Relationships

Awkward! This strange man knows me too. Authentic Worship, Part 2

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13Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 15The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”

16Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” 17The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; 18for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” 19The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. 20Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.”  John 4:13-20

To worship in truth is to enter into the truth about God and ourselves. The Samaritan woman likely came for water at Jacob’s well in the heat of the day because too many people in the village knew her story. Surely it was uncomfortable always being treated as an outsider by her own people.  Now this strange man knows the truth about her too.

It was uncomfortable. It was awkward.

Authentic worship before the living, seeing, God will have its moments of discomfort. Conviction of sin and the reality of our brokenness flowing from our independence from God provokes the ancient patters of hiding. So she changes the subject… anything to get the piercing eye of truth off of her. Ironically, she changes the topic to worship.

Just like us.

Watch for it. We can create a little space or we can totally avoid God by raising a debatable matter when the truth is out. But, unless we let the Spirit of God pierce our shiny self-justifying armour we will not enter into the depths of Jesus’ liberating Gospel: “Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

The discomfort could be the precursor to His joy in your heart.

Transformative Worship

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1How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts! 2My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the Lord; my heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God.

3Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, at your altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God. 4 Blessed are those who dwell in your house, ever singing your praise!

Selah

5Blessed are those whose strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion. 6As they go through the Valley of Baca they make it a place of springs; the early rain also covers it with pools. 7They go from strength to strength; each one appears before God in Zion.

8 O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer; give ear, O God of Jacob!

Selah
9 Behold our shield, O God; look on the face of your anointed!

10For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. 11For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly.

12 O Lord of hosts, blessed is the one who trusts in you!

Psalm 84

Christian worship enters into the communion of God via the invitation and righteousness of Jesus Christ. Worship is a response to His grace. However, worship has a history and a future. We do not enter into the worship of God in a historical vacuum. Before the Temple, before the building of buildings, He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He met them in their journeying and in their tents.

When we rise to worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, we acknowledge the delight of being with Him in sacred community spaces and the reality of His presence with us through the journey of our lives. This Psalm of the Sons of Korah recognizes both realities.

Sacred space framed by architecture
“How lovely is your dwelling place.”
“My soul longs for the courts of the Lord.”
“Even the sparrow finds a home… at your altars.”
“Better is one day in your courts”


The reality of journey with God
“Blessed are those whose strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion. As they go through the Valley of Baca they make it a place of springs; the early rain also covers it with pools. They go from strength to strength; each one appears before God in Zion.”
“No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly.”
If your worship is space dependent I fear your journey with Jesus will not be transformative. But if your worship of God resonates with a Spirit-fuelled delight in God, then I trust your journey with Jesus will yield transformation wherever you live, work, or play.

Bless the Lord!

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1 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name!

2 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, 3who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, 4who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, 5who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

Psalm 103:1-5

Worship declares the incredible worth of God. It proceeds from the delight one feels in God.Worship as a discipline requires tending the soul by reminding ourselves of who God is and what He has done. We are forgetful.

God gives us many benefits.
He forgives our iniquity.
God heals our diseases.
God redeems our lives from the pit.
God crowns us with steadfast love and mercy.
God satisfies us with good, renewing our strength.

Bless the Lord, O my soul!

God is not impressed with your contempt.

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9He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: 10“Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ 13But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ 14I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
  Luke 18:9-14

God is not impressed with your contempt.

With this parable Jesus shows us what God is looking for. God is looking for the humble heart. God is listening to the person who will quit the comparison game and admit they are a mess. This tax collector seeks the audience of God.

This one is looking for mercy. This one has heard the penetrating whisper of the Spirit address the depravity of the heart. This one agrees with God. This one confesses without looking for the applause of people.

This one goes home experiencing the transforming-right-making-grace of God.

That’s how God changes a life.

Pray and do not lose heart, even on the safe side of a screen.

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1And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. 2He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. 3And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ 4For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, 5yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’” 6And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. 7And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? 8I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”   Luke 18:1-8

When Christians pray we are not putting our heads in the ground and ignoring the reality of life. Jesus encourages His disciples to pray about the concerns of their life and to not give up. God is just. God hears. And God will act.

I fear though, we give up easily when the matters that could occupy our conversation with God could be intercession in matters of justice. In this parable Jesus envisions His people, the elect, living in a realm plagued by  persistent and chronic injustice. So, they pray. So, they seek God. It’s personal.

And that’s the problem for those of us removed from the stories we only hear from the safe side of a screen. Our quick access to media has allowed us to become armchair critics for those who face injustice. Its not personal to us. Its personal to them. And so our prayers as potential intercessors are lame. We cannot locate the injustice or the vulnerability of those on the weak side of power. On the safe-side of the screen mercy is too easily trumped by self-righteous confidence and condemnation. And so our prayers for justice are reduced to hoping people will behave.

Jesus’ listeners likely would have shaken their heads in wonder at his story. Could a widow, a “nobody,” really have moved a calloused judge full of his own importance and power? Yes. But, more importantly Jesus wants us to know that God is not like the judge who’s only care is for the comfort and quiet of his evenings. Perhaps Jesus also wants the disciples He has chosen for Himself to be like this God who cares. This God who cares so much for justice that He enters into the conversation, not on the safe side of heaven, but on the suffering surfaces of earth, even to the surface of a cross.

So, when you see the cries of those who seek justice, join them, if only on the safe side of a screen, and pray with them for the tender mercies of our God who can change even the most calloused hearts and who has appointed a day for judging us all before Jesus Christ his Son. Then, with your own heart softened, you may get to enter into the real life struggle of others who are chronically bruised by unfair practices and indignities.