How sad that this is true. We have lost our sense that this is a sacred time and a time in which we come together to enter the holy, majestic and fearful presence of almighty God.
Consider the following quotes about worship and ask how we compare?
The Churches are children playing on the floor with chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT to kill a sunday morning. It is madness to wear ladies straw hats and velvet hats to church we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews. For the sleeping God may wake some day and take offense, or the waking God may draw us out to where we may never return.
CH Spurgeon. I believe a very large majority of churchgoers are slumbering, un thinking worshippers of an unknown God.
I have experienced a real montaintop experience at the promise Keepers Clergy Conference. I want to thank the mens group and any others who helped me make that trip. A time of instpirational worship, fellowship, renewal and growth for me and for nearly 50,000 other pastors. Black Brown Red Yellow old Young, Charismatic, Reformed Wesleyan Catholic; all with one voice and heart, often with hands joined, praising God.
There were several key features of the conference for me but the one I think spoke most to me was the session in which we dealt with the theme of worship. Throughout the conference, there were times of invigorating, spirited singing, prayer and worship. It was a reminder of things I already knew but needed to be reminded. It was also a time of renewing my passion for worship and a desure to rekindle a deeper participation and spirit of worship here at Northminster.
At the conference, we were turned to the story of the ark being brought back to Jerusalem. Now the ark was the place of God’s presence and thus was the center or focal point of worship. Our text this morning, picks up the story of the ark as David is having it returned to Jerusalem. The journey is a two-fold one in which it is brought first to the house of Obed-EDom where it rests for 90 days and then on to Jerusalem where it is placed in a tent of tabenacle much like the one built by Moses.
This passage hels us understand three dynamic truths about how we are to understand and participate in worship:
Aside from having to give up one morning of the week when we could otherwise be sleeping in, we know very little of what it means to worship sacrifically. We don’t know if this happened every six paces, but as the ark began its journey from the house of Obed-Edom to Jerusalem, David was so excited and grateful that he was moved to worship. That worship involved sacrfice
We cannot come into the presence of a holy God and address that God without understanding that it involves sacrifice
Annie Dillard: (do Christians genuinely belive in the powerful God they so regularly and unreflectively address in worship.
If we genuinely believe that God is present in the [place where we worship, we will not take that God for granted. We will not assume Gods blessing. We will not unthinkingly or unreflectively address that God. Instead we will throw ourselves before that God and say Here I am o Lord. I lay my life before you, I worship and adore you. I offer my whole life to your service to do with as you please
Blood flowed, life was given, sin was confessed in the presence of the Holiness of God for David knew that they were unworthy to be in that presence.
We are not so aware of Gods immediate presence. Uzzah, whene the ark was making its way to Obed -Edom reached out to steady the ark on the cart in which it was riding. So keenly aware that the ark was the place of zgods presence that when he touched it he was struck dead for that was the clearly stated penalty for touching the ark. You see the lesson is that the people were not to become too familiar with the holy - not to take it for granted. Not to place it on an oxcart and reach out to touch it if it tipped.
Now this event is troubling to us because we live in a world when a sense of the holy has been lost. We call it worship when we come to receive from God not to give ourselves to God.. We reach out to touch God as if God needed us to steady his presence and keep it from falling.
David, after being angry with God and then being filed with fear, now puts the ark on the move again but this time not on an oxcart; this time on the shoulders of the levites. And the procession was characterized by sacrifice from beginning to end.
The God of the universe demands our very best efforts; our sacrificial service and giving in worship. Outside St. Paul’s cathedral in London is a plaque that reads:
This great cathedral was built to show that as great as God’s majesty is, even greater is his mercy.
Afterward, everyone returned to their own house.
We come into the presence of God in special ways . The setting aside or consecrating of common elements for sacred purpose has always been part of Gods plan. The loaves and meat and cakes were sacred reminders of the events of that day and as the people then returned to their own homes, they were blessed and consecrated.
That is the meaning of sacrament. It is something common set apart for holy use. And that is an unseparable part of Christian Worship. John Calvin said that wherever you have the word preached and the sacraments properly observed there you have true Christain worship.
Now a person can worship God in nature or in their room or anywhere. But there is an important reason for coming together in one place and that is to oobserve the sacramental blessing of God. You come into Gods presence with other very plkain and common people and together you meet God; together you share in Gods blessings; together you are consecrated and sent forth into the world to be used of God.
That is why communion is always to be shared with the whole congregation and not alone. That is why baptism is a public event, not a private one. Because it is in the corporate worship of God that the sacramental blessing of God occurs.
David was so oversome by joy that he reacted. He did two things unthikable to our modern Presbyterian sensibilities; he took off his outer garment or kingly robes and was wearing his street clothes; a plain linen ephod.
Secondly he danced before the Lord.
Jack Hayford spoke about how the area where he needed to grow in worship was in humility before the Lord and opne day in his quiet time in the study, the Lord seemed to speak to him and say I want you to dance before me. Oh Lord I Couldnt do that. I don’t know how to dance. For many Christians, worship can become stilted and cold because we have not yielded ourselves completely to God in humble adoration. We are more concerned about what other people think; what others will say. For us the issues may be whether to raise our hands in worship; or to clap; or to say something by way of response or to share in prayer or praise.
What is it that covers you with the mantle of dignity. God wants you in sincere humioity beofre him to remove that even as David removed his royal robes. Don’t worry about what others may think. You are not here to worship them, you are here to worship the living God.
Look then what she says to her husband. Well la te dah. Aren't we something special. Parading around in front of all the servants just like one of the common people may do. Some king you are! HA!
David's response was It was before the Lord who chose me over your father Saul. I will make music to God. (I don't care what you or anyone else thinks. In fact I will be even more undignified than this and will be humble in my own sight.)
Know that when you give yourself to God completely, there will be sarcasm and ridicule. But remember that it is before the God of the universe that you come to present yourself; not to the Gods of this age or to the pressures of this world or to the prevailing winds of public opinion.