Worship and Spirituality
Three snapshots.Worship helps us to see the world and everything in it differently.
What we worship determines our behaviour.
Worshipping Jesus makes us whole.
Isaiah 6:1-3
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord. He was sitting on his throne, high and exalted, and his robe filled the whole Temple. 2Round him flaming creatures were standing, each of which had six wings. Each creature covered its face with two wings, and its body with two, and used the other two for flying. 3They were calling out to each other:
"Holy, holy, holy!
The Lord Almighty is holy!
His glory fills the world."
The Lord Almighty is holy!
His glory fills the world."
- Isaiah 6:1-3
Isaiah sees his vision in the temple at a time of great crisis for Judah. King Uzziah has died.
According to 2 Chronicles 26 he reigned for 52 years, he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, managed a powerful army and had great success – defeating the Philistines and rebuilding towns in the area. At the end of his reign he became arrogant and tried to offer incense in the temple – the priests job and was struck by leprosy.
On the whole Uzziah was a King greatly loved – a symbol of power and stability for the Kingdom of Judah. About the time he died his Kingdom was under great threat as the Assyrian nation grew – surrounding Judah and threatening to invade it.
For the people of Judah it was a stressful time – a time of not knowing what was going to happen next.
Personally I like it when life is predictable, I like to know that some time in the net few weeks, months or years a marauding army is not going to attack my town, kill me and take my wife and children as slaves.
The people of Judah felt the kind of uncertainty I think we sometimes feel…
Will we have enough money?
Who will rule the country?
Will I get well?
Will I be robbed?
* * *
Perhaps we could fill it in for ourselves: "In the year I discovered I was sick…"
In the year my relationship broke down…
In the year I lost my pension in a bad investment…
Isaiah writes: In the year King Uzziah died.
When Uzziah dies – Isaiah worships in the temple and as he is worshipping he sees the Lord – seated on his throne, his robe filling the temple. He hears angels singing – Holy Holy Holy is the Lord Almighty and his glory fills the whole earth…
The throne of Israel is empty – but the throne of God is still just how it was.
The world is a scary place, but woven into the fabric of reality is the presence of the Lord – somehow Israel need not fear because God is still, always was and always will be on his throne and his glory will always be around us.
* * *
In times of distress we need someone like the prophet Isaiah to remind us – that when such and such happened – I saw the Lord seated on his throne and his glory filled the whole earth.
When times are good – I think we also need someone like Isaiah to remind us that as grand and powerful as we might think we are. God is still God.
Romans 1:21-25 and 12:1-3
The second snapshot is from Paul's letter to the Romans.
A quote from the beginning and one from the middle, Paul writes about the human condition:
They know God, but they do not give him the honour that belongs to him, nor do they thank him. Instead, their thoughts have become complete nonsense, and their empty minds are filled with darkness. They say they are wise, but they are fools; instead of worshipping the immortal God, they worship images made to look like mortal human beings or birds or animals or reptiles.
And so God has given those people over to do the filthy things their hearts desire, and they do shameful things with each other. They exchange the truth about God for a lie; they worship and serve what God has created instead of the Creator himself, who is to be praised for ever! Amen.
- Romans 1:21-25
Paul offers a theory on how immorality enters the world in which we live – people become like what they worship.
When they exchange the truth of the living creator God for a lie – they worship and serve what God has created they become like the creatures and beasts that they worship.
Paul is probably writing from Corinth, Corinth is well known for its wealth and debauchery – Paul has to reprimand someone in the Corinthian church for sleeping with his stepmother. Plato's polite name for a prostitute is – 'a Corinthian girl.'
In Corinth there was a large temple to the goddess Aphrodite – who had an annual festival known as an Aphrodisiac – no prizes for guessing what happened there…
People worshipped money, sex and power and when they worshipped these things they became overpowered by them. The God's of money, sex and power seldom counsel one to take better care of the poor – to love your neighbour – or even to love yourself; because they are not personal and loving gods.
* * *
In Paul's introduction to the letter to the Romans he explains how worshipping the created and not the creator results in people being filled with wickedness, greed, vice, jealousy, murder, fighting, deceit and malice, they gossip and speak evil of each other and God – they are proud insolent and boastful. We begin to get a picture of a world gone seriously wrong.
* * *
For eleven chapters he explains to Jews and Gentiles what it would mean to put one's faith in Jesus and the living God. How people can be transformed into who they were created to be.
How the Holy Spirit, Jesus work upon the cross sets us free from all of those things and establishes the Kingdom of God.
In chapter 12, having concluded his argument he asks us to respond:
So then, my brothers and sisters, because of God's great mercy to us I appeal to you: offer yourselves as a living sacrifice to God, dedicated to his service and pleasing to him. This is the true worship that you should offer.
Do not conform yourselves to the standards of this world, but let God transform you inwardly by a complete change of your mind….
- Romans 12:1-2a
Worship of the living God – of Jesus sets us free from all that our materialism and greed produces in us. It is the beginning of a transformed world.
Luke 17:11-19
Snapshot one from Isaiah tells us how worship makes it possible to see the way the world really is.
Snapshot two from Paul shows us how worshipping idols destroys us and worshipping God transforms us.
In our third snapshot we learn about how worship makes us whole:
Listen to Luke's gospel chapter 17 – the healing of the ten lepers:
11 As Jesus made his way to Jerusalem, he went along the border between Samaria and Galilee. 12He was going into a village when he was met by ten men suffering from a dreaded skin disease. They stood at a distance 13and shouted, "Jesus! Master! Take pity on us!"
14 Jesus saw them and said to them, "Go and let the priests examine you." On the way they were made clean.t 15When one of them saw that he was healed, he came back, praising God in a loud voice. 16He threw himself to the ground at Jesus' feet and thanked him. The man was a Samaritan. 17Jesus said, "There were ten men who were healed; where are the other nine? 18Why is this foreigner the only one who came back to give thanks to God?" 19And Jesus said to him, "Get up and go; your faith has made you well."
- Luke 17:11-19
* * *
Your faith has made you well.
Made
You
Well.
You
Well.
* * *
When I read that passage I see that all of the lepers are cleansed, their leprosy is gone – but when one of them returns to Jesus, bows down before him. Praises him. Acknowledges who he is he is made well.
It seems to me that he is made well in a different sense than healing from leprosy – I believe he is restored to wholeness. I guess that even if his leprosy hadn't been cured; his worship might have made him whole.
* * *
We long, I think, to hear Jesus say those words: "Your faith has made you well." As we come to him with our own wounds, needs and brokenness. We want to be made right somehow.
Perhaps our being made right has something to do with our worship.
Conclusion
3 snapshots:
A different way of seeing in Isaiah.
Transformation – in Romans.
And finally, healing and wholeness in Luke.
* * *
Why then, are we so messed up – why is the world the way it is.
In Old English worship comes from the word 'worthship'.
In worship we acknowledge god's worth to us.
* * *
Crudely put it would sometimes seem – if time is money – that God isn't worth that much to us.
If we spend 1 hour of our week worshipping God we're down to 0.6% of our time. If we count getting to church and back we push it up to 1.2% and if we spend 30 minutes a day in prayer we might start pushing 3%.
* * *
A while ago I told the story of the kids who snuck into the store and mixed up the price tags. The next day when the shop opened customers were amazed to find that a box of smarties cost R8000 and a huge plasma screen TV cost R5.89.
There was chaos.
* * *
I think that we're seeing a world broken by us and others putting the wrong price tags in the wrong places.
People have mispriced other people – leading to a humanitarian crisis.
We have mispriced the environment – leading to an environmental crisis that my grandchildren will have to deal with.
We have mispriced our god – leading to a decline in our own morality, and a mix up in the values of everything else.
* * *
When we learn to worship – and to weave our worship into every moment of our lives – our work, our play, our rest, our love – we will begin to see the Kingdom of God in this place.
AMEN.
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