Lent
2
17 February AD 2008
Marks of A Disciple: Regular Worship
Lesson for the day: John 3:1-17
This morning
I want to unpack for you the second of the seven identifying marks
of a disciple, not just a member of his church but a genuine disciple
of the Lord Jesus. Today's "mark" is regular worship.
If you missed last week's introduction, this is the second in
a series of sermons on the attributes, or the salutary habits,
of a disciple of Christ.
Last Sunday
I spoke on the importance of a vigorous prayer life. Some of us
pray quite haphazardly-on the run. I encourage you to make prayer
a necessary part of your day, schedule it and make it a routine,
your appointment with God. I'm not talking about table grace,
I'm talking 15 minutes or more of quiet time, prayer. If you have
no structure to your prayers, I offer you ACTS. It's not my invention,
but it is a way to organize your time with God. Not only is it
easy to remember ACTS keeps your prayer time from becoming something
akin to a grocery list, or your wish list for Santa Claus. (Copies
of ACTS are available for you.)
From the
start the regular gathering of God's people for worship and corporate
prayer is evident in the New Testament. Luke records in Acts 2:42;
"they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship,
to the breaking of bread and the prayers." Later in verses
46-47 we read "day by day, attending the temple together
and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with
glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all
the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those
who were being saved."
The children
of God meet regularly for worship. And, it appears the Christians
in Jerusalem in those earliest days met daily; "day by day,
attending the temple together…and in their homes…"
One sign that you are Jesus' disciple is that you can't gather
often enough to hear the apostles teach. The gospel then was new,
and living the Christian life needed to be explained. And when
the persecutions started and martyrs were born by blood, they
gathered for strength and courage.
Luke tells
us that they "devoted themselves" to this time together,
and in these earliest days the Spirit blessed their devotion by
"adding to their numbers daily those who believed."
The Church grew numerically stronger because the people gave themselves
to God in worship and prayer. They were eager for the Word. The
eyes of faith are opened in the breaking of the bread. (Luke 24:30-31)
I think you
can make the point that worship is somewhat contagious. I'm not
discounting the overwhelming power (miracle) of the Holy Spirit
on that day; not at all. As a direct result of the Spirit on Pentecost
three thousand souls came for-ward for baptism to be counted as
disciples of Christ and "Followers of the Way" (as the
first Christians were called). However, as the weeks passed it
was ongoing devotion to the Word and a vibrant fellowship that
kept the Church growing. People bring people to worship.
You can discern
the Spirit of God in the fellowship of the Church. Just as dwind-ling
numbers and discouragement have a deleterious effect on a congregation's
worship attendance, so encouragement has a positive effect upon
it. To a certain degree we have an obligation to one another,
don't we? We need to be here for the sake of one another.
At the congregation
I served in Illinois many years ago, the pastor before me used
to print at the top of each Sunday morning bulletin; "Visitors
welcome, members expected." (He knew the congregation better
than I did at that point.) As brothers and sisters in Christ we
need to pray with each other, and for each other. We need to be
concerned about one another other, we need to demonstrate that
concern. A song from my says, "they'll know we are Christians
by our love."
Those first
disciples devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching because
they had a desire to immerse themselves in Jesus. They wanted
to know what God had done for them. Could it be that God planned
from the beginning of time to offer up his Son on a cross? Could
it be that God loves the world and not just Jewish people? Is
it true, all our good works count for little but that believing
in Jesus is everything, salvation? They had to know. And people
still have to know. They're still dying for the lack of what you
and I shamefully take for granted. Worship is at the center of
our life together as a people of God; at its heart is Jesus "the
Bread Life."
One of the
things about Anorexia, is that everyone sees how desperately the
one afflicted needs to eat. Everyone can see that is, but the
one who is sick. He just doesn't get it, he just doesn't see it-he's
blind to his disease. That's how it is with people. They need
the food of God, the Bread of Life; and they need the mutual encouragement
that just happens when two or three disciples gather in Jesus'
name.
Just as a
family is supposed to gather after a day's activities around the
supper table to renew their ties and the bonds of love, so in
worship the people of God receive the Father's gifts around his
table. They receive God's gifts in the written Word (read aloud
and proclaimed), and from the sacrament (God's bread, broken,
shared and eaten). The supper being over, we return to the world
to love as God loves, and to live and love with the love of God.
To enter
a congregation at worship is to step into the presence of the
Divine. "God himself is present, let us come before him,"
we sing. Here heaven touches earth as the risen and ascended Jesus
ties himself to bread and wine to nourish our souls, giving us
"a foretaste of the feast to come." Jesus is our spiritual
food; he alone can sustain us for the long and arduous journey
that is life. You can learn a lot of theology from our hymns:
"Let all mortal flesh keep silence, and with fear and trembling
stand; Ponder nothing earthly minded, for with blessing in his
hand, Christ our God to earth descending comes our homage to demand."
(LSB 621:1)
There is
a fine and fuzzy line between worship and prayer. There are times
when it is difficult to say where one stops and the other begins.
But how can they ask him for gifts and favors (to say nothing
of salvation), whose house they never enter, whose praise they
never utter, whose glories they never speak, whose name they never
whisper, and whose Word they ignore? With James I'm going say:
"For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything
from the Lord..." (James 1:7) The disciples of Jesus worship.
In the name
of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen
O
LORD, I love the habitation of your house
and the place where your glory dwells. Psalm 26:8
Prince of Peace Lutheran Church
Hamburg, NJ 07419
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