Why Are We Here?
Ephesians 5:1 – 20
Gettysburg Presbyterian Church
Rev. Lou Nyiri
August 26, 2007
Why are we here?
It is the question that has perplexed scholars and philosophers since the beginning of time.
It is the question that has caused many of us here today to sit and reflect for hours or even years.
For our purposes this morning though I don’t want to get very philosophical or even existential. In fact I don’t want to think much further than our time here this morning.
Though if I were to get philosophical or existential I would say the answer to why we are here this morning could also be the answer as to why we were put here at all…but like I said before, I’m not going to go there…though if you want to go there after you leave here, then by all means go for it!
What I’m interested in this morning is why are we here – in this space – at a time when many Americans are home sleeping or at the very least wiping the sleep out of their eyes over the Sunday Times and a big cup of coffee?
Why have we chosen to worship God?
And to begin our discussion on this topic I want to ask another question of you AND if you are comfortable share it with your neighbor – what part of worship do you like or better yet so as to take the feeling portion out of it, what aspect of worship speaks most clearly to you in your faith life?
Well, hopefully, you all were able to find something about worship that speaks to you. And hopefully many of us were able to say that different parts of worship spoke to us more clearly depending on what was going on in our lives. And I also hope that many of us have been able to honestly say that what has spoken to me in worship has not always been the preaching –NOT because preaching is not important but preaching is not all there is to worship. Granted it is a very big part of worship especially for us Presbyterians who believe through our history and our tenets – through our doctrines of faith – that the best evidence of a true worshipping community is “where the Word of God is proclaimed and the Sacraments are administered rightly.”
Let’s face it though, on some Sundays the sermon speaks to us……on some Sundays after a really bad week the time of confession speaks to us…on some Sundays the hymns speak to us…on women’s Sunday the “hers” speak to us J…not every Sunday the same aspect of worship will speak to us, though maybe the same part of worship will speak to us over and over again.
This is why I believe we have to be intentional in setting aside a time for worship and keeping worship a part of our weekly lives.
I also believe worship is done best in community for it is here with other brothers and sisters in faith that we can compare and contrast notes about God’s purpose and presence in our individual lives – which leads to a communal response to our surrounding neighbors about what God is doing and through the many ministries here at GPC.
The reality of worship is that one week the music may speak to us of God’s purpose and presence in our lives and the other it could be the sermon or the prayers.
What I’ve come to realize over the years is that the impact of worship in our lives is synergy at its best – it is the sum of all the parts which go in to its make up.
So, why are we here?
We’re here to worship God.
We’re here to be a part of five movements in worship so that we might understand more clearly God’s purpose and presence for our lives.
We’re here to center ourselves in five unique and inter-dependent ways around the Word of God.
When we speak about the word we are talking about the Word of God in Scripture and the Word of God made flesh in Jesus the Christ.
I use my hand as a way to remember the five aspects or harmonies which make up our worship experience.
We are here to:
Thumb- Gather around the word.
Pointer – Proclaim the word.
Middle – Respond to the word.
Ring – Seal the Word in this world – ie. the sacraments of Baptism and Communion.
Pinky – Bear the word out into the world.
We gather, proclaim, respond, seal and bear the reality of God’s presence in this world. We remember that great statement of faith I have heard Paul Karchner say so many times, “We might be the only Bible (to which I’ll add image of Christ) that some people may ever read. (To which I’ll add a final thought, “What translation and image are you showing.”)
When we come together in this place for this time we do the following:
On any given Sunday we seek to do so using the opening moments of worship. These opening moments begin at the very latest when one enters this sanctuary…though I would venture to say that worship really begins when we wake up to the morning alarm.
It is as the old saying goes, the optimist says to God in the morning, “Good morning God!” The pessimist says to God each morning, “Good God, morning!”
How we enter the day…how we enter worship plays a great role in what we will receive from that day or from that worship.
Our gathering begins, as we take our seats in this sanctuary – in this place set-aside from the rest of the world as a holy ground where we can encounter and be empowered by the God who created us. We sit here in order to consciously make conversation with the very one who breathed life into us. We sit and engage in conversation with our Heavenly parent who has plans He would love to share with us. How open to the conversation are we?
We can be very open if we utilize our time together. If we enter with thanksgiving and praise AND also with reverence, awe, wonder, and silence.
And that is why we prelude the Prelude in worship verbally by making a centering call to use the moments of music offered in the Prelude to more intently and intentionally focus on God’s presence already in our midst. It’s not because we don’t want you to talk to each other for that connection is also a way of gathering around the Word (it’s called fellowship) – we love it on the staff that you love each other enough to genuinely want to catch up on what’s happening in your lives.
We want you to talk to each other…We also want you to talk with God and that is why we offer the prelude time for meditative centering on God.
Our gathering also occurs in our announcements & greeting – again we stay connected to God by remembering our connection to each other is through our communal faith in God and through the power of the Holy Spirit at work in this world.
Our Call to Worship is another way we gather around the Word.
The Hymn of Praise is also a gathering movement in worship.
Our prayer of confession is another way we gather around the Word.
The best part of confession for me is that it opens the door for better communication. AS Frederick Buechner puts it, “To confess your sins to God is not to tell him anything he doesn’t already know. Until you confess them, however, they are the abyss between you. When you confess them, they become the bridge.” (Wishful Thinking: A Theological ABC, Frederick Buechner, 1973, p. 15.)
How often in our own relationships has conversation really begun only after we’ve admitted our fault, sought forgiveness and entered into therapeutic dialogue with the one we offended?
WE remember God’s claim upon and God’s redeeming power for human life.
Thumb – WE gather Around the Word to remind ourselves who God is; what God has done and what God continues to do in and through the creation.
Contrary to popular belief this is not JUST the offering.
In fact, Responding to the word is SO MUCH bigger than offering…
Did you know that in our Book of Order – the Directory for Worship – it lists some of the following as Responses to the Word:
Affirmations of faith and commitment…affirming and re-affirming of commitments (ie. receiving of new members through first time commitments; reaffirmations or transfers of membership)…other acts of commitment (ie. Christian marriage; ordination/installation of church officers; commissioning services)…witnessing to faith and service and interpretation of the mission and programs of the church…prayers of intercession and supplication for the local & Universal church and the church’s individual members…
It lists all these worship components as response to the Word BEFORE the word “Offering” is even mentioned.
To respond to the word is about way more than money, it is to remember the old saying, “Life is God’s gift to us…what we do with it is our gift back to God.”
Our response to the Word helps us remember that we live lives of gratitude in response to God’s grace freely given.
Through the sacraments of Baptism and Communion are visible reminders of God’s faithful, gracious activity within the community of faith.
We also remember, as we say at the Communion meal, “They are gifts of God for the people of God.”
The sacraments are unique to the community of faith called Christian.
Outside of this faithful community we call the Body of Christ – Baptism and Communion is nothing more than a quick shower and a meager meal.
Yet inside this faith body they speak volumes.
Sacraments are instituted by Christ – Jesus was baptized by John the “Baptizer” and commanded his disciples to baptize others (Matthew 28:16-20).
Jesus commanded his disciples to celebrate the meal he shared with them (1 Corinthians 11:23-26).
Sacraments are available to all persons.
The sacraments are God’s gifts given to nurture our faith.
They are symbolic, in that when we see sacraments celebrated we know that something more than physical activity is occurring. Something significant is happening.
The sacraments are often said to be “visible signs of an invisible grace.”
They are signs and seals which point to a theological reality.
Baptism marks our entrance into the Christian family.
Communion is our means of being nourished or sustained in our lives as Christ’s disciples.
Both are God’s gracious gifts, given by Jesus Christ to the church in order to establish and nourish our faith.
I chose the pinky because in essence our bearing the word out into the world is our “Pinky Swear” with God that we will do our very best to live in response and witness to the very presence and love of God at work in our lives. We will become for others to see living examples of Christ in their midst.
I attended a conference on worship led by Presbyterian minister who told the story of her childhood living as the daughter of a Presbyterian minister. She would raise her hand in the pew as her father raised his hand in the pulpit to proclaim the benediction. Her mother told her that this was not polite as she thought the child was mocking their father. She later confessed that she was not mocking her father, rather she was so into the worship experience that she was raising her hand in order to “catch” the benediction he was passing on to the congregation. After hall, she concluded, her father often preceded the words of benediction with the phrase, “Please stand and receive the benediction.”
How can you receive something if you don’t open your hands or your lives to catch it?
I’ve thought about that and it makes perfect sense. AS we stand together each week in worship and receive the benediction to go forth from this place and live as God’s children strengthened by the Love of God; the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Power of the Holy Spirit, why not raise our hands. In a way, it’s like a high five from God to go and become the grown ups God knows we can become.
I’m also reminded of another minister friend of mine who concludes Sunday morning worship and teaching sessions with your typical Trinitarian Benediction go in the name of God the Father; God the Son; and God the Holy Spirit to live and serve the Lord by loving those around you…because it’s that simple AND it’s that difficult.
And it is precisely because living daily into the person God knows you can be is so simple and so difficult that we are here this morning – to be reminded who God calls us to be.
And it’s because at times it is so difficult to be the person God knows we can be that we keep coming back.
It is because the world so often for so many is labeled “unbearable” that we must be bearers of good news.
One other thing I love about worship is that it is guided by God’s Holy Spirit.
We plan it – God guides it.
I love when people come up to me after worship on a Sunday and say, “That was really great! The way the hymns connected with the prayers with the children’s’ message and how the sermon all tied neatly together.”
And yes, while some times we’ve gone to great lengths to coordinate these aspects of worship, many times – and I can really only speak for the times I’ve been up here proclaiming the Word – I have to give credit to the Holy Spirit. Because often I’ve not sat and said to someone hey how about you pray for this or in this way because it will really speak to the message or Becky how about you sing this anthem because it really goes nicely with the Bible passage.
To me when someone leaves worship and says, “That was really great. Things connected for me and fell into place in that worship service.”
To me, that is God’s way of saying, “Remember me. I have a little something to do with this.”
Which reminds me of Soren Kierkegaard’s concept of a “Theater of Worship.”
Worship isn’t about ministry staff being the actors and actresses on a Sunday morning and the congregation the audience. You all are not passive bystanders here and we (the ministry staff) are not active actors and actresses putting on a show of worship.
The only audience member in this place at this time is God and we are to be engaged in offering our worship and praise to the one who gives us life.
When we leave here we should not ask “How did I do?”
Rather we should leave asking, “Would God be impressed with my effort and participation in worship?”
Why are you here this morning? I don’t know…
Why do you keep coming back? Again, I don’t know…
Should you keep coming back? All I can say is if you want to figure out God’s purpose and presence in your life, then this is a pretty good place to be.
AND even if you don’t want to figure out God’s purpose and presence in your life, have you ever stopped to consider…maybe God does?
Worship is our response to the experience of the presence of God in our midst.
Amen & Amen
Alternate Ending:
Again, I said I wasn’t here to be existential or philosophical, but if I were then I would have to say, the answer as to my question this morning “Why are we here?” is the same answer to the bigger question “Why are we here?”
Now how’s that for existential? Amen & Amen.
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