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Sunday, June 20, 2010
Being Present
By Rev. Dr. Harvey C. Martz
Scripture: Acts 2:42 New Revised Standard Version
42 They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
We began last week with a story from the most admired leader in American history, in fact he is the one American, about whom, more books have been written that anyone else. Many thousands of books have been written!
We talked last week about the importance of prayer for Abraham Lincoln, and we are looking today at how important it was for him to faithfully attend worship at the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church during his presidency. Because he knew that entering and sitting in the congregation would be a distraction for other worshippers, he would usually enter by a side entrance and sit in the pastor’s study next to the sanctuary with the door open. But seen or unseen, he made that act of worship a priority in his life.
When people join any United Methodist Church, as many persons will do next Sunday, we make some very important promises: to uphold Christ’s work through this church with our PRAYERS, PRESENCE, GIFTS, SERVICE, AND WITNESS. We promise to make these spiritual disciplines a priority in our lives, priorities that follow from saying that Christ is Lord of life and our promise to be followers!
Our United Methodist Book of order says that if church members are absent from, not PRESENT in, worship for a time, we are to be in touch with them and to take time to listen and to care for them with the goal of helping them be active in the worship life of our faith community.
Why is it so important to be together for music and prayer and reading the Bible and applying it to our lives?
It was very important for Jesus. When he was in his hometown synagogue of Nazareth in his first public event after his baptism, he went to the synagogue AS WAS HIS CUSTOM. When he was celebrating the Passover meal on Maundy Thursday night with his friends, it was an act of worship that he could not miss because it helped him and all other faithful Jews remember the liberating activity of God in their lives.
And when the first people joined the new Jesus movement, fifty days after Easter on Pentecost day, what did they begin to do? They prayed and worshiped faithfully, they learned from the apostles, and they ate together. Because of what happened to them as they were together, EVERY DAY THE LORD ADDED TO THEIR NUMBER THOSE WHO WERE BEING SAVED.
As followers of Christ, some very important things happen to us and in us when we meet together for prayer, singing, hearing and applying the Bible to our lives! It has always been like that. Being together for those disciplines is what has formed our faith, and it is very important.
Let me tell you how important. A grandmother in our congregation is grieving the accidental death of a seventeen year old grandson. Others in her family are saying, about this tragic death, “Well, it was just God’s will.” But she is saying, no, God does not want a seventeen year old to die! That is NOT God’s will.
Where does her theology come from? It comes from her faithful participation in worship over many years. It comes from the times when she would hear Jesus’ words from Luke 13, where Jesus says that there are accidents, there are random events that are not “God’s will.” It comes from hearing the story in worship from John’s Gospel when Jesus goes to be with Mary and Martha after their brother Lazarus has died. Jesus does not come to the sisters to tell them this was just God’s will. He goes to their home and, as the shortest verse in the Bible says, Jesus wept.
Here is another example. A high school student asks one of her pastors after last Sunday’s communion service, Why is that prayer before communion so negative? Why does it emphasize just our failures? Are we not more of a mixture of good and bad accomplishments as well as shortcomings? So we begin to talk about how that might be a discussion topic in a youth group meeting and maybe we need to write our own version of that prayer that combines the insights of Psalm 8, saying that each of us is a wondrous creation by God, and we also fall short of our vision and God’s vision for what our life can be.
That healthy questioning and discussion comes from being together in worship.
When John Wesley began his Methodist movement in 18th century England, he asked people to meet each week in small groups for prayer and Bible reading and encouragement and mutual support and outreach to the poor and the vulnerable. He also wanted the Methodist people to attend Anglican worship each week because Wesley said and believed:
THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A SOLITARY CHRISTIAN.
It is certainly possible to worship God wherever we are in nature, but we also need each other for encouragement and support and guidance. That is why people of faith have been coming together for the spiritual discipline of worship. We need it for our character formation and our spiritual formation on a regular basis.
Similarly, it might theoretically be possible for your family to be a family without ever eating a meal together, regularly, but is very, very difficult because some very important things happen when we sit down together and share our lives over a meal. Worship together is like a regular family meal. Worship is about the formation and creation of community and identity and character and relationships.
And it might theoretically be possible for the Denver Broncos to be a team without meeting together regularly for practice and training each week and to be in a huddle between plays each week, but I doubt it could work.
Worship together is our training time and our huddle together to get the signals and to get encouragement for the following week!
Being present in worship is like paying attention, paying attention to God and to each other. It is a good thing to pay attention, to be present, for God and for each other.
We especially remember on this Father’s Day how important it is to pay attention to, to be present for our sons and daughters. We have read much over the past years about the danger of absent fathers (parents), and the risks of being absent parents (physically or emotionally). We want to be present, to listen, to guide, and to pay attention because we all need that and we all benefit from being present with and for God, and with and for each other.
This is why, when we sign on as followers of Christ, we promise to pray and to be present.
We will end with a short reading from Jesuit priest Anthony De Mello about really being present, and really giving our attention.
Where shall I look for Enlightenment?
Here.
When will it happen?
It is happening right now.
Then why don’t I experience it?
Because you do not look.
What should I look for?
Nothing. Just look.
At what?
Anything your eyes alight upon.
Must I look in a special kind of way?
No. The ordinary way will do.
But don’t I always look the ordinary way?
No.
Whyever not?
Because to look you must be here. You’re mostly somewhere else.
– Anthony deMello in One Minute Wisdom