Introduction
Here’s a question for you that just aches to asked on
Ascension Sunday: How do we present Christ to a consumer-oriented, sex-crazed,
self-preoccupied, success-focused, technologically sophisticated,
light-hearted, entertainment-centered culture? I think Douglas Webster – a sociologist in the
Protestant tradition – cuts to the chase with this question wondering if the
American church of the 21st century even knows how to distinguish
between authenticity and attractiveness – integrity or excitement – the way of
discipleship and paths of perpetual distraction?
· In his study of American
popular culture and religious habits, Eyes
Wide Open, William Romanowski notes that when it comes to movies,
television, music, pornography, video games and all the rest researchers were
unable to distinguish any discernible difference between those who follow
Christ as Lord and those who do not.
· What’s more, as
the largest evangelical church in the United States – Willow Creek outside of
Chicago – discovered, there appear to be no significant differences between the
cultural habits and practices of so-called conservative Christians and their
more liberal cousins.
Romanowski concludes that “the attitudes, desires and
values of materialism are a powerful force in North American life (for the
religious and non-religious alike.)
After all, while 40% of Americans say they attend church every week, 70%
visit a mall.” (p. 178) Cut to my presenting question: How do we present Christ to a consumer-oriented, sex-crazed,
self-preoccupied, success-focused, technologically sophisticated,
light-hearted, entertainment-centered culture?
· Another way of
asking that question that isn’t so provocative might be: how can we live into the wisdom of our
worship in our generation? How can we
embody the counter-cultural values of Jesus?
How can we pass on our faith to our children and loved ones? How can we
share the good news of God’s grace?
· Well, a growing
consensus suggests that worship
is the best way to both present the upside-down grace of God in Jesus Christ to
the world and pass on and train others in an authentic faith. Worship – where we practice gathering
together as God’s people – learning how to be centered in prayer and praise and
engaging in God’s grace; worship – where we reflect upon the Word of God made
flesh within and among us and then open our hearts and minds to all of the
costs and joys of discipleship.
Worship is where we are trained in God’s ways – not
the addictions of our atavistic culture – but rather a sacred alternative wherein
the last shall come first, the wounded made whole and all sinners given a taste
of God’s forgiveness. That’s what
today’s psalm is telling us: when we are
together as God’s people – clapping, singing, praising, praying, lamenting,
listening and sharing – we are touched and nourished by joy. Worship is essential to forming authentic
faith…
Insights
But that’s not a popular thing to say these days: we
are so captivated by the idol of consumption and the lure of self-fulfillment
that many can no longer differentiate between their feelings about God
and actually picking up the Cross to follow Christ as Lord. Many believe that if we think and feel that
we are being faithful, well then it must be true, right?
Small wonder that our Protestant Reformers “maintained
a deep reserve about the self, about the reliability of human reasoning and…
about human feelings and perceptions… The Reformers held that human beings
should be loved but, because they are sinners, they ought not to be blindly
trusted. They granted that personal
experience is powerful because it is intense, but they insisted that we should
not allow this power to delude us into thinking that experience is always
right.” (Marva Dawn, Reaching
Out without Dumbing Down, p. 71)
· Did you hear
that: we insist that we should not allow
the powerfully intense feelings we know delude us into thinking that they are
always right? That’s why we’ve started
this series concerning worship – with a clear emphasis on how to live into the
wisdom of our worship – because worship offers an alternative we can practice
if we are paying attention.
· And with the risk
of offending someone – which is not my goal - I’ve found over the years that
sometimes we don’t fully know how to pay attention to the very different parts
of worship. We DO them – we sing the
hymns of praise, we say the prayers of confession and pass the peace – but we
don’t really know WHY we are doing them.
And if we don’t know why
these practices are important in worship, it is unlikely that we’ll know how to
live into their wisdom once worship is over.
So last week we considered the
wisdom of the first part of worship:
gathering. It is all about
being centered and quiet, open to God’s grace and then proclaiming with joy
that we are the Lord’s beloved. Remember
when we practiced using water to keep us aware that “We are the beloved of God
and our lives have meaning?” Well, that’s
part one of worship in our tradition.
Part two – engaging – is equally important but in a
very different way. If you have been
paying attention to our worship bulletin, you’ll know that under the second
heading – ENGAGE – there is another brief invitation that tells us this is a time to share our prayers – spoken and silent – with God
and one another.
· Do you sense the rhythm in how these two parts fit
together? It is the inward/outward
journey of authentic faith: we come in from the world to be
centered in God’s love and then in the safety of God’s embrace we go out into community with shared
prayer.
· Are you with me? Do
you have a sense of what I’m talking about here? There is an ordered movement to our lives and
worship when the Spirit leads us that is both inward and outward – almost like
your breath - which is, afterall, the same word the Bible uses for the Holy Spirit, too.
Now there are three distinct parts to being engaged to God
and one
When we pray
our prayer of confession early in worship – using the spoken word as well as
silence and song – it is a recognition of our sin. Notice we don’t START with sin in worship –
we begin with grace and joy – but because we’re honest sin is never far
away. It can be personal sin, social
sin, horrible and unspeakable sin like was discovered this week in Cleveland,
hidden and invisible sin as so often happens in war or just plain and simple, ordinary
and seemingly inconsequential sin like white lies or bragging.
I rather like the way theologian James Gustafson
describes human sin as having to do with "mis-placed trust or confidence,
wrongly ordered objects of desire, and corrupt rationality and dis-obedience." There’s no wiggle room here – and that’s
important – and here’s why:
· All people hate the notion of sin – and we hate being reminded
that we are sinners even more – so it is easy for us to play games that go
something like this: We know that WE
haven’t done things like Hitler – or Saddam Hussein – or the latest mass
murderer – so WE aren’t horrible people.
· And if WE aren’t horrible people – and most of us aren’t –
then we really have no interest in thinking of ourselves as sinners because
sinners are those who do horrible things – and that’s not us.
But that’s just
where we get into trouble because, you see, sin is not a moralistic judgment
based upon what we do. It is not, as
Eugene Peterson says “a word that places humans somewhere along a continuum
ranging from angel to ape, assessing them as relatively good or bad. Rather, sin designates humans in relation to
God… sinner… (does not mean that we are) hypocritical, disgusting or evil…
Rather sinner means that something is awry between us and the Lord.” And it applies to everyone – Republican and
Democrat, women and men, gay and straight, adults and children, rich and poor
and everybody in-between.
How did St.
Paul put it: all have sinned and fallen
short of the grace of God – all. Is that
clear? Am I making sense to you
here? Sin is NOT so much about what we
DO, but about our condition as people who not only miss the mark in our daily
lives but willfully wander away from God’s love.
That’s why
every week we have a prayer of confession – said together so that no one is
left out and no one can pretend they aren’t included – it serves as a reminder
that all have sinned and fallen short of the grace of God. We also use the spoken word as well as song
and silence to help us grasp, experience and own this truth.
· Why is silence important during our shared prayer of
confession? How does music take this deeper?
· You know we use two key musical prayers – the Kyrie and the
Lamb of God – and what are they telling us about sin?
The first part
of engaging God and one another in prayer involves confession – but it doesn’t
stop there because we could not own our sin if we didn’t trust that God brings
forgiveness – sin and grace are united in our worship. That’s why we always have an assurance of
God’s pardon that is spoken by a worship leader and then affirmed by passing
the peace and singing the “amen.” As
soon as I remind you that by faith God gives us all grace for the forgiveness
of sins, I invite you to share a sign of this peace.
· Why does that matter?
What do you experience at this time?
· And what happens when we sing the amen after the peace: why is this important? Do you know what AMEN means? Truly… we are using the sounds of joy in our
bodies to affirm that beyond our sin God’s grace is more powerful and real.
In our worship, we ENGAGE first with confession,
second with an assurance and affirmation of God’s grace and third with… sharing
the concerns of our community. These are more than mere announcements – this is a
time when we give some shape and form to how we are living out our mission of
grace and joy in the community – how the Word of the Lord is becoming flesh
within and among us. This is engagement
in the most incarnational way – nothing abstract – just reality.
· What do you think
about that?
· Sharing our
concerns about mission and ministry is NOT the place for a mini-sermon nor is
it the place to argue about a commitment:
it is a sharing born of the Spirit at work in the church – an invitation
for you to go deeper into the work of grace in this time and place – ok?
In this morning’s text Jesus promised his first
disciples – and by faith you and me, too – that we will receive power from the
Holy Spirit to be faithful if we wait upon the Lord. Our concerns of the community are the fruit
of this waiting. And like the scripture
continues to say - after he had said this, he was lifted up as if in a cloud in
the heavens… the disciples stood their gazing in confusion until two angels dressed
in white robes said: Disciples of
Christ, why do you stand there with your head in the clouds – our concerns
offer you a way to move into concrete action born of grace.
Conclusion
When I was an adolescent in church I hated all talk
about sin: not only was it depressing
but I didn’t believe it applied to me. I
detested saying the prayer of confession each Sunday in unison and often asked
my pastor, “Why can’t we just make our confession in silence?” And he said, “Because we’re all in this
together.” For a long time I didn’t get
what he meant but then, like the Apostle Paul said so well, “when I was a child
I thought like a child and spoke like a child and acted like a child; but when
I grew up I put childish things away.”
That is to say, after I spent way too long trying way
too hard trying to ignore and excuse my own sin, I began to see how important
it was to be reminded and called into confession every week. I need that to
stay grounded in grace – to face my wandering nature – to sing it and share it
and own it. I need to cry out, “Lord,
have mercy.” I need to know trust that
the Lamb of God takes away the sin of the world. I need to know that my sin has been forgiven – healed
and cleansed and released – so that I can move back into the hard realities of
life on God’s terms. Not my terms. Not the culture’s terms. Not sin's terms – but God’s terms. Once upon a time Jesus put it like this to
his first disciples:
Everything I told you while I was with you
comes to this: All the things written about me in the Law of Moses, in the
Prophets, and in the Psalms have to be fulfilled. So he went on to open their understanding of
the Word of God, showing them how to read their Bibles this way. He said, “You
can see now how it is written that the Messiah suffers, rises from the dead on
the third day, and then a total life-change through the forgiveness of sins is
proclaimed in his name to all nations—starting from here, from Jerusalem!
You’re the first to hear and see it. You’re the witnesses. What comes next is
very important: I am sending what my Father promised to you, so stay here in
the city until he arrives, until you’re equipped with power from on high.” He then led them out of the city over to
Bethany. Raising his hands he blessed them, and while blessing them, took his
leave, being carried up to heaven. And they were on their knees, worshiping him
and were able to return to Jerusalem bursting with joy.
And what was true then is true
now: worship is how we best meet and
present the fullness of God, learn how to trust it and share it in ways that
are filled with joy.
credits:
2) blog.sketchinglove.com3) www.havenplacemusic.com
4) www.123rf.com
5) taolifestudio.com
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