Today we begin a new worship series that will invite us to reflect on why we do what we do as individual Christians and as congregations. Today, we will focus on why do we worship?

Why do we gather week after week, either in person or online, to join in worshiping our God? Why do we come together to lift our voices in praise and prayer? Why do we come to sit in community and listen to the word of God being read and preached and sung? Why do we worship?

Our faith tells us, and Scripture tells us, that we come together to worship because God is worthy of our worship, our adoration, and our praise. And that is certainly true.

We sing of the power, the majesty, the authority of God. We pray to the God who is compassionate and merciful, always forgiving and loving.  We also pray to a God who seeks justice and fairness and equality for all people. We humbly ask for a fresh anointing of the Spirit so that we might be filled with the courage, the conviction, and the compassion to do the work that God has given us to do and for which on our own we feel so woefully inadequate to do. We come to worship because we believe that in worshiping God the deepest yearnings of our hearts and souls will be met. 

According to the UM Book of Worship:

Our worship in both its diversity and its unity is an encounter with the living God through the risen Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. 

When the people of God gather, the Spirit is free to move them to worship in diverse ways, according to their needs. Different congregations will structure and engage in worship in different ways that are reflective of their culture, their context, their size and resources, as well as the personal preferences of those who worship in that place. However worship is experienced, it has the two fold goal of praising God and empowering us to be God’s people in the world.

However, while it is important for US to worship God and to gather together for prayer and praise, GOD does not require us to worship. In fact, there are numerous places in our Scriptures where God very specifically and passionately tells the people that worship is not the praise and service God desires. Just two examples. From the prophet Amos:

I hate, I despise your festivals,

    and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.

Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings,

    I will not accept them,

and the offerings of well-being of your fatted animals

    I will not look upon.

Take away from me the noise of your songs;

    I will not listen to the melody of your harps.

But let justice roll down like water

    and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

And from Isaiah:

Is not this the fast that I choose:

    to loose the bonds of injustice,

    to undo the straps of the yoke,

to let the oppressed go free,

    and to break every yoke?

Is it not to share your bread with the hungry

    and bring the homeless poor into your house;

when you see the naked, to cover them

    and not to hide yourself from your own kin?

Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,

    and your healing shall spring up quickly;

your vindicator shall go before you;

    the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.

Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer;

    you shall cry for help, and he will say, “Here I am.”

If you remove the yoke from among you,

    the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil,

if you offer your food to the hungry

    and satisfy the needs of the afflicted,

then your light shall rise in the darkness

    and your gloom be like the noonday.

That is the kind of worship that God wants, that acknowledges the will and the nature of the God we worship. 

But, let me clear: It is not a bad thing that worship makes us feel good. When we join our hearts and voices in praise and prayer, when the music is good, we feel energized. It makes us feel good. And that is not a bad thing. But true worship, the worship God desires, has to be more than our weekly hit of dopamine. Surely there are other ways that we can get that feel good feeling. The purpose of worship is not only to inspire and energize us, it is to propel us out into the world, filled with God’s Spirit, to be God’s people, Christ’s body, in the world.

Worship does not end when we leave the building, it just shifts from acts of praise and adoration directed upward to our God, to acts of service, justice, and compassion directed outward to our neighbors, our siblings in Christ.

We worship when we sit with someone who is sick or grieving. 

We worship when we visit someone who is lonely and provide 

companionship. 

We worship when we draw the circle of community and care and 

connection wide enough to welcome and include all.

We worship when we open our arms wide and, like Jesus, say:

Let the children come to me. Do not hinder them . . .

We worship when we work in the community garden or serve at the

community meal so that the hungry might be fed.

We worship when we advocate for the marginalized and the 

minimalized.

We worship when we join forces with others to work for systems

that are fair and that protect and defend all persons, but

especially the most vulnerable among us.

So, yes, let us lift our hearts and voices in joyful praise. Let us open ourselves to the moving of the Spirit in us and among us. And that let us go out to worship with lives dedicated to loving God and serving our neighbors.

Amen.

INVITATION

As we end this service, let us remember that we are not ending our time of worship. In the week ahead may we be mindful of the others ways in which we worship. May our actions, the way we treat and relate to others, may the work that we do to build God’s beloved community be our songs of praise and the prayers we raise as we go about living our daily lives.

And may we always remember that we are empowered to do all this thanks to the power of the Holy Spirit that dwells within us and moves among us. 

In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.