Who Invited Whom?
Going to a Japanese wedding sounds a lot like being on Oprah.
Remember those episodes of Oprah when she would just giveaway stuff to everyone? When I was in high school, we watched this video about wedding traditions in Japan, and they do something very different than we do in America. It’s the guests who go home with the gifts![1] In the video we watched, the couple gave every attendee a new color television. YOU get a TV! And YOU get a TV! Everyone gets a TV! Apparently, I need to get invited to some Japanese weddings. Most of the time, the gifts are not that extravagant, but it is a different mindset. When we come together to celebrate in my family, it’s often the guests who bring the gifts and not the other way around. It’s enough that you’re hosting it. But we all have something in common when it comes to celebrations. We gather to bask in the moment. We gather to spend time with one another. We gather to give thanks and praise for those being celebrated. And doesn’t that sound a lot like worship? Worship is God’s party. God calls and we respond.
Every Sunday is a mini-Easter.
It is a time to celebrate God for all that he has done for us; to recognize he is the source for the blessings of life, to be reminded of how great our God truly is. When we come to worship it is about our response to what God is doing in our life and our passage today reflects that thought. There is so much to be thankful for. For life, for love, for community. God has stood by us through so many trials and tribulations. In the Bible we read about some of those stories. In the beginning God created us. God gave us life. God spared us time and time again despite our many failures and misgivings. And most of all, God sent his Son on our behalf to atone for our sins. Worship is not about what we do FOR God, but rather our RESPONSE to God’s love for us.
7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. – 1 John 4:7-12
When we gather together for worship, it is a response to God’s invitation.
God has invited us into his house, and we gather by his grace. Throughout this passage, we witness God’s initiative, God’s first movement on our behalf. Verse 7, “Everyone who loves has been born of God.” He is the creator. He is the one who made us. We didn’t make God. It was the other way around. Verse 9, “He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.” Sending Jesus was God’s idea, not ours. We asked God for a King, but God sent us a Savior. And then in verse 10, “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” God loved us FIRST! And in response we gather together as his people to praise and worship him.
We call it “the gathering” because it’s the time when we come together.
That might seem pretty obvious, but we don’t come together just in the physical sense but in the spiritual as well. Each part of the gathering is designed to prepare us for receiving and responding to God. The prelude, opening song, welcome and announcements set the stage for what’s to come. It’s like the opening band at a concert or the comedian who comes out to warm up the audience before the headliner appears on stage. The gathering helps us to see God more clearly and to place our head and hearts in the right frame of mind so we can concentrate on what God is saying to us. As one writer put it, “God does not simply invite us to a party of friends, or a lecture on religion, or a concert of sacred music – he invites us into the presence of the King of the Universe…”[2] When you put it like that it gives worship a completely different framework.
We kick off worship with music and singing.
But why do we sing? Especially for those of us who sing best in the shower. We sing because it is a gift from God; this ability to lift up praise through music, but we also sing because it is an expression of joy and gratitude. And sometimes it’s an expression of sadness and longing. But we also sing because it connects us more closely to God. In both the Old and the New Testament there are MANY verses about singing. Psalm 95 says in the very first verse, “Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song.” And it’s not just in the Old Testament either. In Paul’s letter to the church in Ephesus he encourages them, “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, 19 addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, 20 giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 21 submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ (Ephesians 5:18-21).” We’re don’t need to get drunk or filled up on liquor. Instead, Paul encourages us to get intoxicated with the Spirit through song! We are encouraged to let go and sing loudly and boldly. When we release our inhibitions in worship this way, it fills us with the Spirit and prepares our heart for God. God doesn’t care if we sing on key or have perfect pitch because that’s not what makes it beautiful to God. It’s the very act of singing and lifting up praise that makes God happy. Psalm 100 says, “Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth! (ESV)” A joyful noise. Thank God we don’t have to be perfect. It is in the singing itself God is invited into our lives to fill us with the Spirit.
Prayer is another key component to prepare us for God.
It’s why we do the Unison Prayer. Our prayer always points to God as creator and redeemer whether we pray to the Father, the Son, or the Holy Spirit. The Unison prayer reminds us of who we belong to. We do prayers of the people to lay down our burdens before God, so we are free to hear him more clearly. We get rid of the distractions, and we lift up our concerns. We empty ourselves to prepare our hearts for what God wants to pour into us. When we are filled with all the distractions and worries of life, there isn’t room for God. Our minds are too preoccupied with all of this STUFF. And we pray out loud and we pray together because prayer is also an act of worship. Just the very nature of prayer – bowing before God, kneeling before God, praying in unison to God – these acts point us to the one who calls us to worship. They create an attitude of submission, a realization that we are not in control. When we pray together, we are reminded that none of us can do it alone. We are reminded that Christ died for ALL of us. Prayer reminds us we are all equally sinners before God. And when we come before him with that kind of humility, we are ready to hear his Word for us. Prayer prepares us to receive what God is about to offer us through his message.
The time of gathering all leads us to this point where we are prepared for God’s Word.
Through the call to worship we acknowledge that God is the one who calls us. We are reminded that our presence isn’t something we did on our own initiative, but rather that we are responding to God’s will. And as we go deeper into this gathering time, we continue on this journey of recognizing and relying on God. We confess our beliefs. We confess our sins. We sing praise for the one who created us. And ultimately, we lay down and empty ourselves before God. So as we journey together through worship, let us remember that we didn’t invite God. He invited us. How will you respond?
[1] Guests usually give cash gifts to the couple instead of physical gifts and the couple gives physical gifts to the guests
[2] Bryan Chapell, “Called to Worship: Giving God the First Word,” from Worship Notes Vol 3, 3, March 2008.
Craig's Corner 