Worship Wars : Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors

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Hello and welcome back to yet another week here on Making Waves. We are so glad that you have taken the time to join us here today. For those of you that this is your first time with us, or your first time in a while, we are currently on the fourth and final week of our sermon series on worship: Worship Wars. I would highly encourage you to check out the first three parts of the series, but will include a brief synopsis and recap of the past three weeks below.

We started this series together with the acknowledgment that there is (and has been) an active war going on in the church over worship. This is certainly nothing new and has manifested itself in a plethora of different masks over the generations of worship dating back to the dawn of Christianity. Most recently, however, we can note it most vividly in the brutal division formed in the church by the traditionalist versus the contemporary movement. While the enemy could have tempted me into presenting this message with a skew towards my own personal bias, instead we chose to look at the issue with fresh eyes. In order to truly learn this year, we are taking a step back and building our faith from the ground up. So, over the past four weeks, we have asked ourselves the question, “What is worship?” A seemingly easy question, with quite a variety of differing answers, few of which are fueled by the Holy Spirit.

Our first week we tackled the hardest, yet most real, fact of the matter of worship: it’s not about you. While we love for things to be about us, for us, with us, worship is not just a little gift from God or Chris Tomlin or Charles Wesley delivered straight to your doorstep. Instead, we looked at the example of true worship given to us by the prophet Isaiah and saw that it has little to do with us and more to do with what God is doing in and through us.

Then in the second week, we looked at how worship is, in and of itself, a cyclical process, much like breathing. We receive the grace of God in worship, and then we respond to God in praise. We breathe in God’s grace, and then we breathe out praise. This breathing in and breathing out build to the raw reality of our role during worship. We are there as part of this cycle of worship.

Last week, we saw finally what worship has to do with what God is doing within us. Worship is our opportunity to become pure in the presence of God. We acknowledged that we are sinful, that we live in a broken world, but by the grace of God, we are made pure. We admitted that sin is a reality and that we need to be cleansed. We saw that through prayer, communion, baptism and other acts of worship, we are given the grace of God and washed clean of our iniquity. We also saw that worship is not human tradition, but instead is something far bigger than ourselves could ever manage.

Finally, that brings us home to this final week of the epic Worship Wars, where we take it back to the final, ultimate message that God is trying to deliver to us blockheaded humans with worship. So, without anymore jibber jabber from me, let’s dive into the Word, shall we? If you’d like to follow along with your own translation, I encourage you to do so, but otherwise, the passage will be posted below. Let’s dive into it, hear now these words:

“11 1 When Israel was a child, I loved him,
   and out of Egypt I called my son.
2 The more I called them,
   the more they went from me;
they kept sacrificing to the Baals,
   and offering incense to idols.
3 Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk,
   I took them up in my arms;
   but they did not know that I healed them.
4 I led them with cords of human kindness,
   with bands of love.
I was to them like those
   who lift infants to their cheeks.
   I bent down to them and fed them.
5 They shall return to the land of Egypt,
   and Assyria shall be their king,
   because they have refused to return to me.
6 The sword rages in their cities,
   it consumes their oracle-priests,
   and devours because of their schemes.
7 My people are bent on turning away from me.
   To the Most High they call,
   but he does not raise them up at all.
8 How can I give you up, Ephraim?
   How can I hand you over, O Israel?
How can I make you like Admah?
   How can I treat you like Zeboiim?
My heart recoils within me;
   my compassion grows warm and tender.
9 I will not execute my fierce anger;
   I will not again destroy Ephraim;
for I am God and no mortal,
   the Holy One in your midst,
   and I will not come in wrath.
10 They shall go after the Lord,
   who roars like a lion;
when he roars,
   his children shall come trembling from the west.
11 They shall come trembling like birds from Egypt,
   and like doves from the land of Assyria;
   and I will return them to their homes, says the Lord.”

-Hosea 11:1-11 (NRSV)

Will you pray with me? Dear Heavenly Father, I ask that the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts together be ever acceptable in Your sight, O God, for You are our Rock and Our Redeemer. Amen.

Let’s start out by saying that I am sure that we could do an entire four-week study (if not longer) on the book of Hosea alone, but we are just going to focus very quickly on the overarching message of the book of Hosea as it pertains to our message today. Hosea might just be the best possible scripture to have read at a wedding, though I’m not sure it’s ever been done. Likely because none of us get to be Hosea, and both parties in marriage are Gomers. You’ll understand what I mean soon.

First, a quick summary, if you aren’t familiar with Hosea, he is a prophet of God who receives a rather odd command from God in his service. You see, God commands Hosea to marry Gomer, who is a known prostitute. Hosea obeys God’s command and marries Gomer and thus begins our story that would eventually lead us up to the passage that we just read.

The book of Hosea and the life that Hosea would go on to lead are all one huge allegory, one big metaphor for the relationship of God with His people, Israel. The first several chapters of Hosea recount the difficult marriage of the prophet and the prostitute. They have a rocky relationship filled with all of the soap opera tropes of anger, jealousy, bitterness and self-destruction. However, through every challenge and moment of turmoil, the relationship survives, like some form of miracle.

The allegory goes deeper than just the marriage, however. Hosea and Gomer have children together. First, you should know that Hosea is often give the title of the “prophet of doom,” because he presents in his prophecy of an angry God who is seeking out justice upon His people. This can be seen through the children of Hosea and Gomer. Their first child is named Jezreel, named after a valley where much blood shed took place. This seemed to symbolize that the people of Israel would pay dearly for their sins and the lives that they have taken. Another son of Gomer is born, given the name Lo-ammi, which roughly translates to “Not My People.” These names seem to symbolize the wrath of a jealous God who will destroy His people as He had done before with the Flood.

But then let me tell about their other child, their daughter, Lo-ruhamah, whose name translates to “pity.” Despite our ultimate unworthy nature, we can be shown pity and grace in our broken nature.

Just look to our passage that we read just a moment ago. It starts out with a message of gloom and doom, stating the many times that the people of Israel, or as he names them, “Ephraim,” have betrayed God. The many times that they have turned away from God’s embrace. But then in verses 8 and 9, “8 How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, O Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I treat you like Zeboiim? My heart recoils within me; my compassion grows warm and tender. 9 I will not execute my fierce anger; I will not again destroy Ephraim; for I am God and no mortal, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath.” Despite our absolute ineptitude and unworthiness, God’s grace extends over us. The child turns and runs from the parent, but does the parent simply turn their head and let the child go? No! The love of God extends to Israel in its brokenness.

Keep this idea in mind as we turn to the New Testament where we consider the Gomers of Jesus’ time. What role did the prostitutes play in the gospel mission of Jesus Christ? Look to Luke 15:1-2, where we see the pharisees in disgust as Jesus is doing what? Eating, sharing a meal, engaging in deep, loving conversation with the prostitutes, liars, tax collectors, convicts, sex offenders and non-Christians.

So... what do we see here? What is evident in worship through these acts of Father and Son?

Let me tell you a quick story. There was once a man who lived his entire life away from the Lord. He had gone to church a few times as a child, but eventually drifted away from the church and spent his entire life frivolously spending his time and money on horrible things. He was the town drunk, gambled away his paycheck each month, had a history of serious violence (a couple of time landing him jail time), and was known to frequent local late-night establishments not meant for children’s ears. One night, in the middle of a drunken escapade, the man has a change of heart and longingly desires to get right with the Lord. Remembering what little of church he had experienced as a child, he knows that he needs to go to church to get right with God. So, that Sunday, the man moseys on up to the church doors and is quickly stopped by several deacons outside the entrance. They notice his foul stench and scraggly beard and inform him that he needs to clean up before entering the church. They explain how they’d love to see the man in the church, but first he needs to get clean.

The man, desperate to get right, works the streets hard for enough cash to purchase a razor, shaving, and other toiletries. After much work, he manages to shave off his matted hair and his ragged beard, he showers off the dirt and grime at a local homeless shelter and marches his way to the church doors that following Sunday. Again, the deacons stop the man at the doors leading into the church. They explain that the man can’t come into the church without a suit and tie, the man’s clothes are tattered with holes and covered with grease and dirt. The members inside would likely have a heart attack if the man were to enter in dressed as he was.

So, the man once again worked, this time for several weeks in a row to earn up enough cash in order to buy a cheap suit and tie from the local thrift store. Fortunately, he was able to finally purchase one and headed straight to church first thing in the morning that next Sunday. However, once more the deacons met him at the door. They commended him on his appearance, but stated that he would surely not be going into the church without the necessary tools. The man didn’t seem to have a Bible on him, nor did he have the pastor’s latest novel that followed along with the weekly Bible study and sermon series.

The man, distraught with his desire to appeal to God for his transgressions, worked hard once again that week to earn up the cash to purchase the prettiest Bible you’d ever seen. He was determined to impress those deacons, so he wanted to walk up with the nicest leather-bound, red-lettered work of art that anyone had ever seen. He purchased the book and found his way once again to church that Sunday. And, once more, the deacons met him at the door. They again commended the man for all of his hard work and efforts. They complimented his Bible and his suit, but informed the man that they were both of the opinion that he just wasn’t a good fit for this church. They offered no advice on how to become fit, but instead encouraged the man to stay strong in his journey to find the right church for him.

The man, at his wits’ end, falls down to his knees when he arrives back at the shelter he lives in. Tears fall down his face as he looks longingly up to the sky, searching for God. He cries out with elephant tears, exclaiming,” God, what can I do? I want so badly to find You and to be with You. I tried so hard to fit in with the church. I cut my hair, i changed my clothes, I bought my Bible, what more can I do, God?” Suddenly the booming voice of God entered the room where he knelt and explained to the man, “My good and faithful servant, your sins are forgiven. All along you have been doing the right and virtuous thing, and I accepted you before you cut your hair or changed or clothes or anything else.” The man continued to weep, but this time with tears of joy. He felt strangely warmed as God went on to say, “And don’t worry about that church, they won’t let me through the door either.”

Here’s the reality of the situation, folks: we go back again to our very first week, worship is plain and simply not about us. It’s not about the church that we build or the idols that we make for ourselves. Worship is all about our relationship with God. And we can’t possibly hope to ever understand that reality. We encourage our own human mindset, our own lifestyle or standards upon people because of our broken nature. Grace makes no sense to human understanding. We are like Gomer or the pharisees.

Why on earth would God be so patient with Israel? When we have betrayed Him countless time before, why would God continue to love us through it all? Why would Jesus want to be with the people who society hated? Why would He eat with those that we fear? It all comes down to this final statement. Worship is an opportunity for people to receive the completely all-encompassing Grace of God, and to be given the radical Acceptance of Jesus. And most importantly, that worship is for all.

No exceptions to the rule, no lines in the sand. God believes in all of His children, no matter how far we may turn from Him. Find comfort in this knowledge. Worship may not be about us, but it has everything to do with us. Will you take this opportunity? Will you offer this opportunity to others? Or will you continue to build walls and define your personal parameter for what takes place in worship? Think about it.