Great End #3: Youth Group Info

Great Ends of the Church Bible Study

“The maintenance of divine worship.”

August 12, 2008

Worship. The bell tolls and the people have gathered. What is all the hype about? Looking around we see people in nice clothes, some sleeping, others sit eyes closed with their hands folded, ready and prepared to encounter the living God, for worship is not a human invention. No, it is a God-given gift. Yet, why is worship so important? Why are to we worship God? Isn’t it sort of self-righteous to demand your people to worship you? Why worship? Worship calls the people of God to, on some occasions sadly, to unite under the God of the universe, the Creator and Redeemer. The maintenance of divine worship then, our third great end, is one way that we the people of God can exhibit the Kingdom of Heaven to the world.

Worship takes on many shapes and forms. Many different traditions worship in many different ways. However, one thing is for certain about worship, it is deeply rooted in the story that we have inherited and are adding to, the story of God. From the beginning to the end, we read of the saving grace and relationship God showed to God’s people, to us and in worship we the church are to remember his saving deeds, to rehearse the covenant and to live in total obedience to his will. We then, in worship retell this story and the flow of worship comes from it. This set up or this retelling of the story looks like this for worship: the assembling of people, proclamation of the Word, celebration of the death and resurrection of Christ and sending the people forth so that they experience the rehearsal of the Gospel through the order of worship.

John Calvin, our father of the Presbyterian church, once said, “Wherever we see the Word of God purely preached and heard, and the sacraments administered according to Christ’s institution, there, it is not to be doubted, a church of God exists,” John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 4.1.9., p. 1023. Through the reading of Scripture, through participation and celebration of the sacraments, baptism and Lord’s Supper, we are presented with the opportunity to encounter Christ. It is these particular aspects of worship that is the very things that give life to the church. It is these very things that the early church fathers did after Christ’s ascension. Acts 2.42 says, “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” Through these crucial elements of worship, we can gain a better understanding of what we believe by worshiping in its truest and most pure form.

In worship we are presented with the story of God. Thus worship is God’s gift to us, that we have the opportunity to come together and worship God. It is never to be about us, the pastor or anything else. No, it is to be about God and through songs, Scripture and prayers and through sequences of congregational responses that help us experience the Gospel. “What is the purpose of the preaching of the Word, of the sacraments, of religious gatherings, and of the whole external order of the church except to unite us with God? John Calvin, Calvin: Commentaries, 393

Our center for worship, what shapes and gives order to our worship is our ancient story as God’s people, the Bible. Throughout the ages, the Scriptures have been center to what a worship service is about. It is in the great saving events of the Old Testament, mainly in the Exodus, that we see the history of worship for the children of Israel and how it shaped their lives. Exodus 24.1-8 is a meeting between God and Israel and it is important because it contains the most basic structural elemnts for a meeting between God and his people. Through the books that make up the Pentateuch, we see key roles being assigned or “anointed” as priest and into other leadership roles. You have Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu. These highlights of these leading the people shows the total participation of all people in worship, that which we are called to do still this day. These accounts shows God convening a public meeting with the church, something that the New Testament does not do, however the writer of 1 Peter shows comparisons when he says, “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” 1 Peter 2.9

New Testament worship stems straight from the life of the Israeli people and the way they worshipped. Their celebration of feasts, the gathering at the tabernacle and synagogues, are accounted for in the life of Christ. Jesus participated in these that gave life to the worshiping life of the Israelite people. Through Christ’s death and resurrection, we have gained entrance into the holy of holies through him and that he is greater than the temple. Christ then, showed that he is what supersedes Old Testament worship, that he is the final sacrifice and he being the true Lamb of God. Throughout the New Testament and the early church, reading of the scripture was vital to the ways of worship. For it was only by reading and proclamation did the people hear these words, for they were not written down and available as everyone has them today.

Thus is the next important piece to worship, the proclamation of the Word. “The preached Word or sermon is to be based upon the written Word. It is a proclamation of Scripture in the conviction that through the Holy Spirit Jesus Christ is present to the gathered people, offering grace and calling for obedience.” Directory for Worship, W-2.2007. We then are partners with the preacher and listening to and for the Word of the Lord. Often times the way things were done in the early church and in the early days of our tradition, sermons were delivered and there was time open for commentary, a way for all to be engaged and to hold one another accountable. Proclaiming the Word then is what gives us our food to nibble on. It is there for us to listen for God and looking for God’s ways through the Word.

Other ways are made available for the church to encounter God’s grace through worship. Joe Small says, “God’s grace can not only be heard, but it can also be seen, felt, tasted, and smelled through the sacraments.” Christ life then is essentially what we have for our skeleton of worship. Through his birth, baptism, ministry, death and resurrection, we gain life and understanding of the God we are to worship. In baptism, we identify with Christ death and resurrection, where the new Christian passes from death to life. Thus around the common table, Eucharist, we gather around as a people to proclaim the death and resurrection of Christ, and that he will come again. It is where we gain meaning for our faith. It is where all our needs are met and we unite around Christ. It is the pivotal moment in our lives as a Christian, to come and taste that the Lord is good. Through the sacraments of Bath and Table, set forth Christ to us, and in him the treasures of heavenly grace.”

All of life flows out of worship. We, through worship, meet the Holy One and through grace, worship him. It is our response to God’s call in our lives and the way God meets our needs. Through the gathering of people, we are responding to God’s call, offering praise in words, scripture, prayer and song. Then the Word becomes the next movement in the dance and the Scriptures are read and their message proclaimed. Our hearing becomes doing in the Eucharist. We become doers during worship but the giving of our tithes and offerings and the table is set with bread and wine, (Book of Common Worship, pg. 33). Then after we have been invited, after a prayer is offered to God for praise of his creation and providence, Christ’s work of redemption is remembered with thanksgiving and the Holy Spirit is invoked upon and in the church, the people are the sent. The Sending is where we receive God’s blessing and go serve our community. That is worship in a nut-shell. Through the following of these 4 movements, we then can maintain the 3^rd Great End, the maintenance of Divine Worship.