The Holy Spirit: Helping Us to Worship God For All He’s Worth

Sermon delivered at St. Andrew’s Anglican Church, Lewis Center, OH, on Pentecost Sunday, May 31, 2009. If you would like to hear an audio version, usually different from the text below, click here.

Lectionary texts: Acts 2:1-21; Romans 8:22-27; John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15.

In the name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

What is the Human Condition?

Good morning, St. Andrew’s! Today we conclude our preaching theme for this month, which is worship in the context of the Easter season that concludes today with Pentecost. You will recall that the term, worship, is derived from the old English word, weorthscipe, which means having worth. So when we worship something or someone, we are essentially assigning ultimate worth to that person or thing.

You recall further that we have talked about the fact that we tend to become like whomever or whatever we worship, so it is important for us to worship the One True and Living God. We Christians, of course, worship our Triune God—God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Two weeks ago we compared and contrasted what J.B. Phillips called “unreal gods,” gods purportedly authentic but which are really human fabrications or perversions of the Real God, with our Triune God.

We talked about how the real God is worthy of our worship, how God the Father is our Creator and Source of all life, who loves us passionately and pursues us relentlessly, encouraging us to repent of our sinful and rebellious ways so that we can live with him forever. We saw that from all eternity, God has a plan for the redemption and salvation of both his broken and fallen world as well as his creatures, a plan that included God himself taking on our flesh, dying for us, bearing our just punishment so that we could live with him forever. And then we saw God in Christ do the unbelievable thing by rising to life again and ascending to heaven where he advocates for us with the Father.

We saw that in the Resurrection of Christ, we Christians have gotten a preview of coming attractions of sorts, a glimpse of God’s promised new creation when heaven and earth are fused together, creation is redeemed and restored to its original goodness, and we get new resurrected bodies that are no longer subject to sickness, suffering, infirmity, or death. This vision is better than anything we could hope for or dream of and it is a powerful sign that our God is worthy of every bit of worship we can give him.

But we also saw that we live in what the NT refers to as the “end times,” the unknown interval between Christ’s resurrection and ascension in which God has begun his restorative work and the time when Christ returns to finish it. The end times are characterized by what we Christians call the “already-not yet.” The “already” refers to the fact that in Christ, God has begun the last phase of his redemptive work but anyone who looks around today’s world realizes that God’s promise to restore his creation and us are “not yet” fulfilled.

In today’s Gospel lesson, Jesus acknowledges, at least implicitly, that his impending death and resurrection will not immediately usher in God’s new creation and seems to be preparing his disciples, and us, to live in the “already-not yet.” He observes that his disciples are afraid and sorrowful as they contemplate him being taken from them because they, like us, were probably wondering if Jesus intended to leave them to their own devices. This is where God the Holy Spirit comes into play and this is what I want to focus on this Pentecost morning. How can the Holy Spirit help us in our worship of God in the midst of our broken and fallen world when we are so prone to get it wrong more often than not, and where we have to deal with all the messiness that life inevitably sends our way?

Where is God’s Grace?

It is to the glory of God that he knows everything his children need and has acted to ensure that our needs our met. We see this illustrated wonderfully in today’s Epistle lesson. Like the Lord, Paul acknowledges that we live in the “already-not yet” when he talks about both creation and us “groaning.” We groan (stenazo) from the weight of our sin and from living in a broken and fallen world, don’t we? Who among us is not currently “groaning” over some issue in our lives? For example, I noticed some of you looking at your watches and starting to groan as I begin to preach—I mean, what’s up with that? On a more serious note, your groaning might deal with personal health, family, or finances. It might be some issue of faith or the fear that we can feel when we look at what is happening in the world around us. It is precisely at these times when Satan, the great Accuser, is delighted to whisper in our ear and lie to us, telling us that we are in this life all by ourselves with no one to help us.

But then Paul makes two extraordinary statements. In the first, he likens the suffering of God’s fallen creation to that of a woman in childbirth. While the suffering and pain can be agonizing for the woman giving birth, it is temporary, not permanent (and watching my daughter be born years ago, and what her mother went through during labor, I can testify that this is a good thing; if it were permanent I am afraid I, and a bunch of other fathers, would not be living today). Paul is pointing us to that glorious day when God finally completes his plan for our redemption and restoration, and reminding us that our sin, suffering, and sorrow will not have the final say. Paul then makes the remarkable statement that God’s Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness and groans for and with us as he intercedes for us. Here Paul reminds us that contrary to what Satan wants us to believe, God has NOT left us alone, but rather has poured out his Holy Spirit at Pentecost (Acts 2:1-13) to help us navigate life’s rough and messy waters. He not only helps us, he actually identifies himself with us when he groans with us. Now that’s a God worthy of our worship!

Likewise, in today’s Gospel lesson, Jesus reminds us that the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, will lead us into all truth so that we will not fall prey to either our infirmity or Satan. After all, if we must endure the buffets of an Accuser, is it not a wonderful thing that God provides us with an Advocate to help guide us in all truth, Who is Jesus? The coming of the Holy Spirit, then, at Pentecost and ever since is another reminder that this God of ours really is the Hound of Heaven and who will do whatever it takes to reconcile us to him so that we can live with him forever. I can worship a God like that. Can you?

Moreover, having the Holy Spirit live in us, both as individuals and as the Body of Christ, the Church, can help us worship God through the sacrifice of our praise and good works. The writer of Hebrews reminds us that worship is more than paying lip-service to God. Real worship also translates into serving God and our neighbors (Hebrews 13:15-16). Because God has promised to restore us and his broken creation, it is important that we Christians help him in that process and this is where the Holy Spirit helps us, by giving us our marching orders. More importantly, after giving us our marching orders the Holy Spirit helps us carry them out. How is your worship translating into service to God and neighbor?

Having the Holy Spirit live in us also helps prevent us from worshiping another one of Phillips “unreal gods,” the god of Perennial Grievance. We create this god when some prayer of ours goes unanswered or something bad happens that we feel we didn’t deserve. “I trusted God,” we say, “and he let me down.” This god of Perennial Grievance is the God who Disappoints and worshiping an Ultimate Disappointment is a very hard thing to do, to say the least. When we create the god of Perennial Grievance we are essentially setting up in our minds who God is and what we think he should do. When this god fails to toe the line, we feel a sense of grievance and even betrayal. Unfortunately in my life, I have tried to worship such a god [personal testimony about losing my job in 2004].

But when we have the Holy Spirit in us and we listen to him, he can help us avoid creating a god of Disappointment. The Spirit will speak to us through Scripture, prayer, impulses, and Christian friends and family, as well as an infinite number of other ways, to remind us that God is in charge even in the midst of all the uncertainties and vagaries of this life, that he is working out his plan of redemption, and that he is Big Enough and Capable Enough to complete his work and fulfill his promises. Our job is to trust him and listen for our marching orders so that we can help him accomplish his work as we await his return. What an awesome privilege!

Where is the Application?

What then are some practical implications for us right now, to help us to navigate through all that life throws our way? I would offer three suggestions. First, make a practice of asking the Holy Spirit to help you develop the holy habits of daily prayer and Bible study. When you pray, listen for his Voice. When you read your Bible, ask the Spirit to guide you into all truth and make clear for you difficult passages. He might do so by prompting you to buy a study Bible or join a small group. Whatever he tells you, you can be confident that he will want you to DO something, not just sit on your behinds. When you are obedient to the Spirit’s prompting, you are worshiping God.

Second, start getting in the habit of recalling “God Moments” in your life. God Moments are those times in your life in which God worked in unmistakable ways [share a God moment]. Remembering God Moments will help remind you that Satan is indeed a liar and that you are not in this life by yourself. God is very present with you everyday through the presence of his Holy Spirit. The more often you can remember God moments, the more you will understand this truth and not forget that you have the Holy Spirit living in you, guiding you, advocating for you, and groaning with you.

Last, share your God moments freely and regularly with one another. This will help you get a more comprehensive picture of God’s activities in his world. It will help you begin to understand that God intends us to live life together and if we are ever to do that, we must learn to get real with each other. Sharing God Moments within the context of a small group is a great place to start. If you are not currently part of a small group, then share your God moments with your family and trusted Christian friends until you join one. And as you share your God moments, trust that the Holy Spirit is using them to build you up, as well as those around you, to equip you to worship him, in part, by your service to him and to each other.

What are you currently struggling with in your life? Do you struggle with the reality of the Spirit’s presence in your life? Perhaps you are struggling for a sense of direction or calling in your life. Perhaps you are struggling with some personal fears or a faith issue. Maybe it is a financial, health, or family problem. Whatever it is, take a minute right now and ask the Holy Spirit to help guide you and comfort you. Ask him to give you your marching orders or to make himself known to you more completely. Ask him to help you remember those God moments. Whatever it is you are burdened with, take a moment now and pray for the Spirit’s help [silence for prayer].

We have a God who loves us passionately and who pursues us relentlessly. He has borne the punishment for our sins so that his own justice could be satisfied. He has promised to redeem both us and his creation one day and to allow us to live with him forever in a new creation that knows no suffering, pain, sickness, infirmity, death, or sorrow. In the interim, he has poured out his Holy Spirit upon us and lives with us right now, to guide, comfort, and support us until all his promises are completely fulfilled. That’s good news, folks, now and for all eternity. That’s a God worth worshiping for all he’s worth.

In the name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen.

Remembering “God Moments”—Some Practical Advise for Christians Living in a Fallen World

This morning the appointed psalm for the Daily Office was Psalm 78, a rather lengthy account of God’s mighty acts in delivering Israel out of bondage from Egypt and bringing his people to the land He promised them. In that regard, Psalm 78 is a magnificent account of God’s mighty act of redemption and power, an act that will be fulfilled ultimately when He comes again in glory to finish His restorative and redemptive work.

But Psalm 78 is also a heartbreaking story because it recalls Israel’s persistent rebellion and sin against God, even in the face of His mighty acts. Yet it more than just a story of Israel’s rebellion lest we twist it into some perverted story that appeals to anti-Semitism.

Psalm 78 is our story, the human race’s story, and we must pay attention to it.

Sadly, it is part of my life’s story and it is increasingly the story of this nation’s life. When I forget all that God has done for me or get fat and sassy when my life is going well, I am most likely to fall into sin and rebellion. The writer of Deuteronomy knows our human condition too, because he writes the following:

Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. He led you through the vast and dreadful wilderness, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions. He brought you water out of hard rock. He gave you manna to eat in the wilderness, something your ancestors had never known, to humble and test you so that in the end it might go well with you. You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today.

—Deuteronomy 8:11-18 (TNIV)

This sums up the tragedy of the human condition quite succinctly. God created us to have fellowship with Him and with each other, and it is only in Him that we can truly have life and be equipped to handle all that happens to us in this broken and fallen world in which we live. Yet we consistently ignore God’s warnings and admonishments or misinterpret them to paint God as some angry and vengeful Being unworthy of our worship, love, and devotion. How terribly, terribly sad and heartbreaking for us all.

The psalmist repeatedly admonishes us to remember God’s mighty acts so that we do not forget Who He is and all that He has done and is doing for us.

That is why it is so important for us to remember the “God moments” in our lives, the very times when God made His presence unmistakably known to us, so that we do not forget Him and fall back into sin and rebellion.

Remembering God moments is one of the best things we can do to help us guard against our human condition. God moments are best shared with others so that we remember we are not living life alone, especially when our lives get messy. That’s what the Evil One wants us to believe and if we are not careful, he will surely pick us off one by one, preying on our  broken and fallen nature. Resist that with all your might and ask the Lord to help you in doing so.

What are your God moments and with whom are you sharing them?

Are You Giving God All He’s Worth?

Sermon delivered the Sixth Sunday of Easter, May 17, 2009, at St. Andrew’s Anglican Church, Lewis Center, OH. If you would like to listen to the audio version of this sermon, usually slightly different from the text, click here.

Lectionary texts: Acts 10:44-48; Psalm 98; 1 John 5:1-6; John 15:9-17.

In the name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

What is the Human Condition?

Good morning, St. Andrew’s! Today we continue our preaching theme for this month, which is worship in the context of Easter. You will recall that the term, worship, is derived from the old English word, weorthscipe, which means having worth. So when we worship something or someone, we are essentially assigning ultimate worth to that person or thing.  

In today’s Gospel lesson, Jesus gives us a new commandment—to love one another (John 15:12, 17). So what does that have to do with worship, you ask? Good question. Until late yesterday afternoon, I was asking myself the same thing with increasing panic as the hours ticked by! But fortunately the Lord took pity on me and helped me out (he really does hate to see grown men cry). 

The link between today’s Gospel lesson and worship is pretty straightforward. True worship of God will always produce a desire in us to love him, and as today’s Gospel lesson and Epistle make clear, the NT writers did not equate love (agape) with some warm fuzzy feeling, e.g., “I love you, man,” but rather believed that agape love for God is properly manifested in obedience. If we truly are going to worship God and love him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, we will have a desire to obey him by doing.

But what kind of God is capable of creating this kind of desire to love and obey him? If we really don’t know God, or if we have inadequate notions of him, we cannot possibly end up loving and obeying him willingly or eagerly, and this is what I want to explore this morning. Are you giving the God you worship all he is worth?

Years ago, J. B. Phillips published a classic little book titled, Your God Is Too Small. In it, Phillips identified 18 various “unreal gods” that cannot possibly be worthy of our worship or evoke a desire in us to serve them. Don’t worry, my peabrain cannot remember all 18 of the gods Phillips identified but I do want to highlight a few of them to illustrate my point.

The first unreal god Phillips identified is “Resident Policeman.” This god is manifested primarily in a guilty conscience when we do something wrong and is always watching over our shoulder, eagerly waiting to catch us being bad so that he can rap our knuckles (or worse) and remind us how bad we really are. Can you love a god who is not really concerned about you as a person but rather who only seems interested in catching you when you misbehave? I can’t.

Next we have “The Grand Old Man.” This unreal god is some really, really old guy who, even worse, is old-fashioned and not with it. This god makes up a bunch of irrelevant and outdated rules that we can and should safely ignore because he has just not been able to keep up with all the progress of technology and science. This Grand Old Man may have been adequate for the ancient Israelites and early Christians but of course times change, and he has not been able to keep up with us and all our progress. Who can possibly want to obey someone whom we think is irrelevant and out of touch? I can’t. Can you?

A third unreal god is “Managing Director.” At first blush, this is an adequate god because this view of God holds that God is indeed the Creator and Manager of this vast and awesome universe. So far, so good. But this view also holds that because God is so busy dealing with this vast universe of his, he has little or no time to be actively or intimately involved in the lives of individual people, much like a CEO of a large international company who does not have time to know or be involved in the lives of all his/her employees in any meaningful way. At one time in my life, I tried to worship a god like this and found it entirely unsatisfactory because this god could never, ever satisfy my craving for a deep and intimate relationship, the very kind of relationship that God created us to have. Can you love a god who is either unwilling or unable to be intimately involved with your life and help you deal with all the messiness in your life?

Our next unreal god is called “Absolute Perfection.” Again, there is a kernel of truth in this unreal god. After all, did not our Lord himself command us to be perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect (Matthew 5:48)? The problem with the god of Absolute Perfection is that it results in a one hundred percent standard that will surely lead us to despair. After all, if you continue to raise the bar high enough, you will eventually make even the best and brightest of us look like fools. The one hundred percent standard inevitably leads to an arbitrary set of accompanying rules that none of us can possibly keep, and when we fail to keep them, we fail to show our love for God. This god of Absolute Perfection might say something like this to us: “I’ve upped my standards. Up yours.” In my younger days, especially in my late teens and early twenties, I tried to worship this god too, and as you might expect I failed miserably. All I succeeded in doing was to develop neurotic anxiety over being unable to meet this god’s one hundred percent standard, and every time I failed, I was convinced even more that I was going to hell because I had. Can you love and worship a god who demands more from you than you can possibly ever give? I couldn’t.

Last, we have the “Pale Galilean.” As the name implies, this god is an entirely negative god, bent on making sure his followers do not enjoy their lives too much. Compared with their non-Christian contemporaries, worshipers of this god are afraid to be themselves, to enjoy beauty, or expand themselves, i.e., their lives are “pale” in comparison. This god surrounds them with prohibitions but does not supply them with vitality and courage. He seems to be consumed with the overarching fear that someone somewhere might be having a good time and is bent on stopping it. Can you love and obey a god who is bent on making sure that he sucks the life out of you so that you too can become a “pale Galilean” who is bereft of joy, happiness, and vitality? I can’t.

In each of these examples we can see how it is virtually impossible to love and obey a god who is not interested in us or our development, who is not interested in having a real and intimate relationship with us, and who cannot possibly equip us to live life joyfully or help us deal with all that goes terribly wrong in our lives. 

Where is God’s Grace?

 But thankfully none of these gods is the God we worship. The real God we worship is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, our triune God, and this God is worth every bit of our love and obedience. 

When we worship God the Father, we worship our Creator, the Source and Author of all life. God created us to have relationship with him as Genesis 1:31 poignantly reminds us when it says that after God created humans he looked at his creation and saw it was very good, not just good as it had been after his other creative work. Then when we see God pursuing his sinful and fallen creatures in the garden, wondering where they are because they are hiding from him (Genesis 3:8-9), we begin to realize the pain our sin and separation has caused him as this lonely God of ours searches after them and wonders where his beloved have gone.

In Isaiah and Jeremiah we hear God’s continuing anguish and anger over his sinful and rebellious people in the voice of both prophets as they warn Judah that their idolatrous ways can lead only to death, and plead with them to repent of their sins before it is too late. And then in Isaiah 53-55 we read about God’s grand plan, a plan he had from all eternity, to redeem both humans and his creation from the bondage of sin and death, and free us to become the humans he created us to be. 

Isaiah 53 speaks of the Suffering Servant who will bear the punishment for our sins so that God’s justice may be fully satisfied. In Isaiah 54 we read about the new covenant God will make with his people because the work of his Servant has been fulfilled. Then in Isaiah 55, we read of God’s plan to redeem his fallen creation in a mighty act of restoration, not unlike that which we read about in Revelation 21. God is not only going to redeem us, he is going to reverse the curse in Genesis 3:17-18 and set all of his creation aright. In each of these stories we see a God who loves us and all of his creation passionately, and has compassion for his sinful creatures beyond our ability to completely comprehend it all. A God like that makes me want to love him and obey because he has demonstrated how madly and passionately he loves even a knucklehead like me. Can you get excited to love a God who loves you equally as much?

Then in the NT, we see God’s plan for the redemption of humanity and all creation unfold in history, and that is why we worship God the Son. For the NT tells the story of how God loved us so much that he took on our flesh, lived among us, allowed himself to be tortured and hung on a cross to die a horrible death for us. In doing so, he bore the punishment for our sins and made it possible for us to live with him forever. As we read the story of Christ’s passion and death, we are suddenly struck with the awesome realization that the Suffering Servant in Isaiah 53 was God himself! Incredible!

But the Good News doesn’t stop there, does it, because the cross is not the end of the story. Had it been, there would be no Christian faith today. No, on the third day God raised Jesus from the dead and gave him a new resurrection body. In doing so, God confirmed to us that his promises to redeem his broken and fallen creation are true and that in the resurrection God has begun his work to restore us and all of his creation to what he intended it originally to be. I cannot quite image what this new creation will look like, but I do know that there will be no more tears or sorrow or sickness or death or infirmity or deformity or suffering. How do I know that? Because the death and resurrection of Christ proves that God is true to his word. Our God is indeed a passionate and compassionate God. A God like that makes me want to love him and obey him because he has demonstrated that he loves me so much he has done the impossible for me so that I can live with him and enjoy him forever. Can you love a God like that?

Finally, we worship God the Holy Spirit. The wonderful thing about the Gospel is that it is no self-help remedy. God does for us what we cannot do ourselves and then he promises never to leave us, but to give us his Holy Spirit until he comes again to complete the restorative work he began at resurrection. The Holy Spirit is God himself working in us, helping us in our infirmity and when life gets messy, helping us grow in grace and faith, and guiding us to do the work he calls us to do in this world. And it is important that we do God’s work in this world because in the resurrection of Christ, we are reminded that God plans to restore his broken creation, that this world is important to him, and so it must be for us as well. I want to love and obey a God who has promised never to leave us alone or make us follow some futile self-help remedy to solve the problem of the human condition. I want to love a God who works within us through his Holy Spirit to help him accomplish his mighty act of restoring our broken and sinful world. Do you?

Where is the Application?

If you have answered “yes” to any of these questions, then how can you show your love for God in your worship, i.e., how can you demonstrate that you are giving God all he’s worth?

First, we can worship God through the daily reading and study of his Word. When we truly love God we want to delve into his Word every day and we make time to do so because we know this will help us know him and his will for us even better. Suddenly daily Bible reading and study become a privilege and joy, not some dreary obligation we think we must do because we are supposed to, because our hearts are bursting with love for this God who loved us first and we want to get to know him better, just like we did when we fell in love with our best beloved.

Second, we can worship God through the lifting up of our prayers, intercessions, supplications, and thanksgiving (see, e.g., Acts 2:42, 46; 3:1; 4:31; Ephesians 6:18; Philippians 4:6; Colossians 4:2; 1 Thessalonians 5:17; 1 Timothy 2:1-2, 8). In giving thanks for one another and praying for each other, we demonstrate our love for, and trust in, God, and allow him to work in and through us to help him minister to us [personal testimony about Mothers’ Day]. We pray for and with each other willingly because this is what our Lord commands us to do. And because we love him we want to obey him.

Finally, we can worship God through the sacrifice of our praise (Hebrews 13:15). We obviously praise God when we assemble to worship each Sunday. But as St. Augustine observed, real praise comes from our whole being, not just our lips. We praise God not only when we assemble as his family; we also praise him when we live a good life, a life of obedience to God’s commands. We do so, not out of some dreary sense of obligation as we saw in the unreal Pale Galilean, but out of a sense of joy and thanksgiving for this triune God who loves us madly, who pursues us relentlessly, and who has rescued his world and us from death and destruction. This is real worship because it results in obedient love, the kind our Lord commanded us to demonstrate in today’s Gospel lesson, and in doing so it allows us to give God all he is worth.  

Worship of the Living God always evokes a genuine desire to love and obey him because we begin to get a glimpse of the depth, breadth, width, and height of this God of ours who has acted on our behalf to make possible the impossible. The God we worship is Big enough to meet our every need in this life and the next, if only we will love and trust him enough to give him the chance. That’s good news, folks, now and for all eternity. Are you ready to give God all he is worth each and every day of your life?  Alleluia! Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!

In the name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen. 

Happy Birthday, Mom

My mom would have been 87 years old today. This is the first birthday after she died and surprisingly I have not been sad about it. I attribute that to God’s great grace. Make no mistake. I miss her and still grieve her loss. There is not a single day goes by that I do not miss her or think about her and all that she meant to me. But in her final years she struggled with her physical infirmity and didn’t really look forward to her birthday as she once did. Today, however, she is freed from all that. She is with my dad, whose death she never got over, and best of all, both of them are with the Lord who loves them and gave himself for them so that they could be with him. I consider that the best birthday present she could get.

And then tonight my aunt Betty called me “Kevie,” an affectionate name mom used to call me, as she said goodbye to me on the phone. I don’t ever recall aunt Betty calling me Kevie and it touched my heart because for a moment there it sounded just like mama talking to me.

To top it all off, as my wife and I were listening to music on the porch, Louis Armstrong’s, “It’s a Wonderful Life,” played. That was one of my mom’s favorite songs and it was so appropriate that it played on her birthday because she really did think this is a wonderful life. That’s just the kind of person mom was. So I got a couple of nice birthday presents on my mom’s birthday—imagine that. It’s just like my mama to be thinking of her kid on her birthday. And it’s just like the Lord I love to allow her to do that for me.

Happy birthday, mom. I love and miss you. Life’s never going to be the same without you here. But as you know better than me, the great thing about being a Christian is that infirmity and death do not have the final say. I fully expect to live with you and dad forever in the presence of this great and glorious God we love, and who loves us even more than we can comprehend or imagine. Give dad and the rest of the family a hug and kiss for me.

Is Your Worship Really Worth It?

Sermon delivered at St. Andrew’s Anglican Church, Lewis Center Ohio, the fourth Sunday of Easter, May 3, 2009. If you would like to listen to the audio version of this sermon, usually somewhat different from the text below, click here.

Lectionary texts: Acts 4:5-12; Psalm 23; 1 John 3:16-24; John 10:11-18.

In the name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

What is the Human Condition?

Good morning, St. Andrew’s! Today we continue our preaching theme for this month, which is worship in the context of Easter. In preparing this sermon, I am heavily indebted to the writings of Bishop Tom Wright, Bishop of Durham in the Church of England. You might recall that last week Fr. Ron reminded us that the term, worship, is derived from the old English word, weorthscipe, which means having worth. So when we worship something or someone, we are essentially assigning ultimate worth to that person or thing. If we are to worship God and give him all he is worth, it is important that we know who he really is so that we do not end up worshiping some god of our own making.

So what do you find most worthy or valuable in your life? This is more than just a rhetorical question because what we find to ultimately be worthy or valuable in our life will inevitably be that which we end up worshiping (assigning worth), and the Bible consistently reminds us that what we worship will lead to either life or death because we were created, in part, to worship. That is why both the OT and NT writers were so concerned about idolatry (see e.g., the psalms, Jeremiah, Isaiah, and Romans 1-3).

For me, when I was in college, one of the things you would have seen me pursue with vigor was women because I was a fat wallflower in high school and was busy making up for lost time. For me, promiscuous sex was something worthy and valuable, much to my shame now, because I thought it demonstrated what an attractive man I was. After I graduated from college, teaching became a very worthy pursuit for me and I spent hours upon hours in preparing lessons, teaching, and grading papers. School was a veritable second home to me because I found worth in pursuing a vocation God had called me to pursue. And of course, I was always trying to earn God’s favor by trying to be a good person and doing good things (like being the best teacher I could be) so that I could earn favor in his sight.

I was in danger of assigning ultimate worth to the things I pursued, but thankfully God in his grace saved me from worshiping sex or my job because neither of them can give life. Yet it is the sad plight of the human condition that all too often we humans begin to worship those things that can only lead to death because only the Living God has life in him and is the only One able to give life to us. And so I return to my original question—what do you find most valuable and worthy in your life? Are you worshiping God for all he is worth or are you worshiping someone or something else?

Where is God’s Grace?

One way to check yourself is to answer these two questions: 1) Is weekly worship optional? and 2) When you come to worship, do you find it boring? If you answered “yes” to either question, then there is a good chance that you are not giving God all he is worth. For you see, like me when I was younger, I worshiped a god I really did not know all that well (and some that I did), and because I didn’t know him for Who he really is, I could not love him for who he really is, and consequently, I thought worship was optional.

But thanks be to God that through his patient love and relentless pursuit of me, I am learning how to give God all he is worth because I am beginning to know him better (not know about him, but know him), and that is what I want to spent the rest of the time talking about because it holds the key to how well we are able to worship God.

True Christian worship is always Trinitarian. When we worship, we worship Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But why is it important to do so? Because if we do not worship our triune God, we will never begin to know the extent to which we have a God who loves us and the depths of that love.

When we worship God the Father, we worship our Creator, the Source and Author of all life. God created us to have relationship with him as Genesis 1:31 poignantly reminds us when it says that after God created humans he looked at his creation and saw it was very good, not just good as it had been after his other creative work. Then when we see God pursuing his sinful and fallen creatures in the garden, wondering where they are because they are hiding from him (Genesis 3:8-9), we begin to realize the pain our sin and separation has caused him as this lonely God of ours searches after them and wonders where his beloved have gone.

In Isaiah and Jeremiah we hear God’s continuing anguish over his sinful and rebellious people in the voice of both prophets as they warn Judah that their idolatrous ways can lead only to death, and plead with them to repent of their sins before it is too late. And then in Isaiah 53-55 we read about God’s grand plan, a plan he had from all eternity, to redeem both humans and creation from the bondage of sin and death, and free us to become the humans he created us to be.

Isaiah 53 speaks of the Suffering Servant who will bear the punishment for our sins so that God’s justice may be fully satisfied. In Isaiah 54 we read about the new covenant God will make with his people because the work of his Servant has been fulfilled. Then in Isaiah 55, we read of God’s plan to redeem his fallen creation in a mighty act of restoration, not unlike that which we read about in Revelation 21. God is not only going to redeem us, he is going to reverse the curse in Genesis 3:17-18 and set all of his creation aright. In each of these stories we see a God who loves us and all of his creation passionately, and has compassion for his sinful creatures beyond our ability to completely comprehend it all. I can love a God like that. Can you? If you can, you are beginning to worship him for all he is worth.

Then in the NT, we see God’s plan for the redemption of humanity and all creation unfold in history, and that is why we worship God the Son. For the NT tells the story of how God loved us so much that he took on our flesh, lived among us, allowed himself to be tortured and hung on a cross to die a horrible death for us. In doing so, he bore the punishment for our sins and made it possible for us to live with him forever. As we read the story of Christ’s passion and death, we are suddenly struck with the awesome realization that the Suffering Servant in Isaiah 53 was God himself! Incredible!

But the Good News doesn’t stop there, does it, because the cross is not the end of the story. Had it been, there would be no Christian faith today. No, on the third day God raised Jesus from the dead and gave him a new resurrection body. In doing so, God confirmed to us that his promises to redeem his broken and fallen creation are true and that in the resurrection God has begun his work to restore us and all of his creation to what he intended it originally to be. I cannot quite image what this new creation will look like, but I do know that there will be no more tears or sorrow or sickness or death or infirmity or deformity or suffering. How do I know that? Because the death and resurrection of Christ proves that God is true to his word. Our God is indeed a passionate and compassionate God. I can love a God like that. Can you? If you can, you are beginning to understand what it means to worship God for all he is worth.

Finally, we worship God the Holy Spirit. The wonderful thing about the Gospel is that it is no self-help remedy. God does for us what we cannot do ourselves and then he promises never to leave us, but to give us his Holy Spirit until he comes again to complete the restorative work he began at resurrection. The Holy Spirit is God himself working in us, helping us in our infirmity, helping us grow in grace and faith, and guiding us to do the work he calls us to do in this world. And it is important that we do God’s work in this world because in the resurrection of Christ, we are reminded that God plans to restore his broken creation, that this world is important to him, and so it must be for us as well. I can love a God who has promised never to leave us alone or make us follow some futile self-help remedy to solve the problem of the human condition. I can love a God who works within us through his Holy Spirit to help him accomplish his mighty act of restoring our broken and sinful world. Can you? If you can, you are beginning to understand what it means to worship God for all he is worth.

Where is the Application?

You may ask, as some have, what difference does worshiping a triune God make? What does it really matter in our daily lives? Just this. Worshiping our triune God reminds us that we have a God big enough to handle all the problems of his world. This gives us hope, even in the face of suffering and evil. We no longer have to ask what God is doing about all that is wrong with this world as it currently exists because we already know that in the death and resurrection of Christ he has taken on evil himself and defeated it, even when it is not apparent to our senses and reason—that is where faith comes in, not a blind faith, but rather a faith based on the evidence from the biblical story of creation and salvation. Yes we must live with ambiguity and questions, the mystery of suffering and evil, but the death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ are God’s mighty promises to us that we and all of creation are in the process of being restored to his original intention.

And because we have the Holy Spirit living in us, we can be confident that our efforts here on earth are not in vain because it is God himself working through us to accomplish his good will and purposes. Even when our prayers do not get answered the way we would like them to be, or we are faced with disappointment and setbacks in our work and relationships, Trinitarian worship reminds us that out of death comes new life and we can take comfort and real hope in that promise. The promise is not instant gratification and most of us hate that, but that does not negate the promise or its power to heal our hurts and fears. I would like to share a story from my recent experience that I hope will illustrate this for you [personal testimony about mom’s last days and death].

In practical terms, what we have talked about suggests that to worship God for all he is worth means two essential things. First, we must thoroughly appropriate God’s plan for the redemption and restoration of his people and his creation. That means we need to read our Bibles regularly and carefully. For example, in today’s Gospel lesson, Jesus said his sheep would know him. How can that be true if he is a stranger to you? You cannot begin to know Jesus if you do not know his story in the broader context of God’s eternal plan for redemption and salvation. Whether you are just starting or have read the Bible for a long time does not matter because there is limitless knowledge and fresh insights of God contained in his Word and that is worthy of our best and persistent effort. Doing so will help us know this triune God who loves us and who will restore us someday, and will help us give God all he is worth.

Second and last, true worship will always lead to a response of love, mission, and ministry because our hearts are bursting with love for this awesome God of ours. That means we must roll up our sleeves and get to work in God’s world, a world he has promised to restore. Because we know this triune God of ours, we are eager to share the Good News with others. And because we have his Holy Spirit living in us, we are confident that God himself is working through us to accomplish his good will and purposes for us, and who will help us grow in our own knowledge and love of him. That’s a God worthy of our worship.

Worship allows us to give God all he is worth and it reminds us that we have this awesome and compassionate God who is right now working in his world to put it, and us, aright. That’s especially important when we look around this broken and hurting world of ours, because we realize that its day of redemption, like ours, is coming and we can rejoice as we look forward to that day. That’s good news, folks, now and for all eternity. Are you ready to give God all he is worth?  Alleluia! Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!

In the name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen.