The Heart of Worship

I think I could write one of David Letterman's top ten lists. "The top ten reasons why I can't go to church." I'm sure you could guess many of the excuses I've heard across the years from people about why they can't make church. But I'm also pretty sure you'd never guess some of them. Starla and I have said that when we retire we want to write a book about the incredible excuses we've heard from God's people.

Actually the excuses that people give for not participating in worship can be conveniently grouped into two or three major categories. The first category is what I call the "personal inconvenience" category. Things like, "Well, it's my only day to sleep in." Or just this week I heard about some folks who stopped attending church because they changed the time of service and it messed up their Sunday morning brunch routine.

Another category is the "I'm better than you are" category. These are the excuses like, "Well the church is just full of hypocrites. If it wasn't so full of hypocrites, I'd go." Another category is what I call the "mommy dearest" category. This is the kind of excuse that goes something like, "Well when I was a kid my mom forced us to go to church against our will and that just ruined my desire to be in church."

Eugene Peterson says, "There was a time when I responded to such statements with simple arguments that exposed them as flimsy excuses. Then I noticed that it didn't make any difference. So I don't respond anymore." I know what he means. Early on in my ministry I'd get kind of angry at those stupid excuses and try to convince the person of the error of their ways through an airtight rational argument.

Then as I got older, I just started laughing at the insanity of the kinds of things people will come up with to avoid doing the right thing. Some of the excuses of people have frankly become a source of comic relief in the parsonage. But for me, it's gone way beyond anger and even beyond amusement. It's now just profoundly sad to me to realize how much people are missing out on when they take the worship of almighty God so casually.
Peterson says, now "I listen and go home and pray that the person will one day find the one sufficient reason for going to church, which is God."

Psalm 122 is the song of a person who not only decides to go to church and worship God, but who is glad about it. A person who can't think of anyplace they'd rather be than in the house of the Lord.

Now remember the setting of these psalms. These are songs of ascent. They are songs for the road. They are the songs of pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem to worship God. This is the third one now in the series. This is a song of arrival. The singers are now in the city of Jerusalem, which was their goal.

Notice verse two: "Our feet are standing in your gates, O Jerusalem." So the singers are rejoicing that they've made it to the city of God and very soon they'll have opportunity to enter into worship. "I was glad when they said to me, 'Let us go to the house of the Lord'."

Can I ask you a question? Are you glad about being here today? Some are. Others are enduring it. Perhaps you're here out of a favor to a loved one, but you wouldn't choose it if it were up to you. I really do hope you can find a better reason for coming, but I'm really glad you're here anyway. Some know by now exactly how many light bulbs are burned out and by the time this sermon is over you will have counted how many boards make up the ceiling. (It's 536, so stop counting.) But as much as people make up excuses sometimes to avoid church, it's actually one of the most popular activities in the world.

This psalm is an example of what millions of Christians around the world have done and are doing this Lord's day--to gather in an assigned place and worship God with others of like faith. Worship really is (in spite of already noted exceptions) voluntary. Most people actually worship because they choose to. Truth is, more people are in worship on any given Sunday than are at football games in the fall, or on the golf links, or at the lake.

Worship is at the very core of who we are and what we are to do as the people of God in this world. Worship is a sign to us that indeed God is here in our midst, so don't be afraid. Our first work as Christians is to worship God in spirit and in truth. Everything else we do as the church must flow out of our worship. If it does not, then it's nothing more than self-effort.

My whole life has been centered in the church. I was born into the church, raised on the front row, trained in Sunday school, given opportunities for ministry and called to pastoral ministry in the church. The church educated me, affirmed my calling, ordained me, and gives me a place of service today. The church helps me to raise my kids and the cycle is continuing as they find their place in the church of Jesus Christ.

But as great all of that has been, the greatest thing of all has been to worship God along with God's people. Just recently the family of Nazarenes from around the globe gathered in general assembly. By far the best part of that gathering, is to participate in worship with my sisters and brothers from around the world. Although our forms of worship are very different, we are celebrating the God who in Christ has redeemed us and has given to us the sanctifying work of his Spirit.

I need that worship experience. Because there I will remember in the midst of that amazing diversity that it's not about style of music, or language or dress or volume or building or anything like that! It's about the God and Father of my Lord Jesus Christ who loved me before I ever knew him and gave himself on a cross to save me from my darkness. He pulled me out of a miry pit of self and placed my feet on the solid rock of his grace and mercy, and there I stand today.

You may get tired of hearing me say this but I'm gong to keep saying it until we get it--"it's not about us, it's all about him." If I don't regularly worship with God's people, I too forget that simple truth. Everything of lasting value that the church has given to me comes out of worship. In worship I learned to sing praise to God. In worship I learned the comfort of corporate prayer. In worship I learned to bear witness to my faith. In worship I learned that I can no longer live demanding my own rights, but that all personal preferences give way a singular focus on God who alone is worthy of my worship.

So you see, I believe rather passionately that worship is critical to your spiritual health. I want you to be here when we worship. Not so that we can say we had such and such a number in our church on Sunday. Believe me, that's not what I'm giving my life to. No, I want you to be here so that you and I can be connected to the source of real life. I want you to be here so that you and I together can be reminded that my existence does not begin and end with me, but with the one who made me and sustains my life.

Now in this song, the psalmist identifies three things that make worship so critical to our lives. First, gathering for worship gives a necessary structure and rhythm to life. Verse 3: "Jerusalem is built like a city that is closely compacted together. That is where the tribes go up." Worship provides a kind of boundary to life. It's a point from which all of life can be ordered and aligned. No matter what else happens in my life, I know that on Sunday morning we are going to gather here and life will become reoriented to God once again.

Second, worship nurtures our hunger to be in relationship with God. In the last part of verse 4 it's interesting to me that the psalmist says that all of this is "according to the statute given to Israel." In other words, worship is not just a good idea, it's the law of God. Why? Because we need to be with him to survive. God knows this. Sometimes we forget this. I don't really know how it happens exactly, but so easily we can begin to believe that it doesn't really matter too much if I miss worship. But sooner or later, it catches up with us. So the psalm essentially says, "Listen, I don't care whether you feel like it or not, it has been decreed for you to give praise to the Lord." You need this so don't miss it. It's a command of God.

A bad question for Sunday morning is, "Are we going to church today?" I'm grateful that that question was never asked in my home. My dad went to work on days he didn't necessarily feel like it because he knew it was critical to our survival as a family. If we only worship when we felt like it, we'll be in deep trouble. So you don't feel like coming some Sunday? So what? What makes you think this is about you? So you hear the senior pastor is gone this week and someone else is preaching? So what? What makes you think it's about you?

I'll let you in on a little secret. Do you know there are Sundays when I don't feel like being here? I understand that. And I also understand that if I'm honest, I usually feel that way when I haven't put first things first during the week. That's no time to stay away from worship. That's the time to run to the sanctuary and to the safety of God's people gathered before the throne of God.

The third thing that makes worship so critical is that it centers our attention on the decisions of God. Notice verse 5: "There the thrones for judgment stand." What does that mean? Worship is the place where we hear God say to us, "Thus saith the Lord." This is how I've created things to be, this is how things work, this is what you can trust you life to.

Without that, I might begin to think during the week that it's okay to hold a grudge against someone who has wronged me. But then I come in here and I hear the word of the Lord, "Forgive as God in Christ has forgiven you." And I remember in the midst of my conflict with another person, "it's not about me, it's all about him."

Now the fact is that this worship we are talking about is only an hour or two a week. Can that make any difference? Well the balance of this psalm says that it does. We are invited to pray that the kingdom might come on earth as it is in heaven. Verse 6: "for the peace of Jerusalem"--in other words, the "places" of our lives.

Prayer moves worship into the everyday world. It creates the intersection between a holy God and our everyday lives. Because even though this moment is about honoring him, he invites us to lay every detail of our lives before him. And you know something? He has a word for every detail of our lives. He really does. Every detail. That word might be "I'll heal it." That word might be, "I want you to let it go." That word might be, "Walk through it and I'll give you grace to endure." Whatever it is, in worship we bring those pitiful gifts of our circumstances to God. I don't know why he wants them, but he does.

And as we lay those gifts before him, he promises two things. Shalom and shalvah. Peace and security.

Peace--the wholeness and sanity of life that only comes when we are properly oriented to god who made us and loves us and keeps us.

Security--the trust of a god who preserves our lives by keeping us from the evil that is so prevalent in our world.

See why worship is so critical? Can you see why these people who were so hungry for that kind of sanctuary rejoiced when someone said to them, "Let us go to the house of the Lord?" Loved ones, I don't know how to say this any better. You need this time. You need this sanctuary. You need worship.

So the next time you are tempted to pull out one of the top ten excuses for skipping church, put the list aside and join the song of these pilgrims: "I was glad when they said unto me, let us go to the house of the Lord."