We want to know about God, but never merely the facts.  After a lifetime of intense theological inquiry we will never grasp more than a handful of sand on the vast seashore of who God is.  But we want to know, and to know more, and to love more.  We come with questions, only to be surprised by new questions; we pick up a few answers, which whet our appetite to ask more, and to be more like the One we have come to know in worship.  The soul is like some great gothic cathedral, decades in the making, slowly rising out of the ground, unimaginable labor involved, yet in the end a beautiful place where God is glorified, loved and served.

   Worship is a school of theology - and virtue.  Our society suffers from a bleak confusion when it comes to ethics.  We think "I'm a pretty good person," and do not think much of ethics until we come to a crisis, a huge decision, a moral dilemma, and then we scratch our heads and wonder "What would God want me to do?" - a good question, but as hard to answer as it would be for me to decide whether to use a steel girder or a brick facing on a construction site if I had never been trained in architectural engineering.  I could pick, but the building would fall down.

   "Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, your spiritual worship.  Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, so you may prove what is the will of God" (Romans 12:1-2).  In worship, we cultivate habits of thought, we are trained in how to be, how to be solid, as if some gyroscope or compass is slowly being installed in the heart, so we will know God's heart.  We can then trust the worshipful self and its instincts.  Some improvisation will be required - just as well-trained actors learn their characters so well they can improvise on stage.  Worship is a rehearsal, living into who I am in God's drama.  The virtues instilled in worship keep me calm in a crisis; I know which way is north.  And who knows?  Faithfulness in worship may actually prevent us stumbling into a crisis or two.

   Think about prayer, and the difference it makes:  God trusts us, and lets us get involved in what transpires down here!  God gives us immense responsibility.  "Response-ability":  God has made us able to respond to God's grace.  So we listen to Scripture, sing hymns, pray, hear the Word, give money, knowing that we are being schooled to respond appropriately, faithfully, courageously to the grace of God.  

James

james@mpumc.org

Sunday's sermon for All Saints (on Joshua 24, Revelation 7 and Matthew 5) may be heard by clicking here.

Coming up (to the last 4 installments as we conclude):

eWorship22 - Seasons and Years

eWorship23 - Holy matrimony

eWorship24 - Benediction

eWorship25 - Funeral

The complete eWorship series may be found on our web site.