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Igaish 6:2-9 oh
Acts 2:42-47 ra

John M. Buchanan a

If you were asked, could you say why you have come here this morning? ; |

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Could you cxplain your reasons for being here in worship and not somewhere clse? ~

I would guess that you are here for as many different reasons as there are oe |
different individuals in this sanctuary. Some people come to worship out of ~ ae

a deep personal neod, a need that can't really be cxplained beyond the statc-
ment, "I just necd to be there, and feel incomplete if I miss." Some people
come to worship out of deep personal hurt - loneliness, broken relationships,
erief, tragedy - the sanctuary seems to be the place to bring burdens that arc
getting too heavy to carry alone. Some people come to worship out of great
joy, fecling that the sanctuary is the place to give expression to a happincss
too intense and too personal to express anywhere else, Others come out of
guilt, feeling that if iar Adee come a sin has been committed. Some come
out of habit, because it's always been that way. And some don't come at all.

I've loarned not to generalize about why people go to church, and I bristle
a little at tho oversimplified indictment that people go to be seen or to
impress thoir neighbors. I've learned that that just isn't so. Becallge no-
body's impressed anymore. Going to church on Sunday morning is not the social
ritual it used to be. And I assume that people come because they want to come
and feel a need to come.

In any case, I would guess that we come for different LES porhaps
a complex mixture of the reasons I have suggested. And I think one of the ‘
problems with worship is to be found here - in our different motives for
coming, and in our widely divergent expectations of what is going to happen in
the hour we spend here. Thus, some people can be thrilled, inspired and lifted
up, while other people are left quite cold ~ all on the same Sunday .

This sermon, thon, is intended to raise the question of Why Worship?
And to set out some ideas of what worship is and what it should be, I invite ri

your response — by taking the time to complete the Worship Worksheet, and by

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talking with me at anytime about any of the things we do on Sunday mornin. ‘ee

For the basic promis, the fundamontal idea, upon which all else hangs, is that
worship is something we do together. :

The topic is large and I should like to address it briefly, from three
vantage points. Pirst, man's universal need to engago in some form of worship.
Second, the spocific input of the Bible and Christian history... Third, worship
in this time and this place by the people of this congregation.

odelitp, on the basic, human level, begins with the spirit of man. It is
universal.. From the hes of recorded history man has wanted and necdcd to
reach out boyond himself, and to givo himself to something greater than
himself. That something hag not always been called God, but it has always
been regarded as an ultimate. For the communist, for instance, it is the cause
of the proletariat, and the moral henieaia to submit self to that cause, even
to the point of death. The groat Nazi rallies at Nuromburg are classic cxamplcos
of man's need to engage in ritualistic worship of something greater than solf.

Worship begins at that point, and again, man's need has been fed by a
sense that there is something to worship. Down through history, man has sonsed
the "other", the “holy", the tnysterium tremendum", the transcendent, the
reality out there that defines oll other reality. And out of this sensc has
come the multiplicity of primitive religions, all of which provide man a vehicle
to reach out, to step into the unknown.

Worship, I think, begins for us at this Level. As such it is always, at
least in part, an act of desparation. We do it because we know we must. We
do it because we sense, down deop in ourselves, awe and reverence before that
which is Holy and Ultimate and Perfect.

That's where it begins, and on this basic human level, it proceeds to
gratitude. The Holy — whatever it is, is responsible for the fact that we have
life and food, and thorefore we are indebted to it. Worship has always,
therefore, included the vehicle for expression of man's gratitude, and his

indebtedness to the creator.
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{he Bible incorporates that human level and then adds specifics. The i Se

account of Isaiah's expericnce in the Tomple includes this sense of awe at. oS .

the terrible holincss of God. It portrays man's sense of inadequacy, impem = —

which the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross was symbolically repeated.

fection ond sin. But there it proceeds with a unique idea. God cleanses man. ty '. ms
The burning coal enables Isaiah to become more than he was, and suddenly we're 1% a g
dealing with 2 whole new idea of worship: sane F that the Holy - the othor - : ‘ s
is not vaguc — but Almighty God, who commmicates with man, who scts man right, i a a
who has a will, and who has demands that need specific response. “Who will go? ; % es
the voice asked. And Isaiah responded, "Hore I am — send moe") te i
Ih the Old Testament worship brings man into touch with the Holy - the % | 2 %
God of Isracl, ond then proceeds to be the vehicle of communication and the ; Om “x
arena for man to respond to the will of God. Israelite worship was highly ee :
formaliéd and liturgical. There wore great ond grand festivals with chanting .
and singing and trumpets blaring and sacrifices. = ;
The New Testament includes no formal liturgy. The carly Christians wore BS
Jews and worshipped regularly in the Temple and Synagogues. But as it became eS
clear that Christianity would not be a Jewish sect, a new style began to . és
emerge. Tho carly Christians, as described in Acts 2, gathered regularly for am
prayer and thanksgiving, and broke bread together. The predominant charac- i ;
teristic of their worship was thanksgiving and joy - they came together to < EY 3
celebrate the fact that Jesus Christ was alive and powerfully present in tie
their lives. | ear x f eS
In the Middle Ages the Christian Church defined worship as the Mass, in 1

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Over the centurics a very important shift was taking place. The Mass became oh

the property of the clergy. Laymen came to witness it. Going to Mass ‘ed ; a
an experience of watching someone else do forbidden things and repeat secret =
phrases. It retained the senso of awe and mystery but removed completely, a
any sense of people participating in a corporate act = wee act of worship. — f a fe 3
That was ono of the reasons pobind the Protestant ‘Reformation. Tho “> ~ as ae
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Reformers gave worship back to the people. In Geneva Calvin had people sing- Sa Fe

ing and reading the Psalter out loud and listening to the word read and preached.
Luther wrote hyms - the greatest of which we sang today, "A Mighty Fortress

Is Our God." And it seomed as if Christian worship would be the honest expres-
gion of the whole people of God: their act of faith: their response to God:
their giving of self to the God who gave them new life in Jesus Christ.

But history, unfortunately docs repeat itself. The Puritans abolished
liturgy and symbolism and celebration. And worship again became a spectator
sport. People came to listen to a sermon, and intellectual exercise which had
a whole lot more to do with man's moral behavior than the goodness and glory
of God. .

Now, that was a long exercise in history - but a necessary one, I believe,
if we are to understand how we got where we are. In the process, man has taken
God's place as tho object of worship. Worship has come to mean some thing
presented for the edification or emotional satisfaction of the worshipper —
but at its beginnings it was an act performed for the glory of God.

That, in a sense is where we are today - carrying the burden of Biblical
and Reformation tradition, but stuck with the/sterility of the Puritans. We're
struggling to got out — to find the forms that are honest and effective and I
think the whole church today is filled with a frustration that worship is not
as meaningful as it ought to be. New forms are being tried ~ some times
successfully, sometimes not. ind it seoms +o ine that we will continue to
experience frustration in our worship until we learn the basics — that worship
is something wo do together - for God's sake, not ours.

Soren Kierkegaard was a Danish theologian who pulled out of the church
because of the sterility of its worship. He wrote a very helpful analogy.
People go to worship, he observed, with the same mind-set that they take to the
theater. The congregation is, essentially, an audience. The minister and the
choir are the actors. ‘The audience comes to hear, laugh, cry, be entertained,

inspired, and the success of the venture depends altogethor on the performance

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and Benet and being. That confrontation reminds us okt our own resinteigin oo Ss

and so we confess our sin - together - to God, but also to each Lihews jna-
wo move quickly to the Good News that we are accepted by God: that the Holy
is, in fact, the God and Father of Jesus Christ our Savior. And our joy finds
expression in the ancient and good words "Glory be to the Father and to the
Son." |

That's the first phase of our common act: praise, confession, forgivencss
and thanksgiving. We sit down: through music we change moods to one of re-
flection and listening: we pray, together: we hehr music ~ lovingly prepared
by our own people: we hear the word read ~ and we hear that word filtered
through the experience, intellect, emotions and voice of the one we have called
to be our minister. Then we respond to what we've heard in hymn, creed — and
most of all by offering ourselves in the form of our money.

That's the rythm of worship here - from Praise to Confession to forgive-
ness to thanksgiving: from the word to response and self-giving. It is not
the final word: it is not perfect: it will change: but it is here - and it
is for you to worship God.

Now for some brief and general reflections. I wish very much that we
were flexible enough to break up into small groups and talk with each other ~
at this point. But we're not, and besides if we did it you'd be late getting
home, and there is no greater pastoral sin than that.

First - confession. We confoss/ to God because we know that God loves and
forgives and accepts us. Ovr act simply puts us in the posture to feel God's
grace. It is also confession to each other for we are a community ~ a body -
a relationship, and our sin is committed in the context of those relationshps.

Second — prayer. As you know, I am not comfortable with the concept of
pastoral prayer. We call it the Congregational Prayers and the idea is that
I suggost - but wo pray together - as a community. You are asked to respond
by saying "Amen - "So be it’. That makes it our prayer together. And, I
might add, not only here — but always when one person presumes to pray on

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| Third - formality. Rituals are intended to help people do together what : BS
they could not do individually. They are meant to free men to express them— ae
selves. rn glad for the ritual of saluting ‘the flag and reciting the pledges es
It frees me to oxpress myself about my country along with other people. I'm :
glad for the creed - the Lord's Prayer - the responses ~ for the same reason. pe
I'm amused by the suggestion that worship ought to be free — because it cannot Se ;
be — at least for long. The fact is that the most structured rituals of all
happen in churches that feel free because they don't print prayers and recite |
creeds, but end up doing and saying the same things week after week. I think
worship needs the fresh wind of freedom - occasionally. I think it can be
healthy and good. But it can also become a liturgy very quickly.

Fourth ~ hymms, a bone of contention with ‘balls people. I chose the hymns | \ -
and to a degree they reflect my taste and I am truly sorry that my cup of tea
is not always yours. But I try, also, to chose hymns that are appropriate,

that tie in with the sermon, that are honest theologically and will help us to aan

gay something significant together. T would ask you to think about the words | a Be
of the hyms, and most of all I would oak you to sing them as an act of worship. Be
The volume of the hyms is a product of my feeling that we need to be thrilled Rs 4
and awed and sometimes startled. I+ is not because the organist has a heavy | =
foot. We have discovered an accoustical problem and will attempt to deal with oS
it. But the music of the organ is meant for celebration: for joy and the out—- -f ae
pouring of the spirits here engaged in addressing Almighty God. Ce at

Finally — I invite you to a renewal of worship here at Bethany Church.
I invite you to a sense of awe before the Holy, the King of Creation,

the Lord God Almighty. One of my favorite quotes is by the late Dag Hammar-

skjold. He said: "God does not die on the day we cease to believe in a | te
personal deity, but we dic on the day we cease to be ieee, by the shoech 4 ee
radiance, renewed daily, of a wonder, the source of which is pares all a
reason." [liarkings, p. 56] I invite you to a new ‘sense of vondor. am *. 2a

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xen * end walks with us. And he Pro as we Join. our voices in n worship |

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I invite you to i 2 awe and participation. ind r invite your Ree ond

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“now to help me conclude this sadeok ee a sovoumding “amen