Sermon from December 25, 2005
Worship is a human act, but it does not originate as a human act. Worship originates in the pressure of an invisible Mystery that we can no longer ignore. In other words the source of our worship is God's revelation of Himself. The act of worship is submission on our part to what God has revealed. The purpose of our submission is to display God's worth to the whole, wide world.

Since September, we have explored the Church's vocation to be holy. That vocation is to be the global community that is gathered around Jesus Christ and to serve as the dwelling place where God lives with the human family – a kind of beachhead from which He has begun the liberation of the nations of the world from the disorders of sin.

Christmas Day provides a superb occasion to revisit the heart of the Church's holiness, which is worship. It provides that occasion, because it is at this time of year that we read again the experience of the Virgin Mary. Her experience embodied the worship that is at the heart of holiness. The Gospel of Luke alone has preserved her unique experience. Let's reflect today on that experience in Luke 1:26-49.

The Source of Worship
Our reflection highlights first the source of worship, which is some revelation of Himself by God. The divine revelation began to unfold, when the angel, Gabriel, paid Mary an unexpected visit in her hometown of Nazareth. Verse 28: The angel went to her and said, "Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you."

Verse 29: Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. She was feeling the pressure of the invisible Mystery, and nothing was making sense to her. That's not an uncommon response, when people begin to be aware of God in a personal way. The experience can be unsettling and confusing. Mary received help, when the angel proceeded to explain to her why she was highly favored and in what sense the Lord was with her.

Verses 30-33: But the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end."

Mary's common sense in the face of these lofty words just blows you away. "How will this be," Mary asked the angel, "since I am a virgin?" "All this talk of greatness and Son of the Most High and permanent, royal prerogatives is impressive, but there is this matter of a man in my life. I don't have one. Where is this baby to come from?" Even under the pressure of divine revelation, don't abandon common sense.

The angel gave God's revelation to Mary in verses 35-37. The angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age,and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. For nothing is impossible with God." If Mary was to worship God, it would be in response to this revelation.

It is appropriate to stop here and apply what we have read. Does it fit our experience in any way? The best answer to that question is to ask another one. How have you become aware of God in your life in a way that you could no longer ignore? Probably no angels for most of us, although a lot of people here can recount some pretty odd experiences in their growing awareness of God in their lives.

Angels or not, your presence here this morning is evidence that you have some awareness of God that you can no longer ignore. You may not have thought five minutes in five years about why you go or don't go to church. But you are here. Why is that? Probably for many reasons, but don't miss the deepest reason you are here. You are reaching back to the God who reached out to you, as surely as He reached out to Mary.

Christmas celebrates the decisive step in God's plan to reach out to the human family and save us from our sins. Mary was in on the ground floor of that plan. We first experienced what God began with Mary in the family where we grew up or the church where we were taught the Christian faith or in the Chirstian organization on campus or with a friend or by reading the Bible.

Whatever means God used and however we experienced Him, God was reaching out to us, and we have become aware of Him, and we could no longer ignore Him. All worship begins with God's initiative. He is the source of Christian worship.

The Act of Worship
When we can no longer ignore God, we have to do something. One possibility is to run away. No one ever expressed the flight from God and the fear of God more memorably than Francis Thompson.

"I fled Him, down the nights and down the days;
I fled Him, down the arches of the years;
I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways
Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears
I hid from Him, and under running laughter.
Up vistaed hopes I sped;
And shot, precipitated,
Adown titanic glooms of chasmèd fears,
From those strong Feet that followed, followed after.
But with unhurrying chase,
And unperturbed pace,
Deliberate speed, majestic instancy,
They beat – and a Voice beat
More instant than the Feet –
All things betray thee, who betrayest me."

Another possibility is Mary's act. Worship in response to God's revelation of Himself never reached higher in a fallen human being than it did in Nazareth of Galilee, when the Virgin Mary responded to the angel.

Verse 38: "I am the Lord's servant," Mary answered. "May it be to me as you have said." Then the angel left her. If worship is the heart of the Church's vocation to be holy, then utter submission to the will of God is the proper act of worship.

For more than 30 years now, I have sought out and learned many of the ancient prayers of the Church. They have taught me to pray. One of them is a prayer for summertime, but it makes sense year round. It was a gift of the Holy Spirit that this prayer should have taken hold of my heart the way it did. This is the prayer:

"O God, you have taught me to keep all your commandments by loving you and my neighbor: Grant me the grace of your Holy Spirit, that I may be devoted to you, with my whole heart, and united to others with pure affection; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen," (Phyllis Tickle, The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime, 208).

"I am the Lord's servant," Mary answered. "May it be to me as you have said." "Grant me the grace of your Holy Spirit, that I may be devoted to you, with my whole heart," answers the Church, answers the heart, answers, I hope, your heart.

When tempted by the sins that easily beset me, I am strengthened to resist as this prayer turns my heart toward its true north: "Grant me the grace of your Holy Spirit, that I may be devoted to you, with my whole heart."

When anxiety about life and ministry dogs me, I am strengthened to endure as this prayer turns my heart toward its true north: "Grant me the grace of your Holy Spirit, that I may be devoted to you, with my whole heart."

The English mystic, Mrs. Evelyn Underhill, captured whole-heart devotion to God in these words: "'I come to seek God because I need Him,' may be an adequate formula for prayer. 'I come to adore His splendour, and fling myself and all that I have at His feet,' is the only possible formula for worship," (Evelyn Underhill, Worship, 9).

I said last Sunday that in my vision of this congregation, I believe there is a critical mass of people here that cares about the Church's vocation to be holy. We are people for whom what I've been saying is not foreign. It has been a reinforcement and encouragement to continue on and go deeper with the strength which God provides.

That means many people here will resonate with the conviction that if worship is the heart of the Church's vocation to be holy, then utter submission to the will of God is the proper act of worship. Growing within us, at times burning within us, as the central desire of our being, will be this prayer. "Grant me the grace of your Holy Spirit, that I may be devoted to you, with my whole heart, and united to others with pure affection."

The Purpose of Worship
The source of worship is God's revelation of Himself. The proper act of worship is our submission to the demands of that revelation. The purposes of worship is to display God's worth to the whole, wide world. Luke illustrates that in verses 39-41.

At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, where she entered Zechariah's home and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. Mary and Elizabeth displayed God's worth that day.

The Magnificat, the name we give to Mary's prayer that begins in verse 46, displays God's worth to all who hear it. Here is how it begins. And Mary said: "My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me – holy is his name."

Once again, our story merges with the Biblical story. I said earlier that we may not have thought five minutes in five years about why we go or don't go to church. But we've thought about it today. By being here, we display the worth of our great God, who has reached out to us in Jesus Christ. In the language of 1 Peter 2:9, we are a people belonging to God, that we may declare the praises of him who called us out of darkness into his wonderful light.

We display His worth, we declare the praises of our God, as we sing the songs of devotion and give and hear the word of God and obey and build each other up. We display His worth, we declare the praises of our God, as we seek to lead lives that are worthy of the Church's vocation to be the dwelling place where God lives with the human family – a kind of beachhead from which He has begun the liberation of the nations of the world from the disorders of sin.

The Pastoral Center of Gravity
How well do you think you know me? Could you give, as at any time now you may need to give, a good description of me to the police? If so, how well do you know the man behind the description?

You who know me better, is it me you know or ony the personage in which I feel comfortable in coming before the public? If you were my therapist and knew the psychological mechanisms that govern much of my behavior, would you know me fully?

Does any other human being know me better than I know myself? Do I know myself fully? In 1 Corinthians 13:10, 12 the Bible says that when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears ... then I shall know fully, even as I am known.

In casual conversation we often say, "Do you know so-and-so?" "Oh, yes, I know him." It may be necessary to talk that way, but it is shallow. The mystery that is you does not yield its secrets so easily as all that. The mystery that is God does not yield its secrets so easily as all that. In the knowledge of yourself, of another person, and of God there is layer upon layer.

I like what the German mystic, Jakob Boehme, once said about people: "The exterior is the signature of the interior," (quoted in Paul Tournier, The Meaning of Persons, 79). Deeper knowledge of another person begins when we are no longer content with that person's "signature." But we have to probe more deeply, listen more carefully, and watch more intently in order to discover a person's interior life. Even then, as Christian psychiatrist, Paul Tournier, once said, "the final reality of the person ... still eludes us."

What we call Sunday worship is the "signature" of God's presence and power with us. If we are content with that, then we may get bored with it or demand more of the same or better. If we are not content with God's "signature" (and I hope you are not), then we will look behind the signature, and to probe more deeply into God's interior life. 

My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God – Psalm 42:1. Because your love is better than life, my lips will praise you – Psalm 63:3. Whom have I in heaven but you? And being with you, I desire nothing on earth – Psalm 73:25. Give me an undivided heart that I may fear your name – Psalm 86:11. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection – Philippians 3:10. "I am the Lord's servant," Mary answered. "May it be to me as you have said," – Luke 1:38. "Grant me the grace of your Holy Spirit, that I may be devoted to you, with my whole heart, and be united to others in pure affection."

If worship is the heart of the Church's vocation to be holy, then utter submission to the will of God is the proper act of worship. It's not all-or-nothing, but you start somewhere. How hungry are you to be devoted with your whole heart to the living God?