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“I COULDN’T Sing of Your Love forever”
Preached by: Justin Ahlgrim
September 26, 2010 at First Presbyterian Church of Rochelle, IL
Just to let you know, later in the service we will be having a special guest leading us in worship, if that’s ok. He’s a skillful musician who served successfully in the military, actually killing tens of thousands under his command. Consequently he became a national political leader. As a leader he fought many successful conquests. But then he became sexually entangled with the wife of one of his most trusted officers. Attempting a cover up he had the mistress’ husband murdered but later he confessed to sin and God reinstated him and forgave him. So I just wanted to let you know what to expect later in the service. Our guest worship leader, he likes to play instruments, sing, dance, shout, clap his hands and bow down his head in silence when he leads worship. He’ll cheer you toward doing all these things as well. He’s really quite kind of emotional really and moody because of all the pressures he’s under. Sometimes the service may involve some sadness and crying in worship. Other times he’s deliriously happy so don’t be surprised if he gets a little bit reckless and takes some of his clothes off.
If you haven’t guessed the person I have been describing is King David from the Bible and “thank you Lord” that he is not leading us in worship today. Amen? David is known for many things. Among them the Psalms which were attributed to him. And in the history of God’s people, these Psalms have been turned into songs and have been sung during church services or “church worship.” Over time songs became such a focal point of Christians gathering together that I think in some ways even the word “worship” means song or music itself. You hear phrases sometimes I think today like: “let’s stand and worship” that is to sing. Or “I worship at First Presbyterian Church” which begs to question what do you do when you’re not at First Presbyterian Church? We stop worshipping? To “worship” seems to mean to sing in church and I think our perception of what worship is has sometimes been distorted. We live with the truth in our minds that we can worship here on Sunday and Monday through Saturday is something else entirely. So I’d like us to look again at what “worship” might mean for our lives.
So first of all I have a definition for what I think worship really is so feel free to write this down if you want to. I believe worship is humbly revering God in our heart and with our actions. Worship is humbly revering God in our heart and with our actions. See the original term for worship in the Bible is a Hebrew term called Shacach. I know sounds really weird Shacach. Anyways, the word for “worship” Shacach literally meant to bow down and prostrate oneself. So to the first Christians and God’s people in the early and ancient days when they heard the word “worship” they didn’t necessarily think of singing. What they thought of was the posture of worship: To prostrate ones self on the ground to literally go on your hands and knees and with your nose to the floor bow down. When they thought of worship that was the posture of humility they had before God. It was revering God humbly both with the action physically and with the heart spiritually.
With that definition that really opens up what worship can mean. Worship is no longer tied to one place. Worship is not confined to one place or thing. Singing songs can be worship. The action of singing while in the heart praising God for who he is. Worship CAN be listening to the teaching and preaching of the word at church: revering God with the action of listening, and the heart to want to be changed. Worshiping God CAN be praying to God revering God with the action of confession/ repentance/ trusting God with something/ requesting God of something, with the heart of faith that God will come through. Worship CAN be serving food to the homeless with the action of service, and the heart that God commands us to love people made in his image. Worship CAN be all of these things but worship can also be none of these things because to truly worship ALL of these actions require us to humbly revere God both in action and in our heart. Worship is not limited to one place or thing.
I feel like if one person really lived out what worship is about its Nicolas Herman. Nicolas Herman was a guy who lived in the seventeenth century and you may know him a Brother Lawrence. He entered the monastery and he did what he called “practicing the presence of God.” Now in the monastery Brother Lawrence, he wasn’t anybody special. He didn’t preach or teach the word, he didn’t lead in any music worship at all. Brother Lawrence’s job in the monastery was scrubbing pans in the kitchen. He was the dishwasher. But here’s what he says about worshiping God. “It makes little difference to me; I turn my little omelet in the pan for the love of God. When it is finished if I have nothing to do I prostrate myself on the ground and worship my God who gave me the grace to make it after which I am happier than a king. When I can do nothing else it is enough to pick up a straw for the love of God.” Now that may seem a little radical to you or a little weird to think that you can pick up a straw in worship for God but that’s the whole idea. Worship isn’t confined to one place or thing. It’s literally anything we do in which we are humbly revering God in both action and in our heart. For Brother Lawrence he could pick up a straw and be thankful for everything God had provided for him and praise him for it. Even in the littlest things we can worship.
Also worship is not just tradition. Here’s where we get to Mark seven. So Mark seven, recap: the religious leaders are talking to Jesus. He says, “Why are your disciples eating with defiled hands?” You see, in the ancient days to wash your hands wasn’t just something your mom told you to do. It was the law. The religious leaders of that day believed in something called the “oral torah.” The torah was the bible we follow today. But the religious leaders in the ancient days also followed something that they called the oral torah. It was their own interpretation of the law. One of their interpretations was that you need to wash your hands before you eat. So here Jesus’ own followers aren’t doing that and the religious leaders get really upset. Jesus just looks at them and says, “Well that Isaiah prophesies about you hypocrites. Because you honor me with your lips perhaps but your heart is far from me. In vain do you worship teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.” See the problem that Jesus was pouring out to these people is that they’re just following this oral torah; this law and tradition just for the sake of following it. It wasn’t necessarily bad but they had forgotten why they were doing it in the first place. They were condemning people for not following the tradition. They were so stuck in following the tradition themselves that they lost the heart of why they did it in the first place. I feel like that same problem can happen in church where we can follow these traditions but miss the heart of why we do it. We can go to church and we can sing and do the Lords Prayer and do communion and we can do these traditions that are good and many of which are even commanded in scripture but we miss the heart of why we’re doing it. In so doing we’re not worshipping. Because worship is not just following a tradition and it’s not just doing an action. It’s humbly revering God also in our hearts.
I feel like we have the same problem as Hubert did. Here’s Hubert’s story. “Hubert smiles remembering sitting still and silent as if he too were carved in stone. The simplicity, the ordered beauty of the service, the splendor of the music had seen to him the way it always should be and it was the same way. It was the same way it was since he had been born. Hubert still attended every Sunday. Worship was as much a part of Hubert’s routine as buying the same two Sunday newspapers in the same stall on his same way home. It was as much a part of his routine as his lunch taken from the fridge. Whose choices gleamed with prepackaged selections, the food he always had taste for and was never surprised by. Worship was as much a part of Hubert’s routine as the short afternoon walk through the park of trees, aligned in uniformity, the path near chirp-less from birds and the leaves fallen long ago. Worship was as much a part of Hubert’s routine as his hour long nap, routine as an evening of television. The practice of his religion which it seemed to him now had never been more than just that: routine. Worship had become “religion,” action, a formal affirmation of a received set of values, yes, but all of it, all that it ever was and ever had been was never more than a pointless exercise designed to give shape to the week. The wonder, the mystery, the sense of history had all gone.”
There was a year at Bethel College where I stopped worshipping at chapel, I stopped worshipping at our church services. I just couldn’t do it. I felt like I would come into chapel and sing these songs about God’s justice and love and my complete and utter surrender to him and just being a Christian for him and being open and bold and loving and having my life be transformed and then I would leave the chapel service and it was the same thing. My life wasn’t changed at all. It was like I wasn’t listening to the preaching or I wasn’t listening to the words I was singing. There was a disconnect between how I “worshipped” and how I acted so I just stopped. I couldn’t do it. I stopped singing music along with the Christians standing and sitting next to me. I stopped listening to the preaching and teaching of the word because it just wasn’t real for me. The problem was is that I was trying to live a world in which I was just following a tradition to worship one day a week at church service and it wasn’t working for me. It is there that I realized and I came across passages like Mark 7 and Isaiah 29. “These people honor me with their lips but their heart is far from me. In vain to they worship.” That’s when I realized I don’t want to do that. I don’t want to worship in vain. I don’t want to sing “I could sing of your love forever” but don’t mean it. I want to worship not just Sunday I want to worship with my life. I want to humbly revere God in action and in my heart and mean it. Not just do it once a week. Not just do it as a tradition. Let me ask you a question. Do you worship here? Do you allow yourself to worship here in church or is it just a tradition.
Worship is not confined to one place or things. Worship is not tradition. And worship is not duty. Perhaps you went through the first two things thinking “ah Justin; I know worship is not just one place or thing. I know worships not tradition. I do worship because God wants me to!” And well yeah that’s true but worship is not a duty. In fact there are times in the bible where God even says and talks to His people that are going to church fulfilling duties and commitments but they’re not revering God in their heart and God says it’s despicable to me. I know, it sounds terrible but if you look in Isaiah 1:12-16 there it is. God is talking and he’s saying to his people, people like us, “When you come to worship me who asked you to parade through my courts with all your ceremony? Stop bringing me your meaningless gifts, your incense offerings discuss me. As for your church celebrations (paraphrased) they are sinful and false. I want no more of your pious meetings. I hate your church celebrations and your annual festivals. They are a burden to me. I cannot stand them. When you lift up your hands in prayer I will not look. Though you offer many prayers I will not listen. Wash yourselves and be clean. Get your sins out of my sight. Give up your evil ways.” What’s going on here is these people were doing the action of going to church. They were doing the action of worship out of duty but their heart was far from it. They forgot that God doesn’t want them to do worship out of duty. God wants us to worship him out of love because he loved us.
Piper a famous theologian of today says, “the real duty of worship is not the outward duty to say or do the liturgy. The real duty of worship is the inward duty. The command to delight yourself in the Lord, be glad in the Lord and rejoice. The reason this is the real duty of worship is that it honors God while the empty performance of ritual does not.” Picture for instance last July, July 25th was my one year anniversary to my lovely bride Deb and on that day I got her a bouquet of flowers and she said, “Oh honey, these are the most beautiful flowers.” What would it be like if I answered her, “No honey, it was just my duty. I had to. It was our anniversary.” I’d get a slap on the face I’ll tell you that’s what would have happened! No she said, “Honey these are the most beautiful flowers.” And I said back, “I gave them to you because I love you. Happy anniversary.” I think it’s the same with God. What would God say if we said, “Hey God I went to church. I did my bible devotions, I prayed the prayers, I did it because it’s my duty to you.” Would God go, slap, slap, slap? “I want you to love me. Worship isn’t about doing. It’s not just about doing the action. Worship me because you love me. Humbly revere me in your heart.”
So my challenge and question for you is, “Are you worshipping God? Are you worshipping God during service, not just singing the songs, not just listening to the sermons but do you revere God when you sing those words and when you pray those prayers? Are you worshipping God at home and at work? Worship isn’t limited to this gathering here together. This is a great opportunity to worship in a unique way but worship is also an individual thing. It’s not corporate solely. Do you worship God at home? How can you worship God more this week? Think about it. How can you revere God perhaps on your way to work? How can you revere God at work? How can you revere and worship God at home making dinner or spending time with the family? What are some ways you can worship God? If Brother Lawrence can pick up a straw for the love of God and prostrate himself on the ground and thank God for everything he provides surely we can find some ways to worship God too. Ultimately I think worship was meant to be more than one day a week. Worship to God is meant to last the rest of our lives. Let’s pray.
Father we’re here now and no longer out of duty. We’re not here out of tradition. We’re not here because this is the only place to do it. Lord, we’re here to worship You. We’re here to worship You and love You as You’ve loved us. Father, teach us and help us to worship You at home, throughout out lives to not view worship as this thing we do for a couple of hours once a week. But Lord, have worship be a part of our lives, yet more than just routine. Father change us in our worship for You. Help us delight ourselves in You to find joy in You, love in You. In Your precious name we pray. Amen.
Justin Ahlgrim
Youth Director
First Presbyterian Church
Rochelle, Illinois
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