St. Paul’s United Church Sunday, January 8, 2012

In the Key of Passionate Worship – Rev. David Mundy

Psalm 100 Revelation 19:1, 5-9 Mark 1:4-11

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We live in a beautiful old house, which is actually our home, at the moment, but is your house because it belongs to the congregation. If you have ever lived in an older house, you will know there are quirks and mysteries to the building which may never be explained, including keys. Because the house we live in is about 150 years old, there are lots of keys hanging around, literally and figuratively, which have no known purpose, but the ministers and their families who have lived there have been reluctant to just toss them, so they accumulate.

It’s strange because there are lots of keys which appear to have no purpose, while at the same time there are locks which have no keys. When we arrived years ago there were four separate entrances, yet only one of them had a key to get in from the outside! Now we are down to three doors from four, and two of them have keys, so we have made significant progress.

In these days of keyless entries for hotel rooms and vehicles we still use “key” language, don’t we? During a big-game sporting event the play-by-play people will proclaim that a certain crucial sequence was the key to victory.

People will pay to hear motivational speakers talk to them about the keys to success in business or relationships or just about anything else which we consider important in life. If you do an internet search of the “keys to success” you will discover that there are five or six or seven – no, make that eight, keys to success.

This past week political pundits were telling us about the keys to success for the Republican presidential hopefuls in the United States. Personally, I figure they should lock them all up and throw away the key! But that idea of finding something that can unlock the door to achieve goals is still important.

What about the possibility of searching through the ring of derelict keys for Christ’s church? We have heard that many congregations from the mainline denominations have been forced to literally lock the doors to their buildings and walk away because they can’t sustain their ministry and there is always a sense of loss when that happens.

Could there have been for them and can there be for us some keys to vital congregational life which will sustain us now and allow us to be vital Christian communities into the future? During the next few weeks we will look at five –wait for it– “key areas to congregational life.” They are

Radical hospitality

Passionate worship

Intentional faith development

Risk-taking mission and service

Extravagant generosity

I freely admit that I have borrowed these from a book called Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations by Robert Schnase, although I have changed his order and substituted keys for practices. I couldn’t resist the play on words of “in the key” of worship because so often our worship is at its best with lively song. The reason I changed up the order is because coming together for worship is central to everything else we do in congregational life.

Today we listened to passages of scripture which are about worship in various expressions. We were reminded in Psalm 100 that God desires joy in our expression. In Linnea Good’s lyrics we are nudged to awareness:

Know that your God has made you,

Know it’s to God we belong . . .

In the gospel lesson Jesus is baptized in an impromptu, “no walls” moment of worship. We heard that Jesus and his cousin John wade into the waters of the Jordan and, as Jesus is baptized, the Spirit of the Living God is present in the moment, and Jesus is affirmed as God’s beloved. This is an occasion that is tactile and alive because God is there. Even though this is actually a pre-Christian moment because the Christian community has not yet been formed, we are given a picture of God’s holiness, and the Spirit’s power, and the presence of the living, anointed Christ.

This is what we hope and pray for, and work toward, when we come together for worship, although it is a tall order to be sure? In his chapter on worship, Robert Schnase maintains that

Through Passionate Worship God draws people to Christ (many for the first time), deepens understanding and relationship with Christ, and over time transforms lives as disciples grow in the image of Christ. God works through the church to make disciples of Jesus Christ, and worship plays an essential role in the in this process. From the earliest accounts of faith, people gathered to pray, sing, for God’s word, and share in the common meal.

In most Christian communities there is the expectation that worship will include praise in the form of music, as well as the proclamation of scripture, including both the reading of scripture passages and the message that follows. In our worship, we pray collectively a number of times, and within Protestant churches such as ours we observe and celebrate two sacraments: baptism and communion or the eucharist.

These are the essential elements but we would probably all agree that there is a big difference between “going through the motions” of worship, and passionate, Spirit-filled worship. Perhaps the challenge of worship is that people have so many different expectations which come from their personal preferences.

In the last congregation I served in Halifax Nova Scotia there was a couple who began attending just before I arrived. We got to know them well and the two of them couldn’t have more different views on why they showed up on Sunday mornings. She wanted to be there because they congregation had a long-established music program which was rather formal but impressive. He cheerfully admitted that he couldn’t care less about the music and he rarely bothered to sing a hymn. For him it was all about the sermon.

From time to time we sing only older hymns in worship and invariably someone will say on the way out “now those are the hymns I like to sing!” Others love the newer worship songs which are often more upbeat and have lyrics that are more contemporary. So when we sing them and perhaps Loaves and Fishes take part in leadership someone will say “why don’t we have more of that kind of music!” Some of you appreciate sermons which are more informative and historical while others like a message that tugs on your heartstrings. If you “mist up” a bit, or you get a speed wobble in your lower lip then that’s good! Some of you love the mystery and contemplation of the Maundy Thursday service during Holy Week while others find it rather spooky.

One of the challenges of being a multi-generational congregation is addressing a wide range of spiritual needs on Sunday mornings and in the other times we gather for worship. Sometimes it works well and other times we struggle. Here’s what I can tell you: I do have the opportunity to attend worship elsewhere from time to time and I can tell you that congregations which have chosen not to be innovative and open are not healthy. In fact, many of them are literally dying of old age. Rather than allowing the Spirit of the living God to fall afresh on the community they are stubbornly stuck in the past. The services feel more like palliative care than opportunities for healing and wholeness.

So what is the key to passionate, God-centred worship? Surely we can appreciate that there is not one key, if that means we are hoping to find one particular way of worshipping which opens the doors to people flocking in to be part of our congregation.

Still there are some simple choices and expectations we can affirm today when it comes to worship.

The first is that it is still important to come together to praise and honour God with our hearts and minds. Sure you watch worship on television or online or you can say “I don’t have to go to church to be a good person” which seems to be really popular these days, but the biblical witness is that there is something about this collective experience which is irreplaceable. It is where our passion for God is nurtured and grows. We have the glorious opportunity to combine the old and the new in our worship life.

When you get here you should expect that those who are in worship leadership including staff members and music groups and our Worship and Music committee will have a commitment to excellence every single time, offering what is original and fresh and challenging, to the best of our abilities.

There is a congregation in New York City called St. Bart’s which was on the verge of closing but was revitalized by living out some basic principles, including 52 Equal Sundays. In other words, they expect that in every worship opportunity, not just the big days and special occasions, they will offer their best to God.

But of course this is a two-way street. You can choose to arrive with a readiness to praise God and with the hope and anticipation that Christ will fill you with joy and abundant life. Sure you may come in the midst of a busy weekend with your kids or you may be feeling the aches and pains of getting older. But you can arrive with that willingness and openness to become a new creation in Christ.

I had a conversation with a member of our congregation not long ago who had a sort of awakening to the purpose of worship even though she has been attending and actively participating in church throughout her lifetime. She realized that she was inclined to arrive on Sundays wondering what was going to happen for her. Fair enough. But her epiphany was that while it is fair to anticipate that we will be spiritually nourished and perhaps even enlivened, what we bring is also vitally important. You are the ones who will bring your passion through those doors which are already unlocked and welcoming. Ask yourself right now: did I arrive this morning with an expectation that I would be passionate in my worship of the living God?

So be ready! Praise God with everything you have! Whether you are singing an old familiar hymn or learning a new worship song or being challenged in our hearts and minds to live out our faith, be open!

The other passage we heard this morning is from the book called the Revelation of John which gives us a weird and wonderful picture of the fulfilment of Christ’s reign. One of the promises of this revelation is that in heaven worship will be awesome. There is another of the newer hymns called We are Pilgrims or The Servant Song which includes this verse:

When we sing to God in heaven

we shall find such harmony,

born of all we’ve known together

of Christ’s love and agony.

The Servant Song

No doubt heaven will be wonderful, but why wait to get started? Passionate praise and worship begins today. Thanks be to God!