Every so often I go to a retirement community to lead a worship service. It is usually on Wednesday in the afternoon. This past week I prepared my lesson and presented it. I thought with success. Then one of the ladies asked her friend, “Did you hear the lesson today?” She responded, “No not really” and she smiled. I apologized for not having spoken louder, but I was thinking, I did speak loudly. She was close enough to me to hear so I was curious as to what the problem was. But, right after my apology she admitted that she is quite deaf. She went on to point out that she rarely heard anything. She kept on smiling then said something interesting. I just enjoy being able to attend worship, even if I cannot hear it.
It brought to mind a conservation I had the other day with a friend. We were discussing sermons. He said something interesting. He was trying to process that something happens in worship that is larger than just the sermon. He was having trouble expressing that something in addition to just the message in the sermon was imparted. As we discussed it I understood what he was talking about. It is the change that takes place in us. He expressed that even though we may not remember the points of the sermon we are somehow changed.
While in seminary I would often come away from worship and rate how well I thought it went. I would often judge the service as to how well I liked it. I would judge how well the sermon was done, or how well the music went. I came to realize that there were certain styles of worship I preferred. I often looked at worship from my own felt needs, and my own desires. I was judging worship from the perspective of had it “moved me”, or had it “spoken” to my intellect. Then one day it hit me I was viewing worship as a “spoiled child”. I wanted worship on my terms, not on God’s terms. I wanted worship to make me feel better, to give me good advise. I was not fully opening myself to God’s transforming work. I began to open myself to other forms of worship to which I had been closed and found God’s transforming grace at work.
This passage helped me. Phil. 2:13 “for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” It is God who is at work in us. Over time as I have allowed God to work I have began to view worship not as a place for my own self indulgent whims, but as a place of transformation. In the posture of being willing to allow God to be God is where worship began to take on depth and richness.
