3/11/02 am D Blandford:
1n the mid 1970’s when charismatic renewal was beginning to touch the lives of many Christians including myself I took some friends along to Capel for a Bible Teaching week. We travelled in my Morris 1100 which entailed a venture of faith on all the passengers parts. One of the evenings that we attended at the end of the meeting there was a profound silence. Not an empty silence but a full one. One which resonated with the presence of God. Vibrant praise had given way to awesome silence.
A number of years later my minister at that time Alan preached on God in our everyday lives. How so often what we are involved in, is the ordinary. It’s easy to look down upon the normal every day events yet worship encompasses both. God is involved in the ordinary.
Take this incident in John 4 Jesus is travelling through Samaria roughly an area in the centre of Israel and it was hot and he was thirsty so he went to a well for a drink. In was in that everyday activity, that Jesus met a woman drawing water from the well. She was alone and Jesus asks her for a drink.
It is from that encounter that a whole community is transformed but for today I want to share insights that this encounter provides about worship.
True worship:
i. Is dynamic – Worship is dynamic because true worship is about an encounter. Here in this story the woman had no idea who Jesus was. Yet the encounter was dynamic in that it was a significant meeting. True worship is never purely an academic exercise. True worship takes place in the encounter between God and the worshipper. So for us right now God is here. God is here and he wants to meet with us.
ii. Requires a knowledge of God – that encompasses understanding and relationship.
v22 You Samaritans do not really know who you worship. The Samaritans had strange beliefs. When Northern Israel was defeated by the Assyrians, large numbers of the Israelites were exiled. People from all over the Assyrian Empire were brought to Northern Israel. Initially they worshipped their own God and Jehovah the God of Israel. With the passing of time they worshipped only Him, but only accepted the first five book of the Old Testament as their scriptures.. They also hated the Jews. When the Jews had returned from exile, the Samaritans offered to help build the Temple their offer was refused Ezra 4.2f.
The Samaritans later had their own Temple where they worshipped on Mount Gerazim 400BC, this was burned by the Jews in 128BC – relationships worsened.
So they had some knowledge of God but not complete.
How well do we know the God we worship – do we allow time to read his word, or to read other people’s writings which will give us greater understanding of God.
Jesus tells us as the greatest commandment that we are to love God in such a way that our minds are involved. Yet knowledge is not enough. Reading the Bible, studying theology does not make you a Christian or a worshipper. Many years ago to greater understand the Muslim faith I read the Koran. That did not make me a Muslim nor did it lead to me worshipping Allah. True worship is knowing the true and living God, not only about him but knowing him.
iii. Requires integrity
The woman in John 4 becomes a worshipper but it starts by questioning, what was this Jewish man doing asking for a drink. It then progresses to Jesus offering living water. Jesus is drawing this woman closer to him v17. Jesus also makes it clear how he knows her and her current marital status v17-18. Jesus is making her aware that she can be real in this encounter, that she doesn’t need to hide or to pretend. True worship enables us to be absolutely honest with God. For me one of the profoundest truths is that God knows the worst thing possible about us and still loves us.
Recently in the media there have been various accounts of immorality ranging from a former Prime Minister to various television personalities. People attempt to separate a person’s work from their morality yet at times there appears to be a dire lack of integrity. Is what we see – real?
I suspect many of us recognise our own weakness and are therefore reticent to point any fingers. The way in which Jesus relates to this woman is masterful, being both real and yet not judgmental, rather leading her to a place where she can be accepted and loved.
Are we able to be real with God? I love the scriptures for their honesty. For the psalms as they span a whole variety of human experience.
iv. Is enabled by the Holy Spirit.
True worship also has a supernatural dimension
This encounter takes place at Jacob’s well. If you have been able to watch or video any of Michael Palin’s journeying in the Sahara you will have no doubt found it very interesting. The desert is not always as you imagine. There are places when it rains that rivers develop. There are some lush oasis which facilitate farming, indeed water promotes life.
Well the word for well v6 is one which can mean a spring or a fountain. A natural source of water which brings continual supplies.
v14 Jesus offers the living water of the Spirit which will become a living spring which will provide life giving water. The Holy Spirit is able to take what Jesus has done and make it real for us. Initially his dying in our place, yet as the exalted Lord , he is the one who has poured out his gift of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit not only imparts life but also invigorates worship. To worship in spirit is to have the Holy Spirit active within it. It is supernatural. It is also spiritual in that our human spirits energised by the Holy Spirit are engaged in our worshipping God.
We need to take on board when we worship that God is eternal. He is the God of the past, the present and the future. God can guide and direct in preparations that we make for our worship as together we come to celebrate the goodness of God. Yet as the God who is present we need to allow for God to move among. The spiritual gifts are not to be quenched but desired.
The life giving Spirit is to be received – to be welcomed and embraced.
As Chris Ellis shared, his personal encounter with God was lifechanging. There are people who are known to you whose lives have been transformed as they have encountered the Holy Spirit in a fresh way. There is a new power in their lives, there is a desire to share Jesus, there is a focus on praise. As with this woman, her encounter led to community transformation others got caught up in what God was doing.
Our mission statement is “to have a heart for God and God’s heart for others” – God gives not that we might hoard but that we might share.
v. Christian worship has Jesus at the centre
For our worship to be Christian – Jesus needs to be at the centre, just as he is in this encounter. Significantly Jesus does not hog the limelight, he wants to draw people into worship of God the Father, He wants the Holy Spirit to be acknowledged, to be loved and to be welcomed.
A key question of our worship – does it lift Jesus up among us? As with our evening service we want to worship in a way that is relevant to those around us. As we consider becoming involved in distributions of the Jesus video we want people to be able to come among us and to discover Jesus for themselves. Yet our desire is that Jesus is lifted up.
This past week I was reflecting on the question that Jesus asked his disciples. Who do people say that I am? For people within the 21C that will find a different response than the general answers that Jesus received. Then Jesus was perceived to be a prophet- a spokesman for God. Today – for many Jesus is unknown or is considered to have little relevance to their lives. We do not need to raise the profile of Jesus in that he is Lord, He is God’s Son, He is in heaven, He does hold the World together.
Yet we need to raise the profile of Jesus in this world, so that people are not simply able to ignore him. The great challenge for us as a Church and as the Church sent out into the world is to make Jesus visible by the lives we live.
vi. Touches God and the worshipper
Where is the focus of our worship? Upon us or upon God or more likely both.
Jesus was affected by this encounter indeed the must go through Samaria v4 would suggest that he had work to do on the way, and seeing this woman coming to a place of faith along with many others was a key purpose in taking this route.
I believe Jesus was blessed not only with a drink of water but by a community that was being transformed. Staying for a drink, was extended to a two day stay where he spent time talking with the villagers. v40
Clearly the woman was changed for she had encountered the Messiah And in Jesus’s dealings with her she realised who Jesus was and the evidence of this was her telling her story to the people in the village.
vii. Does not necessitate a physical location but maybe helped by it.
At one point the woman launched into a theological discussion about the right place to worship Mount Gerazim or Jerusalem. Jesus points her away from location and leads her to the heart of worship. The Father seeks those who worship Him in spirit and in truth.
It is true that God is not confined to a physical location. Yet without doubt practically a Church – a community of God’s people need a place to be together. Some of these places are schools, pubs, halls, for others the buildings are called Churches because that is where the Church meets. Or a really grand looking Church a Cathedral. I was hearing from Ishi and Sher how they had been blessed by touring some of the Cathedrals in the UK and worshipping God there. These places can resonate with a sense of majesty, also they have been used for worship for centuries .
Yet wherever we may be, what matters is most is our hearts. God is looking out for those who will worship Him is spirit and in truth – will you be one of them?