by Rev. Art Wiese
March 17, 2004 -- (Midweek Lenten Series)
Sermon Text -- Luke 19:28b-30,35-48
If there was a religious motivation behind my great-grandfather Wiese's journey to America, I don't know what it was. Earlier immigrants came to the new world seeking religious freedom, the ability to worship God in the manner that they chose. But, for those who set off on their voyage in the late 1800s, it is much more likely that they were seeking freedom of a different kind -- economic freedom, so that they might escape the ongoing ravages of poverty, and personal freedom, so that they might avoid military service under leadership with which they disagreed. Regardless of the reason, the immigrants nonetheless brought with them their faith heritage and their worship traditions. We have an entire shelf full of books at home, hymnals, prayer books, and devotional guides, all of them in German, and all of them handed down from generation to generation as a sort of family history of our faith practices. I imagine that for others it was much the same. Be they in Norwegian, Swedish, Dutch, or some other language, the immigrants brought with them from the old country their traditions of worship. When they got to this new world, they gathered together. They held services. They established churches. And they built buildings so that they could continue to sing the hymns they knew, to pray the prayers with which they were familiar, and in many and various ways to give thanks to God for all the blessings they had received. In so doing, they were joining with their brothers and sisters across the ages and around the globe as a "Christian holy people" pointed out by the third Mark of the Church, the mark of worship.
Worship, of course, consists of many things. It includes the songs we sing, the prayers we pray, the liturgy we follow, the psalms we recite, and the greetings we exchange. It centers around the word we hear and the sacraments we celebrate. And it follows the yearly pattern of festivals and seasons, which help us to observe and to remember our Lord's life, death, resurrection, and teachings. All of which is centered in the public assembly of God's people, wherein they engage in what Luther termed the practice of "prayer, praise and thanksgiving." In her book, "Signs of Belonging," Luther Seminary professor, Mary Hinkle, calls these "countercultural actions." She says that by praying we acknowledge our need for another. In our praise, we recognize that there is a power greater than ourselves. And that by giving thanks, we are accepting the fact that we have received blessings which we have not deserved. All of which goes against the teachings of our culture, which would have us believe that we are self-sufficient, in control, and de- serving of all that we have. In our worship, prayer is primarily our way of giving voice to our human need for God. We need God. We need God's help. Others need God. Others need God's help. So, we ask. Jesus' teaching shows us the way. "Give us.our daily bread. Forgive us.our sins. Lead us.not into temptation. Deliver us.from evil." Three times in his farewell speech to the disciples, Jesus tells them to ask, and so we pray on behalf of ourselves and for those in need that God will provide us with all that we need. In our worship, we also engage in praise. We express our wonder at the greatness of our creator, the goodness of the creation, the compassion of our savior, the sweetness of salvation, the joy of fellowship. We also articulate our complaints. They are flip side of praise. So great is our God, so wonderful God's creation, so outstanding the mercy of our Lord, that we lament when things do not seem right. Life's tragedies, dangers, difficulties and disease transpose our praises to a minor key, but they remain focused on God. Where else shall we go with them, but to the one who is so great, so good, so powerful that we believe something can be done? And in our worship, we pause to say thanks for what we have been given. We acknowledge that life is a gift. We show appreciation for what we have. And we express our gratitude for all that we are able to enjoy. Do we do it perfectly? Undoubtedly, no. But it is there for us, ready and waiting for us, as part of our worship.
All of this is worship seen from our side; but, what about worship from God's side? One of my favorite questions to ask our confirmation students in their class on worship is "who is the primary actor in worship?" It's a tricky question. Many of the students will say "the pastor." After all, pastors are the ones standing up front. The are the ones who do a lot of the talking. They are the ones who lead a lot of the activity. They are the ones who wear the funny clothes. And they are the ones who organize a lot of the service. That is all true, but they are wrong. A few of the more thoughtful students will say "the people," you out there who sit in the pews. They may have remembered that I told them that the word "liturgy" means the work of the people, and if "liturgy" is the framework around which we assemble our worship, then it stands to reason that the primary actors in worship are the people. But, that is wrong too. The primary actor in worship is God. Worship is the way through which God comes to us. Worship is the means by which God addresses us. Worship is the method God uses to speak to us, to encourage us, to forgive us, to nourish us and to receive us. Worship is the process whereby the Holy Spirit "calls, gathers, enlightens and sanctifies" us and keeps us united in the one true faith. That is a lot of work for God to be doing in worship. It is largely invisible. But it is vitally important. That 's why I decided to leave the hymnals, the prayer books, and the devotionals on my shelf and bring candles as the symbol of worship. Not only do they provide us with light in the darkness. They also symbolize God's presence among us. They are a reminder of the pillar of cloud and fire which accompanied the Israelites' wandering in the wilderness. They recall for us the seven golden lamp stands in God's Holy Temple. They restate for us that Jesus is the "light of the world." And they repeat for us the miracle of the Holy Spirit's descent upon the disciples on the Day of Pentecost. They produce fire, a living, active, vital, and effective presence in our lives. Fire has power. Fire is dangerous. Fire could burn us at any moment. But fire is also benevolent. Fire warms us. Fire heats our homes. Fire cooks our food. Fire provides for many of our needs. And fire captures our attention. Put a candle on your table and sit for awhile. See where you are compelled to look. Build a fire in a fireplace and sit by it for awhile. It will hold you captive better than any television. So, in our worship we light candles. They help us to realize that God is here with us, alive and active, and at work to create faith in us and to make us holy.
As he entered into Jerusalem, it was the sound of worship that Jesus heard. It was with acts of worship that he was greeted. And it was with words of worship that he was welcomed. At the same time, it was the lack of worship which drew Jesus' anger, that caused him to weep over the city of Jerusalem and that led him to clear the merchants out from temple. Jerusalem will eventually be destroyed because it does not recognize the one who comes to bring peace. The merchants must leave the area because they have misused God's house for the purposes of business rather than as a house of prayer. Others also will refuse to worship. Instead, they will seek to kill. For the moment, in our Lenten journey to the cross, the forces of worship and non-worship are at a stalemate. The outcome still hangs in the balance. The one thing we know for certain is that worship is on the side of God's people. It is a mark of the church.
Amen.