Tarnished worship

Readings: John 15:9-17 , Revelation 2:1-7

Bramley St Peter, 22 October 2022

5th & last In a series on ‘Whole Life Worship’

Several years ago Linda and I bought a pair of silver-plated champagne flutes to help celebrate special occasions. But we don’t often have such a special occasion, and having champagne is a very rare treat.  So the flutes get left at the back of a cupboard most of the time.  This is one of them.  It doesn’t look very attractive or inviting, does it? When silver gets to look like that, we call it ‘tarnished’. All that’s happened is that it’s reacted with sulphur in the air around it. You could still drink from it, but it doesn’t add sparkle to the occasion.

One of the lessons that life teaches us is that things decay, get spoilt or tarnished, without us doing anything deliberate to harm them. Often, that decay happens when they aren’t even being used. Think of the way that anything dyed red fades to pink and eventually white as it’s exposed to sunlight. Or the way that the lovely cream coloured York stone from which many of the building of Leeds were built has turned black with a century or more of air pollution. Polluted, faded, tarnished – things just don’t look as attractive as they once did.

The same thing happens to our relationships. Relationship counsellors know that the most common reason for a couple seeking counselling, or a divorce, is not something serious like an affair, but just that they’ve ‘drifted apart’ or ‘no longer love each other’.  What causes this? Most often, it’s just the everyday activities of living. We get so busy with work, family commitments, even church activities, that we forget to set special time aside for the people closest to us,  even our intimate partner. The relationship gets tarnished – it can still function, but the sparkle has gone and other friendships may seem more attractive. Keeping the love alive in a relationship to stop this happening is important, but also challenging.

And that’s true of our relationship with God as well. When we first discover what it is to believe in God, to be saved by Jesus, to be able to worship him and praise him for what he’s done for us, then our worship and praise will be heartfelt and sincere. It makes us feel good, and we are motivated to live out our Christian faith in daily life, and take opportunities to tell other people what God has done for us.

But like a goblet or building exposed to the air around it, slowly and bit-by-bit we find our worship gets polluted by the concerns of life and the sparkle goes out of it. As Jesus said of the seed that grew up among thorns, we get “choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life”. Some people will fall away and slowly drop out of worshiping together in church. Others still come to church out of a sense of duty or because we have friends here, but one service seems much like another and it doesn’t engage us with the rest of our life.

In the reading from the book of Revelation, the risen Jesus sends a message in a vision to the the Christians in Ephesus, saying “I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.” Elsewhere in the same book, Jesus warns against being ‘lukewarm’ for him. It’s the same idea: our worship of God and our love for him should not be lukewarm, half-hearted. As with our personal relationships, we need to face up to the challenge of finding ways of keeping our love for God alive.

This is the last of our services on the theme of ‘whole life worship’. We have looked at how worshipping should engage our whole lives, how it offers us insights into life, affects our everyday actions and speech. The question today is how we can polish up our worship, remove the layer of pollution from it and be the sparkling silver people that Jesus wants us to be.

When Jesus addressed his closest disciples at the Last Supper, on the evening before he was crucified, he said many important things that they would remember and write down later. He spoke a lot about love, that evening. In today’s reading he distilled that down to this: “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.”  The commandment that we have to keep, he went on to say, is to love one another, just as he has loved us, that is, loving to the point of being willing to sacrifice his own life for us. But he also said that the point of giving the commandment to love each other, is in order that we may love each other.

That, then, is the key to the challenge that we face – to love as Jesus loved us. If only we could love each other, and our neighbours, with the intensity of love that led Jesus to lay down his own life for others, then we would truly be living like Christ and having a transforming impact on the world around.

It seems an impossible ask. But the good news, the amazing truth at the heart of the Christian message, is that Jesus did not leave us alone. “I have said these things to you”, Jesus added [that is, about loving each other] “so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete”. Loving and serving each other as part of Christ’s body is not a solemn, boring duty: it should be a source of joy, just as the love between parent and child or two lovers.

You may recall from the first of this series on whole-life worship another of Jesus’ memorable sayings: that he is the living water. That is, flowing, fresh water that bubbles up inside us like a spring, refreshing and reviving. When he was faced with someone arguing about where was the best place to worship God, he replied that what matters is worship ‘in spirit and truth’. Worship from the heart.

There is a virtuous circle here: the more we worship God from the heart, the more Jesus will pour his living water of joy into us to refresh our lives and move us to loving service of our neighbours in God’s name. And the more we do that, the more people’s lives are transformed. When we see lives transformed, it motivates us to come back to God in praise and worship. And so on.  Worship – joy – service – transformation- worship.

But how do we get that virtuous circle going? To change the metaphor slightly, think of a petrol engine. The piston goes up and down in a cycle, but the car won’t move unless fuel is injected into the cylinder at a crucial point in the cycle. When it comes to this virtuous cycle of worship, inspiration and loving service, I think it has to start with worship. That’s the point in the cycle where Jesus injects us, as it were, with the fuel of love.

But we have to be prepared – the ignition has to be on. Worship of God “in Spirit and in truth” can’t just start from cold, we have to do some warm-up by preparing for worship in prayer, asking the Holy Spirit to make our worship real and heartfelt. We see this in the prayer sometimes used at the start of the communion service: “cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you, and worthily magnify your holy name”. But we can also do that preparation of the heart before coming to church, day by day as we pray at home.

If we can do that: if we can prepare ourselves to experience true worship from the heart, so that we know the joy of Jesus’ love within us, and go out rejoicing in his name to love each other and transform the world by loving service, returning week by week to praise God for what he is doing through us: then we will no longer be like this tarnished old goblet, but shining like fresh silver, worthy to receive the living water of Christ and the sparkling wine of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

As the deer pants for the water

(c) Henry Mulligan
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0

Today’s song from Sing Praise is quite familiar, as it was a favourite of the Scargill community when I was living there about twenty years ago (and of other churches around that time). It’s “As the deer pants for the water” by Martin Nystrom, and the copyright actually dates back to 1983. 

Most of the words are taken from the Psalms, though it’s not really a setting of any one psalm.  The opening lines of the first verse are from Ps.42:1-2, the reference to wanting God “more than gold or silver” seems to be from Ps.119:72, and “the apple of your eye” in the same verse is from Ps.17:8 as well as being familiar from the service of Compline.  The refrain, “You alone are my strength and shield” again isn’t a direct quotation but may be inspired by the refrain of Ps.115.

The last verse, “You’re my friend and my brother, even though you are a king” doesn’t seem to be from the Psalms at all, but is rather the Church’s understanding of Christ, who is both the reigning power of the universe and at the same time present as a companion and guide, and who calls all who follow him his sisters and brothers.

What made it such a hit, I think, is partly the memorable tune, but also the sense that in singing his praises as one whose friendship and support are desirable, we are drawn closer to Jesus. It’s a sort of love song without being too sentimental.   

I will worship with all of my heart

Today’s song from Sing Praise is “I will worship with all of my heart” by Dave Ruis. It dates from 1991, I remember it being briefly popular around that time.  It’s a devotional song rather than a doctrinal hymn, and of course there is a place for both in the Church’s worship. The structure is that of ‘call and echo’ which can either be leader and congregation, or two sides of the congregation, or men and women, as preferred. Without the echo it would sound a bit odd, with pauses between two halves of each line.

The words are those of commitment: “I will worship with all of my heart, I will praise you with all of my strength, I will seek you all of my days, I will follow all of your ways”, and similar in the second verse and chorus. The whole song is available here.

The challenge, of course, is to put these fine words into practice.  Pledging during a worship meeting to devote oneself entirely to God is one thing, doing so in real life is another. But without making the pledge, there’s even less chance of fulfilling it.

Come see the Lord in his breathtaking splendour

Ascension window, Easby St Agatha, Richmond (N.Yorks)
image (c) Tiger licensed for reuse under Creative Commons Licence

Today’s hymn from Sing Praise is ‘Come, see the Lord in his breathtaking splendour’ by Martin Leckebusch, several of whose hymns we have sung this year.  This one is the first of just two hymns set in the book for Ascension Day (tomorrow, 13 May), but as only one verse of it is specifically about the Ascension it could be sung at any time of year as a statement of faith in Jesus. 

It comes with its own tune ‘Barnard Gate’ but John picked the tune Epiphany usually associated with the words ‘Brightest and best of the sons of the morning’.  As both hymns are worship songs about Jesus, that seems a good choice.  But whereas ‘Brightest and best’ is in the second person, addressed to Jesus, these words are in the slightly more distant third person form, making it a hymn about Jesus.

The first and last verses have the same two opening lines: “come, see the Lord in his breathtaking splendour: gaze at his majesty, bow and adore!” which point us metaphorically upwards to the heaven to which he ascended.  In between are three contrasting verses about his birth and earthly ministry, death on the cross (from which he “emerged as victor, [but] still from the nails and the spear he is scarred”), and the ascension that we will be celebrating tomorrow.  This fourth verse ends with a series of honorific titles: “Hail him the First and the Last, the Almighty, Jesus our Prophet, our Priest and our King”.

That last phrase takes us back to Epiphany, when the magi (in legend, the ‘Three Kings’) gave gifts that foretold this threefold calling of Jesus as religious teacher, representative of humanity before God (which is what ‘priest’ means in this context) and rightful ruler of the earth. The ‘good teacher’, the miracle worker who was crucified, and the reigning Christ are one and the same, a truth at the heart of our faith but one about which we keep needing to remind ourselves.

Gracious God, in adoration

Te Deum window, St Mary, Woodbridge, Suffolk
© Copyright David Dixon and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

Today’s hymn from Sing Praise is “Gracious God, in adoration” by another writer new to me, Basil Bridge. It’s in the same 87.87.87 metre as yesterday’s (God of Freedom, God of Justice) but the suggested tune here is ‘Rhuddlan’. 

The first three verses are a call to worship, with the reminder firstly of the saints (those Christians, and especially martyrs, who have gone before us through life and death into the eternal presence of God) who though unseen, call us to join in their worship.  The second verse speaks of the silent praise of earth and sky, and the call of all Earth’s living creatures echoing that of the saints. The third verse is the call of Jesus “whose cross has given every life eternal worth”.

This ‘call’ of saints, creation and Jesus himself constitutes the fifth line of each and every verse in the hymn: “Come with wonder, serve with gladness”. This neatly links the call to worship with the practical task also commanded by Jesus in the Lord’s prayer and repeated at the end of verse 3: “Let God’s will be done on earth”.

The second part of the hymn, then, continues the theme of the last few days of God and people together serving other people in need and dealing with injustice. We are called, as we come with wonder, to ‘serve with gladness’ by sharing our bread (symbolically, anything we have) with those in need, and to seek peace with justice, living in hope, “for the Lord is near!”

The Apocrypha in Lent – 22 March

If this is your first visit, please see my introduction to these Lenten readings.

22 March. Ecclesiasticus chapters 50-51

The book ends with two very different chapters.  The first describes in detail some of the rituals of the Temple, over two thousand years ago, but so slow is change in religious circles that the High Priest of those days, if transported to a Catholic or traditional Anglican church now, would not feel completely out of place.  A priest in vestments that have changed little since Roman times, standing before (or behind) an altar, raising his hands in prayer, holding a cup of wine as an offering, the smell of incense, the sound of the organ perhaps resembling the trumpets of his day, a choir chanting psalms, and at the end a blessing over the assembled people.  And all this in a building designed to symbolise segregation – the narthex for ordinary activities such as eating and drinking, the nave for the laity to worship, a chancel for the choir, the sanctuary with its altar only for the priest.

There are differences, of course, and the Mass even in a very traditional setting is not intended to resemble an animal sacrifice.  Women priests (in an Anglican setting) might be the biggest surprise to our time traveller. The congregation is more likely to be standing or seated than prostrate in prayer – an attitude now found more in Islam than Christianity, but a powerful symbol of humility before God.  But overall, the principles of communal worship  have not changed that much.

The whole book of Ecclesiasticus has been, supposedly, about Wisdom, and the second half of the last chapter (51:13-30) summaries the search for her.  This female personification of God’s inspiration has taken the writer in many directions – good and bad relationships, sex and marriage, and the value of friendship; asceticism, indulgence and a healthy attitude towards money;  life, death and the afterlife; good and evil; truth, lies, gossiping and careful speech; physical and mental health; worship of God and admiration for his creation; and the guidance of God for his people throughout history.  A whole library of practical life skills, in fact.  It deserves to be more widely read.

The apocrypha in a Year – 7 March

If this is your first visit, please see my introduction to these Lenten readings.

7 March. Wisdom chapters 13-15

Chapters 13-15 are devoted (no pun intended) to the condemnation of idolatry.  Of all the sins found in the Old Testament, this seems to have been considered the worst.  The commandments concerning behaviour towards other people – honour parents, but do not steal, kill, commit adultery, bear false witness, or be covetous – were and are routinely broken in both small and large ways, but that does not prevent God from maintaining an active relationship with those who profess to follow him.  Such sins can be forgiven, and anyone who believes in God and admits their guilt can be reconciled to him (15:1-2).

Idolatry, though – believing something other than the true God to be in control of the world (or some aspect of it) and worthy of worship – is a different matter.  If you believe in a false God, no amount of prayer to him/her/it will either direct you in the way you should go, help you keep to it, or forgive and restore you when you fail. That is why it is the most serious of sins.

The writer makes a sensible distinction, though, between nature-worship and the worship of man-made idols.  He can understand (though not excuse) why the people of his or previous generations might worship the sun, stars or animals, for they seem to possess power and (apparent) movement.  Even primitive farmers knew the sun and rain were essential for crop growth, so praying to them may have seemed like a good idea.  But the writer’s argument here is that if you are intelligent enough to work out the ways nature works, you should be able to deduce that someone has planned it that way, and it is that someone who is more worthy of worship.  This is what we would now call “intelligent design” – a step in the right direction towards faith compared with fatalistic atheism or nature-worship.

For the makers and devotees of idols of human making, though, he shows only ridicule.  How can someone who has made an image himself from wood or pottery, or bought it in the market, consider it to have any power or influence over him?  How can anyone be so foolish as to base their life’s decisions on the “answers” that such “beings” give – perhaps by throwing dice in their presence, or some such practice?

We may well laugh at such behaviour, but are those who put their hope in winning a lottery jackpot any wiser?  Or those who trust in horoscopes (which is a form of nature worship as described above)? Or those who have faith in such human constructs as “the economy” or “free trade” or “the Party”?

The conclusion is that “to acknowledge [God] is indeed perfect virtue; to know [God’s] power is the root of all immortality” (15:3).  That is the way that the wise king who is supposed to have written this lived his life, and a path to be followed.

Wholeness through worship

This is one of my extra posts, in between the daily Bible commentary. It is the text of the homily I gave at Evensong yesterday at the church of St Margaret, Bramley (Leeds). The theme of the service was “wholeness” and the readings, to which I refer, were: Psalm 139:1-11; Proverbs 3:1-18;  1 John 3:1-15.

Thank you for coming to share with us in Evensong tonight.  This is an ancient form of worship, one which a generation ago people thought was on its way to extinction, as Anglicans gave up the habit of going to church two or three times on a Sunday, and as new and more modern forms of service came along.  Surely no-one wanted all this 16th century stuff any more?

But they were wrong.  In the last few years there has been a boom in attendance at Evensong at many cathedrals and parish churches.  It is not only the elderly, but a younger generation who are finding meaning in it.  Why is that?

Let me suggest that what people are seeking is wholeness.  That is our theme this evening, as it will be at next Sunday’s Eucharist. There are several aspects to this form of worship that might help contribute to wholeness. Let’s briefly look at them.

Firstly there is peace and security. We live in a stressful and ever-changing world. Coming to a mainly quiet and reflective act of worship offers us the chance to lay aside the cares of the day and go with the flow of the music. Added to that is the sense of continuity that we get from using the same music and words that generations have used before us.  The Church of England, for all the benefits of diversity, is still founded on the worship of the Book of Common Prayer. Common, because it is what holds us together. When new people come along to a service of Evensong, even if the actual words are unfamiliar, they know that they are taking part in a tradition by which English Christianity has defined itself for centuries. The Church has survived all manner of wars, political upheavals, natural disasters and financial crises.  So even those who don’t yet hold a personal belief in Christ may find that the tradition acts as a rock in troubled waters.

Secondly there is the music itself.  It is well known now by health professionals that joining in singing, especially choral singing with its harmonies, is good not only for physical health as we exercise our lungs, but for mental health too.  Even if you don’t rate yourself as choir material, simply taking in the harmonies of the traditional chants as you listen can have some of the same mental health benefits.

Thirdly, there is the act of confession. There are also mental health benefits in being honest with yourself, acknowledging past wrongs and seeking support where you know you are weak.  In other forms of service this element of our religious practice can be skipped over rather quickly. The longer form of confession at Evensong, with its references to being like lost sheep and following the desires of our own hearts, reminds us that we really do need to turn to God to find a sense of direction in our lives; and the form of absolution leaves us in no doubt that we are forgiven.

Finally, there is the scripture.  Again, the passages that we read at Evensong tend to rather longer than those in the Eucharist. The lectionary also sometimes explores the more obscure corners of the Bible.  A careful reading of a lengthy passage in the archaic language of the King James version requires the listener to concentrate carefully on what is being said. That is no bad thing, because it allows the Spirit to penetrate our defences and speak to the inner person through the words that we hear.

So where can we find a sense of wholeness in the readings, which are just those set for the day.  The Psalmist reminds us that we are “fearfully and wonderfully made”, that God knows our every word, thought and action, and loves us both because of and despite what we do.   I’m not so sure about the proverb that fearing the Lord being “health to the navel and marrow to the bones” – the modern translation is “a healing for your flesh and a refreshment for your body.”

St John, as always, comes up with the goods. “We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren.” This Christian love among brothers and sisters , he says, is evidence that we have passed from death to life, as Jesus takes away the tendency to commit sin and to hate or be jealous of others.  That passing from spiritual death to spiritual life is surely the ultimate expression of wholeness.

Let us now ask the Lord to let us go in peace as we sing “Nunc dimittis”.

© Stephen Craven 2017

 

 

 

The Bible in a Year – 16 September

If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this.

16 September. 1 Chronicles chapters 9-10

Chapter 9 is the last in the series of genealogies. The focus in verses 17-32 is on the ‘gatekeepers’.  They had a key role in protecting the building and guarding its treasures, and preparing for worship.  There were four permanent keepers, one for each gate, with a large rota of (presumably unpaid) assistants.  Alongside them (v.33) were the Temple singers.    It seems that this organisational structure was not unlike that of a Cathedral today, with the Dean (equal in importance to the Bishop, though with a different role), Precentor, Succentor and Chapter, and again often a large rota of volunteer chaplains, visitor guides and so on.  The worship of God may be essentially a matter for the individual heart and conscience, but when there is a large gathered community and a large building in which worship can take place, a great degree of organisation is inevitable.

Chapter 10 reveals that the purpose of the preceding nine chapters of family history was to lead up to, and provide proof of the validity of, the anointing of David as King over Judah.  The rest of the book largely duplicates the history of his reign as already recorded in the books of Samuel.

The Bible in a Year – 4 September

If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this.

Please excuse the delay in publishing the notes for the end of Daniel and all of Ezra, with only brief comments, as I was on holiday for a week and only making short notes to be typed up later.

4 September. Ezra chapters 3-5

The first thing the Jews did on returning to Jerusalem was to build an altar (in the open air, presumably) on which to make sacrifice.  While the idea of sacrificing animals has virtually disappeared from world religions today, the ideas remain that it is important to give thanks to God for the good things that happen to us, and that having a place in which to conduct worship according to whatever we may consider to be appropriate rites is important to a religious community. The location of our worship, and our attitude in conducting it, are always more important than the building (if any).

In chapter 4, the opponents of the rebuilding of the Temple offered to help but it was refused. Not all ‘help’ is welcome, and it is difficult to know from this one-sided account whether the offer of help was a genuine attempt to build bridges, or an attempt to infiltrate a organisation.  Probably the latter, as their letter to Artaxerxes is disingenuous, using the fear of difference and past examples as a way of stirring up present hatred.  Only with a new king (Darius) did the Jews resume the attempt to rebuild the Temple, with an appeal to Cyrus’s previous permission.  Presumably they had feared that Artaxerxes would not take note of what Cyrus had said and done, or even regarded it as a reason to persecute them all over again.