The third definition of the word "corner" in Merriam-Webster's online dictionary is "a private, secret, or remote place" as in "a quiet corner of New England." I like that. I'm from New England, did you know that? (The accent comes out pretty strong when I'm super-excited or really mad about something.) About three weeks from now, there will be a spot on the Massachusetts turnpike as you're heading east where you will come around a corner, and you won't have even realized you were in the mountains until you see the view. There's a sheer drop on the far side of the guardrail, and all you'll be able to see beyond it are the glorious fall colors, and a few church steeples. It's breathtaking, and it feels like it goes on forever - both the view and the turn - and you'll be sorry when you're past it. You'll just want to stop and rest there for a minute, and soak it all in. (There is a spot to stop, but you'll need to know where to look for it.)
This is what I want our experience of worship to be. I don't always get a chance to say everything I'd like to about worship when I'm leading, but this is our chance to go a little deeper, and it is my hope that we will grow as a worshiping community as a result of these conversations. I want us to know how to stop and catch the view - to find that quiet, secret, and remote place where we can truly encounter God in a way that takes our breath away.
The Bible has a lot to say about worship. Check out this conversation between Jesus and a Samaritan woman at Jacob's well. There's a lot we could say about this passage, but I want to focus on a few specific verses: John 4:23-24.
Jesus says to the woman: "Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."
I love how the Message puts it: "It's who you are and the way you live that count before God. Your worship must engage your spirit in the pursuit of truth. That's the kind of people the Father is out looking for: those who are simply and honestly themselves before him in their worship. God is sheer being itself—Spirit. Those who worship him must do it out of their very being, their spirits, their true selves, in adoration."
Those who are simply and honestly themselves before him in their worship...
So here's our first discussion topic: How does this work itself out practically for you? What does it mean to come before God simply and honestly yourself?
In context, Jesus is answering the woman's question about place: she wants to know, where's the right place to worship? Essentially He tells her, "it doesn't matter nearly as much as you think it does. You can worship anywhere, anytime. It's your heart that matters."
John Wesley says in his comments on verse 24 that worshiping in spirit and truth means we bring everything into God's presence - "all our tempers, thoughts, words, and actions." (The word "tempers" here means emotions.) It means that no matter how we feel, or what we've done, we recognize that God is worthy of our worship, and we worship Him - with everything we've got.
So what does that look like?
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