“We Gather Around the Living Word” 

Matthew 9:14-24 

The Movement of Worship, Pt. 1 

I would like you to invite you to imagine for a moment. Imagine Jesus. What portrait emerges in your minds eye? 

We have all different kinds of representations of Jesus. We have the traditional ones with Jesus as a gentle shepherd, or looking heavenward with hands folded in prayer. 

I found one picture of Jesus that miraculously showed up...in a pancake! It's real, believe me, and it was put up for auction on ebay. I am not sure if it sold, but there were 21 bids, the highest bid coming in at $810! How hungry we are for Jesus. 

I received a special present from my brother this Christmas. This is my Jesus. This doll comes from the “Unemployed Philosopher's Guild” and belongs to the “Little Thinker” series. I especially like the hair. As a “Little Thinker,” Jesus resides beside the likes of Einstein, Leonardo da Vinci, Gandhi, Nietzsche, Emily Dickinson and the “Tickle Me Freud” doll. 

In actuality, of course, we have no idea what Jesus looked like. In our own personal portraits of Jesus, most often, he looks just like us. Or just like we want him to look like. We often domesticate his portrait, his likeness and person. We hope that he changes the things we want changed, and leaves alone the things we want to keep to ourselves. 

For many in our culture, Jesus is to be admired, venerated, his teachings followed as those of a wise Master. For some, he is wiser even then any other human being. But when it comes to the resurrection part-when it comes to his person asking us to live in a real transformational relationship, we stop short. When that happens, Jesus, for us, turns out to be little more than a “Little Thinker.” 

Then we encounter Scripture, and God's Word written paints different pictures of Jesus. It gives us different snapshots of this one whom we call savior. We have a number of portraits in Scripture of Jesus. Not in dough or in plastic, not cute and cuddly, but portraits painted in narrative, in story. 

If we read with open eyes, we see from Scripture that this Jesus is not a good luck charm destined to dangle from the rear view mirror of our car, nor a dashboard decoration complete with bobbling head. He is not a candy dispenser out of which drop large or small favors when we deposit a few coins. This Jesus in scripture will not be domesticated. 

Jesus, as we encounter him in Scripture, is something more than we expect, and less; sometimes more than we desire, and less. His call touches more than we are usually willing to let go, and the freedom he offers releases more in us than we dare to let loose. His touch heals and changes in ways that we cannot comprehend; sometimes in ways we desire, and sometimes not. All this is to say that the Bible's Jesus heals and makes whole in the deepest of senses. The Jesus we encounter in Scripture calls us to a relationship, a relationship that changes us, and changes the world in which we live. 

Oh, we try to domesticate him, but he turns out to be untamable. He is, as John tells us at the opening of his gospel, the Word, the living Word, present before creation, and now made flesh...for us. 

It is around this Living Word that we gather in our worship. This is why the movements of our worship are centered around the “Word.” The Word referred to is not the Bible, though we hold it to be God's Word written, i.e. the unique and authoritative witness to Jesus Christ. But Scripture, God's Word written, is our guide to the ultimate end of our spiritual journey. In our worship we want to nurture an encounter with the Living Word, Jesus Christ. 

It is not the aim of worship to merely consider the perspective of a venerated thinker, nor is it merely to appease the divine or ask God for a favor. The aim of worship is not to feel good, or hear an eloquent sermon, or sing, or hear a few songs sung to us. These things are vehicles for the real target of worship, which is to invite us into a transformational (i.e. life and world changing) relationship with a Savior. 

It doesn't happen in an instant. We can't flick a switch and be holy. It takes something. On Mondays we come to play basketball. When I come in out of the cold, I am not ready to play yet. I can't be the “Logan Kobe Bryant” (or Doron Williams, if your a Jazz fan) right off the bat. I need to take off my jacket, warm up, stretch a little, get the blood flowing, take a few shots before I am are ready to fly to the hoop. (It even takes Paul Davis a little warm-up before he can be the “Logan Bill Lambeer). It is the same with worship. It takes a bit to warm up, so that we are open to encounter the Savior in the deeper parts of our being. 

In our culture that seems to bless and seek instant pleasure, instant satisfaction, we proclaim the truth that it takes a bit of time and attention to open up all the doors and windows of our lives to God's presence. 

So we gather. 

As part of gathering around the Word, we praise and confess. We get ready to hear the word proclaimed by recognizing, in praise and prayer, who God is and who we are. We recognize our need for God. In confession, we take all of the garbage, all of the brokenness of sin from the past week, and ask God, through God's grace, to take it away so that we are ready to encounter the Word. All of this allows us to take a spiritual breath, and say, “OK

Lord, I am ready.” 

It is not that all doubt is removed. It is not that we suddenly and wholly are open to God's presence. God's voice doesn't necessarily speak to us without ambiguity. Worship guides us to that very open and vulnerable place where we, as one and individually, say with the father in our gospel story, “I believe, help my unbelief!” 

It's not easy. But how many of us discovered that we have go through the “not easy” to get to the greater blessing or success. 

So we focus our spirits until we get to the point where we can say, “I believe, help my unbelief!” This is Worship. We bring all of our crap (excuse my graphic language, but life is that way), and we step out of the crowd of the world and we say, “Lord, could you please heal me? Could you please lead me? Could you please strengthen me to be the person you created me to be? I believe, help my unbelief!” Gathered together, we lift each other up and encounter a Savior. 

The story continues after we left off earlier. Hear how it goes: “Seeing that the crowd was forming fast, Jesus gave the vile spirit its marching orders: “Dumb and deaf spirit, I command you--out of him, and stay out!” Screaming, and with much thrashing about, it left. The boy was pale as a corpse, so people started saying, “He's dead.” But Jesus, taking his hand, raised him. The boy stood up. 

After arriving back home, his disciples cornered Jesus and asked, “Why couldn't we throw the demon out?” 

He answered, “There is no way to get rid of this kind of demon except by prayer.” 

If prayer is connecting with the divine, then we discover that what was needed to cast out that demon (and ours?) was a personal encounter with the Living Word. This is what worship is about. 

When we gather, we discover that this “Little Thinker” is really a life changing savior. Amen. 
 
 
 
 
 

January 13, 2008

Rev. Paul Heins

First Presbyterian Church

Logan, Utah