Difference between revisions of "Sermon for September 16th, 2012"

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Excerpts from Psalm 119

James 1:19-25

19 You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; 20for your anger does not produce God’s righteousness. 21Therefore rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness, and welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls.

22 But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. 23For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; 24for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. 25But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act—they will be blessed in their doing.

We Respond to God's Word: Part I

We are now 6 weeks through our 8 week series on the Heart of Worship, where we are taking a look at what we do here every Sunday morning in worship, why we do it, and what the scriptures have to say about it. The four broad movements of our worship service are found in your bulletin in bold, capital letters: Early in the series, we talked about Gathering in God's Name. More recently, we talked about Proclaiming and Hearing God's Word, and you'll remember that for us as Presbyterians, Jesus Christ, God's living word, is reflected in three different ways: God's written Word in the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments; God's proclaimed Word in the sermon; and finally last week Dr. Neal Presa shared with us on the sacraments of Baptism and Holy Communion, which are God's Word enacted.

God's Word--Jesus Christ--truly is the heart of our worship service, and the reading of the word, the preaching of the word, the enacting of the word--these things form the climax of the service, the highest part. So adding a whole lot more on to the end of that could seem, well...anti-climactic. I know that in some churches, particularly non-denominational or Evangelical ones, once the sermon is done, a final song is sung and then everyone goes home. Game over. Lunch time. And yet, we Presbyterians, in our service, still have two more entire sections to go--we're only halfway done at this point! What gives?

Maybe a better question is "Who gives?" Up to this point in the service, the answer has been God. God gives his word to us in scripture, sermon, and sacrament. But if we have truly listened and heard God's Word--Jesus Christ--it's our turn to give, because we cannot help but respond! Have you ever been in a restaurant or some other crowd of strangers, and you overhear someone say something that you just know is incorrect, and you don't want them to know you've been eavesdropping, but you just--can't--help--but--respond? It's like that. Or better yet, I'm going to knock a few times on the wood of the pulpit here while you try really hard not to respond: [Shave and a Haircut...] It's hard, isn't it? You know you want to! I've been told that if you're ever stranded on a deserted island, the best thing you could possibly have with you is a deck of cards. Why? Start playing solitaire, and inevitably someone will come out of nowhere to stand over your shoulder and tell you which cards you should play where!

There are some things for which we just cannot help ourselves--we have to respond, and our worship service is structured the way it is because we believe that God's Word is one of those things. Our passage from James this morning encourages us to not merely be hearers of the word, but rather doers of the word. I love the metaphor James uses for those who just listen to God's word without ever responding: James says they are like those who look into a mirror, and as soon as they walk away forget what they look like! In other words, one reason we must always respond to God's word is so that we remember! Any teacher knows that if you tell me something, I may forget. If you show me something, I may remember. But if you involve me in something I will understand, and if I teach it to someone else...it will be a part of me forever. Don't be just hearer's of God's word--be doers, be responders, and in the words of James, you will be blessed in the doing.

So...how then do we respond to God's Word? Probably different denominations and branches of God's family answer that in different ways. If you're a Quaker, it might involve quaking, and if you're Pentecostal, you might do a little dance. We Presbyterians, of course, respond to God's Word according to 1st Corinthians 14:40--"but all things should be done decently and in order." That's how we roll.

Seriously though, I can think of no better example of how we should respond to God's Word than Psalm 119. I wish we could

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