We Meet Together

In trying to remember what my inspiration was for writing this call to worship, I am not sure if it was an election season, or if the sermon was on unity that day, or if it was independent of any other prompt.  I do know that God calls us to worship together in spite of all of our differences. He doesn't give us the option of being "Lone Rangers" in our faith; scripture calls us repeatedly to meet together.

I was asked on the spur of the moment this week to share in our early service why it is important to worship corporately.  My first response was that it is great practice for eternity.  Scripture paints a beautiful picture of worship around the throne. Make no mistake, we will worship together for eternity with saints of all backgrounds and nationalities, worshiping as one.  There will be no place for putting people on pedestals. God alone will be the focus of our worship.

 I thought secondly of the fact that, in any given worship service, there are people who are on the mountaintop and others that are in the valley. In the midst of worship we get to acknowledge that God is the God of both the mountain and the valley.  We need to worship in the midst of both.  We need moments of rejoicing and thankfulness and moments of remembrance of those times God has brought us through.  We need opportunities as well to cry out to God in our hurts and for the hurts of others.  In doing so,we need to be able to reach out to those around us and say, "I have been there, and God was with me, even when I didn't feel Him."

Obviously, this is not an exhaustive theology of corporate worship, just a couple of spur of the moment thoughts.  This is a continuing discussion for us in worship. I would love to hear your thoughts.

We Meet Together

(A call to worship for two readers)

      We meet here each week.We meet here to worship.

            We meet here to worship together: 

             Young

             Old

             Male

             Female

2          Wealthy

            Not so wealthy

2          Southerners

1          Northerners

2          And those from other countries.  We meet here to worship together:

     

1          Students and educators

2         Musicians and mathematicians

1         Soldiers and Salespersons

           Democrats, Republicans, and Independents

Both:  together.

1         The quiet and the boisterous, together

2         The staunch believer and the skeptic, together

1        We meet united by the greatness of God’s love for all humanity.

2        We meet united by a love that wishes that none should perish.

1        We meet united by grace and mercy.

2.       We meet united by the Holy Spirit Who brings us peace, healing, and love which reaches across the  barriers  which divide us to make us one body.

1        We meet here each week.

2        We meet here to worship.

Both:  We meet here to worship together.

    Come, let us all worship and bow down together.

    Let us kneel together before the Lord, our maker.

     Both:  Together, let us worship.

What if?

I really have been lousy about writing regularly. I realized today that I really haven't done any blogging since my youngest was born, which may tell you exactly how busy she keeps me. I don't have a lot of time to sit and reflect and write, except maybe in my office.  You would think ministry would be much more conducive to reflection and meditation, but a lot of time it is not.  I don't get to sit and think as much as I would like. Actually, extrovert as I am, sitting and reflecting alone is not first on my list anyway. I would much rather converse my way through ideas with a group of others.  However, when I do get a chance to reflect, a lot of my musings and reflections get written into worship materials: poems, readings, liturgies. So, I decided maybe I would put some of that on the blog for anyone else to use or to give feedback. I am going to start putting them up little by little, as time allows.  I will start with something I am working with for this week's service:

This is a reading in three parts: one as part of the call to worship, one in tandem with the scripture reading and the song "Your Grace Still Amazes Me", and one preceding (or following, not sure yet) the sermon, which is titled, "When the Church Is the Church".

What if we really praised?

I mean, really praised

Not just going through the motions

Not just for an hour on Sunday or on a special occasion

Or when things are going particularly well

What if we praised Him in the midst of the valley?

What if we saw God’s hand at work around us at all times and praised Him?

What if we recognized that every day is His, no matter what it brings?

What if we praised Him in the midst of our families? Or our workplace?

Would it change our lives?

Would we be different people?

Would others notice?

What if we really praised?

What if we truly were amazed?

I mean, really amazed

Completely in awe of Who God is, of His love and His mercy

What if, day by day, we realized just how ugly and scarred and sinful we really are

Not were, but are

And if we really understood the holiness of God, the otherness of God,

The purity and power, and the perfection

And realized that He, in all his purity, took our sins on Himself

And died

And that, in His resurrection, He made being in relationship with Him a reality

And that God would want to walk with us, ugly, scarred, and sinful

Would we look at others the same way?

Would we continue to judge their sinfulness or their worthiness?

Could we be apathetic to their hurts and needs?

Would it change our lives?

Would we be different people?

Would others notice?

What if we truly were amazed?

What if we truly followed?

I mean, truly followed

Not just on Sundays, but every day of the week

Not just in words, but in our actions, all of them

No matter where He asked us to follow

No matter what it might cost us

What if every decision we made, at home, at work, at school, in the world was informed by our faith?

What if every action we took was based on our love of God and others?

What if we followed without regard to our pocketbooks or public opinion?

What if we went even if no one was willing to go with us?

Would it change our lives?

Would we be different people?

Would others notice?

What if we truly followed?