Worship IS NOT!
When speaking of the relationship between the Jews and the Samaritans of this time we must understand that there was a hatred and bitterness greater than any that we could probably imagine. The closest example I can think of to relate Jews and Samaritans may be that of segregation in the United States in the 20th century. There are White Only establishments and there are Black only establishments and towns; there is Judea and there is Samaria. Blacks do not go where Whites go; Jews do not go to Samaria and vice versa. Whites do not utilize the same water fountains or restrooms as Blacks; verse 9 can be literally translated, Jews do not use dishes Samaritans have used. Black men do not talk to White women; Jewish men do not talk to Samaritan women.
Propagated by the racial history of our great country, we now have what many have come to call the most segregated hour of the week—the 11:00 hour on Sunday morning. Blacks do not “worship” traditionally the way “Whites” have worshipped. Blacks have traditionally said that Whites weren’t “Spirit filled, or free enough” and the Whites said that Blacks weren’t “controlled, or refined enough.” Jews and Samaritans breathe this same frustration among one another. Worship is a key difference in Jewish and Samaritan life.
And so when Christ decides to go from Judea to Galilee He is making a profound and bold statement by actually traveling through Samaria, for good Jews don’t go through Samaria. When Christ stops at a well in the middle of Samaria, He is making a profound and bolder statement because good Jews particularly would never stop in the middle of a Samaritan town. When Christ begins to talk to a Samaritan woman He has perhaps made the most profound and boldest of statements because He has talked to a Samaritan woman, and even as she proclaims, “Jews do not associate with Samaritans, and surely don’t drink after them.” When Christ decides to talk about worship, He is making a dive into a highly sensitive and emotional provocative discussion—but He does it anyway.
Jesus sees the frustrations about how and where to worship are constantly being voiced between the two groups of people. (We don’t have these kinds of discussions and talks today, do we?) Jesus comes and says that the way you Samaritans worship is different from the way the Jews worship, but He proceeds to place the point that the way the Father feels about worship is a lot different than what she thinks; I’d argue that it’s a lot different than what a lot of present day, life long Christian, life long AME’s even think. Jesus wants this woman, the Samaritans, the Jews, the Blacks, the Whites, the AME’s to see something in this discussion, He wants them to see that they just might have to learn a little something else about this thing called worship, because, chances are that even though they think they know it all … they don’t!
I don’t typically preach any type of series, but over the course of the last few weeks, Christ had lain upon my heart the need to preach and teach on spiritual authenticity—the need to be spiritually real and true in three different areas: in our Worship, in our Walk, and in our Witness. This week and the next we will be talking about being spiritually authentic in our worship. The last two topics will continue the following weeks. We all have our preconceived notions about what worship is, and I’d like to talk about these during our next Bible Study on Wednesday evening, but I dare say that of those many notions we have many are false! But before we can talk about authentic worship we must go about this in an illogical fashion! We cannot start with understanding what worship is, before understanding what worship is NOT. So today we lift up a simple subject for consideration—“Worship is Not …”
Worship is not solely determined by WHO you are!
Here me very particularly when I say this. You worship is not solely determined by who you are! The woman has met with Jesus and at the first discussion of the issue of worship she makes a subtle that may go missed if not focused in on. After recognizing that Jesus is a prophet she says to Jesus “our Fathers worshipped on this mountain, but the Jews say we should worship in the temple.” (v. 20) Our fathers! There is an implication here that the practice of this worship is validated because the fathers have been doing it; because that’s been the tradition of the way we worship, that’s the way it’s supposed to be!
Whether a Samaritan or a Jew, worship is not predetermined by your denomination, your time in service, your place or your age.
There once was a woman who cooked the best ham in the church. Whenever it came time to have a ham cooked she was the one asked to take up the task and it was always the most sought after. Well after seeing the ham and partaking of it several times a young man in the church noticed that whenever it came time for the ham to be served, the end was cut off. So he took it upon himself to ask the woman why was it that the end was cut off. The woman responded, “because …” and after a pause, “ugh, that’s what my mother always did, and besides, it just makes the ham taste better.” So the man, being the curious person that he was went to the lady’s mother and asked the mother of the secret to why the end was always cut off the ham when she cooked it. The mother responded, “because …” and after a pause, “ugh, that’s what my mother always did, and besides, it just makes the ham taste better.” And so the man went to the grandmother, a 92 year old sweet woman and asked her the question he had asked the two other women—why was the end of the ham cut off when ever they cooked it? Looking to hear the same answer, he was astonished to hear the result. She responded, “at the time I started cooking the ham we used the old wood burning stoves and I only had one roasting pan that could fit in the small oven, so I had to cut the end off the ham so it would fit!”
How often do we observe a tradition without even knowing why, simply because it has been done that way? How often if we were asked a question about the reason we worship in the way we do we would answer, “because …” and after a pause, “ugh, that’s the way my mother already did.”
We hear folks say many times this statement: AME born, AME bred, and when I die, I’ll be AME dead. You can substitute and denomination. When I hear statements like that I feel a little quirk in my bones. I’m not saying that there’s something wrong with having pride in your denomination; what I’m saying is that there is something that is something greater priority. We should be Christian born, Christian bred, and when I die, I’ll be Christian dead. Why? Because the heaven I plan on being in ain’t gonna have just AME’s, or Baptists, or Pentecostals, or Presbyterians—it’s gonna have Christians!
You see when our tradition becomes more of a reason why we do things than serving Christ we are wrong. Jesus said, “if I be lifted up from the earth, I’ll draw all unto me.” (John 12:32) But when we lift up our traditions over our sincere authentic worship of Him, we wonder why no one is drawn into our churches. When we lift up our traditions at the expense of spiritual authenticity, and we are not worshipping as Christ says, “in spirit and truth,” but we are just following the motions we wonder why our hearts and our souls feel empty. When we lift up our traditions over worshipping in the spiritual realness that we should, we, in fact, become guilt as Isaiah tells in the 29th chapter.
Isaiah 29:13-16 (NIV)
13 The Lord says: "These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men.
How much of our worship is made up of "rules taught by men"? That is, we follow what others do, we subscribe to traditions and the accepted and proper ways of worship, we order our services to perfection so as to make sure we’re "pleasing God"?
Don’t get me wrong, the place of worship and acts of worship, our history and our legacy of who we are—these things are very important. BUT more important to God, in fact what He responds to – what He delights in – is the heart and spirit behind our worship!
Is our act of worship that way because that is the way it’s always been done? Are we more concerned about honoring the words, traditions, and actions of our fathers more than being spiritually authentic and real to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ?
Worship is not determined by where you are!
The Samaritan woman says to Jesus that the Samaritans worship here on the mountain (and they have been for so long because that’s what their fathers had been doing), but that the Jews say worship should take place in the temple. Jesus listens to the peculiar question and responds back with an answer that does not seem to make sense. He makes a declaration, a bold statement; Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.” He telling her to understand that there is something greater than the way the Jews or the Samaritans may think. He is telling her that is does not matter where you are when you worship God.
In my secular vocation I am a computer project manager for the Duke University School of Medicine. I primarily develop web based, “anywhere” access “web-top” applications that people use throughout the medical school. One of the most beautiful and liberating aspects of my job is that although I have an office in 0159 Purple Zone of the South Hospital, I do not have to be there to work. Since all of my applications and databases are Internet based, as long as I can access an internet connection, I can program and develop my systems. I can work from home; I can work from many of the coffee shops and bookstores that offer wireless internet access. Since I travel a lot for my job, as I am on the road in other parts of the country, as long as I have a high speed internet connection I can access my office network, my database systems, my applications, securely, safely and productively no matter where I am.
Brothers and sisters you and I have to realize a great importance of my worship life, and that fact is that in the same way that I can open my laptop and connect onto a high speed network to do my secular business, I can also open my heart and connect onto a high speed network to do my spiritual business. And just as my secular operations no longer requires me to be in the actual office that I am based, my spiritual operations do not require me to be in the actual physical sanctuary that I am based. We all have a continuous, always-on, high-speed spiritual network that we can always use to worship God whether we are here or out somewhere on the road.
Psalm 150:1 tells us to praise God in His sanctuary. I truly believe that we have gotten that part down. We are here at this moment in time because we understand that we can, and rightly should, praise God in the sanctuary. But in that very verse, immediately following the sanctuary is another piece that we have skipped by; for that verse also reads, “Praise Him in the firmament of His power,” or as the MKJV may read, “Praise Him in the expanse of His power”. Oh church, I don’t know about you, but I believe that as great of a place as I feel St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church on 406 Gay Street to be, it is NOT the whole “end-all” of the expanse of God’s power.
• God’s power extends into this church, but His power extends into the grassy lawns that are connected to our church.
• And the expanse of God’s power extends onto the sidewalk that’s connected to the lawns of our church.
• And the expanse of God’s power extends into the streets that are connected to the sidewalk.
• And the expanse of God’s power extends into the homes and businesses that are connected to the streets.
• And the expanse of God’s power extends into the schools and colleges that are adjacent to the homes and businesses.
And so if we can praise God in the church AND in the grassy lawns, and on the sidewalk, and in the streets, and in the community, and in the offices, and in the schools and colleges, then we can worship God in the church AND in the grassy lawns, AND on the sidewalk, AND in the streets, AND in the community, AND in the offices, AND in the schools AND colleges, too!
Worship is not determined by where you are located; whether in Samaria or Judea. Whether in a 10 member sanctuary or a 10,000 member sanctuary. Whether in the front or the back. Whether in the choir or the congregation. Whether in the pulpit or the pew. A lot of folks are depending upon their choir or their pastor to get them in the mood. A lot of folks are looking for their pastor to act a certain way to “prove” that he/she is in the mood, so that they are in the mood. I pray greatly within this church right now, that no one within the sound of my voice is waiting for me to act a certain way, or speak a certain way, or behave a certain way so that they can become excited enough to begin worshipping.
Worship is not determined by HOW you are!
Worship is not determined by emotion or emotional experience!
Worship is not an emotion! It is a focus of Christ.
A number of years ago, at the church where I came into the African Methodist experience there was a great deal of pain and confrontation at the removal of a pastor from his charge. As one can probably imagine this made things no different for the new pastor to whom the church was charged and quite a number of people left the congregation at this change. There were, however, those who did stay and remained to “see” how the new pastor would do. Sadly enough, however, because the new pastor was not the “same” as the former pastor many members continued to drop away. I recall having a conversation with one of my college-mates about his decision to leave the church, and I very vividly recall his response to the circumstance: “I went to hear Rev. [so and so] preach, but I didn’t really ‘feel’ anything from him, so I left.”
It truly broke my heart at hearing that statement; perhaps because I knew and respected both pastors; perhaps because in retrospect that new pastor became the greatest influence in my life and development as a pastor; perhaps because the truth of the matter is that there’s more to worship than just a feeling. My heart breaks because, sadly, this is a point that so many Christians, even those very seasoned life long Believers, fail to realize.
How many times in our lives have we heard something of this nature? I didn’t feel anything from that preacher. I didn’t feel anything from that choir. I didn’t feel anything at that church. I didn’t feel anything during that service. I like that person because he/she is into it more than someone else. I pray to God that we do not come into the service every week looking to get an emotional jump-start from the pastor, or from the choir.
Emotions can, and sometimes should, accompany worship, but emotions in themselves are not worship. Emotions are often a by-product of worship and can result from true worship or from psychological manipulation. Let me state this clearly: feelings and emotions are not evil; they are welcome if submitted to and regulated by the truth of God’s Word. Unfortunately, the growing trend is to seek emotional experiences but not genuine opportunities for worship. And many do not discern the difference.
A friend of mine for some time remarked of how she decided to leave the Mormon faith. She remarked of an experiment where she began to realize that by speaking certain ways, and placing certain images and thoughts she could manipulate people into having spiritual experiences under the disguise of the Holy Spirit. She began to see that there was a psychological manipulation taking place, as she was literally controlling what the followers were believing, feeling, and expecting.
If we think that we can sit here in our Christian experience and do not have to worry about those same types of situations then we are gravely mistaken. An emotional experience can be dangerously created and exploited through music, through spoken word, and through actions.
We do not worship Him through an emotion response,
We do not worship Him through a feeling,
We do not worship Him through a sensation
We do not worship Him through a reaction to the music, or the choir or even the gestures or voice or homiletical interpretation of the preacher,
We worship Him in Spirit and Truth!
A man named Michael W. Smith has written a song entitled “The Heart of Worship”. In this song he presents the chorus:
I’ll bring you more than a song, for a song in itself is not what you have required,
You search much deeper within, than the way things appear,
You’re looking into my heart.
I’m coming back to the heart of worship and it’s all about You,
It’s all about You Jesus
I’m sorry Lord for the thing I’ve made it when it’s all about You,
All about You Jesus!
Perhaps that’s the bottom line. Perhaps that’s it in a nutshell. Who is our worship about? Is it about us? Is it about where we are? Is it about who we are? Is about how we feel? No, it’s all about You Jesus, all about You!
