Colossians 1:15-23 & 
Matthew
8:23-27
One of my
‘under the radar’ ministries is for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association
UK. I am an e-responder to people who send in questions or comments through the
‘Search for Jesus’ portal.
Last week I
had a question came through that asked ‘does God care about what day of the
week we worship him.’
Because of
the medium, your reply has to be concise.
The answer to
this particular question is simply no, of course not because we are called to
worship God 24/7 in each and everything we do.
(The Body of Christ spread throughout the world is of course worshiping and praying and praising God constantly, never unending praises ascending to the Throne of Heaven)
(The Body of Christ spread throughout the world is of course worshiping and praying and praising God constantly, never unending praises ascending to the Throne of Heaven)
Perhaps that
is part of our problem – that we have so narrowly defined our worship to being
something like we are doing this morning but not what we will be doing later on
today and in the rest of the week ahead.
George Herbert thought differently.
‘Seven whole days, not one in seven,
I will praise thee;’
I will praise thee;’
&
‘A servant with this clause
Makes drudgerie divine:
Who
sweeps a room, as for thy laws,
Makes that and th’ action fine.’
We sometimes define it
even more narrowly when we say something like; now the Worship Band will lead
us in a time of worship.
Now of course there is
something right and proper about gathering together in a clearly defined way to
offer up our prayers and praises to God.
If you are someone who
takes part in a Gym or an aerobics class or maybe Slimming World (carefully not
looking at anybody) there will be times when you gather with others to focus on
that exercise.
However for it to have benefit you need to be aware of exercise,
diet, or whatever it is all the time.
What is of extreme
importance is what or rather whom we worship.
Worship of Yahweh is a
deep underlying current throughout the Old Testament. And there is much we have
not got the time to explore – even using that title ‘Yahweh’ – because as we
pick up the in the story of Moses and the burning bush, to know someone’s name
was to have a power of them, to be able to define what they are over against
what they are not.
So God, in this Moses saga
says, I am whom I am, or, I will be whom I will be – in other words do not try
and box me in and define me because I am beyond definition.
For Jews from those days
to this their one constant Morning Prayer is the Shema…
Hear,
Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One.
Jesus was to refer to this
and build upon it as a summary of the whole law –
‘Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God
with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This
is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like
it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’
All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Now we may think that this makes God appear
egoistically because of His call to us to worship Him. (And apologies for the use of him, God is of
course gender neutral – so if her works better for you, then run with it)
The point is that as
humans we become like that which we worship – we reflect back that we seek to
give value of worth – one definition of worship.
And this has an effect on
everything – much like King Midas who worshiped gold and then found everything
he touched turned to gold, which of course turned out to be a bit of disaster
when you want to cuddle someone!
We see this played out all
the time. Those who worship porn, drugs, alcohol, violence, work – we see the
way these things work themselves out, which are then reflected back in the life
of that person and everyone and everything they touch.
This week we have
witnessed this playing itself out in the one of the most horrific ways in
Manchester.
We can but imagine what a
twisted and warped version of Islam and of Allah the perpetrators had. However,
we see the way it worked out with the most awful devastating effect.
We become like that which
we worship – that is why such an emphasis needs to be placed upon on getting
this right.
Given all that I have said
about the Jews and their worship and devotion of the one, true God is
absolutely amazing to see at the end of Matthew’s Gospel that ‘they’ (the
disciples) worshiped him (Jesus)
This devotion to Jesus was
to develop into the wonderful hymn of praise we heard from Colossians.
The Son is the image of the invisible
God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things
were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether
thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created
through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him
all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the
beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might
have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and
through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things
in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
So it is not that
important when we worship God and
many in our 24/7 society gather to worship at all sorts of time, in all sorts
of places and in all sorts of ways, what have come to be known collectively as
Fresh Expressions of Church.
The how is also not that important.
However way we worship is important.
Because the more we open
up ourselves to God and the more we give ourselves to God the more God can give
to us.
My own ‘how’ preference is
Anglo-Catholic Charismatic and I recently had the joy of a four-day conference
with On Fire Mission that offers this type of worship.
Our theme was ‘Going
Deeper’ and in particular, we explored Ezekiel’s vision of the river flowing
from the Temple gate – (Ezekiel 47)
There the water is at
first ankle deep and then gets deeper and deeper until it is deep enough to
swim in.
This reminded of a time
when my daughter (by my first marriage) came to pay a visit in London and Jane
and I took her out to go swimming to the Oasis Swimming Pool. We were very
disappointed to find it closed for refurbishment – however, the staff explained
that although the indoor pool was closed the outdoor pool was open and there
would be no charge. It was October.
We were assured that the
water was very warm.
My daughter and I took the
plunge and had a fabulous time, as the water was indeed very warm, meanwhile
Jane was sat on the edge getting colder and colder.
You see it is important
not only whom we worship but also our relationship with the object of our
worship.
That relationship – that
being willing to move from paddling in the shallow end to swimming in the deep
in end comes from our trust in the object of our worship.
When we lived in South
East London on a very tough council estate, we got to know Margaret very well.
She was typical East End lady who had come to faith and was keen to know more
and go deeper in the things of God. As well as attending the Church of England
Chapel on the Estate she had also been going to a Pentecostal Church and seen
people ‘resting in the Spirit.’ People who have received prayer would fall down
and rest as God ministered to them. Margaret was up for this and wanted to go
forward for prayer for a number of big issues in her life. However in typical
East End fashion she said, ‘but I am afraid that if I fall over, me glasses will
fall off, me teeth will come ‘art and I will show all my drawers.’
We assured this would not
happen. She went, and went forward for prayer and fell over, resting in the
Spirit, and none of her fears were realized.
She came back full of joy
and could not wait to tell us. Now in her 80’s, she is still full of that love
and God’s Spirit.
That is the main point I
want to draw out of our Gospel story about the calming of the storm and about
trust. There is many other things we can
draw out from the story but note just these two things if you will.
Let me first remind you of
our passage from Colossians –
The Son is the image of the invisible
God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created:
things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers
or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him.
Jesus is Lord of all –
every storm, every trouble, and every difficulty.
The second point follows
on, and is about our trust in the Lord of All.
At first as the disciples
struggled to get out of trouble, they did what they knew best and tried to sort
things out themselves – and it got them nowhere. We often do the same, we need
to learn again and again, that when we can’t stand it anymore we should try
kneeling.
Getting to a point of
desperation and fear, the disciple called upon Jesus…
If Jesus is in the boat
with you then to quote Mother Julian, ‘all will be well, and all manner of
thing shall be well.’
Jesus is in the boat and
it will not go down.
In drawing to a close let me ask you, whom are you worshiping?
Are you paddling in the shallow end or are you willing to go further and deeper and to let go and let God?
Is Jesus in your boat?
Today we will leave this
place where we have gathered to worship God as revealed in Christ empowered by
the Holy Spirt – worshiping
the one true God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
However, what will be the
focus of your worship in the week ahead – remembering we reflect back and
become like that which we worship.
As Joshua prepared to lead
the people over the Jordan into the Promised Land, he said to the people of
Israel…
But if serving the Lord seems
undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve,
whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the
Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will
serve the Lord.” Joshua 24.14
What is your choice today?
