Worship 10.30 am     5th November 06

If you have been coming on Sunday mornings recently, you may have heard a couple of sermons already on the theme of “worship”.  Dave talked about what we have to thank God for, as one aspect of worship.  Pam spoke about the fact that we have a God who is worthy of worship.  Today I’d like to think about how we come to God in worship, not only when we all come together on a Sunday but also when we are on our own.

What is worship all about?

Easy as ABC!

Anticipation

Being

Calling

Our reading from the book of Isaiah describes a time quite early on in Isaiah’s ministry, when he was just beginning to recognise what it was that God wanted of him.  It seems he was quite a young man, because after this his ministry of prophecy lasted about 50 years.  Scholars say that Isaiah was a scribe in the royal palace – a respectable career, showing he was an educated man.  But God had bigger plans for him than he knew about at this time.

Isaiah was coming to God with a sorrow in his heart, because King Uzziah had died.  As you may remember, there were a succession of kings in Israel and Judah following the time of Saul, David and Solomon, and many of them were evil kings who led the people away from God.  King Uzziah had not been as bad as many of them – in fact, he had some success in war and in leading his people in building cities.  He reigned for 52 years.  However, he became proud of what he had done and even took on himself the role of the high priest, which was against God’s expressed wishes.  He became leprous and died without ever, so far as is recorded, giving God the glory for what had been achieved.  It seems that he never recognised that whatever power we have comes from God.  Isaiah, being a young man, would never have known any other king, so the future must have seemed very uncertain.  He came to God with a particular concern on his heart.

When we come to God in worship, what do we seek?  How do we come?  Are we anticipating a real meeting with God? 

I believe the first thing we have to consider whenever we want to meet with God is our anticipation, our preparation.

I need to prepare myself to meet with the God of the whole universe, just as I would if I were going to Buckingham Palace to see the queen.  I couldn’t just barge in through the doors, I need to knock and be admitted – so it should be when we come to God.  We are about to stand in the presence of Almighty God – so we make our preparations.  Before a service begins in church, we usually light the candles – to show we acknowledge God’s presence.  We often have a few moments of quiet, to still our hearts from all the other things going on in our lives.  And I try to do the same when I am meeting with God on my own.  I often light a candle, and sit quietly.  That’s my equivalent of knocking on the door and asking if I can come in.

In fact, I need to make myself ready for whatever God chooses to do or say, so I try to prepare myself in every aspect of my life.  I take time to do something:

Physical – light candle, cross myself, sit quietly, kneel or lie prostrate

Spiritual – clear away, put down anything that would distract me (– have a notebook so I can write down anything I suddenly remember)

Emotional – what is on my heart?  I have to be ready to lay it down and leave it at the foot of the cross, so that my heart and mind and strength and soul are all anticipating meeting with God.

And Isaiah, coming with his whole being, has this vision of God that was described in our reading.  Whether he was actually in the Temple, or saw in his mind’s eye isn’t clear, but he came seeking God and found what he was looking for – and much more beside!  He had a vision of the greatness and majesty of God that took his breath away.  As Isaiah was still, he saw something he had never understood before – the glory of God.  He experienced God’s greatness, mystery and power.  He felt something far higher than himself, God far above him, and he saw God stretching out through the whole of the temple so that he filled the whole space.  Isaiah realised that God was so much greater than he had ever understood before.  He saw, he heard the seraphim – the “beings who burn” in Hebrew – and they were calling out to each other that the whole earth is filled with God’s glory.  He felt the building shake and he smelt the smoke.  He experienced God with every part of his being, and it made him suddenly become aware of and recognise the holiness of God.  As he was in God’s presence all the sinfulness of the nation, led by a king who did not honour what God was doing, hit Isaiah with a great force.  And it was not just the nation’s sin he saw, but his own.  He too was guilty of not honouring God in all that he said and did.  Isaiah was overwhelmed by a sense of his sin in the presence of the holy, pure God.  It was too much for him.  He knew he deserved to die.

But God didn’t leave him in his sinful state.  God sent one of the seraphim to show him that sin can be destroyed, that we can be touched by God and receive forgiveness and a new life.  Isaiah knew the depth of his sin, but God showed him that his refining fire can bring healing, as all the sin is consumed by the fire.  Isaiah could never again doubt that God was involved in Isaiah’s life.  The experience of being in God’s presence changed him forever.

Now, I love our times of worship in church.  There is something great about being with God’s people, singing his praises, thinking about his great love and the sacrifice of Jesus in dying for my sake, to bring me back into relationship with the Father.  It encourages my soul, it warms the spirit.  I go out often with more peace and joy than when I came in.  Worship together is wonderful. 

But as I was thinking about this yesterday, I was reminded of the maypole dancing that we were forced to do as schoolchildren – do you remember?  If it was done properly, each child would go round the maypole in and out of the other children, holding on to their ribbons which would weave a pattern round the pole as the dance continued.  Of course, if someone made a mistake it would totally confuse the pattern, so it was important that everyone knew what part they had to play.  I thought that is a bit like how we come to worship – if we are all prepared in spirit, then everything fits together perfectly.  The one leading, the musicians, the one preaching, the prayers, those participating – together they form the pattern of what God is doing here today.  But if I rush in without pause, hanging on to things I should put into God’s hands, keeping my sin close to me – then I will be out of step and I will spoil the pattern.  We each have a responsibility towards everyone else to make sure that we are prepared for our time together in worship.

But I also worship when I am at home, or walking along the street humming a song to myself, or driving somewhere with a praise tape making me feel I am part of a bigger congregation.  I enjoy singing, even playing the guitar sometimes – I can focus on God and what he is like, his greatness in creating the world, his goodness in sustaining it, his mercy towards me.  I can be surrounded with God’s goodness wherever I am and whatever I am doing.  God’s glory can fill the place where I am.

And what is my response when I realise that God is present with me?  Like Isaiah, I have to just be.  I haven’t done anything to earn this, I can’t make it happen at a whim.  I come seeking God, and prepared to lay down anything that would come between us.  I have to be still in God’s presence in order to hear his voice in the midst of everything that would distract me.  I have to let him speak or demonstrate things to me in his way.  And I have to receive this.  Just as Isaiah saw his sinfulness, God may well bring things to our minds that we need to confess, or he may show us attitudes that have to be put right.  But we will never hear what God is saying or understand our selves in the way that God does if we have our own agenda and aren’t actually listening to him – if we aren’t just being.

So – there is anticipation, coming to God, putting down things that could distract us and allowing God the opportunity to speak in to our lives.  There is being, giving God a chance to show us what he wants to bring to our attention, to remind us of our sinfulness and need of forgiveness, to minister to our hearts and souls and minds.  And then we are able to hear God’s calling.

Isaiah went through the experience of recognising and acknowledging his sin, being forgiven and cleansed, and thus he was able to respond to God.  God was looking for someone to be his voice in the world – and only somebody who had been forgiven and cleansed would do. 

I don’t know about you, but I’d rather there was a different way.  I don’t like seeing my sinfulness, being reminded of things I have done or I’ve chosen not to do even though I know I should.  It is hard to face up to ourselves sometimes – we don’t always like what we see, if we are honest.  But there is no other way.  We have to go through those painful times, the times when we feel totally unworthy because of our wrong actions and attitudes, the times when we despair of ever getting things right, the times when we can’t see a way ahead, in order to make the way clear for us to be able to hear, without distraction, exactly what God is calling us to be and maybe to do.

For Isaiah, the calling was to be God’s voice in the world.  He had no concept at this stage in his life of what would be involved in following this calling.  He didn’t know yet that God would expect Isaiah’s whole life, his family relationships, his way of looking at the world to change.  Perhaps it’s a good thing we don’t know the whole story at the beginning!  But Isaiah had the courage to respond to God’s calling on his life, and he became one of the most influential prophets of all time.

What does God call us to be and to do?  It may be different for everyone.  You may be called to be a Christian witness where you work or live.  You may have a specific public task to do, such as Kathy with setting up Pathway, or you may be asked to pray privately, regularly for somebody or some situation.  But whatever God has in mind for you, you won’t know about it unless you spend time in his presence, being still and listening for his voice.  And you can’t do that if you are distracted, so you have to prepare yourself in readiness and ask for his forgiveness and cleansing in preparation for your calling.

So, for me, worship is about anticipation – preparing your self to be in God’s presence.  It is about being – experiencing a greater sense of God’s majesty and holiness, and responding to that by recognising your need for cleansing and forgiveness.  And then you can hear and respond to God’s calling on you for today.  As Paul wrote in Romans 12, “Dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you.  Let them be a living and holy sacrifice – the kind he will find acceptable.  This is truly the way to worship him.”

Amen.