Dear God,

One more day, just for today, in the midst of inner turmoil, I choose you. Lead me in light, dispel my darkness. Amen.

Shabbat Shalom

Today my sermon is based on chapter four from the book we are reading together, Soul Feast, by Marjorie Thompson. The beginning chapters are about the spiritual yearning of our times and they explore ways to pray and meditate. Some of these methods are traditional and familiar, and some may be new and challenging. In any case the goal of these methods of prayer and meditation is opening ourselves to God’s presence. This opening of the heart may help us to prepare for worship as well, which is the subject of the 4th chapter of Soul Feast - Gathered in the Spirit: Our Common Worship.
Why do we come together to worship every week? Why is it necessary for our spiritual lives that we participate in corporate worship? Our catechism asks: “What is the duty of all Christians? And it answers: The duty of all Christians is to follow Christ; to come together week by week for corporate worship, and to work, pray and give for the spread of the kingdom in the world.” So worship is at the very least, our Christian duty – this may be a motivating factor for some – but I suspect that there is a deeper longing that draws many of us to church each Sunday: the heart searching for a connection with the mysterious and elusive presence of God.
One Sunday morning while I was a student at the School for Deacons, I was sitting in the back of the chapel at the seminary in Berkeley looking out into the courtyard through the open door. The rest of my classmates were engaged in worship and focusing on their various roles in the worship service. I had no formal role that day, but I was the sacristan so I was keeping an eye out for latecomers and just resting in the peace of the day. It was spring, the air was warm and soft, the flowers had just bloomed outside the brick chapel, a perfect day. I felt transported to a place of peace and light that was outside of normal experience. I felt united with my friends in worship and united with God and at rest in myself. For me this is the greatest experience of worship – engaged and alive and transported into the presence of God. It doesn’t always happen, even though we wish it would! We all have reasons for coming to church – and one reason can be a desire to be closer to God. And God desires to be closer to us.
If we take a look at the Ten Commandments given by God to Moses for the Israelites, the ancient commandments that the children of Abraham have lived by for thousands of years, we hear God asking us for two things that are involved in worship. The first commandment says, “I am the Lord your God who brought you out of bondage. You shall have no other gods but me.” The 4th commandment says “Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.” When Jesus was asked which the greatest commandment was, he replied, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind. And a second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Now we have talked a lot about loving one’s neighbor, so right now we will set that part aside and focus on loving God. And the question is what evidence of love does God want or expect from us in worship? And what do we expect in return from God?
I have a friend named Ruth who is an Orthodox Jew. On her Facebook page last Friday she wrote in her status bar, “Shabbat Shalom”. Shabbat – which is our word “sabbath” and shalom, which means peace but more than the Greek word for peace – pax. Shalom means justice, mercy and equality for all people in the holy reign of God. Not just the absence of war, but the presence of justice, which as we know, are two very different things. So Ruth was wishing us shalom on the sabbath, an ancient greeting. Sabbath is the word that refers us back to the very first part of the book of Genesis, in which the story of God’s creation of the world in six days is told. On the seventh day, God rested and that is the Sabbath. For the Abrahamic faiths, the observance of Sabbath is a day when a person is freed from the regular occupations of everyday life, has an opportunity to think about the spiritual aspects of life, and can spend time with family and friends who are also taking a break from work and daily cares. I think that is what I experienced in the chapel of the seminary on that Spring Sunday morning – real sabbath rest. God wants us to have a period of time each week doing what God did – rest in shalom and find refreshment for our souls. This is one aspect of worship – being in a place set apart and being ourselves set apart for the refreshment of our souls in the presence of God. The catechism says: “Adoration is the lifting up of the heart and mind to God, asking nothing but to enjoy God’s presence”. In worship we can rest in the presence of God’s love and give our love back to God.
Another aspect of worship where we have an opportunity to interact with God is in the liturgy. We use the word “liturgy” to describe the readings and spoken words in the service – and liturgy means the work of the people. One can observe the Sabbath alone, I think that is possible. But to participate in the work of the people, Christians need to gather together as the body of Christ. Hearing the words of the OT, the NT letters and the Gospel helps us to open our hearts and minds to the actions of God in the past and particularly in our lives today though the grace of the Holy Spirit. Two weeks ago we participated in a Lectio Divina at the reading of the Gospel. For those who weren’t here that day, Lectio Divina is a kind of meditation based on repetition of a Bible reading, each repetition focusing on a deeper meaning. I was so fortunate to be standing in the middle of the church where the power of our meditation was focused on the Gospel reading. I felt the intensity of the common meditation and was transported again into the presence of God – in light and the power of shalom. When Mimi touched me to bring me to awareness that we were finished with the reading, I felt like I had come back from far away, and yet I had been aware of and alert to all the readings and comments that you all made. That is the power of the Word and the work of the people in liturgical practice in community. The Word becomes flesh and dwells among us.
Another way we interact with God in worship is through offering our sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving. We do this because God is worthy to be praised for all God’s kindness and love for us. In our psalm today the psalmist thanks God with his whole heart and praises God for steadfast love and faithfulness. He thanks God for answering his prayer for strength of soul, and says even the kings of the earth will praise the glory of the Lord. The psalmist is confident that God will protect him and fulfill his purpose here on earth. Our catechism says that thanksgiving is offered to God for all the blessings of this life, for our redemption, and for what ever draw us closer to God. For some people, including myself, music is a special source of praise and feeling open to the presence of God. I am sure we each have a favorite hymn that holds special meaning for us. When I traveled to Chicago with my children a few weeks ago, I had a chance to visit my friend Maggie’s church – which is an African-American Methodist Episcopal church – the AME church which is the church of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Their service has three basic components – praise through music, preaching, and altar call. The Gospel music at this church is incredible – I am always totally transported by the sound and the spirit of the people into a place of communion with God. But I miss our liturgy – there are no bible readings except during the sermon and they don’t follow a series of readings as we do, which is called the lectionary. The lectionary leads us through Jesus’ life story every year. When I visit the AME church I miss our readings and rituals, and I love their music, so I always think – wouldn’t it be great if we could combine our Episcopal liturgy ritual with the AME Gospel music! It wouldn’t be everyone’s preference, but I would love it. The point is that praise, in whatever form it takes, lifts our hearts up to God in thanksgiving and this experience can be very individual even as we praise God together. It is good to have a variety of music and experiences in the service for this reason.
Why do we call the act of praising God a sacrifice do you think? When we praise God in the Spirit of Sacrifice it includes a whole self-offering of mind, soul and body to God. And that opens our hearts so we can listen for God’s intentions for the world and give ourselves to what God wants for the world. Our offering of self is the sacrifice we make for all the praiseworthy things God has done for us. We offer our gifts of money at this time as well, but we offer more than money, we are making an offering of self as well. The opening sentences of the Eucharistic Prayer invite us into this mode of self-sacrifice through giving thanks and remind us also of Christ’s sacrifice on our behalf. So right before we start the Eucharist the priest may say one of these phrases, which hopefully reminds us of what we are doing:
The priest may say:
Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and make good your vows to the Most High. Psalm 50:14
Or she may say:
Walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself for us, an offering and sacrifice to God. Ephesians 5:2
Or he may say:
I appeal to you, Sisters and Brothers, by the mercies of God, to present yourselves as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Romans 12:1
And there are several more opening phrases for the Eucharist with the same idea. They help us remember as we come forward to celebrate the Eucharist, the sacrifice Jesus made for our salvation, and we praise God for all God’s grace and gifts to us and in response offer our whole selves as a sacrifice of praise and in service to God’s intentions for the world. So we see that we are offered many different ways to get closer to God in worship through the service itself, which is the work of the people. Each of us will find an aspect of worship that pulls us in and helps us to experience the true shalom of Sabbath rest and peace in the presence of God. So I wish you, as my sister Ruth did, the true peace of resting in God, Shabbat Shalom. Amen.