Second Sunday of Pentecost 6/2/13

Pentecost 2 6/2/13 Text: 1 Kings 8:22-43, Title: The Unworthy Beholding the Worthy; Word Made Flesh It has been over 600 years since the Ark of the Covenant; the focal point of the Israelites worship had a permanent home. They had hauled it around for 40 years through the desert and then taken it with them as they conquered the land God had promised to give them. But that was changing. The temple and Solomon’s palace which had taken 20 years to build was finished. All the furnishings had been placed. The priests had been trained. The animals gathered for sacrifice. The Ark of the Covenant which contained the Ten Commandments had been placed in the Holy of Holies. It was the beginning of new era for the nation of Israel, a feeling of permanence was felt. The Ark was home at last and all was well. To mark this great occasion with the dignity and seriousness it deserved, King Solomon assembled all the elders of Israel with the tribal and family chiefs. As God’s anointed shepherd, the King of Israel, he involved all Israel through its elders and chiefs in the moving and placement of the ark and the dedication of the temple. This day involved more than mere pomp and ceremony, although there was plenty of that. Solomon in his wisdom, the wisdom given to him by God knew the spiritual significance of this occasion; and he desired that the heart of all Israel be knit together in the dedication of the temple and, more importantly, in the dedication of their hearts to God. Imagine standing in the courtyard of the temple with thousands of people pressed together with a common purpose; worshiping God. The excitement was so great that I imagine it was hard for the crowd to keep quiet, as King Solomon, the wisest and richest king to have ever lived walked up the bronze ramp to stand in front of the altar of the Lord. He turned and began to speak. A great hush fell over the people, as they strained to listen to their king. What was he going to say? Would his words be accepted by God for the benefit of the people? It is unfortunate that the Old Testament reading was chopped up as it is today, for you miss out on most of King Solomon’s seven part prayer of dedication that day. The theme of Solomon’s prayer of dedication is that since God had seen fit to honor his word up to that time, he would continue to do so in accepting the prayers of his people and in granting forgiveness. These prayers are seen as being directed to God through the temple. Solomon was praying, in effect, that God would always recognize the temple as the way for sinful man to approach a holy God. That, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ is what I want to talk to you about this morning; God coming to us, not in the temple, but in Jesus Christ the new temple, God on earth. Just as they prayed that day that God would come to them every time they came to worship him, we too need to approach God, humbly, but expectantly asking God to come to us in our worship. Worship is an interesting word. Originally the word meant “Worthy to have respect.” While you can worship many things, some good some bad, we are looking at worship in the Christian sense, as in worshiping the almighty Triune God. The Triune God is worthy of respect, for he is all things in perfection and deserves honor, praise, and reverence from those he created and sustains. Simply put he is God and we are not. Worship can mean different things to different people depending on how they view God and themselves. Those who believe that they have to go to God to find him will worship in a different way than those who believe that God comes to them. In other words, “Is worship our doing or is it God’s doing?” That is an important question that needs to be answered before you can define worship. Human beings have struggled with that question since Adam and Eve sinned. Friday morning during my Jr. Confirmation class I asked the students what worshiping God meant to them. They told me what I would suspect most of you here would say, “Worship is praying, singing hymns, and praising God.” While those things certainly are a part of worship, they are not worship in themselves, for they focus on what we do and not what God is doing. The problem with viewing worship as something we do is that, as I said earlier it puts the focus is on us, even though we firmly believe that we are focusing on God. The evidence of this is found in what is commonly called, “Worship wars.” those disagreements over music, liturgy, preaching style, length of sermon, length of the service, communion practices, church is too hot or too cold, and such. I would bet that if I asked each one of you what you think the best way to worship God is I would get as many different answers as there are people here. All that stuff I just mentioned is what happens when we focus on what we do in worship instead of what God is doing in worship. We are not here to be in fellowship, as some believe. We are not here to be entertained, or wowed by the music or preacher. We are not here to be told how to get our financial lives in order. We are not here to do any of that stuff or the countless other expectations that people have when they worship. We are here so that God can come to us through his Word and Sacraments assuring us of his love and forgiveness. It is our being focused on God and his work. He gives we receive. Worship then is receiving from God his good and gracious gifts and then repeating back to him his words to us. That is worship as God intends it. We do need to change our focus. And the only way to do that is to do the same thing as the Centurion in our Gospel reading did when he proclaimed to Jesus, “Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof.” That should be the attitude of our hearts and minds, as we enter into God’s holy house, this room, the room that we have set aside and furnished with symbols, for it has been constructed to help us focus on God and not ourselves. Look at all we have in this room to help us focus on God instead of self. There is the body of Christ hanging on a cross to remind us of his love. There are the banners with their message of who Jesus; the great I Am. The lighted candles are used to remind us that Jesus is the light of the world, the light that evil tries to snuff out but cannot. The candles before the beginning of the service are lit from the inside out signifying Christ’s presence with us and then extinguished from the outside in as a sign that the time of worship is over with. The eternal candle burns 24/7 as a reminder that Jesus is in our presence even when we are not worshiping. The Christ candle which is used from Easter to Ascension and during baptisms and funerals is there to remind us of God’s presence. The stained glass windows are there to remind us of the beauty of heaven when we shall see God clearly. The Stations of the Cross on the side walls are there to remind us of the terrible journey Jesus took on our behalf, the journey that led to his death, but ended with his resurrection and victory and our salvation. The Baptismal Font is in the sanctuary to remind us that we were made children of God in the waters of God’s baptism. The altar where sacrifices were made to God is where we now receive the gifts of forgiveness, salvation, and life, in the Lord’s Supper. The room itself has been built to remind us of the hull of a boat to remind us that we are safe in the storms of life because Christ is with us. The placement of the altar toward the East to remind us that Jesus the Light of the world will come again just as surely as the sun rises every morning in the East giving light to a darkened world. Then there is the liturgy, the order of worship where we repeat back to God his words. All those things are to help us focus not on self, but on God and his love for us. God does, we receive. We who are unworthy have come to worship Jesus the one who is worthy. He alone makes us worthy to stand before God on Judgment Day. And having been forgiven and made worthy to stand before God, we should so strive to live our lives before the world in such a way that they see us as worthy; worthy to be given the chance to share with them our faith in a God who died so that they too can be declared worthy to stand before God on Judgment Day. As we strive to live such a life, we will undoubtedly sin and make mistakes. But even then, we have hope, the sure hope Of God’s forgiveness, for we know that our worth before God is not found in our good works no matter how good we or others might believe them to be. Our worth is found in the blood of the Lamb shed for us on the cross of Calvary, and because of his death and resurrection we have forgiveness, life, and salvation. The unworthy made worthy by the blood of Jesus. Amen.