St.
Paul’s United Church Sunday, August 27, 2006
The Wonder of Worship – Rev. David Mundy
1 Kings
8:22-30
Psalm 84 John 6:56-69
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Just more than a week ago I was enjoying the beauty of Killarney
Provincial Park in Northern Ontario while camping with our son Isaac. During
the day we had canoed in Georgian Bay and climbed a ridge of
La Cloche mountains to give us a great vista. As darkness descended, we
sat by a campfire chatting about life in general. It had been overcast during
the afternoon but when I looked up through the trees I could see stars. I
suggested that we walk out to the shore and check out the sky-scape.
In that area the shoreline is glacier-smoothed pink granite, so we lay
down on our backs to get the best view. The night air was cool but the rock was
still radiating the warmth absorbed through the day. The clouds had cleared and
because we were so far from the light pollution of the Golden Horseshoe the
stars were brilliant. We could see the great swath of the Milky Way stretching
across the heavens. The Big Dipper was easily identifiable, along with other
constellations.
This experience was awesome! That word “awesome” has been somewhat
debased in recent years, yet the notion that we can experience awe and wonder
in the natural world is certainly important to me and I’m sure to you as well.
I suppose I could have felt rather insignificant and worthless as I was
reminded that each of those points of light represented another solar system
and that within the pale outline of the Milky Way were the millions of stars of
just one galaxy. Instead it made me aware of the Creator and the deep mystery
that in the vastness of the universe I matter to the God who brought all things
into being. The opening words of Psalm 19, “the heavens declare the glory of
God” were true for me as I looked into the night sky.
Where do you experience the wonder of worship? Many of you could
describe your own moments of entering into an awareness of God in what we call
the natural world. It might be looking out at the morning mist at the cottage
in summer, or watching birds at the feeder, or rooting around in the garden.
Is there a sense of wonder when we come to the buildings where we
worship God as well? For those of you who follow the routine of weekly church
attendance there may not be the expectation that the experience is
awe-inspiring, even if the anthem was great and the preacher didn’t put you to
sleep.
Does meaningful
worship happen “out there” or in here? How important is it for
people of faith to come together in buildings so that God can be praised?
You might recall that a few Sundays ago we heard King David offer to
build God a place of worship in Jerusalem that was at least as significant as
his royal palace. For decades the focus of Israel’s worship life was portable,
rather than permanent and David wanted to glorify God in what he felt was a
more significant structure.
During the often harsh wilderness journey from Egypt to the Promised
Land a container called the Ark of God, or the Ark of the Covenant was carried
from place to place as a focal point for worship. We really don’t know what
this container looked like although it was probably a little more than a metre
long and half a metre wide. It was made of wood covered in gold and there were
two long poles attached to the sides for transportation. Inside were the stone
tablets on which the Ten Commandments were inscribed. While the ark was
portable is was also holy. There is a biblical story
which may be a legend that on one occasion unauthorized people touched it and
they dropped dead.
This morning we heard that the temple was eventually built during the
reign of David’s successor, his son Solomon. Now this ark or chest which had
travelled the wilderness through windswept days and starry nights, and had been
waded across the waters of the Jordan river would
reside in a particular place of worship. What we heard in First Kings was a
portion of a lengthy dedication ceremony for the new temple, one that went on
for at least a week. While we get the impression that the temple was a grand
and imposing structure it was probably smaller that the church we are
It may be that we are sitting in this Christian place of worship in the
twenty-first century because
of the building of the temple nearly three thousand years ago.
Should we be in here when there is a beautiful world out there? People
are often quite open and honest that they don’t get much of a sense of God when
they are in the buildings designated for worship. I once met with a couple who
wanted their child baptized and when I encouraged the father to start attending
church with his wife he claimed that he felt he was worshipping God when he
played golf on Sunday mornings. I suggested that he get his caddy to baptize
his baby and while we both laughed he was in church the next week. But it
wasn’t because he wanted to be there!
Sometimes it is the other way around. Individuals become so tied to the bricks and
mortar of a specific church structure that they can’t imagine worshipping
anywhere else. One Saturday afternoon I was standing outside the sanctuary door
of the very modern church building where I had just conducted a wedding. I was
approached by a woman who told me that she used to be part of the congregation
but after they tore down the old church to build the new one she never came
back! She said it with such defiance that I knew it wasn’t worth a discussion.
The old building had actually been condemned because it was structurally
unsound, but that didn’t seem to influence her decision. Apparently for her God
lived in that falling-down
pile of stone and nowhere else.
Every once in a while I recall that the word “templum,
” gives us our English words “temple” and “contemplation.” In ancient times priests of some religions
would mark out areas where they would observe the flights of birds. This
enclosure was called a “templum” and gradually that word came to mean any place
marked out to encounter spiritual forces. It might be a sacred grove or a ring
of giant stones like Stonehenge, or a building dedicated for that purpose.
Wherever we are, we acknowledge that the God of creation and new life in
Christ is present and that we are on holy ground.
At this point you may be wondering if the minister is telling you that
it is okay not to go to church and to go for a hike on Sunday mornings instead.
I’m not! As my opening story would suggest I love the natural world and
often have my deepest sense of connection with God the creator when I am out on
the water in a canoe or kayak. At the same time I have felt the moving of God’s
gracious Spirit in the praise and thanksgiving when people of faith are gathered
together, whether in small groups of worshippers or during the great festivals
of our faith.
Our psalm for today, which we sang as a hymn, begins with words of
praise for the temple: “How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of Hosts!”
There is an exclamation mark at the end of this phrase in the New Revised
Standard Version. In a lovely turn it goes on to say that it isn’t just humans
who praise God at the temple. The sparrows and the swallows which build their
nests in the eaves of the building are also offering their glory to God. This
psalm reminds us that
This is God’s wondrous world: and to my
listening ears
all nature sings and round me rings the
music of the spheres.
When we come here on the morning of each first day of the week, we are
not closing ourselves off from the world of creation. We enter into one of the
great spiritual rhythms of our God-given life even as there are the rhythms of
the changing seasons. The early Christians set the great festivals of Christmas
and Easter to coincide with the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox.
When our voices rise up in song we are declaring God’s glory along with
the birds of the air and
the stars in sky.
When we share the sacraments of communion and baptism we take the living
water which wells up from the ground and the grapes and grain which grow in the
recurring miracle of new life as symbols of the new and eternal life we
experience in Christ. And as we heard in the gospel today, Jesus describes
himself as the bread of life.
Wherever we are, we can experience God-with-us, the God who is Creator
and Redeemer and Sustainer. Last year I spent time on retreat at a Benedictine
Convent in the mountains of Colorado. The retreat house was about a mile from
the convent itself with its striking chapel. I walked the road several times a
day to take part in the worship which is so much a part of monastic life.
The morning walk gave me a view of the mountains which was magnificent.
In the evening I feasted on the night sky, although as you may recall me
mentioning, the little sign in the retreat house saying Warning --This is
Cougar County kept me walking fairly quickly and singing hymns loudly.
With the sisters in prayer and praise I also knew the wonder of worship.
Well, very soon we will enter back into the fullness of activity for our
congregation and we can hope that those who have been scattered through the
summer will rejoin us. We probably don’t want to consider that summer is
drawing to a close but I will leave you with this Autumn Blessing from a book
called The Circle of Life by Joyce Rupp and Macrina Wiederkehr.
Blessed are you, autumn,
chalice of transformation,
you lift a cup of death to our lips
and we taste new life.
Blessed are you, autumn,
season of the heart’s yearning,
you usher us into places of mystery
and, like leaves, we fall trustingly
into eternal, unseen hands.
Blessed are you, autumn,
feast of thanksgiving.
You change our hearts into fountains of
gratitude
as we receive your gracious gifts.
Amen!