative silence.

Both suffer from the same problem - in my opinion.

They’re both inauthentic.

Why is David dancing in his underwear?

Because it’s good news. When you recieve good news you clap, you dance, you sing. Tonight we will witness 60,000 people singing dancing jumping up and down.

At the end of the match hopefully we will see slightly less italians singing… as they lament

But we as christians have to ask ourselves if we’re more passionate watching the football or at a family wedding or birth of a relative then we are when we come to worship the king of kings we have to ask do we have a heart of worship

Likewise if we have a sombre respectfulness at bad news or in times of trouble but we never bring that posture before the LORD when in our worship or our devotinal times he confronts us with out Sin or with the things that break his heart. Do we have a heart of worship?

Jesus

As we head towards the table this morning where do we see Jesus Christ in all of this.

In the New Testament there is no Ark of the Covenant as such because the New Covenant is in the blood of Christ

The object and the subject of our worship is Jesus Christ. We’re not mediated through a box there is no David to lead before him.

There also no prayer meetings or much reference to acts of worship in the gospels. Nicky Gumbel says that this is because the disciples are with Jesus, they’re with God and that means no matter where they went - everytime they were with him, they were in prayer meeting.

But there is something messianic about David’s worship.

He strips down to his Ephod and he dances so over the top that Michal his wife despises him.

This is is no way for a king to act.

He’s acting like the commoners

You’ll remember in John 2 that Jesus turns water into wine.

Jesus went to a wedding where the guests had already had quite a lot and he turns water into wine such is Jesus’ passion for joyous celebration.

However, just like David, not everyone approved, the pharisees had their own way of observing Jesus

He didn’t behave as a rabbi should

Luke 7:34 ESV

The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’

Jesus is utterly biased towards the outcasts - just like David but in an even greater way he becomes one with them.

Sharing their culture and their ways.

And yet he had an incredible balance. He lived a life of celebration so much so they called him a drunk and a glutton.

But so often we hear that early in the morning he takes himself of to pray.

May we like David and Jesus have hearts of worship.

Way we humiliate ourselves in outrageous celebration before God. And as we hit those heights may we also have depth

MINISTRY TIME