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June 7, 2009
Isaiah 6:1-13
“What Is Worship?”
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Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty
Early in the morning our song shall rise to thee.
Holy, holy, holy! Merciful and mighty,
God in three persons, blessed Trinity!
What is holy to you and where do you find it? Where does it find
you? I recall in my childhood, even before I attended church on a
regular basis, I saw things that were sacred and recognized certain
places as instilling awe and reverence.
But certainly my becoming a follower of Jesus gave me new eyes, new
ears, and a new heart to discern God’s presence. Dorothy Hofrichter,
whom we remember today, would have agreed with me that every time
our beloved trio of women: Carol Mills, Twyla McKee, and Carol
Henderson sang in worship, it was a thing of beauty. They were not
professional musicians, though they would have been tickled had you
mistaken them for such. No, they were simply as sincere as they were
good. Watching three strong women, whose individual lives we all
knew were filled with joy and sorrow, work together to give glory to
God was enough to inspire us all. It did me.
I also remember sitting by Lake Brownwood at the Christian Church
Camp on the lake while attending Youth Leadership Seminar in the
summers I was chosen to go and represent my area youth. There was a
particular tree that had fallen some years before I started
attending the camp, and now was rubbed bare by the elements. Sitting
on it at morning watch each daybreak I poured out my heart to the
divine, confessing every teenage sin I could fathom, singing “Pass
It On” and “Have You Seen Jesus, My Lord” to the lapping water at
the lakeside.
Many years later, living in New York City, I was reminded what I
knew before my baptism, that not every spiritual experience had to
be related to my ministry, to a church building, nor to a
church-sponsored event. On several occasions, one I remember in
particular, I, or Craig and I together, would explore a new section
of that vast and intricate metropolis and be filled with wonder and
awe at how God-in-humanity had crafted such environments and how,
with all their urban problems, nonetheless allowed for joy, beauty,
and achievement to occur.
On one Saturday we chose to venture north from our brownstone home
deep into East Harlem, known as Spanish Harlem in song and story,
but as multi-cultural as my mind could humanly imagine. We gave God
the glory for such a rich tapestry of people, foods and smells,
languages and music, buildings and activities. So much of what we
saw when we explored that magnificent city had the mark of the
divine, the stamp of the sacred, upon it.
Now I want to hear from you. What is holy and where do you find it.
It might help to review some synonyms for “holy.” They include:
sacred, awesome/awe-inspiring, consecrated, hallowed, religious,
blessed, divine, godly, reverential, righteous, spiritual, sublime,
venerable, entrancing, ethereal…
What is holy to you, and where do you find it?
I am well aware that while there are many places that we find holy
in our world, it is THIS place and THIS time that we have come to
expect to feel God’s presence, the divine, holy. It is this
expectation that makes our worship hour filled with both such
excitement, possibility, and tension, for no one of us experiences
the holy in the same way. This conversation about worship will
continue in the coming year, but we will explore it very
intentionally in worship the next three Sundays. Of course, I will
bring encounters from my participation in the “Worship On The Edge
Conference” in New York City that was a central part of my Study and
Renewal Leave, in addition to my work a year ago on the first part
of my Study & Renewal Leave in Minneapolis and Washington, DC.
What is holy and what makes/nurtures/assists each person to feel
holy is different for every worshipper, and yet a dynamic effective
multi-cultural congregation will seek to offer, as best possible,
worship experiences that meets most/more people where they feel
holy. I worshipped in many such congregations that were seeking to
open up a place, a time, an experience so that all of God’s children
might feel the holiness of the divine in some way during their
service of worship. It is not accidental that I talk about worship,
and the experience of the holy, immediately following Pentecost
Sunday, for it is the Pentecost model that defines how the church
should worship God following the birth, life, death, resurrection,
and ascension of Jesus. It is a church that should always be
glorifying God in such a way that persons can most fully hear the
Good News in their own “language” because we are telling the Good
News in many “languages!”
The Rev. Jacqui Lewis calls worship a “rehearsal of the story of
God’s reign.” I’ll cover several of her points in upcoming sermons,
but let me tell you a little bit about their April 26 service at
Middle Church …
It is oft noted that in the history of the Irish people there is a
Celtic understanding of “thin places” which is a term for places
where one experiences holiness. One spiritual blogger notes:
“In the Celtic tradition such places that give us an opening into
the magnificence and wonder of that Presence are called ‘Thin
Places.’ There is a Celtic saying that heaven and earth are only
three feet apart, but in the thin places that distance is even
smaller. A thin place is where the veil that separates heaven and
earth is lifted and one is able to receive a glimpse of the glory of
God. A contemporary poet Sharlande Sledge gives this description.
‘Thin places,’ the Celts call this space,
Both seen and unseen,
Where the door between the world
And the next is cracked open for a moment
And the light is not all on the other side.
God shaped space. Holy. (1)
Certainly the prophet Isaiah, early on in his epic prophesy, became
aware of a “thin place,” when he had his experience of the holy in
the Temple.
Worship, for Isaiah:
1. Show up. Woody Allen is famously quoted as saying, “Eighty
percent of success is showing up.” How often have you been in
worship in the past two months? What’s your average for the past
year?
2. Recognize God’s glory in the strange and different. Where were
you last confronted with God’s glory in a manner or place you least
expected it?
3. Confession (both personal and communal) is necessary for worship.
What do you need to confess to God, personally, today? What does
your family, neighborhood, church, city, nation, race need to
confess to God today?
4. Redemption/cleansing will happen and we need to receive it as a
gift. Do you leave worship with the same burdens you arrived with?
What do you need to give over to God or be cleansed of this day?
5. True worship is never contained in the moment, but always
involves a calling out or a sending forth. Where are you sent
following this worship? What are you called to today because of this
service?
In the confessions of the reformed churches it is stated clearly
that the chief end of humankind is to glorify God and enjoy God
forever. If this is true, and I think it is, then every moment of
every day should be dedicated to seeking out the holy and
worshipping God wherever we are. Thus, the time we set aside and
call “worship” should be even more intentional and crafted with
care. Thus, I will be working with our Worship Team, led by Carrie
Culleen, and our New Worship Initiatives Team, led by Colleen Munley,
and our worship staff, Jim Robinson and Scott Posey, as well as our
Board of Elders to help make our worship experiences at Franklin
Circle Christian Church even more clearly a “rehearsal” of the story
of the Reign of God. I welcome your prayers and your input.
Amen.
1. Where Can I Touch The Edge Of Heaven? by Sylvia Maddox at http://www.explorefaith.org/mystery/mysteryThinPlaces.html,
Sharlande Sledge, “Thin Places.” Nonpublished
2. Westminster Shorter Catechism, found online at: http://www.shortercatechism.com/resources/beattie/wsc_be_001-003.html
Rev. Allen V. Harris
Franklin Circle Christian Church
www.FranklinCircleChurch.org
Copyright 2009 -- The Rev. Allen V. Harris
Franklin Circle Christian Church
(Disciples of Christ)
1688 Fulton Rd., Cleveland, OH 44113-3096
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