04/29/01 - Worship Is: Praise & Prayer (Part I)

Worship Is: PRAISE & PRAYER (Part 1)
Psalm 100 and Mark 10:13-16
April 29, 2001
St. John United Methodist Church
David Beckett, D.Min.

Why are you here today? What is it we are doing here Sunday after Sunday? What are the patterns of our own private worship throughout the week? Is God present in our worship? It is vitally important that the people of God understand that worship is central to the Christian life. Today is the first in a two-part sermon series on worship.

How would you define worship? It’s really not that hard. I would define worship simply as enjoying God. Enjoying God. How well do you enjoy God? By your presence here I assume that you are on a journey of faith. During this moment of rest and reflection we need to ask ourselves, "Am I enjoying God on this journey?" The reason you and I were created was for God’s enjoyment. And our ultimate purpose on this planet is not to get a good education, or find a good job and make a decent amount of money. Our purpose is not to get married and have children, or buy a nice house. It isn’t to work hard or even to be good citizens. All these things are great but they are not the main reason we were put here on this planet. Our reason for being is simply to enjoy God, to worship the God who loved us into being.

Not all of us are joyous members of God’s fan club, however. One boy who was scanning the TV remote in vain search of entertainment after Sunday School and church was frustrated to find nothing on the screen but worship services. Turning to his mother he asked, "Do you like God?" "Yes," she said, "Don’t you?" "No," he sighed. "I like Big Bird."

Perhaps there is more truth in this innocent child’s response than we care to admit. Is it possible that we are more enthralled with bigger-than-life TV and movie characters than we are with the God of the universe. They are much more entertaining than God. Most of us would probably admit that we like a certain amount of entertainment in our Sunday morning worship experience.

But where does our desire for entertainment come from? If we were to imagine our lives as an onion with different layers, how deep is our desire for entertainment? Would you say that your desire for entertainment runs deep within your soul? Is it near the center of who you are or more near the surface?

I don’t believe that our deepest desires are to be entertained. Our deepest desire is to be loved. Worship happens when we connect our desire to be loved with God’s desire to love. It would be helpful when we enter this holy sanctuary to get in touch with our desire to be loved. Maybe this happens when we breathe deeply before worship begins. Maybe it happens when we say the call to worship. Maybe it happens during the hymn of praise. It is important that some part of us gets in touch with our desire to be loved. Then we take that desire for love and plug it in with God’s desire to love us. It is an awesome and wonderful thing to behold.

Our most natural response when that connection is felt is to praise God. At a very basic level, worship is praising God. It is giving thanks. It is blessing God. Now praising God is hard to do though if we have a lot of pride in our hearts. Four year old Jimmy was rather reluctant to thank God for protecting him after he had a close call while the family was driving down the highway. The car door had flown open and the boy held onto it while his frantic parents slowed the car to a halt and pulled him inside to safety. When he said his prayers that night, his mother suggested, "Why don’t you thank God for saving your life today?" "What for?" he asked. "I was the one that held on!"

One thing that keeps us from true worship of God is the feeling that we deserve some credit too. Yes, we cooperate with God. Yes, we sometimes make decisions that are pleasing to God. But if we trace our abilities, our talents, our gifts to their source we humbly realize that God is the source of all gifts. God is our Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer, and worthy of our praise and thanks.

The older I become the more I realize that God’s love is about freedom. Maybe we can be open to the stream of love God desires to pour into us. I hope so. Because we’re talking about really important matters here. We’re talking about the relationship between Creator and creature, between the God of this universe and you. We’re talking about love.

Listen again to the words of Psalm 100. [Read Psalm 100]

What is worship? It is praise. Another way we answer this question, is that WORSHIP IS PRAYER. By prayer I am not talking about a one way action that we perform in a particular way. I’m not talking about prayer as the words we use to address God either on our knees or eyes closed or heads bowed. By prayer I am talking about being who we really are, in this moment as it really is, with God as God really is. To be a person of prayer is to be aware of the flow of God’s love weaving its way through creation, through the joys and pains of people, through the printed word, to touch the deepest parts of our hearts. So prayer is more than words. It is more than a certain posture. It is a way of living...open to God...open to love. To pray is to live in such a way so that no thought, no action, no words, indeed, no breath is separated from love. To pray is to be aware of God.

Have you ever noticed that sometimes we do things or feel things of which we aren't aware? Snoring is a good example. How many of you are willing to admit that you snore? OK, how many of you wives have husbands who snore but won't admit it? I heard a story about one man who was one of the greatest snorers of all time. It seemed that especially after he had had a few drinks he would really get to snoring. It would be so loud it actually shook the bed. His wife, of course, complained, but it never did any good. She didn't know what to do.

One Friday night he came home late. He had been out with the boys and had a few too many. He tumbled into bed and within minutes was snoring merrily away. His wife tried to wake him, but he was out of it. And then the snoring became louder and louder. In desperation the wife pulled off a blue ribbon that was a decoration on her nightgown and tied it tightly around his nose. It worked! Blessed silence! She was able to sleep peacefully for the rest of the night. The next morning the man was a little slow getting up. His wife came into the bedroom and saw her rather groggy husband scratching his head and looking at himself in the mirror. He seemed to be trying to figure out the blue ribbon on his nose. His wife asked him, "Just where were you last night?" "Well, I'm not really sure," the husband answered, "but wherever I was, I seem to have won first prize."

Here was a man who was totally unaware of what was happening around him. How often do we go through our days like him...totally unaware of God...unaware of love? Not only do we live unaware of God through our daily lives, but we often gather in this sacred space to worship and still forget God. Oh, we talk about God. We praise God in songs. We talk to God in our prayers. We tell stories about God. But how often do we go through these motions without the deeper personal connection that awareness brings?

We’re like the little boy whose family set out one day for Weeping Rock State Park for a picnic. He was so excited about seeing Weeping Rock he couldn’t stand it. His parents endured countless "How much farther, Mommy. How much farther, Daddy?" before they finally arrived. It was so hot that day. While his family was setting up their picnic area the little boy found a waterfall nearby and jumped right in. He had a great time splashing around in the cool water which gently fell from the rocks above. After he had his fill of this he ran to his family and wanted to know, "Where is Weeping Rock? We came to see Weeping Rock. I want to see Weeping Rock!" He didn’t realize that the waterfall he had been playing in was Weeping Rock!

Aren’t we like this little boy? We splash around every moment of every day looking for love, looking for God. When am I ever going to be happy? When will I find true love? When will I ever know God? All the time we ask the questions and live with the doubts, we are surrounded by God. We are surrounded by love. All we need is the key of awareness to unlock the door and open our hearts to God. This is a part of what it means to pray. This is what it means to worship God.

Children so often have this key. They come to us with an awareness of God and the world that inspires us. Didn’t Jesus say something about us coming into the kingdom of God like a child?

Would you take a simple imaginary journey with me for a moment? If it will help I invite you to close your eyes. Now picture in your mind a warm, sunny morning. The temperature is 70 degrees. The grass is green. The leaves on the trees are gently swaying in the light breeze. You have nothing to do, no place to go, except to take a walk with a 2 yr. old. That is all. No other plans. No other places to be. Only to be present in this moment with a little child. Holding hands you walk together in the morning sunshine. Through the eyes of this child you become aware of your world in a new way. Every bug that crawls on the ground is a reason to stop and wonder. Every flower that grows is an occasion to appreciate beauty. Every person you pass is noticed with a squeal of delight.

Then it hits you. We are surrounded by God. We are here in this moment. We are like children. My friends, this is prayer. This is worship. This is love. Thank you, God. Praise be to you!

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