Worship Notes – The Presence

 

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In response to both a general desire to encounter God in worship, and a challenge from the ELCA to “deepen our worship life,” as we plan for this year’s worship and preaching your pastors have chosen a theme: “God Is Here!” 

To be sure, God is not only here:

Where can I escape from your spirit? …If I climb up to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.  If I travel to the limits of the east, or dwell at the bounds of the western sea, even there your hand will be guiding me, holding me fast. (Psalm 139) 

God is ever-present, true.  Sadly, it is often we who are absent.  Absent-minded.  That is, we might be singing, speaking or praying—even in the very middle of worship—and yet be unconscious of the God to whom we sing, speak or pray! 

It must be frustrating for God to listen to us when we go through our liturgy without thought or heart, as if it’s just the polite thing to do.  In Isaiah 29, God says, “these people honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me; their worship of me is a human commandment learned by rote.”  We all want to hear the words, “I love you,” but not if they’re spoken without thought or feeling.  Neither does God enjoy heartless worship.

In a recent sermon I mentioned a friend who told me that during the holidays she often gets an urge to gather her kids and husband and go back to church.  Then she stops.  She said, “I just can’t imagine going into a church to worship God!”   She spoke from experience, or lack of it.  “Because there, God seemed cold, ritualized, empty, …absent.” 

Maybe she wasn’t listening.  Maybe she didn’t give it a chance or she quit too soon without getting involved.  However, let’s not lay it all on her.  We know what she’s talking about.  We have each felt such an absence.  Worse, there have been times we have each expressed it through our own placid boredom or distraction.

Those around us are perceptive.  We take our cues from each other. Our primary relationship may be with God, but the primary way we relate to and learn about God is through other people.  When we worship at our best—conscious that God is present—through their own senses and intuition, others around us will pick it up.

Truthfully, God is here, even in memorized and written liturgy.  Look at the incredible things we read, speak and sing!  God sent his Son and died to give meaning to all of this! These are not spells that we cast; they are truths that we believe!

“Liturgy” literally means “the people’s work”  (from leit = people + urgy = work).  Our heritage has handed exquisite words and signs to us that describe the presence, actions, forgiveness and challenges of God.  With patient listening, these words and signs of liturgy can teach us about the depths of God.  They describe things that can’t be spoken.  These are the “works” of liturgy.  But another half is necessary: you and me, “the people.”  Persons and personality matter in liturgy.  Presence is everything: both God’s and ours.

In the “Worship Notes” articles of this year’s Messenger, we will look at individual moments of Sunday worship with this specific question in mind: “Where is God?”  Next month we’ll start with “The Gathering.”  Where is God as we gather and prepare to worship?

 

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