Called to Worship, Equipped to Serve
Psalm 62:5-12; Mark 1:14-20
The Reverend Anne Benefield
Geneva Presbyterian Church, January 25, 2009
Introduction: Mark’s gospel begins abruptly. In the first thirteen verses, we learn that John the Baptist proclaimed the coming of the Messiah, and that John recognized Jesus and baptized Him. Then Jesus was tested in the wilderness. In our reading today, we hear that John the Baptist has been arrested. John’s ministry has ended; the time for Jesus to act has arrived. Hear now the Word of the Lord.
Mark 1:14-20
After John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.
As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea – for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.” And immediately they left their nets and followed Him. As He went a little farther, He saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. Immediately He called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed Him.
Prayer: Lord God, as you called the fishermen from their daily work, so You call us in the midst of everyday life. Help us to hear Your voice and to discern Your call. Strengthen us as we learn to share the message of Your reign of justice and peace. Amen.
Our topic today is worship and service. I’d like to begin by telling a true story that happened to Reverend Forrest I. Sears. He writes:
Wilma had been a member of our church for many, many years. In her later years she needed the assistance of a cane to help in walking. As she was talking with me, she would make points by lightly tapping me on the chest or shoulder with the handle of her cane.
One Sunday after our morning worship service, I was standing at the back of the sanctuary and Wilma hobbled up to me and said, “That was a pretty good sermon.” In my true Christian piety I said, “Thank you, Wilma, but it wasn’t me it was the Holy Spirit.”
Without batting an eye she tapped me in the middle of the chest with her cane and said, “Oh no, if it was the Holy Spirit it would have been a lot better than that! (P.S. I had the honor of telling that story at Wilma’s funeral.) [Communion Misunderstood, Citation: Terry Fullam, “Worship: What We’re Doing, and Why,” Preaching Today, Tape No. 102.]
I love leading worship, but sometimes it is a humbling experience.
Jesus called His disciples both as individuals and as community to repent, to turn their lives toward God. Repentance means both a turning away from sin – those things that separate us from God – and also a turning toward the good. It demands a change.
In our reading, as Jesus walks by the Sea of Galilee, He sees people going about their everyday work, bringing in the daily catch of fish. In the midst of the ordinary, Jesus calls four fishermen, two sets of brothers, with the words “Follow Me.” Without hesitation, they follow Him. What compelled them to go?
Jesus told them that their new work would be to “fish for people.” Their work would be to care for others and to invite them to hear the good news that Jesus was proclaiming. From this point on, everything would be different for them. Responding to the call to follow Jesus means leaving behind a way of life and trusting in Jesus who calls us into an unknown future. [“Follow Me,” Seasons of the Spirit™ Congregational Life Advent, Christmas Epiphany, January 25, 2009, p. 96]
The question for us is, “Where does the work of following Jesus begin?”
It begins in worship. Theologians call worship “the work of the people.” Alan Peters explains:
Whenever Christian believers gather together to worship, they create the opportunity for a miracle to occur. Worshippers who have experienced this miracle describe it in a number of ways:
• “We all seemed to be thinking and feeling the same things.”
• “There was such closeness in the service.”
• “We felt such a spirit of unity while we worshipped.”
This miracle of corporate worship occurs when a spectrum of different individuals – dozens or even hundreds of them – come together and become one body, with a single mind and purpose. Each participant brings a special and unique cluster of life experiences, attitudes, knowledge, gifts and hopes, and then donates them to a common purpose: the praise of God.
Worship is not a presentation by a select few, but rather an activity and effort of the entire congregation. [Alan Peters, “Translating Liturgy into ‘The Work of the People,’” retrieved on January 19, 2009, from www.direcctionjournal.org/artical/?566]
Kierkegaard, a great theologian of the nineteen century, was critical of churches who became too “user friendly.” He thought of Christian worship as drama. In his opinion, many churches understood worship as a drama, but envisioned God as the prompter, the liturgical leaders (musicians, readers, and preachers) as the actors and the congregation as the audience in the drama.
Kierkegaard taught that this understanding of worship was wrong. People were taking on the wrong roles. The liturgical leaders (musicians, readers, and preachers) were the prompters in worship. All of us, the congregation as well as the liturgical leaders, are the actors in the drama of worship and God is the audience.
Worship is not for our sake, although we surely benefit from it. Worship is our gift to God. Worship calls us to turn from those things that separate us from God and to turn toward God. We are called to sing, think, pray, and respond to God. In the process, we are changed.
We don’t come to worship for ourselves. We come to worship for God, who has given us His only begotten Son, our Savior, Jesus the Christ. We come to worship to be transformed from people of the world into people of the Word.
We cannot be equipped to serve the Lord without committing time to worshipping the Lord. A pastor named Wayne Field asks a series of profound questions:
“What would happen if we applied the same standards of loyalty to our Christian activities that we expect from other areas of our lives?
If your car starts every three tries, is it reliable?
If the post carrier skipped delivery every Monday and Thursday, is that trustworthy?
If you don’t go to work once or twice a month, are you a reliable employee?
If your fridge stops working for a day or two every now and then, do you say, “Oh, well, it works most of the time”?
If your water heater provides an icy cold shower every now and then, is it dependable?
If you skipped a couple of electricity bill payments do you think Pepco would mind?
It you fail to worship God one or two Sundays a month, would you expect to be called a faithful Christian?
We expect loyalty and reliability from things and other people, isn’t it reasonable that God just might expect the same from us?”
If we want to be equipped to serve the Lord every day of the week, we must come to worship the Lord on Sunday. Our work in the world must be based on our worship of the Word.
In a few minutes we will hold our annual congregational meeting. We will hear the reports of the committees, share observations on the work and worship of Geneva. We will approve our budget and plans for next year. We will vote for new officers. All of this is very important, but of most importance is the question, “Are we faithfully worshipping our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ?”
I enjoy worship tremendously. I love the music and the scriptures. I can go through the whole service, preoccupied with the music and the words, enjoying it immensely, without giving nearly enough thought to the Lord. I am surrounded by beauty here in our sanctuary. I am thrilled with the power and glory that Jim Turk brings from the organ. I smile and tap my foot along with the anthems. The lectors read the scriptures flawlessly. We have the most wonderful hymnal and sing so many of my favorite hymns.
All this and God, too, but do we sometimes forget about the God part? If we are to be transformed into God’s people, we have to let our worship flow from our very hearts.
I looked up the word “worship” in my old “American Heritage Dictionary. The definition reads: “1. The reverent love and allegiance accorded a deity, idol, or sacred object. 2. A set of ceremonies, prayers, or other religious forms by which this love is expressed. 3. Ardent, humble devotion.”
May our worship be founded upon our reverent love and allegiance to our Triune God. May our prayers express the love. May we be ardent and humble in our devotion. Then we will be equipped to serve the Lord. Amen.
