Sermon for September 16th, 2012
Excerpts from Psalm 119
11 I treasure your word in my heart,
so that I may not sin against you.
12 Blessed are you, O Lord;
teach me your statutes.
13 With my lips I declare
all the ordinances of your mouth.
14 I delight in the way of your decrees
as much as in all riches.
15 I will meditate on your precepts,
and fix my eyes on your ways.
16 I will delight in your statutes;
I will not forget your word.
105 Your word is a lamp to my feet
and a light to my path.
106 I have sworn an oath and confirmed it,
to observe your righteous ordinances.
107 I am severely afflicted;
give me life, O Lord, according to your word.
108 Accept my offerings of praise, O Lord,
and teach me your ordinances.
129 Your decrees are wonderful;
therefore my soul keeps them.
130 The unfolding of your words gives light;
it imparts understanding to the simple.
131 With open mouth I pant,
because I long for your commandments.
132 Turn to me and be gracious to me,
as is your custom towards those who love your name.
133 Keep my steps steady according to your promise,
and never let iniquity have dominion over me.
134 Redeem me from human oppression,
that I may keep your precepts.
135 Make your face shine upon your servant,
and teach me your statutes.
169 Let my cry come before you, O Lord;
give me understanding according to your word.
170 Let my supplication come before you;
deliver me according to your promise.
171 My lips will pour forth praise,
because you teach me your statutes.
172 My tongue will sing of your promise,
for all your commandments are right.
173 Let your hand be ready to help me,
for I have chosen your precepts.
174 I long for your salvation, O Lord,
and your law is my delight.
175 Let me live that I may praise you,
and let your ordinances help me.
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--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. Once we have experienced it being read, proclaimed, enacted, we must respond. And so we come to Section Three in our bulletin: We Respond to God's Word.
