Hosea 2:21-23 -- Merry Christmas

21“In that day I will respond,”

declares the Lord—

“I will respond to the skies,

and they will respond to the earth;

22and the earth will respond to the grain,

the new wine and the olive oil,

and they will respond to Jezreel.

23I will plant her for myself in the land;

I will show my love to the one I called ‘Not my loved one.’

I will say to those called ‘Not my people,’ ‘You are my people’;

and they will say, ‘You are my God.’ ”

Grace.  He loves the unloveable.  He claims the unclaimable.

Immanuel... God with us...

Merry Christmas

Worship Without Boundaries

One of the places on my personal bucket list is Yellowstone National Park.  Did you know that Yellowstone National Park is the first and oldest national park in the world. It can be seen from space! The park is in three states and covers 3,400 square miles (2.2 million acres). It’s known for incredible beauty and amazing geological features such as Old Faithful geyser. But my friends that have been there often tell me that the landscape now is entirely different now than it was in 1988.   That year, a forest fire larger than any in history swept through… it destroyed everything.  It consumed trees that were designed to survive fires.  It was a consuming fire. 

The book of Hebrews tells us that our GOD is a consuming fire, and says that that quality is what should define our worship:   “Let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our “God is a consuming fire.”

I'm deeply concerned about what worship is for worship leaders, but that makes me think about worship in general, too.  It isn’t about us, but different aspects of worship appeal naturally to different kinds of people.  We need to listen for God’s voice as we worship and let him convict us and challenge us. But what does it mean to truly enter into worship as a community without boundaries. 

I think that beyond all else, worship is community agreeing together to love Jesus… to fall in love with him, even. 

Remember falling in love?  Head-over-heels, desperately desiring to be near that person?  It’s a little like that consuming fire, isn’t it?

Falling in love changes our focus – we are no longer concerned with ourselves focused only on our beloved – and our incredible joy and gratitude that he or she loves us also…

Worship is a celebration of this kind of love, a joyful focus on loving the God that first loved us.  Worship is not about music, or the sermon, or standing up and sitting down at the right times, or boredom or banners – it’s about something so much bigger we can’t wrap our brains around it.  We are a manifestation of the entire people of God worshipping right now before the throne – when we begin to perceive this, there are a thousand reasons to rejoice, to praise, to sing – and to renounce flippancy, selfishness, superficiality, and going-through-the-motions.  We rejoice because we are beloved, and we respond in love. 

Before the God who is a consuming fire, we don’t go through the motions and think about the next thing when we get this over with and go home.  We don’t demand our artistic preferences.  We don’t just gather with our friends.  We don’t just sing together.  We enter into the presence of God.  The holy of holies.  THIS is the nature of the church, the reality.  And when we start singing we join in a glorious worship that takes place unceasingly before the throne of God.  This is incredible!!  Imagine it!!

When King David danced in front of the Ark it was not a public display – it was a simple response to the greatness of God and what God had done in David’s life.  David was consumed with awe and JOY and because his focus was on God, he had total peace with his worship—even when it made his wife uncomfortable – if you’re up on your feet it shouldn’t be because you want to impress the person next to you and if you’re sitting in your seat it shouldn’t be because that’s how you were raised and that’s what’s expected…  Worship isn’t like that, it’s entire focus is off of self and off of others and instead on God. 

The priorities of worship are even shown in the Hebrew and Greek words that are translated as “worship.”  It comes from three word groups:  First “bowing down,”  This stresses submission.  Bowing down before God is making a conscious statement to God that he is in control of all things that relate to my life.  Second, “Service, or Obedience”  Now that I’ve submitted, I’m responsible to fulfill the wishes of the one I worship.  Romans 12:1 “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship.”  Our daily living should be a sacrifice – true worship is a lifestyle, not a moment.   

 All of life reflects our worship of God.  Third, “Remember.”  There are amazing promises for people in worship.  We eagerly look forward to what has already been accomplished.  We need to daily, hourly, moment-by-moment remember our covenant with God and what Christ has done for us.

Once we are looking at worship with these internal mindsets, it no longer has boundaries of time or geography.  It connects us to worship in a community that we experience through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in each of us.  The spirit unites believers into a single people, a family of brothers and sisters in Christ.  At one level members of a church function as a community – but at a higher level the spirit connects all believers, both as individuals and small communities, to others everywhere.  Through the spirit there are not only no geographical boundaries but also a bond between saints that have been divided from our community by death and those that are still living on Earth.

Worship is ongoing and eternal; our highest calling, the reason for our existence.  We were created to honor and glorify God!  And one of the beautiful things about a community of believers such as this one is that it is a visible manifestation of the entire people of God for all time.  We are part of the residents of Heaven who are worshipping before the throne of God right now.    This doesn't start at an hour of the clock – We need to lose the beginning and end to worship mindset and remember that this is only the time that we agree as a community to join the saints in Heaven together and celebrate all the unique ways that we worship our God.  This is the time we set aside to participate in the ongoing and eternal party. 

Make no mistake, that word “participation” is an important one.  I don’t believe that God wants us to be a wallflower or a voyeur or especially someone who is going through the motions.  We need to be careful here.  We need to approach with awe and respect.  Do we? 

Is God interested in us showing up to look at worship?  I don’t think so.  When we gather to enjoy musicians serenading us, or to watch cleverly done videos or to be entertained by a public speaker and then refer to this passive, non-participatory experience as “worship,” a shift has occurred, something vital has been lost.  

We’re more used to being voyeuristic than truly participatory, of course… Think of “American Idol” or “So You Think You Can Dance.” 

You don’t learn to dance or sing by watching these programs any more than you learn to worship by watching.  You are not a singer or a dancer if you watch them, even if you’re invited to vote – and that’s like deciding who your favorite singer on the worship team or in the choir is!

Now just in case you’re looking at your neighbor just now instead of at yourself, remember there is no way to tell on the outside if someone is worshipping authentically or has their heart focused somewhere other than on God. 

Someone who seems entirely uninvolved in worship may have an inner heart-set that is beautiful to the king, and someone that seems on the opposite pole and is dancing and singing with arms raised may be joyfully and exuberantly glorifying God or only putting on a display. 

This is not about style of worship – but it is about our hearts, and we know our hearts, and we can see the fruit that comes out of them.

In the book of Revelation, we see John’s vision of worship in Heaven – there are 24 elders who lay their crowns down at feet of Jesus.  To me, one of the most beautiful things about this moment is that they and the other living creatures that worship before the throne are all different and unique, yet they are a community of worshippers.  We celebrate our individual uniqueness when we worship together as the body of Christ.  When our focus is on loving Jesus, our differences fall away as unimportant.   

But what about when we walk out of this place?  Go home and eat lunch, watch football, go to work?

The worship continues in Heaven and it can continue in this community as well.  When our lives are an act of worship it transcends these walls and enters into anything and everything we do.  Nothing is trivial because the God who created us is not trivial. 

Psalm 86:12 says

“I will praise you, O Lord my God, with all my heart; I will glorify your name forever.”

We cannot truly worship in part, or only for an hour on Sunday morning.  As the psalmist writes, joyful praise is with our whole heart.  It consumes our lives.  Does that sound hard?  I ask you again, remember falling in love?  How hard is it to think about them?  More like, how incredibly hard is it NOT to?  And the more time we spend with Jesus, the more we will fall in love.  

We don’t worship alone.  We don’t even worship bound by these walls or bound by time.  We don’t worship based on our present circumstances and we don’t worship based on what we can see with our eyes.  But what I find most exciting about true worship without boundaries and what it all means is that we are worshipping as part of a kingdom that is happening now yet is part of our future.  We rejoice in what has already been accomplished even as we are part of how it is all working out. 

We have a promise of worship at the end of history from the book of Revelation: 

Rev. 21:26  I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it.

What we do as a people of God anticipates the future unity of God’s people in the age to come.  To worship together is to radically claim a future in which unity is evidence of Jesus’ rule in all of us and God’s promises through him.   

John 17:21-23 “…that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”

What is Worship Leading?

The Unique Musical Work of Worship Leading...

Confession: I was a church musician before I was a Christian.  As an undergrad I was recommended to a local Lutheran Church looking for a choir director. They asked me a lot of questions about music and about who I was as a person -- but NEVER asked me about my faith. Not one question! Since then I have served on many church staffing committees, and we always ask for a formal statement of faith, not to mention talking about it during the interview process. I don't blame the group interviewing me --  I sincerely believe that God clouded their minds and stopped their mouths in a significant miracle that would change the course of my life.

Twenty plus years later, as I continue to lead worship and train worship leaders, the incredible uniqueness of this work continues to surprise me. When it is authentic, it has elements of performance, but it is quite unlike performance. It has elements of deep individual worship, but it is unlike worship. It is vital to the mission of the church and the experience of the believers present. I consider "worship leaders" to be not only contemporary singers whose faces are in front but also instrumentalists, choir members, keyboard and organ players -- anyone who helps the congregation experience God through music.

Worship leaders need to have experiences and times of authentic worship, but how is individual worship different from worship leading? I think that in worship, there are only two "players" involved: the worshipper and God. The experience can vary extremely from calm listening to ecstatic charismatic experiences, but authentic worship it is a closed circuit of connection and relationship. Others around you cease to matter and awareness of them on some occasions simply falls away. It is intensely personal.

I believe the best worship leaders are also skilled performers. Performing is also about connection, however, the connection is between the performer and the audience. Though using talents certainly glorifies God, connection to God is not part of the performance. The best performances have an aspect of relationship where an audience feels connected to the performer and through that performer learns or lives something larger than themselves. The performer invites the audience into involvement with himself or herself, and the more honest and vulnerable the performer is, the more successful the invitation is also.

Worship leading, though leaning heavily on both of these aspects, is unique in that there are now three distinct players involved: The congregation (audience), worship leader (performer), and God. The aspect of invitation in the best performances is the same and absolutely vital, however, the worship leader's invitation is now not to relationship/connection with him or her, but with God. The worship leader must maintain the aspect of personal worship because without a real relationship with God, the invitation to join it is hollow and empty. However, if the worship leader if the experience between the worship leader and God becomes too intensely personal, the congregation is shut out and no longer invited into the experience and connection. Similarly, if the worship leader becomes too involved in her or his relationship with the congregation it leaves God out of the picture and quickly becomes false.

The worship leader, like any other leader during a worship service, sacrifices some aspects of worship in order to lead others. This is not a negative thing -- it is a willing act of self-sacrifice that I believe is pleasing to God.

The ultimate responsibility of a worship leader, then, is to begin with a cultivated, authentic relationship with God and then to openly and vulnerably invite others into that relationship through music and worship. In order to do this the worship leaders must also build skills in their instruments or singing performances and extensively rehearse as a group in order to bring the highest quality of music possible to glorify God. I have seen and experienced some phenomenal musicians fail at worship leading because they didn't bring their best efforts/individual practice/rehearsal because it was "just church."

Worship Leading is daunting, difficult, and an incredible commitment. But what could possibly be more rewarding than inviting people into a closer relationship with God through an art form that we love? It is important work that brings with it the frustration of striving to improve, dedication, commitment, and moments of intense joy.

Thoughts on Luke 2:25-35 -- Hope

Luke 2:25-35

25Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him. 26It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. 27Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, 28Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying:

29“Sovereign Lord, as you have promised,

you may now dismiss^d your servant in peace.

30For my eyes have seen your salvation,

31which you have prepared in the sight of all nations:

32a light for revelation to the Gentiles,

and the glory of your people Israel.”

33The child’s father and mother marveled at what was said about him. 34Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, 35so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.”

When I was a young person, one of the running jokes in my family was trying to give gifts to my grandmother.  It wasn’t that she wasn’t appreciative – she would ooh and ahh appropriately, say things were beautiful, and then never ever use them.  She would put them away in her cedar chest. 

Her slippers were full of holes, my mother gave her beautiful new fur-lined isotoners… that went into the cedar chest.  Clothing, towels, pans, whatever – they were “too nice to use” and put away for some unknown future. 

Now, I like anticipation as much as anyone.  I don’t unwrap corners of Christmas presents to take an early peek, and I am happy to wait to open them even when the day is here.  I never, ever look at the last page of a book I’m reading.  But how much sense does it make, once the anticipation is over, to never use what has been given?  To behave as though we have never received the present?

My grandmother’s gifts were never any use.  Most were still in the cedar chest new when she passed away, and the things she used were worn out.  It was silly, laughable – and in some ways, sad. 

This text acknowledges that Christ has come.  The waiting is over – it has been for over 2000 years.  How much of our lives do we waste behaving as though we’re still waiting for Jesus?  Jesus –is come.  Now.  We choose whether or not we set that gift aside for another day.  Jesus didn’t look like they thought he would 2000 years ago– why should we expect our experience to be any different?

After Simeon acknowledges that he has seen the Messiah, a light for the gentiles and glory for Israel, he blesses the family.  He blesses them and us with knowledge of what living with Jesus in our lives means.  “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed.”

It’s interesting to me that these words come as a blessing, and not a warning.  Jesus is the cause of falling and of rising, a sign to be spoken against, and a revealer of our deepest thoughts and motives.  These are the blessings we contend with when we live with Jesus, when we are active in the kingdom of God, here and now.

So what does it mean to live using these gifts instead of hiding them away?  How do we, as believers, look different on the outside because Jesus has come, and how are we different internally?  To me, the big differences are shown in two areas – how we respond to trials, and where we find our joy and hope.

The first thing that we need to notice is that Simeon does not say “Jesus will make people comfortable.” Or “his followers will be happy.” 

If you’re in a dark time in your life – and all of us have been in dark times, if we’ve been on this planet for long at all – it is not a moment to wait, and think that gifts and promises from God are for another time.  It is a time to shine.  As believers, we are a light.  We were born for darkness!  

As believers, we are light  -- we were built for darkness!

Trials don’t only test your own character, they test your faith and your understanding of your ownership of the kingdom.  They become great stories of hope, where weakness in our own lives has been an opportunity for God to show how strong HE is.  We have to have a test to have an imony! (That’s not mine, it’s another preacher’s quip, but I like it.) And it’s true, isn’t it?  We sing every week about being a people of victory, but you can’t have a victory without a battle! 

We were built for darkness, to be a light for the world.  James chapter 1 says “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.”  Joy isn’t pleasure – he doesn’t say consider it pure pleasure, or pure fun.  Jesus causes rising and falling – a trial is not a time to complain, it’s a time to rise. 

Living in the kingdom here on Earth means attack and assault.  Jesus is a sign that will be opposed, and that means trials.  Remember the beginning of Jesus’ ministry?  No problem, I’ll refresh y’all – Luke, chapter 3 and then 4: 

When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”  

… Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.  The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone.”

 

The devil tempts Jesus with power, with testing God, and eventually fails to overcome him, and then

“Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside.

The last thing that has happened to Jesus is that the voice of God has spoken over him, saying “this is my son, in whom I am well pleased,”  and the first thing that the devil says to him is “IF you are the Son of God.”  If.    One of the first ways to recognize a spiritual attack is that he attacks your personhood, your identity.  Easy to observe that in this story, isn’t it?  But doesn’t it just cut you when you hear it?  IF you were a good mother, your child wouldn’t throw a fit in Target… IF you were a better provider, your family would be grateful… IF you were a real Christian, you would… fill in the blank.  Your identity is attacked.  Knowing , really knowing, with a full heart knowledge, that Jesus has come means knowing that he has bought you.  When you really know who and whose you are, every battle in life has been won, hasn’t it?

But when you’re in the midst of a trial, in the middle of your own 40 days in the wilderness, and you wonder who wants me here, God or the devil – well sometimes the answer is “yes.”  God allows it, and what Satan meant for evil, God has used for good) Jesus was led into the wilderness by the Spirit.  The wilderness is a way that our inner thoughts, our hearts are revealed.  God wants you in the wilderness and the devil wants you there, but their purposes are different.  The devil wants you there to destroy you, (John 10:10 – the thief comes to steal and to kill and to destroy) but God wants you there so you can destroy the work of the devil.  So that in your weakness God can show His strength.  We are weak, but he is strong – the first thing we teach our kids, right?  The devil came to Jesus when he had been there for 40 days.  He was hungry.  He looked weak.  But that was the moment for God to show his power, and afterwards, Christ leaves in the POWER of the spirit. 

But here’s a question – is accepting that power over our lives, knowing that Jesus has come and not shoving him into the cedar chest for another day – is that it?  if the battle is already won, do we really have to do anything?  Doesn’t God have it all handled?  Well, yes, but “the man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor. For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.”  (1 Cor 3:8-9)  When we say “worker with us in the Kingdom of God” to everyone who is baptized at this altar, we say “worker” on purpose.  We don’t say “sleeper” or “rester.”  Perseverance – work --  is a fruit of the spirit.  We know Ephesians 2:8, right?  We are saved by grace, through faith, not a result of works but created FOR good works.  I think in our society we’ve lost the sense that perseverance and hard work create breakthrough.  I don’t like it either.  I have a couple places in my life where I am flat sick of the hard work.  In Colossians 1:29 Paul says “We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me.”  Labor.  Struggling.  The Greek words mean “to grow weary with toiling” and to “agonize over.”  I don’t like toiling and agonizing.  But it says I should do it. Ephesians Chapter 2 tells us why… “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.

For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.

Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.”

Because Jesus has come, this is your mission—should you choose to accept it –your joyful obedience  -- you’re not working for salvation, you’re working from salvation – not working FOR love, but FROM love – but you are working.  Striving.  Growing weary from toil.  Being built to be a dwelling of God. 

Romans 15:12-13

And again, Isaiah says, “The Root of Jesse will spring up, one who will arise to rule over the nations; the Gentiles will hope in him.”

When James writes “consider it joy” to be facing the trials – is he telling us to chin up, smile, love the pain?  Of course not.  But our joy is in having something greater than the trial, greater than the pain, and understanding that through the tough times our faith will grow, our lives will produce more fruit of the spirit, and the light of Christ will shine more brightly in the darkness.   

One quote seems to me to sum up this attitude of hope…

"Where is the hope? I meet millions who tell me they feel demoralized by the decay around us. Where is the hope? The hope that each of us has is not in who governs us, or what laws are passed, or what great things we do as a nation. Our hope is in the power of God working through the hearts of people - - and that's where our hope is in this country. That's where our hope is in life." Chuck Colson

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that

you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen