Random thoughts
I had dinner with a friend the other night and we talked a lot about her struggle with whether or not to leave her church. She talked about the preacher and how every week he gives a "come to Jesus so you don't go to hell" sermon and comes across angry and hateful. I totally get that that church is not home for her. However, our conversation ended up being about what worship is supposed to be. I said that worship is all about what we do and not what we get out of it. I said that it doesn't always matter (though usually does) if the sermon is completely lame. I said that singing hymns, saying creeds, reciting the psalms, and hearing the gospel read is what worship really is. My friend had a hard time with that because she wanted to be "fed" for the week. I get that. I want to be fed too, but we don't go into worship with that attitude, right? I think we do get fed through worship, but that is secondary to the worship of God. Whether or not we get fed or not isn't the point, but when we worship we experience God, and how can we not be fed?
She heard me saying that the sermon doesn't matter, but that's not what I meant. Believe me. . . I think sermons matter! It's just that the sermon is still worship. Our hearing, understanding, and responding to the sermon is worship, not feeding. Our souls being fed in worship is God's gift to us because of our wholehearted worship. I don't know; maybe it's all semantics.
posted by Jenny @ 5:35 PM
4 Comments:
I don't know. I'm at least thinking about the pastor who week in and week out simply preaches- "Come To Jesus; You need Him" sermons.
That could be interpreted as unhealthy for a congregation. At what point is the invitation through the sermon- "You don't have to COME to Jesus- He's ALREADY here and wants you not to come but FOLLOW right out the door and into the world to SERVE".
Quite possibly being fed (or nurtured) comes through the liturgical (work of God's people) response that comes from that- hearing the word and going into the world to serve God and neighbor.
Wow, sorry for the long rambling, but the whole "Come to Jesus" is bothersome to me.
shalom,
jonathon
I know I already posted once, but I came across this Evelynn Underhill quote and thought about your post:
"Worship is the human response to the divine, the fountainhead of all things theological and the end of all things, the rendering of ultimate worth to God. But more adequately, Christian worship is the re-presentation of our Lord Christ Jesus to the gathered faithful for a re-counting and re-rendering of all things. Worship is assembling for prayer, preaching, singing, eating, and bathing in Jesus’ name so that we may learn what is ultimately significant."
I love that!!!
peace
one of my old pastor mentioned to me once that there was a circuit of 4 churches that people moved around to in our area. he said that people go because there's the charismatic leader, but after a couple of years they leave because they just don't need the, "come to Jesus" or equally powerful, "hell fire & brimstone" sermons. they'd move onto the next church in the circuit and then years after find their way back to the same church.. i found that an interesting perspective.
to this i might add, your thoughts on worship i think are right on. but in this we are supposed to be fed and if people only know the sermon as a means of feeding, then they don't eat if it's the same meal over and over again.
also: talking with my friend in cali. about his 4square church, whatever that is i don't know he just mentioned it a number of times. i told him of the importance of creeds & rich hymn singing. he volunteered the info that his church doesn't even say the Lord's prayer.. now for a church that calls themselves a literal bible church, i found that interesting they don't even say the prayer that Jesus says, "pray like this."
i am rambling now.. i'll stop..
I do think that worship has an element of being "fed" in it. Being in the presence of God, admiring and adoring who God is actually feeds us so fully. I guess your friend will really need to seek how the liturgy of the church is food. Our prayers, the creeds, the hymns, the sacrements are all a part of the feast. In fact, I'd hardly call the sermon the main course.
This morning when I started my devo., I was half asleep still, I think. Before opening the Bible, I pray, but this morning I lazily said a prayer I sometimes use before meals. It's my default meal blessing if my mind is to clogged to be creative. I must have thought I was sitting down for breakfast and not Scripture. So I said this, "Dear Lord, bless this food I'm about to eat for the nourishment of my body. Turn this food into energy, energy into strength and strength into service to Thee. Amen."
I laughed when I realized what I was saying. But I continued because it works . . .
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