'Seven whole days, not one in seven, I will praise thee' - transcript of sermon St Thomas and St Andrew Parish Church Doxey May 28th 2017

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.

www.peacewithgod.org.uk

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) 

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;’

&

   ‘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?