Worship - its lasting flame
If you want to understand any religion then listen to its worship.
When you see how believers worship their God then you can appreciate the true and genuine nature of their religion. What was this new strange religion that arose from the ashes of exhausted hopes, and emerged from the debris of Calvary’s crucifixion?
We read that in Solomon’s temple where the daily sacrifices were offered:“The fire on the altar shall never be extinguished”(Leviticus 6.9).
That great commandment strengthened Israel in its worship.
But that wonderful sentence is a perfect description of the worship of a Christian to God the Father through and for the sake of Jesus Christ. On the altar of our soul the fire of our worship to God will never be extinguished
A moving story about the Jewish people in Auschwitz describes the strength of worship. A group of young Jews had been condemned to death.
Another Jew at great danger to himself blew a ram’s horn, the sound of renewal.
At its call the doomed men shouted out Israel’s great Shema. Repeated twice a day the‘Shema’ (meaning‘hear’) declares: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one God and you will worship the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength” (Deuteronomy 6.4-9).
In our Scottish history this power of worship was seen in the Covenanters defiant meetings in the moors where their worship was often cut short by the sword. Such is the courage of worship
But worshipping people can be assured of God’s care and mercy.
We do not worship in vain. Our God and Father hears and blesses, knows our feelings and cares. There is a lovely story of a light in the chapel at the American military academy at West Point.
One chapel seat remains forever empty. This seat is reserved for the American service man or woman buried in an unknown foreign grave. A light shines continually above the seat to guide the soldier home.
This empty seat marks their place back home. When we worship the light of God’s presence assures us of our place with God. The light of God’s presence strengthens us during our life time.
But that same light promises us a warm welcome home when our days on earth are done. That is Christian worship. In our life and at our death the light of God’s Son will forever shine.
We have an illuminating insight from a most unlikely source into early Christian worship . Pliny, the young Roman governor in Asia, had a group of troublesome Christians in his province. So he wrote to his uncle the emperor Trajan for advice. He described these Christians and their worship.“They meet at an appointed place before dawn. They sang a hymn to Christ as to a god.
They pledged themselves to keep the faith, and to abstain from bad behaviour. They met again to eat bread.”A reference no doubt to the celebration of the sacrament of communion. From such humble beginnings worship to God in the name of Jesus and for his sake was born in the human soul.
The lesson for us is simple. No matter where you worship, however humble your church or chapel, however insignificant you consider your worship to be, your genuine worship to our Father God irresistibly touches God.
God is pleased to hear and to bless the soul from whence that worship arose.
This is Christianity motivated by the gentle power of worship. All because Jesus died on the cross for us and rose again to give us new and eternal life.
In other words Christianity with its worship and witness was born at Easter and is being nurtured eternally by the Saviour Christ.
Our awareness of God, our appreciation of the value and importance of a worship-filled relation with God comes from the indwelling presence of God himself through the Holy Spirit of Pentecost.
For Jesus’Easter passion is the eternal flame of grace lit by our Father God. It glows forever in your soul.
“If the Spirit of God who raised Christ from the dead dwells in you then God will give life to you in your mortal bodies through his indwelling Spirit.”(Romans 8.11).