Rev. Nick Cheek
Psalm 95:1-7 and Psalm 84
Since I can remember, I’ve lived a life with worship at its center. I’ve been blessed. As a child, I served as an altar boy in the Greek Orthodox Church, surrounded by beautiful icons, gold and silver crosses, burning red candles, the sweet smell of incense, and the warm taste of movrodophney wine during communion. When I traveled to college, I became curious of the many other ways people worshiped. As a student learning here in Charlotte… part of the Bible Belt, it was easy for me to get a taste of a variety of worship settings, forms and styles. I church hopped all over the city. Large churches, small churches. Traditional churches, contemporary churches. Presbyterian, charismatic, Baptist and non-denominational churches. White Churches, Black churches and more. During one season I attended a massive Church of God congregation that had a 300-member gospel choir. It was remarkable… There was a song they would sing once in a while called, “this is how it feels to be free”. Without fail, halfway through the song, folks would start staining up here and there. They would sway, that would close there eyes, look up to the heavens… and then raise their hands. There have been moments throughout the years when worship has brought me to tears… engulfed in the presence of God.
Maybe you’ve experienced something similar in the midst of worship here in this sanctuary or while in another pew from you past – a moving spiritual moment when you were made aware once again that – God was near… alive and well… and that you were God’s child… called… claimed… held… no matter what. That’s the powerful mystery of worship.
Theologian NT Wright says that “In worship, God comes down to meet us where we are, not to judge our tears or measure our dignity, but to wrap us in grace and remind us whose we are.”
In seminary, our professors would tell us – “the worship hour is the most important hour of the week, don’t ever forget it.” That’s why our worship staff, our worship leaders and volunteers spend so much time preparing for it. A lot of work goes into the maintenance of this one hour – and for good reason. What we do in this space… the music, the prayers, the word of God spoken, the community fellowship… This is a time set apart…and it is central to the practice of our faith.
Worship is a mini-miracle… a mini-miracle when the material world and the spiritual would sort of blend together and intertwine into a harmony of mind, body and soul. The theological word we use to describe this experience is “incarnational.” Incarnational is the belief that God’s presence is among us – always… when we rise, when we end our days and every moment in between. But it is in this special time right here – through our worship – we are given the gracious opportunity to recognize God’s presence ever more fully. The awareness of God’s grace is thicker… in this time and space. In this hour, we can step away from the noise and the screens, the expectations and the busyness of life, the endless
demands, the distractions, the headlines, and the constant pressure to keep moving, keep doing, keep producing. And for a little while, we can set it all aside. We can stop worrying about what needs to be done tomorrow, what we failed to accomplish yesterday, or what the world might ask of us next. And in this sacred space, we can quiet our hearts enough to hear God’s still, small voice speaking to us. We can feel God’s love wrapping around us, reminding us that we are held, that we are known, and that we are loved.
Author and Pastor Howard Rice believes that “Worship… keeps us human… because worship keeps us reminded of who we really are and to whom we truly belong. Worship is a means of maintaining and restoring the image of God in us, enabling us to function as people who know who we are. Worship can enable us to be free from the various false identities that we wear like masks to seek perfection from our fear of our real selves. Worship provides us with… grace… The grace which we experience through the grounding and foundation of our true identity – the one we share in Jesus Christ.” Church… I have a question for you – If you were to tell someone in town about our style of worship, what is one word you would use to describe it? (wait for a sec) “Traditional” Yeah – that’s an okay word… and it’s one that has been used to describe our worship for decades. But I think there is a better one we can use and it’s this; “purposeful.” Our worship as Presbyterians is purposeful. Everything we do in this hour is to illuminate the living and active word of God.
We begin with praise and adoration…we focus our hearts and our minds on the living God. When the Hebrews crossed over the red sea and were delivered from Pharaoh – they sang praises to God. When Mary found out she was to give birth to the Christ child, she sang. The Psalms are spiritual songs meant to lift up the Lord in glory. In the OT, worship was the center of the Hebrew Faith. Whenever they meant in the tabernacle… songs of praise which were presented to God. The Torah implores us…. “Ascribe to the Lord, all you families of nations, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory due God’s name; bring an offering and come before God. Worship the Lord in the splendor of God’s holiness. Tremble before the Lord, all the earth! The world is firmly established; it cannot be moved. Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad; let them say among the nations, “The Lord reigns!” Let the sea resound, and all that is in it; let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them! Let the trees of the forest sing, let them sing for joy before the Lord, who comes to judge the earth. Give thanks to the Lord, for God is good; God’s steadfast love endures forever.” We praise God through our Hymns, through joining in adoration together! And thankfully we have an incredible Choir to lead us.
Our worship also gives us the opportunity to remember that we are frail and incomplete… in need of the mercy of God to wash over us. The scriptures implore us… “Come… bow down before the lord our maker”. The confession is a reminder of our brokenness. I John 1:9 reminds us “If we confess our sins God is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Confession is an honest plea for healing and acceptance despite our failures and frailties – an understanding that in our human condition we cannot be perfect, no matter how hard we try. But our confession in worship doesn’t end with our sin… is moves into a time of assurance…. a declaration of another constant in our relationship with God…that God is faithful, even when we are not… a truth that our Lord and Savior has removed our sins as far as the east is from the west. Thanks be to God… in Jesus Christ we are forgiven. That’s good news that we need to hear… not only in here… but every morning the sun wakes us up.
Following the confession and the assurance of pardon, we have the passing of the peace. This moment of fellowship is placed here for a deeply theological reason.
Not only are we reminded that our individual sins are forgiven, but God’s grace also reaches into the things that separate us from one another: our anger, our frustrations, our disagreements, and our divisions. Every Sunday we pray, “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” The passing of the peace is an outward expression of a community washed in God’s grace. It is small reaffirmation of our baptism, a reminder that we belong to God and to one another. And so, we turn toward our neighbors, look one another in the eyes, and say, “The peace of Christ be with you.” … “And also with you.” The confession, the assurance of pardon, and the passing of the peace remind us that, by God’s grace, we can continue moving forward together as a community bound together by grace and reconciliation.
Proclamation of the Word – And then we come to the reading of Scripture and the preaching of the sermon. This is at the very heart of our Presbyterian understanding of worship. We believe that when Scripture is read and proclaimed, God continues to speak to us through the power of the Holy Spirit. These ancient words have something to say to us today, in our own lives, in our own circumstances, and in the world in which we live.
I take this responsibility very seriously. In seminary, we were taught that for every minute preached, a pastor should spend about an hour in study and preparation. Some weeks it’s more than that, while others it’s less. But most weeks, I’m still writing and editing this thing until about 9:30 on Sunday morning. So pray for me. But there’s also something mysterious about the proclamation of God’s Word. I spend hours studying, writing, and carefully choosing words, but once those words leave this pulpit, I have very little control over what happens next. They find their way into your hearts and minds, and each of you may hear something different.
There are Sundays when I finish preaching and think to myself, “Well, that one really fell flat.” And then, on the way out, four or five people will shake my hand and say, “I really needed to hear that today.” I love those Sundays. They remind me that something is happening in the proclamation of the Word that goes well beyond my preparation or ability to preach. The Holy Spirit is at work, taking these very human words and somehow using them to speak to people in ways I could never have planned.
After adoration and praise, confession and assurance of forgiveness, after the word proclaim – we move into the second half of worship…. And the second half is a response to God’s Word.
We have offering: When we present our gifts, it is not only a time to give our money. It is a prayerful moment when we remember that our whole lives are meant to be an offering to God. I love how Eugene Peterson expresses this in his paraphrase of Romans 12:1–2 in The Message. He invites us to take our everyday, ordinary lives, our sleeping, eating, working, and walking-around lives, and place them before God as an offering. In other words, the offering is about far more than what we put in the plate. It is about what we do with our lives when we leave this place. Our time, our gifts, our relationships, our work, our service to others. All of it can become an expression of gratitude to God.
After the offering, we pray together, we affirm our faith together…. And then we sing a sending song and receive a benediction, which is the pronouncement of God’s blessing upon you as you are sent out into the world to live out your faith.
Trinity, the holiest of worship doesn’t end in here, it compels us to move outward. That’s what really makes our worship divine… when what we hear in here, what we sing in her, what we learn and experience in here…doesn’t end in here. We are called to bring God’s loving and holy presence out into a world that desperately needs it. That’s true… divine… worship.
End with a beautiful quote that sums up our experience in this space by Laura Van Dyk, in her book, A More Profound Halleluiah has one beautiful way of describing the wonder of worship – she writes. “Worship is a miracle of Grace; it is a God who calls us together to reorient our frayed and tattered selves each week. But it is also a gathering of human beings who peer at one another and at God, hoping and waiting for a glimpse of glory.”
My Friends, each week may you open your ears, hearts and minds to experience a glimpse of the living and present God in worship.