Grace Church
257 Kendall Street
Burlington, WI 53105

(262) 763-3021

PASTOR'S PENS 2008

November 30th “There comes a time when we understand emotionally what we’ve only understood intellectually.”                                                                                               Dr. James Dobson                 Today is our last message in our series, iPsalms Worship. But in reality for each of us, our worship and understanding of worship, is only beginning. I do hope that over the course of this past month, your comprehension of worship has deepened. More importantly, I hope and pray that you’ve grown and your heart is inflamed with worship for our glorious God. I also hope that we all realize that we are on a journey both individually and corporately. Our understanding of worship is so limited, so small. It would be spiritually frightening if some Christian thought that they had somehow arrived when it came to worship and it would be spiritually abhorrent, if a local church thought that they had. Worship of our awesome God is a journey in which we must keep moving forward and keep growing. That’s because all that we are and have comes from God. Apart from Him we are truly nothing.                 Recently, I read of a family that was seated around their table at Thanksgiving, looking at the annual holiday bird. From the oldest to the youngest, they were to express their praise. When they came to the 5-year-old, he began by expressing his thanks to the turkey, saying although he had not tasted it he knew it would be good. After that rather novel expression of thanksgiving, he began with a more predictable line of credits, thanking his mother for cooking the turkey and his father for buying the turkey. But then he went beyond that. He joined together a whole hidden multitude of benefactors, linking them with cause and effect. He said, "I thank you for the checker at the grocery store who checked out the turkey. I thank you for the grocery store people who put it on the shelf. I thank you for the farmer who made it fat. I thank you for the man who made the feed. I thank you for those who brought the turkey to the store." Using his Columbo-like little mind, he traced the turkey all the way from its origin to his plate. And then at the end he solemnly said, "Did I leave anybody out?" His 12-year-older brother, embarrassed by all those proceedings, said, "God." Solemnly and without being flustered at all, the 5-year-old said, "I was about to get to Him."  True worship always begins and ends with God. We will spend all eternity worshiping and praising our infinite God.                 In some ways this has been one of the most frustrating sermon series that I’ve done since I came to Grace in 1988. The subject of worship is so vast that there is no way in one month or one year or even in one lifetime, one could begin to cover all that it entails. Worship is not easy to explain or define. Sometimes, I felt like a man who was trying to get a drink from a fire hydrant and then I was to share the water. Also, as I have worked through this study, I’ve been reminded how little I understand about true worship. And I cannot even begin to fathom why an infinite God wants my or our worship.                 I do know, though, with an even greater understanding that worship at our church is indispensable and that our corporate worship on Sundays should motivate us to worship the Lord more faithfully and fervently throughout the week. Too often we in the American church have bought into the mistaken notion that worship is about us and for us. In a “me” centered, entertainment-driven culture we search for a church that makes us feel good – and doesn’t challenge us too much; whose music suits our tastes – as if we were attending a performance; a church whose program will fit in a one-hour package –like a television show. At its heart, the consumer/audience model of worship betrays a profound misunderstanding of Christian worship. We are not here as consumers or as an audience; we do not come to watch or to critique the program. No, we come as worshipers – we’ve a standing appointment every Sunday to gather and tell God just what we think and feel.                 Worship is something we do for God. What we get out of it is not the primary concern. The blessings we receive from worship are a by-product, not the focus of our worship. In worship we come to do and give, not receive. We worship in order to give thanks for what God has done, for what God is doing, and for what God promises to do. How we feel in worship is not the concern. The issue is was God delighted with what we offered today? Whether or not we liked the music or the preacher’s delivery is irrelevant. We can sit back as critic or check out as bored, but if we do, we miss the whole point. What matters is this – “have I loved God passionately in this service, have I prayed and confessed and praised, have I celebrated and opened my heart. Has my worship been authentic?”                 So is worship indispensable to you? Why do you come? Why do I come? Let me answer that with a story from the life of the great theologian, Karl Barth. For those of you who have never heard of Karl Barth, he was the most prolific theologian of the last century. He was the Wayne Gretzky, the Hank Aaron of 20th century Christian theology.                 Karl Barth's theology was as complex as it was profound. When Barth visited the University of Chicago, students and scholars crowded around him. At a press conference, someone asked, “Dr. Barth, what is the most profound truth you have learned in your studies?” Without hesitation he replied, “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” Karl Barth, perhaps the greatest theological mind of the 20th century, was impacted most, not by reading theological treatises, but by the simple truth, “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” Why do we gather to worship? “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” And that’s what we’ll be singing for all eternity as we gather around His throne!