The nerve centre of worship
In the Christian belief the events of Easter have changed the course of human history.
In the death and resurrection of Jesus God has acted in an eternal and decisive way for the well being and salvation of the human race.
We describe God’s presence, God’s saving action, and God’s sovereign rule by the title the kingdom of God. God’s invisible kingdom is found in the awareness, conscience, and will of men and women.
“My kingdom is not of this world,” the bruised but dominant Jesus had retorted to Pilate whose Roman thugs had mugged our Lord (John 18.36).
Rather the kingdom of God wherein the resurrected Christ now reigns is in the humble heart and redeemed soul of everyone who kneels at the foot of the Cross, now the core response, the essential element, of a redeemed life is worship. So let us make ‘worship’the theme of these articles from now until Pentecost. In this way we can understand the in-dwelling of God in the Holy Spirit.
Today we think of the‘nerve centre’of worship.
At its purest and most sublime worship is the dialogue of a person’s innermost being with our eternal and infinite God and Father.
One of the finest examples of this spiritual engagement is found in Solomon’s prayer of dedication for his temple.
“But will God dwell with people on the earth? Behold heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, how much less this house that I have built. Hearken to my prayer that your eyes will be open to this house. When your people pray to you hear their prayer, and when you hear forgive”(2 Chronicles 6. 18-21).
This is the pulsating nerve centre of worship.
When in faith and obedience God’s people worship to God the Father, then God hears the worship of his people and responds in grace and mercy, healing and forgiveness
Do you realise that every time you pray, participate in worship, reflect on your faith, call unto God, then you are involved in an intimate meeting between your innermost soul and the heart of God?
That is the heartbeat of worship, the intimate dialogue betwixt soul and eternity, the pulse and nerve in a fellowship of the redeemed and the Redeemer, a gentle meeting between our soul and our Maker with eternity as the back drop. This is worship.
It is a sacred conversation in the language of the kingdom.
We can be assured beyond all misgiving, doubts and uncertainties, that our Father God will listen and reply, will hear and bless, will draw near and heal, his faithful and obedient people.
Because God will act in this way for the sake of Jesus his Son. God will always remember the holy life, passion and death of his Son.
For the sake of his Son God will deal kindly with us. So worship is shaped by Easter, is filled with the passion and triumph of the Redeemer. Its language is the expressions of salvation from those who know the sweet taste of grace.
But worship is not confined to the sanctuary of church and chapel.
Nor is it only expressed within the inner confines of the believer’s heart and soul. People who worship live, or should live, differently.
Worshippers see their world in the colours of salvation and forgiveness.
Their attitudes are informed by God’s proven attitude to them.
Their actions are shaped by and filled with God’s inner strength. Their world is God’s domain. They walk everyday as in the kingdom.
The whole meaning and purpose, strength and vitality of worship fills our life as the light of the sun fills our days. A Christian is aware that God deals kindly with us for the sake of his dear Son.
Our awareness is awakened, to God’s presence, our eyes opened to see God’s hand in our life, our ears alert to hear God guiding us, our attitude shaped and informed by God’s attitude. That is living in the Holy Spirit of Pentecost.
“The Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you”(John 14.26).