Sermon for May 13th, 2018 - Revision history

Iraneal at 13:26, 13 May 2018

2018-05-13T13:26:57Z

Iraneal at 13:15, 13 May 2018

2018-05-13T13:15:42Z

Iraneal at 12:46, 13 May 2018

2018-05-13T12:46:16Z

Iraneal at 19:40, 12 May 2018

2018-05-12T19:40:21Z

Iraneal at 04:28, 12 May 2018

2018-05-12T04:28:45Z

Iraneal at 03:46, 12 May 2018

2018-05-12T03:46:44Z

Iraneal at 21:09, 11 May 2018

2018-05-11T21:09:51Z

Iraneal at 20:56, 11 May 2018

2018-05-11T20:56:51Z

Iraneal at 20:42, 11 May 2018

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Iraneal at 20:10, 11 May 2018

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 The late Steve Jobs, founder of Apple Computers, would sometimes tell people a story from his childhood, about an old man who lived down the street.  When Jobs was a teenager, he would mow the man's lawn.  One day, the man had him gather up some dirty rocks they found out in the yard.  They took the rocks into the man's garage, and he tossed them into what looked like a large coffee can hooked up to a motor with a belt, along with some sand and some water.  The man flipped a switch and the motor began to spin the can with the rocks in it, making a horrible clanking sound.  He told Steve Jobs to come back the next day, and they left the garage with the can and motor still running.
-The next day, Jobs came back and the man removed the rocks from the can--as you might have guessed, they were now beautiful, shiny, polished stones, and the man gave them to Steve Jobs.  He never forgot that, and often used it as a metaphor for teamwork and collaboration.
+The next day, Jobs came back and the man removed the rocks from the can--as you might have guessed, they were now beautiful, shiny, polished stones, and the man gave them to Steve Jobs.  He never forgot that, and often used it as a metaphor for teamwork and collaboration in his company.
 I think it's a good metaphor for worship, too.  We come here Sunday mornings, often after a long and difficult week, and some days we probably feel like jagged, dirty rocks.  In this metaphor, I'm not sure what the water and sand are...maybe it's the music, the sermon, the prayers...I'm pretty sure God is the motor that spins us around for an hour or so.  But although God supplies the energy, it is the thousands of collisions and interactions between us that polish us, knocking away the dirt and the rough edges.
-Proverbs 27:17 tells us that just as iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens the wits of another.  That's why our worship is public, and that's why
+In a similar vein, Proverbs 27:17 tells us that just as iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens the wits of another.  That's why it's so important that worship at First Presbyterian Church is public:  Open to everyone, and everyone contributes.   And as we bring our best, our genuine, our heartfelt contributions, both great and small, God brings something more, something unexplainable, that makes our worship (and us) greater than the sum of all our parts.

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	And sing. I once heard someone say that the most pleasing sound to God's ears is not the voice of the preacher, not the voices of the choir/praise band. Rather it is the voice of that one person sitting in the middle of the church who cannot sing well, knows she cannot sing well, but sings her heart out anyway, as if God is the only one listening. I believe that is true with all my heart: One lone voice, off-pitch, off-beat, but lifted in passion and sincerity in praise to God, is more pleasing than all the choirs of angels in heaven. So sing your heart out.		And sing. I once heard someone say that the most pleasing sound to God's ears is not the voice of the preacher, not the voices of the choir/praise band. Rather it is the voice of that one person sitting in the middle of the church who cannot sing well, knows she cannot sing well, but sings her heart out anyway, as if God is the only one listening. I believe that is true with all my heart: One lone voice, off-pitch, off-beat, but lifted in passion and sincerity in praise to God, is more pleasing than all the choirs of angels in heaven. So sing your heart out.

−	3. Your response. Or another way to say this is your engagement. I told you about God's favorite sound in worship, now let me tell you two of my favorite sounds. One is Scott McLaughlin ~~clapping~~. After a really great song, when everyone wants to clap but isn't sure if they should (or sometimes if we've just forgotten to clap), Scott will always lead the way, and everyone follows.	+	3. Your response. Or another way to say this is your engagement. I told you about God's favorite sound in worship, now let me tell you two of my favorite sounds. One is Scott McLaughlin. After a really great song, when everyone wants to clap but isn't sure if they should (or sometimes if we've just forgotten to clap), Scott will always lead the way, and everyone follows. I know that for years, it was considered inappropriate to clap in this church, and I understand the theological reasoning--that clapping makes it a performance, and gives praise to the performers when we should be praising God. But I think it's okay to encourage each other as we are praising God, and applause is a great way to do that. When you applaud, you are giving thanks to someone who has contributed to the worship service, you are giving thanks to God for that offering, and in that way you, too, are contributing to the worship service.
		+
		+	My other favorite sound in worship is Mauricio Perusquia. Mauricio is one of our scholarship singers, and he has a beautiful voice...but as great as his voice is, that's not my favorite sound. It's Mauricio laughing! When I make a joke, or some other attempt at humor, no matter how ridiculous or lame or horrible it is, I know that at least Mauricio will laugh. And usually when he laughs, others realize that I was joking and that it's okay to laugh, too.
		+
		+	It's little things like that which make more of a difference than you realize. Sometimes, in mid-sermon, the look on the face of a congregation member will either make my day or ruin my week. And yes, I watch you just like you watch me. Your contributions to the worship service--your presence, your voice, your response--with these things you are an indispensable part of creating worship every Sunday.
		+
		+	The late Steve Jobs, founder of Apple Computers, would sometimes tell people a story from his childhood, about an old man who lived down the street. When Jobs was a teenager, he would mow the man's lawn. One day, the man had him gather up some dirty rocks they found out in the yard. They took the rocks into the man's garage, and he tossed them into what looked like a large coffee can hooked up to a motor with a belt, along with some sand and some water. The man flipped a switch and the motor began to spin the can with the rocks in it, making a horrible clanking sound. He told Steve Jobs to come back the next day, and they left the garage with the can and motor still running.
		+
		+	The next day, Jobs came back and the man removed the rocks from the can--as you might have guessed, they were now beautiful, shiny, polished stones, and the man gave them to Steve Jobs. He never forgot that, and often used it as a metaphor for teamwork and collaboration.
		+
		+	I think it's a good metaphor for worship, too. We come here Sunday mornings, often after a long and difficult week, and some days we probably feel like jagged, dirty rocks. In this metaphor, I'm not sure what the water and sand are...maybe it's the music, the sermon, the prayers...I'm pretty sure God is the motor that spins us around for an hour or so. But although God supplies the energy, it is the thousands of collisions and interactions between us that polish us, knocking away the dirt and the rough edges.
		+
		+	Proverbs 27:17 tells us that just as iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens the wits of another. That's why our worship is public, and that's why

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 So when we say that worship is public, we mean that it's open to everyone...and that everyone contributes something.
-What do you contribute?
+Here's a great question we should each ask ourselves every Sunday morning when we gather in this place:  What is my contribution to worship?  What will I contribute, that if I were not here, would be missed?
-Goose story?
+Or it might be easy to think, I'm a musician--of course I contribute a lot to the worship service!  I've been there too, as a musician leading worship in other churches.  And so I know that it's pretty easy to turn worship into just another performance, just another gig, and then mentally check out of the other parts of the worship service because we're not in the spotlight anymore.
-Steve Jobs story?
-Matt Redman story?
+But for most, answering the question "What can I contribute to worship today" might be a different kind of challenge:  "Contribute?  What do you mean contribute?  I'm here to sit back and listen, to receive, to consume, not to contribute."  But that's not worship.  That's a concert or a lecture.  Worship is a verb, it's something you do, actively.

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 So when we say that worship is public, we mean that it's open to everyone...and that everyone contributes something.
 Goose story?
 Steve Jobs story?
 Matt Redman story?

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	Goose story?		Goose story?
	Steve Jobs story?		Steve Jobs story?
		+	Matt Redman story?

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 It began as a simple convenience--a way to offer a service of worship for someone who, for whatever reason, could not attend mass with everyone else at the designated day and hour.  In time, however, it became a way for the church to show favoritism to wealthy individuals or nobility who simply didn't want to show up to church and worship with all the peasants.  It also became a way to exclude undesirable people from worship--and sometimes in the middle ages that meant everyone except the clergy!
-Can you imagine what an amazing worship service I could create if I was the only one attending? All my favorite songs/hymns, the scripture reading entirely in Greek or Hebrew, and no anxiety about whether or not anyone will laugh at my jokes.  I would definitely laugh at them.  I could recite the Apostle's Creed at breakneck speed without waiting for anyone to catch up, the communion line would be nice and short, and at the end of the service I could bless myself with a great benediction and immediately go home.  The offering might be a little light if I did that too much...but no worries: A few private worship services for the right folks at the right price, and we're back in business.
+Can you imagine what an amazing worship service I could create if I were the only one attending? All my favorite songs/hymns, the scripture reading entirely in Greek or Hebrew, and no anxiety about whether or not anyone will laugh at my jokes.  I would definitely laugh at them.  I could recite the Apostle's Creed at breakneck speed without waiting for anyone to catch up, the communion line would be nice and short, and at the end of the service I could bless myself with a great benediction and immediately go home.  The offering might be a little light if I did that too much...but no worries: A few private worship services for the right folks at the right price, and we're back in business.
 You can see the problem with that, right? So did John Calvin, Martin Luther, and other 16th century reformers.  In their reforms, they insisted that any time and any place the church gathered for worship of any kind--communion, baptism, a wedding, a funeral, that the doors be thrown open wide for the entire public, and if that was not possible, then neither was worship.
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 That's why the author of our scripture passage today in Colossians, when describing what worship looks like, says that you (plural) should "teach and admonish one another in all wisdom."  You (again plural) should sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God."
-So when we say that worship is public, we mean that it's open to everyone...and that everyone contributes.
+So when we say that worship is public, we mean that it's open to everyone...and that everyone contributes something.

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 ==Colossians 3:14-17==
-Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him
+Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
 ==FPC Worship is Public==
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 But there's another sense in which our worship is public, too.  The word public comes from the Latin word populus, which means "people."  But when you put it in the genetive case, populi, or popli, which becomes public, it actually means "of the people" or "by the people" or "from the people."
-Think about the ramifications of this.  Worship is of the people, by the people, from the people.  As opposed to "of the pastor, by the pastor, and from the pastor."  In other words, worship is not something that I do, while you watch.  It's not something the choir/praise band does while you listen.  It's something we all do together; we all participate, we all have something to contribute.
+Think about the ramifications of this.  Worship is of the people, by the people, from the people.  As opposed to "of the pastor, by the pastor, and from the pastor."  In other words, worship is not something that I do, while you watch.  It's not something the choir/praise band does while you listen.  It's something we all do together; we all participate, we all have something to offer.
-That's what
+That's why the author of our scripture passage today in Colossians, when describing what worship looks like, says that you (plural) should "teach and admonish one another in all wisdom."  You (again plural) should sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God."
+So when we say that worship is public, we mean that it's open to everyone...and that everyone contributes.
-−
-worship belongs to everyone...everyone contributes.  Open Source.
-litourgos - work of the people

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	So worship is public, as opposed to private.		So worship is public, as opposed to private.

		+	But there's another sense in which our worship is public, too. The word public comes from the Latin word populus, which means "people." But when you put it in the genetive case, populi, or popli, which becomes public, it actually means "of the people" or "by the people" or "from the people."

		+	Think about the ramifications of this. Worship is of the people, by the people, from the people. As opposed to "of the pastor, by the pastor, and from the pastor." In other words, worship is not something that I do, while you watch. It's not something the choir/praise band does while you listen. It's something we all do together; we all participate, we all have something to contribute.
		+
		+	That's what

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	To really understand this one, you have to go all the way back to the middle ages, where a practice had developed in the early medieval church known as the Missa Privata, or "private mass."		To really understand this one, you have to go all the way back to the middle ages, where a practice had developed in the early medieval church known as the Missa Privata, or "private mass."

−	It began as a simple convenience--a way to offer a service of worship for someone who, for whatever reason, could not attend mass with everyone else at the designated day and hour. In time, however, it became a way to show favoritism to wealthy individuals or nobility who simply didn't want to show up to church with all the peasants. It also became a way to exclude undesirable people from worship--and sometimes in the middle ages that meant everyone except the clergy!	+	It began as a simple convenience--a way to offer a service of worship for someone who, for whatever reason, could not attend mass with everyone else at the designated day and hour. In time, however, it became a way for the church to show favoritism to wealthy individuals or nobility who simply didn't want to show up to church and worship with all the peasants. It also became a way to exclude undesirable people from worship--and sometimes in the middle ages that meant everyone except the clergy!
		+
		+
		+	worship belongs to everyone...everyone contributes. Open Source.
		+	litourgos - work of the people