Sermons
August 18, 2024 (Proper 15)
“Yay, God!”
Psalm 95:1-7
We memorized today’s reading in my worship class in seminary. The professor seemed to be implying that this is the correct Biblical way to worship—it’s the model for what we might call a “contemporary” or “praise” service: It begins on a high note with songs of praise, keeps our focus on God, and then moves us toward a quieter time, when we will hear the Word read, proclaimed, and taught.
That’s fine, but there are a couple problems. First, churches that adopt a model based on Psalm 95 tend to speak of only the singing as “worship,” and what comes after it is “teaching.” That means that a person who doesn’t prefer this style of worship often does so because they don’t like the music, and a person who does prefer it could be expressing that they do like that style of music. Second, this is absolutely not the only Biblical model for worship.
Years ago I led a Sunday school class through a study of worship. We looked at the history of worship, worship spaces, liturgy, and so on. But we began by looking at several Biblical models of worship—Psalm 95 was one of them, but there are at least four others.
First we have Exodus 24, which describes a covenant ceremony. Moses and the leaders of the people begin the worship time the day before the ceremony with their own private worship. Then Moses tells the people all that God has told him, and the people respond.[1] An altar is built and sacrifices are made, the blood of the covenant thrown onto the altar and on the people to seal the covenant between them and God. Then Moses reads from the book of the covenant, in which he has just written down all that God told him, and the people respond again, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.” Then the worship leaders are suddenly in God’s presence, with the barrier between earth and heaven removed. After this there is a communal meal.
Isaiah 6:1-8 is the basis for what we might call “liturgical” or high-church worship: Isaiah is in the sanctuary, and suddenly the barrier between heaven and earth is removed (the imagery is similar to what’s in Exodus 24) and he sees into God’s throne room, sees God on the throne, and hears the worship that is taking place there. This leads the prophet to cry out because of his sinfulness, whereupon an angel touches his lips and declares his sin forgiven. Then Isaiah hears a word from God and is invited to respond and make a commitment to what God has asked of him. Finally, he is given a charge and sent out with an assignment and a message.
Revelation 4 borrows images from both Exodus 24 and Isaiah 6, and includes an altered form of the song the seraphim sing in Isaiah 6. Our hymn “Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty!” comes from Revelation 4, along with the chorus “Thou Art Worthy.” Both are in the context of ceaseless heavenly worship that includes a great deal of singing and adoration of God, who sits on the throne with the Lamb, a name for Jesus found all over Revelation, and in the first chapter of John.
There’s a sense in which all worship on earth is a rehearsal of sorts for this endless worship in heaven.
The final model for worship that we looked at in this Sunday school class is at the end of the second chapter of Acts, after Pentecost has made the gathered disciples into the church and thousands of new converts have joined in. Interestingly, at this point in the early church, believers still went to the Temple regularly, including for daily prayer. But they also gathered in homes, where they heard the apostles teach and broke bread together. They experienced what some might call “Spirit-filled” worship, complete with signs and wonders,[2] and the church grew more and more every day.
Which of these models is the correct one?
Any one of them can be, depending on the culture of a given congregation or tradition. If that’s the case, then none of them is wrong. We might not prefer a particular model or style, but that doesn’t mean it’s wrong, because all of these models are found in the Bible.
A worship style that is “wrong” for a given church is wrong only because it doesn’t fit who they are.
But that leads us to the question, “What makes a gathering worship”?
It’s not whether there is a particular style of music included. Only two of the models include any music at all. The Psalms tell us quite often that praising God with music, with singing and various musical instruments that were in existence at that time, is necessary and expected. (I don’t, by the way, think it’s necessary to limit the musical instruments used in worship to only those found in the Bible. Just because there were no guitars or organs in existence when the Psalms were written doesn’t mean they have no place in church.) But most of these Biblical models don’t say anything about music.
It’s not whether or not there is a priest or some other ordained person present to be an intermediary between us and God. Remember that in both Exodus 6 and Revelation 4 there is no such intermediary, and I would suspect that in the informal worship gatherings of Revelation 2 there wasn’t anyone like that, either.
The earliest Disciples churches, out on the American frontier, quite often didn’t have professional clergy. They were led by elders, who were raised up from within the congregation.
And, much as my Disciple heart hates to hear this, it’s not whether or not we take Communion that makes a gathering worship. Weekly observance of the Lord’s Supper is part of our culture, and so we feel like something is missing if we attend another church that doesn’t do so weekly; but those other churches have different cultures from what we have.
It’s not whether or not there is a sermon. There’s not really a sermon in Isaiah 6 or Revelation 4, and the “apostles’ teaching” in Acts 2 seems a whole lot more informal than what we think of when we hear the word sermon.
And it’s not worship based on what we get out of it—if we go away affirmed or uplifted, or if we go away having enjoyed the music or some other part of the service, or even if we go away having been challenged.
So what does make a gathering worship?
Based on these models, all taken together, I think we can identify a few things that should be included. There should be plenty of time devoted to praise and adoration of God. We should hear God’s Word, which we generally think of as the Bible. There should be prayer. I think, although not all of these models include it, there should be some teaching—although, again, it doesn’t have to come from a professional clergy person. And we should be sent out with some kind of assignment or ministry, even if it’s as general as “love and serve the Lord.”
What kind of forms these elements take is secondary, but I think they all need to be there.
But there is one more thing that makes a gathering worship: It must be focused on God.
When we come here on Sunday, we aren’t the audience. We—all of us, whether we’re up front or in the pews—are performers of sorts, and God is the audience.
That’s why what form the various elements take, the order they’re placed in, what style fits a particular congregation, is secondary. And whether or not we “like” the music, the sermon, the prayers, the taste of the Communion bread, or whatever, is way low in order of importance, because worship isn’t about us. It’s about God.
And that’s why worship is so important, regardless of what form it takes or what kind of music is included. It’s why it’s a spiritual discipline—something we do in order to grow in Christlikeness and deepen our relationship with God.
Because we gather regularly to focus our attention and our praise on God, everything else we do is put in its proper perspective. Our lives become about how we will best serve God and fulfill the two Greatest Commandments: Love God with everything we are and everything we have, and love our neighbors as ourselves. Our lives stop being about us alone, just like worship isn’t about us.
If we worship God regularly, God can become more than just an afterthought in our lives; we just might find ourselves thinking about God and about what God wants us to be about—and doing what we know to be God’s will—at times other than the formal worship service. And that changes the attitude with which we approach God in worship.
Sometimes people will talk as though gathering for worship is less important than going out and serving God and our neighbor. That’s a false distinction. Worship and service go hand in hand; the one informs the other and vice versa.
If we have worshiped God—put our focus on God and given praise to God—then we go out to do God’s work in the world with a very different attitude from what we have if we just grimly continue working without that regular pause to remember why we’re doing it. And, as the Hebrew prophets say in many places, our worship means more to God if we’ve been out in the world doing justice, loving mercy, and walking humbly with God.
[1] Between the altar-building and Moses’ writing down the covenant in the midst of the ceremony, this looks like it took place over several days, rather than in one service as we might envision it today.
[2] We know ecstatic speech (“tongues”) was part of early Christian life from other places in Acts as well as 1 Corinthians; but Acts 2 speaks specifically of the Spirit giving the believers the ability to speak in other earthly languages so that the bystanders could understand their proclamation of the Good News. Whether speaking in tongues as we think of it today was part of Acts 2-style worship isn’t made clear here.