Worship in Spirit and in Truth
In the scorching heat of the midday sun, a woman who has probably been shunned by her community draws near to the well at a time when she expects to see no one. Instead, she finds a man, a Jewish man.
As they talk, he is the first to ask for a drink. By the end of the conversation, she discovers that she is the one with a great thirst.
Later, when the darkness of her past enters the conversation, the woman is quick to change the subject to the ancient disagreements over worship. When that doesn’t phase her conversation partner, she points toward the one who will come and set all things right – her dark past, the conflict between Jews and Samaritans and more. Next thing she knows, that very one – the Messiah – is standing before her, explaining, “I am he.”
By now, the woman’s head must be spinning! Their dialogue is a series of great reversals. Her words reveal her expectations and Jesus turns things upside down every time.
This is nothing new for the Lord of Heaven of Earth. Where there was once a “formless void,” the Lord created the seas and the dry land and every living creature. When an aging Abraham and Sarah had given up on having a child, the Lord caused her to give birth to a son. To a people who cling to their life with all of their strength, Jesus says the key is to lose it. And when the entire world believed that death was the end, Christ rose again.
The Lord has a habit of turning things upside down and reversing our expectations. So, “in an age and culture that want…to turn the worship of God into a matter of personal taste and time, convenience and comfort,” the Lord seeks instead “true worshipers” who worship “in spirit and truth,” (Dawn, 8)
As with most of the spiritual disciplines, worship can be adapted for different settings and circumstances. There are different flavors and styles of worship, often influenced by the personality of the gathered community. Perhaps unlike the other disciplines, worship is an extremely visible discipline that is routinely scrutinized and analyzed by believers and nonbelievers alike. From ancient squabbles – like the one between the Jews and the Samaritans over whose mountain was holier – to the more modern “worship wars” fought over styles of music and instrumentation, worship has a long history fraught with disagreements and misplaced values.
With that said, you can see the potential can of worms being opened when we introduce a conversation as multi-faceted as worship. And yet, keeping to his pattern, the Lord teaches us to adjust our expectations. Instead of asking where we should worship – in Samaria or Jerusalem, in a building or at a campground, in this congregation or another – Jesus teaches us that it is more important to ask “how”? And rather than worrying about “what” we’ve done or been, Jesus teaches to focus on the “who” – the one and only Lord our God, who is the heart of our worship.
The focus on God is exactly what makes worship a spiritual discipline. When we think of the “disciplines,” we may find ourselves thinking of the personal disciplines first – things like prayer, solitude, meditation and fasting. Richard Foster, who has written “Celebration of Discipline,” identifies a whole category of “corporate” disciplines that also draw us into God’s presence while joining us in community. As he describes worship, Foster explains, “One reason worship should be considered a Spiritual Discipline is because it is an ordered way of acting and living that sets us before God so he can transform us,” (166).
…an ordered way of acting and living that sets us before God so he can transform us.
You have heard it before and you will hear it again: the primary purpose of the disciplines is entering the presence of God so he can transform us. As Pastor Brian mentioned last week, all of the work of transformation belongs to God. We are simply responsible for learning how to take the posture of one who receives.
The posture that Jesus ascribes to worship is one of “spirit and truth.” Those sound like pretty common biblical words. Spirit and truth. We can find them in a psalm or two, sprinkled throughout the Gospels and probably even noted in a couple of Paul’s letters. Whether you’ve spent your entire life in the church or are just getting acquainted, chances are that you have heard these words in a variety of contexts. So what in the world do they mean?
Well, I often like to work backwards because it makes things more interesting. In this case, it might be best to start with “truth” because I think it will help us better understand “spirit.”
Earlier this week, I did a YouTube search for videos about spirit and truth and found one of a gentleman reflecting on this very passage from John while driving his car. It was short and not the best quality, but I think he had something right. He said: “We worship in truth, truth being the word of God.” Simple as that. To worship in truth is to worship through the word of God, both the written word and the Word made flesh. Even those who would fight tooth and nail over a particular type of worship music would have a hard time arguing that anything should take priority in worship over the Scriptures and the presence of Christ.
It is only because of Christ that we are able to worship at all. We say that after he rose from the grave, he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father. From this position, Jesus acts as our advocate. United with the Holy Spirit, Jesus not only ushers us into the very presence of God, he also filters all of our singing and praying and proclaiming so that it may be presented to the Father as holy and glorifying to His name.
Left alone, we are a fallen people. No matter how hard we may work to achieve excellence, no matter how good our band sounds or how well we word our prayers, our worship will always fall short because we are human. When we worship in Christ, our worship is perfected before it reaches the throne of God. This is what we mean when we say that we worship in AND through Christ, who is the way, the TRUTH and the life.
Worship that is facilitated by Christ, then, evolves from the Scriptures where the character of God is revealed. To borrow Pastor Brian’s words, God is revealed most fully and decisively in Jesus…and all of Scripture points to Jesus, who is the Eternal Word. So whether we are gathered with the Body of Christ in communal worship, or learning to turn our every day into a gesture of worship, we will worship in truth when we choose to let our worship grow from the word of God.
Together – worship centered in the Scriptures and the Word made flesh in Christ – helps facilitate worship in Spirit. This part can be a little trickier because worshiping in spirit contradicts the lessons we have learned from the world around us. This is the kind of worship that Marva Dawn calls a “royal waste of time,” which is entirely countercultural to our goal-seeking instincts and our obsession with productivity and efficiency. Dawn explains that this worship in spirit “provides opportunities for us to enjoy God’s presence in corporate ways that take us out of time and into the eternal purposes of God’s kingdom,” (2).
We are called to expose our own spirit in the presence of God’s Spirit and to let ourselves lose track of time and let down our guard. Worship in spirit requires a posture of transparency and vulnerability before the throne of God, and we often resist both.
On that note, I want to explain a bit about what we mean when we say “posture.” The disciplines, by the power of the Holy Spirit, certainly teach us about a posture of the heart. Over time, our hearts can soften in order to more readily receive God’s grace and then share it. At the same time, the disciplines also teach us about the physical posture of faith.
Foster explains: “The Bible describes worship in physical terms. The root meaning for the Hebrew word we translate worship is ‘to prostrate.’ The word bless literally means ‘to kneel.’ Thanksgiving refers to ‘an extension of the hand.’…The point is that we are to offer God our bodies as well as the rest of our being,” (169).
That’s what it means to “love God with all you heart, with all your soul and with all your might,” (Duet. 6:5). The Hebrew word, nephesh, which is translated “soul,” carries an understanding of the “fullness of being” – which includes both emotional AND physical being. The body plays a very important role in worship. It has been said that even when we don’t feel like doing something, the physical action – even literally going through the motions – can change our feelings and our attitude.
I recently had a conversation where we discussing the reasons why we have been introducing more physical actions in worship. I kept trying to sound wise and pastoral by explaining that our bodies are an important part of the way God created us and must be engaged in worship, that the muscle memory in our bodies can help train the muscle memory in our hearts and so on, but I could tell that I wasn’t making very much sense. Then, my dear friend Kristin bailed me out (and she gave me permission to share her wisdom this morning).
She explained that it’s like having a baby. When the due date comes, you cannot will the baby out. You can think and think and think about delivering, but you cannot make your body do anything until it is good and ready. Sometimes, the body has to take the lead and the mind and heart will learn to follow.
Worshiping in spirit requires us expose our true selves before the living God, and frankly, that can be uncomfortable. It goes against our defense mechanisms and daily practices of self-preservation. Naturally, it will seem awkward or even scary at first. If that is the case, I suggest beginning with your body. Practice a literal posture that will help your mind and heart recognize that you are entering worship.
We are going to practice this together this morning, but before we do, I want us to remember the woman at the well. On an ordinary day, during her ordinary chores, Christ broke into her life. Even though she asked all of the wrong questions and bore the shame of a dark past, Jesus chose to reveal himself as the Word made flesh – the One who would gather her into God’s presence in spite of it all. And this is the same Messiah who continues gathering us into God’s presence, teaching us to worship in spirit and in truth.
As we close, I want to invite you practice a posture of worship with me. Together we are going to proclaim the familiar words of Psalm 100. As we do that, I want to invite you to kneel, if you are able. If you are not able, I would encourage you to place both hands over your heart. There is no right or wrong about this. The idea is to do something different with our bodies as reminder for our hearts and minds to let go of our daily habits and enter the presence of God.