This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it. Alice and I drove down to Washington, DC on Saturday, May 24 to visit Andy and Sunita in their new home.. We joined them in worship on Sunday, as the service got under way at 5 PM. They are members of an Anglican Church, called "St. Brendon's". They meet in a building shared by a shelter for Homeless Men. The congregation is pastored by Father Bill Hayley. He is an Anglican Priest who is married to his lovely wife, Tara. They are blessed with three beautiful children. His wife has just returned from a trip to Calcutta, on a short term mission that included working at Mother Theresa's Mission for few days.)
The congregation of St Brendon's consist of many young couples with children, many single people, and some who live in the Homeless shelter. Many of the young professionals work for the federal government, at such organizations as the CIA, FEMA, the World Bank, FrediMacand USAid. Father Bill made a statement during worship, "Worship is renewing friendship with Jesus."
Indeed, worship is part of our spiritual discipline. As we enter the summer season, let us commit ourselves not to neglect in worshipping the Living Lord Jesus and renewing our friendship with Him. So, let us make it a spiritual discipline to be part of corporate worship every Lord's Day. We read in Romans 12, "Therefore I urge you brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship." We see that offering your bodies, your very selves to God in your conversion was your first true act of worship. Therefore, continuing to offer your bodies, your very selves to God every day is true worship. It is simply the number one priority of our lives. It's the most important thing that we can do as human beings. We find our reason for existing in worshipping Him. To worship God is to get the equation of life correct.
The following quotation is from Michael Hamilton, who is the coordinator of the Pew's Scholars Program. He is also an assistant professor of history at the University of Notre Dame. I think this is one of the best quotes I have ever read on the issue of music and its place in our life of worship, and particularly music in this context of the worship service.
"The Bible has four different gospels. No single one of them tells us the whole truth about the life of Jesus. Likewise, no single musical style brings to full flower more than a few of the many possibilities of communing with God. It is said that when King George II of England heard Handel's Hallelujah Chorus for the first time, it was not the glory of the music that, to the astonishment of the audience, pulled him to his feet. It was rather the glory of the Lord surging through the conduit of music... " He goes on to write here, "When my neighbor, Elise Hudson, lay in a coma for several days, she responded to no one, not even her closest family members until her pastor sat beside her and softly sang the simple gospel songs that she had sung all her life. The power of God surged through that music, also to the astonishment of the hospice workers, waking her one last time before she went home to be with the Lord." Hamilton goes on to write, "It is fruitless to search for a single musical style or even any blend of musical styles that can assist all Christians in true worship. The followers of Jesus are a far too diverse group of people, which is exactly how it should be. We need rather to welcome any worship music that helps churches produce disciples of Jesus Christ."
If we are to worship God faithfullywe need to do it in a way that brings Him pleasure. Worship is for Him, but in doing it we find ourselves. For us to grow in true worship, we need to take a lesson. Our Lord said to the Samaritan woman in John, Chapter 4, "Yet a time is coming and has now come when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship him in spirit and in truth."
Pastor John Piper says in his book, "Desiring God", "Worship is a way of gladly reflecting back to God the radiance of his worth." As our heart is captured by who God is, what he has created, and how he works, his purposes are always good. The Westminster Catechism also tackled the idea of worship and of the purpose of man well 100 years ago. It states, "The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever."
Personal pleasure and reward are the moral enemies of true spirit worship. In the words of C.S. Lewis, "If we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling around with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in the slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by an offer of a holiday at sea. We are far too easily pleased."
As John Piper put it, "The great hindrance to worship is not that we are pleasure seeking people, not at all, but that we are willing to settle for such pitiful pleasures. We have settled for a home, a family, a few friends, a job, a television, a microwave oven, an occasional night out, a yearly vacation, a new laptop computer. We have accustomed ourselves to such meager, short lived pleasures that our capacity for joy has shriveled and therefore our capacity for true worship has shriveled. Many can scarcely imagine what is meant by "a holiday at sea"- worshipping the living God."
In the words from Jonathan Edwards about Jesus and the truth about who he is,
"We must see and feel the incomparable excellency of the Son of God. Incomparable because in him meet infinite glory and lowest humility,infinite majesty and transcendent meekness, deepest reverence toward God and equality with God, infinite worthiness of good and greatest patience to suffer evil, supreme dominion and exceeding obedience,divine self sufficiency and childlike trust."
To worship in spirit and truth is only the "how" part of worship. We need to ask what do we worship with? That is our lives. Romans 12:1 says, "Therefore I urge you brothers, by these mercies of God, these things we just heard, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship." We need to offer all of ourselves to God in worship. We need to worship in service to others, so they can catch a whiff of the aroma of that same Jesus that we came in contact with. We need to worship with our giving of tithes and offerings, our money, so that's a thank you back to God for all he has given us. We need to worship with our obedience that our following him is an attitude of gratitude. We need to worship with our lips by telling others how they can know this great savior that moves us. And we need to sing. Our lives must become a melody that is a pleasing song to God.
In Christ ,
Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGCQnwn2hIQ
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