Sermon
Worship
& Liturgy 201
A month ago I started a series designed to underscore
our intended meaning in regards to our worship services here at The Chapel.
Actually… it was originally intended to be a series, but it just
turned out that way. I think we all agreed that if faced with a choice between
a two part series or an hour long sermon… we unanimously choose the two part
series.
So last
month was 101; today is 201. I’ve advanced you from a
freshman level course to a sophomore level course. It seems that many of you
were with us for 101; if you weren’t here, maybe you kept up by listening
online.
That, by the way, is a distinguishing mark of our
church. From the very beginning we have integrated the Web into the life of our
church. You can look ahead at what is planned on the calendar, and review what
we’ve done in the past. You can access most of the creeds, prayers, and calls
to worship. We post background information on our church, contact information
for all the pastors, our prayer requests… and even recipes.
So to get to notes and audio from a past sermon, you
just access the past services pages. From there you can open a copy of the
notes or listen to the sermon. There are also instructions on how to podcast
our services… for those who are really with it.
Last
month I spent some time reminding us of the diversity of Christian worship
, taking a moment to think about the diversity of
worship experienced by fellow believers in our communities, and around the
world.
·
Size
·
Formality
·
Music
·
Organization/Polity/Denomination
·
Some
dance, some wave banners, others burn candles and swing incense
·
Participation
·
Some
will not have coffee and treats after service
I went on to remind us that in spite of those who
might insist that there is just “one right way” we are best served when we
remember that there are lots of “right ways.” Lots of good styles, and emphasis…
a wide variety of valid, meaningful forms of Christian worship.
So, we’re best served when we simply settle on a right way. We’ve applied ourselves to
build something that works well for us… our people, in this context, with our
resources.
This
isn’t the only right way, and we might change it from time to time, but this a right way that works for us.
We go ahead and write it down and give it to you every
Sunday. I suppose there are some points to be made with just that, we write it
down and give it to you:
1. We believe the Holy Spirit inspires our preparation,
not merely the execution. Some prefer a church that has a simpler order that
has a feel of a more freestyle
service. Some wonder that if we, by writing it down, are somehow trying to put
God in our box. I think we’ve demonstrated that we’re not inextricably tied to
what is written down… and I think we’ve also demonstrated that with planning
and prayer we do a decent job of tying several elements together to make for a
meaningful worship experience.
2. We believe that your participation is an important
part of the purpose. We think that putting this in your hands helps you be part
of the service. I hope your not here to merely watch a worship service, not to
be spectators, but to participate. We hope you find it comforting to be able to
see what is planned.
Last month we walked through the first half-dozen elements
of our worship service… step by step explaining what we aim to accomplish along
the way.
·
Prelude
·
Welcome
·
Call to
Worship
·
Repentance
·
Assurance
·
Response
·
Song
Proclamation
After we
sing in worship together, we come to proclamation. We want to be a Bible focused
church. We use Scripture throughout the service; here we focus on an Old
Testament and a New Testament passage that generally ties to the theme of the
sermon.
We
intentionally look to members of the congregation to read.
·
It
underscores that we are all people of the Bible. It doesn’t
take a degree or some ecclesiastical license to interact with Scripture. Young,
old, rich, poor, man, woman, eloquent and otherwise… these sacred words are our
words. Our words to be sung and preached and prayed… and just plainly read by
all.
·
It gives
us opportunity to see and get to know each other. It is good for the
congregation to see and hear each other, and it is good for each of you to get
a view from here every once in a while.
From the
Scripture, we move to a creed. These creedal statements serve two purposes:
·
They
remind us what we believe
·
They
proclaim to a visitor something of what we believe
We use
the Apostles’ Creed as our sort of home
base creed. It is one of the oldest, and simplest, statements of Christian
faith. We use other historical creeds, like the Nicene Creed. Sometimes we pull
from our denomination’s creedal statements (the AG statement of 16 fundamental
truths)… and a few we wrote ourselves, like the one we used today.
None of
these is everything we believe, and on some points there may be room for
discussion… but over the course of time, these creeds give a good view of the prime
elements of our faith.
Sermon
Today’s
sermon is out of the ordinary. Usually our sermons are textual, or exegetical,
meaning that we typically go to a specific passage of Scripture for the base
of a sermon. An occasional topical sermon like this is just fine… but for me a
topical approach tends to me more about socializing than edifying.
We certainly want to be relevant, and I hope that you find practical use of the
sermons… but for us, we find it best to look to Scripture as our base and
source rather than the newspaper, or current events, or television shows, or
movies.
We
generally preach in series. The discipline of preaching in series helps us deal
with topics that we might not choose if we were only thinking topically. When
the series is based on a section of the Bible, which is our general rule, the
series also helps us to see the big ideas contained in the books or extended
passages of the Bible.
Preaching
in series through books of the Bible helps us avoid the trap to which our New
Testament reading alluded.
22 Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24 but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength. [1]
·
God’s foolishness wiser than our wisdom
·
God’s weakness stronger than our strength
That foolishness and weakness, of course, is “Christ crucified.” That God would overcome
our weakness by being weak, suffering the penalty of the sin of the world on a
cruel cross. Foolishness that God would stoop so low… weakness to be treated
unjustly as a criminal.
We need
to guard ourselves on being too awfully cleaver, looking to our own wisdom and
strength. Instead, we look to God… we root our words in God’s Word.
Another
thing that makes us unique is that we share the preaching. Now part of
that is just practical. My work and ministry at
On a
personal, side note… this is one of the reasons I like going to church here. I
like my preaching just fine, but I’m glad that I’m not the only one I have to
listen to. An opportunity to sit with you and benefit from the good preaching
of others makes church personally enjoying for me. I think if I preached every
Sunday this would feel much more like a job.
Intercession
This is
just a fancy name for prayer-and-share…
prayer requests and praise reports. It is family
time. Our time to rejoice with those who rejoice, and bear one another’s
burdens in prayer. It is not at all uncommon that prayer requests get answered
right in the context of our little church (job, housing, help, and advice).
Offering
You must
be tired of hearing me say it; the offering is an extension of our worship. We
do have bills to pay… but the point of the offering is worship. We honor God
through our giving. Many of you are obedient with your tithes, the scriptural
pattern of giving 10% of your income to God through these offerings in church.
I believe this to be a good practice; Laurie and I tithe. Others follow other
patterns, and there are some who clearly do much more than tithe.
Most do
pretty much all of their giving in these plates that we pass. There are other
ways to give, of course. You can mail it in, and you can even give online.
Sometimes the transactions are a little more complex. People want to give a
piece of property, or avoid capital gains taxes by giving an appreciated asset
(a really fine act of stewardship, we want you to pay your taxes, but you don’t
have to pay more than necessary). A lot of people do things with wills and
trusts so that the church benefits from an estate after death.
Beyond
our tithes that fund the ongoing work of our ministry here, there are other opportunities
to give. This church has done well in meeting needs for missionaries and other
special projects.
Chapel
Singers
While
the offering is collected, the Chapel Singers bring an anthem. Here again,
there’s a blended approach; the Chapel Singers prepare ancient works as well as
contemporary works from a wide range of styles. And sometimes it takes a lot of
work; that is a good thing because we all ought to bring our very best to God.
Once the
Chapel Singers are finished, and the offering is collected, we pray. Thanking
God for ability to give and asking His blessing on the continued work of His
church. Some pastors pray before the offering is taken; I chose to pray once it
received… I just like to avoid that awkward moment of feeling like I’m praying
for one last opportunity to make people give. That just isn’t the point here.
Benediction
To close
the service I like to briefly preview what is coming next week and invite
people to fellowship after the service. Then there is a benediction that is meant
to remind us of God’s blessing as well as remind us of God’s charge to live
these Christian lives and be his witnesses.
Response
Then the
congregation responds together in one last time of signing praise. We’ve landed
on the traditional doxology; we used to mix it up from time to time… I’m
thinking about mixing it up again.
Postlude
Fellowship
Once we
sing that last amen in the Doxology, the formal service is over… but we know
that the service isn’t over. Treats are important! The time we share together
over a cup of coffee is an important part of the service.
Ordinances
Our discussion wouldn’t be complete without making
mention of what we call ordinances of the church: communion and baptism.
We
celebrate communion on the first Sunday of each month. A lot of churches join
us in this practice. Others don’t have communion as part of any regular Sunday
morning service; of course many celebrate communion in every service or mass.
We’re
committed to regularly coming around the Lord’s Table in communion. It is an
important part of our worship. The symbols of the bread and cup, the broken
body and spilled blood of Jesus, are rich. Jesus commanded that we remember His
work in just this way.
But
we’ve chosen to limit that part of our worship to monthly. We are more
scripture focused than sacrament focused. We also consider the time that it
takes, and the tone that it casts on our services. And, maybe most importantly,
we want to be very careful to not make communion a rushed, sort of perfunctory,
part of any service. When we celebrate communion, we want it to be enjoyed
fully.
Baptism,
the second ordinance, has never been part of our Sunday morning services…
because we believe that baptism is best performed by full immersion, and this
place doesn’t hold water. So… in cases when we have baptized some of you, we do
that as part of a Sunday evening service across the parking lot at
If you
are a believer and have not yet been baptized… what are you waiting for?
Baptism is a marvelous experience as you publicly proclaim your faith and
demonstrate your desire to be dead to sin and alive in Christ. Beside that, it
is the plain command of Scripture. Believers should be baptized.
OK
So What?
Today
the so what, is so what.
So what
is this all for on Sunday mornings? What is our focus? Really, there could be
all sorts of reasons why we show up:
What is our Focus?
·
Bible –
I’ve already mentioned our strong focus on Scripture
·
Service/Elements
– Is the point the careful execution of precisely what we’ve planned on the
page?
·
Ordinances/Sacraments
– Do we come to receive some special grace in the doing of stuff? In the
receiving of communion and such?
·
Leadership
– Is this the Dan Neary show? I can’t really imagine that you’re here because
you are drawn here by my charismatic personality. I suppose you’d have a hard
time staying if you couldn’t stand any of us pastors. We have taken deliberate
steps to make this something other than a personality cult.
·
Congregation
– Our culture is consumer focused… so a lot of places like ours are built
around keeping the customers happy. And a lot of church goers are shopping… it
isn’t all that uncommon to hear someone say, “I’m shopping for a church.”
·
Fellowship
– Are we here because we like each other so much? I’m glad we like each other
(and I’m glad we like the treats some of you make).
·
Tradition
– Are we here because we are just in the habit, or value the history and
tradition?
·
God:
Father, Son, Spirit – The obvious conclusion (at least I hope that it is
obvious) is that our focus is on God. The triune God: Father, Son, and Spirit.
Our hope
is that we can get is set in our minds that while it is really good that we
enjoy our worship experience here, that our focus is on God in all His
fullness. We worship God because He is worthy of our worship; it is our highest
calling. God made a way for us to enjoy Him and worship Him forever through the
work of Jesus the Son of God. And the very Spirit of God is in us, individually
as believers, and corporately as the Church. God work for us, and in us, and
through us… all for His glory. That is the so what; that is why we gather here.
That is the focus.
It is good, really good, that we’ve come up with
something that is meaningful to us, something that we like. It is really good
that we’re mentally stimulated. It is wonderful that we like each other. It is
even good that we laugh together and enjoy our time. It is great that we enjoy
the experience of worship… but we’re not the point. God is the point. Each part
of what we put together is meant to be acts of worship to God.
The
songs we sing, the Scripture we read and study, the prayers we pray, and the
decisions we make are all for God’s glory and praise. May He continue to lead
us as we endeavor to glorify Him through our church.