A Prayer for Coming to Worship God
Let me come into the place of meeting of God's people
to meet the Spirit of God;
not to give religion an hour but to live in the eternal;
not to maintain a respectable habit,
but to bow in a holy place before the Holy One;
not to judge the words of a preacher,
but to draw life from the Word and Truth everlasting-,
not to be moved or soothed by music,
but to sing from the heart divine praises;
not that my eyes roam over architecture or congregation,
but that my soul look up to the king in his beauty,
and my heart plead the needs of his children;
Not that my thoughts escape out into the world,
but that they be still and know that you are God.
Let me go again and again
to the place of meeting of God's people
and be glad and give thanks and adore
my King and my God.
30 years ago before he reached the heights of winning the Nobel prize
John Hume had an idea to revive the flagging fortunes of the city of Derry:
it was to open a plant to sell bottles of water.
But he couldn't find anyone to support him. Such a silly idea!
How times have changed!
Walk through any supermarket
and you will find 30 different varieties of types and size of bottled water
We are increasingly fussy about how pure our water is.
Many people feel undressed
if they don't have their mobile phone and their bottle of water with them.
Just what would this thirsty woman at the well think of us?
She had a long walk to draw water at the hottest time of the day
isolated form the other women
who might have called her a dirty, tainted woman
with her five previous marriages and her present relationship.
What did she think about Jesus, this Jewish man
who broke conventions about race and religion and gender to speak to her?
This man who teasingly talked about a water supply
'If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink,
you would have asked him and he would have given you living water' (4:10).
I think she is joking as she replies
"Sir, give me this water
so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water."
But perhaps it is a joke that covers up a lot of pain
and a lot of thirst for a life that would be real and clean and satisfying
for this woman as one commentator says, lived in a spiritual desert.
The poet John Berryman writes about the early Christian thinker Justin Martyr who after trying different philosophers "studied the words of the Saviour
finding them short, precise, terrible and full of refreshment.
The poem goes on 'I am tickled to learn this.
Let one day desolate Sherry, fair, thin, tall
at 29 today her life the Sahara Desert
who never has once enjoyed a significant relation
so find his lightning words"
What was true for Justin Martyr's spiritual quest is still true.
Are there not many whose lives are like the Sahara,
arid, gasping for water, for meaning, for certainty, for significant relations?
Like the thirsty, dirty woman at the well needing the water of life
gasping for the words of Jesus "short precise terrible full of refreshment"
Jesus does offer pure water, moral and spiritual truth that satisfy
Look at his short, precise, terrible refreshing words "Go, call your husband"
Her personal life in a mess, she had had 5 husbands
and the man she was now living with was not her husband
The story operates on 2 levels,
in her personal moral muddle she reflected the spiritual confusion of her people.
The Samaritans spiritually speaking had played the field
they had had succession of alliances with foreign deities,
five husbands if you like.
The point is, a significant relation with Christ
is not just about having a refreshing spiritual experience
He wants to challenge our personal relationships,
our moral muddles and our spiritual misunderstandings.
It is not that first we have to sort our our muddles and tangles
so that we can relate to Jesus --
we can never save ourselves --
but we understand that to meet Jesus is to meet one
whose refreshment will be like pure water sweeping away the dirt and the rubble
when we are ready to let him do that.
But maybe like the woman we want o change the subject a bit.
The woman was uncomfortable or offended with Jesus' analysis of her life;
she changes tack, starts religious controversy Which is the right mountain?
That was a hot topic. About twenty years earlier
some Samaritans had defiled the temple in Jerusalem
by scattering human bones in the courtyard during Passover.
No wonder 'Jews have no dealing with Samaritans'
No wonder the woman was surprised when this Jew asked her for a drink.
Jesus talks straight. 'salvation is from the Jews'
he is not saying that all religions are the same and you only need to be sincere.
But he offered positively something to go beyond and reconcile their divisions
23 'a time is coming and has now come
when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth,
for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks.
God is spirit and his worshippers must worship in spirit and truth'
ie they must drink the water that he gives
enter into the significant relations that only he can bring,
because he is God's messiah, his anointed chosen one who will reveal all things
True spiritual experience, true life with God
is based on faith in the living God
who first revealed himself to the people of Israel
through the Old Testament and finally through his own son Jesus Christ.
Because our worship is spiritual
we don't need to concentrate on any special place,
neither on that mountain nor in Jerusalem,
we don't need to bottle water from that well
but let the refreshment be the pure living water of Jesus Christ.
Neither how we live nor how we worship
can be a matter of personal taste but of truth
We live in an age which suggests any drink will do, just choose sincerely.
The recent Mind Body Spirit Festival at the City Hall
was full of stands selling all sorts of answers and therapies.
Those staffing the Christian Healing stand could sense the spiritual oppression
the desert of false and deceptive choices denying the truth of Jesus Christ
Sad reality is that some sources are tainted. Only he offers fresh pure water.
The tragedy of the scandals which come to the fore again in recent days
is that it exposes the darkness and dirt that religious people have offered.
Let's pray that the pure water of Christ may not be rejected
and that none of us muddy his waters.
To worship in spirit and truth means to worship as one who is spiritually alive,
living in the new reality that only Jesus offers,
It is he who gives the living water, the fresh inexhaustible supply
The woman rightly belived that the Meesiah would explain eveything
The woman said, "I know that Messiah" (called Christ) "is coming.
When he comes, he will explain everything to us" (4:25).
Her reply reveals that she is open, ready to receive
the sort of person the Father seeks
Faced with such openness Jesus reveals himself to her immediately:
I who speak to you am he (v. 26).
Encouraged by this, she leaves her water pot
and runs to the village to tell all her neighbours
and despite all that hse is known for
when the other Samaritans hear they come flocking to him.
We don't know precisely if this woman continued as a believer in Christ
if she was able to get her life sorted out
if she found ongoing cleansing and refeshing in the water of life.
I think the gospel leaves that question open
so that we may be challenged about how we relate to Jesus Christ
and are we worshipping in spirit andin truth?
Are we worshippers that the Father seeks?
Worship is of course aboutmuch more than singing and praying:
our whole lives are to be offerings to God as in Wm. Temple's definition
'Worship is the bringing of our whole nature into the Light of God,
the stirring of the conscience by the Holiness of God,
the nourishing of the mind by the Truth of God,
the purifying of the imagination by the Beauty of God,
the opening of the heart to the Love of God,
the surrender of the will to the Purpose of God.
What hinders our worship being like that?
Are there wrong PRACTICES?
e.g like the hings in this woman's personal life which she needed to confront
are there issues of right and wrong to be sorted,
a debt to pay, an apology to offer, forgiveness to grant ...
Are there wrong PRIORITIES?
Do we have too many questions on secondary inessential things
as to which mountain is best or what posture is best,
standing or kneeling or sitting, waving our arms, or locking them at our sides
one leader or many, an a pipe organ or a rock band?
Undoubtedly true and sincere worship can be and is offered in all sorts of ways.
It is also true that insincere and unworthy worship is offered in all sorts of ways.
But since God is spirit, surely no form of worship
can ever be made the absolute one, the one and only.
No worship form can or ever will meet every need.
The true priority is whom we worship
with a worship from the heart which truly exalts God and gives him all the glory
Are there wrong PERCEPTIONS about who God is and our relationship to him?
Are we looking elsewhere than in Jesus Christ to find God?
Are we trying to worship God in Christ and something else/
Our money, our reputation, our way of doing things?
'a time is coming and has now come
when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth,
for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks.
God is spirit and his worshippers must worship in spirit and truth'
I wonder what we think about as we come to church on Sunday.
Are we wondering what the sermon will be like, whwta the singing will be like,
who will be there, who not there etc.
And what do we think as we leave?
'Didn't get much out of that.' 'Not many there' 'Didn't know those hymns'
Perhaps we should be praying before we come and as we go
'Father, make me the sort of worshipper you seek
one who worships in spirit and in truth
one who seeks the living water of Jesus Christ
0 living holy God, you are Spirit, pure powerful free
life-giving, reviving refreshing,.
those who worship you must worship in Spirit and in truth.
Pour out your Spirit upon us set your love free in us,
sweep away everything that blocks and chokes
the free flow of your blessing upon us and in us and through us,
whether selfishness or pride or greed
or any kind of sin that separates us from you and from each other,
everything that grieves and offends you
Thank you for Jesus Christ your son,
fountain of mercy, spring of living water
who alone can cleanse us by his blood shed for us,
who alone can bring us into that vital saving relationship with you,
by whose grace we may share in the love
that has ever been and always shall be between Father Son and Holy Spirit
Grace mercy and peace be unto you continually
from God our Father and Jesus Christ his Son our Lord
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