|
What is the Meaning of Sunday Worship What is the meaning of Sunday Worship? Rephrased one could ask: What is the point of coming to Church on a Sunday? Why bother to come to church on Sundays? What are we supposed to do when we come to church on a Sunday? 1 Chronicles 16 answers all those questions one way or another. The context in which the story is told is that David has decided to bring the ark to Jerusalem in preparation for the Temple which was planned there. David had pitched a tent especially for the ark until the temple could be built. The ark referred to here is obviously not Noah’s ark. Rather it was the ark of the covenant to hold the tablets of the law. It was portable and could be carried to war. See Joshua and the walls of Jericho. The ark did not hold God, it simply symbolised the presence of God amongst his people. In this passage which is part of telling of the story of the re-housing of the ark we can learn much about the art of worship. Some very basic questions are answered in this passage: For example: Why come to church? · To seek out the presence of God · To call on God’s name · To make him known · To praise him · To remind ourselves of his wonderful acts · To remember his deeds and miracles and judgements.
· We worship God · who is our covenant partner · our faithful provider · our protector · our saviour
· Sing to the Lord · Proclaim his salvation · Declare his glory · Bring an offering of ourselves · Worship him · Cry out for salvation · Ascribe honour to God
· Because God is God and wholly other · God is great and mysterious · God is worthy and good · God is true and loving · God is our Creator
we come to Church, or we come as church into the presence of God to worship God. By that we mean, to honour the Lord of our lives. To acknowledge God and all his attributes. “Worship the Lord in the splendour of his holiness”. 16:29 We do this physically emotionally and spiritually. We do not come here seeking a blessing for we are blessed every day of our lives. We come here bringing an offering of our praise and worship to the king of the universe. The world is not a democracy you know, it is a theocracy! “Let them say among the nations: ‘The Lord reigns!” 16:31 So we bring an offering of our very selves. In the process as always, God blesses us. But we do not come primarily to be blessed. We come to bring a worship offering of ourselves to God. Church is one venue for this holy purpose . At Church, the Sunday Service endeavours to facilitate this holy practice of offering our praise and worship to God. So we must be sure that we do this well and thoughtfully and intentionally and in ways that are meaningful to all of us. We can do this in two ways: · We can change and modify what we do as church to help each other participate in this opportunity for praising God. And · We can help each other understand what we do so that we can all praise God. We need to do both and in doing so we need to look at · the things we do; · the rituals and practices ; · the songs we sing · and the words we say. What I like about the Anglican Church is that it is a very thoughtful church that admittedly is flexible enough to be ever changing and growing but it is also ever reflective about it’s practices and traditions. Sometimes one just does things in life and one is not sure why one does them one just does them because they work. This is not true of the Anglican Church services. These services are carefully worked out according to a template of thoughtful structure and what we do is steeped in a time honoured holy tradition practiced by millions of believers at this very time and for hundreds of years. I would like to share that template with you tonight. Sunday Live may seem like a very different service to you from the morning services but I would like to show you tonight that it is not and that its structure is a beautiful, God honouring structure that serves to place God at the heart of worship. The focus of a Sunday Service is not you nor me, nor the musicians nor the preacher nor the people sitting in the pews, but God. There is only one personhood in the audience at a Sunday service, and that is God. We are here to please an audience of One. · We are here to give our attention to God; · to speak with God · to listen to God · and most importantly to honour God with our worship and praise. What we do within the structure changes and varies but the actual structure is fairly constant. So what is the structure of the service? It is based on a prayer pattern and a pattern of hospitality and fellowship.
“To seek the face of the Lord” that we might worship him.16:11 It is a call to worship.
We ”Cry out ‘Save us, O God our Saviour”.16:35 4. Then we listen out for God’s word through the Scripture which is first read that it might fall fresh and unadulterated on our ears and then explained by someone who has accepted the holy task of prayerfully reflecting in depth on the passage or passages chosen . This is the talk or Sermon. 5. Then, having heard from God, we together affirm our faith in spoken creed or in the case of Sunday Live, in song. Thus our faith as a community is strengthened and encouraged and it is with strengthened and encouraged faith that we come before God with our prayers of intercession. 6. Having shared our lives with God we then receive from God in Holy communion. At 9.30 this takes the form of bread and wine in remembrance of Jesus. At Sunday Live this more commonly takes the form of Barnabas time where instead of physical bread and wine we share the bread and wine of Christ alive and at work in our lives with each other. Barnabas time is our Holy Communion. 7. Then we make a symbolic offering of ourselves to God by putting something of value in the offertory bag for the extension of God’s kingdom here on earth. The money we put in the bag is symbolic of ourselves and our lives and our valuables all of which we have received from God and now we offer them back to God. 8. Finally we commit ourselves to journeying with God, as disciples of Jesus not just here on Sunday, but each day every day in everything we say and do before we leave this place. At 9.30 this takes the form of a blessing and the dismissal but here at Sunday live is takes the form of a closing prayer. And where are you and I in all of this? We are here to do a job. We are active participants in the worship. Ever wondered why we call our time in church a service? The word acknowledges that we have work to do here. We are here to do a job. We are here to serve God with our praise and honour and worship. The word liturgy acknowledges that also. Strictly speaking, the word liturgy does not mean the words we read from the prayer book. It means ‘the work of the people’. All the songs we sing, words we choose to say, planned or spontaneous is liturgy. We have come here to worship our God, who is faithful, majestic and wonderfully loving, “Praise be to the Lord, the God of the universe, from everlasting to everlasting. Then all the people said: ‘Amen’ and they said: ‘Praise the Lord”. Bibliography: Dawn J. Marva, Reaching out without Dumbing Down: A theology of worship for this urgent time. Grand Rapids, Eerdmans, 1995. N.I.V. Study Bible. |
