Yesterday, I was a little bit worried. I was watching the football game and it looked like Nebraska had their hands full with Nevada. Nevada was moving the ball, had put together a pretty good scoring drive, and Nebraska seemed to be just...struggling a little. It was like they knew what they were supposed to do, but just weren't able to put it together. Or maybe it was just the other way around. Either way, it was obvious they needed to get fired up, and they needed to get their heads in the game.
Isn't it like that in worship sometimes? In some churches, the people raise their hands and sing with all abandon, eyes closed, tears running down their face. And there is something special in that. I have worshiped in churches where the worship music at the beginning of the service takes 40 minutes, and it begins with pumping, jumping music that make s you want to dance (and most people do), and ends with hands raised worshipful musical prayers. Te worship seems loose and free. Having your heart in worship is powerful.
Now, on the other hand, I have heard complaints from people who say that modern worship songs are sort of empty—without meaning. One of the most popular from recent years is “Lord I lift your name on high.” It goes something like, “Lord, I lift your name on high. I love to sing your praises, I'm so glad you're in my life, I'm so glad you came to save us. You came from heaven to earth to show the way, from the earth to the cross, my debt to pay, from the cross to the grave, from the grave to the sky, Lord I lift your name on high.” Now I apologize if you happen to like that song, but to me, it seems a little simplistic and shallow. A real praise song is like any Charles Wesley hymn! There is praise, but there is still depth of meaning!
But you can take that too far, as well. In some churches, the worship begins with a classical prelude and everything is very polished and smooth and practiced. There is a choir, dressed in robes, who with the choir director leads the congregation in great hymns of the faith. Everyone knows their place and everything seems to be very closely directed. Having your head in worship is powerful as well.
There are battles that go on in churches over which way their worship should be. Should it be contemporary or traditional? Loud or contemplative? heart or head?
Whichever is more comfortable for us is where we seem to worship though, isn't it? If we don't like the hands raised high, swaying to the music, we tend to gravitate toward the other end. And if you prefer that style of worship, you feel worship is empty without it.
Doesn't it seem more appropriate to ask God—the object of worship—what kind of worship he prefers? Turn with me to Psalm 95.
It seems like the first few verses point to praise, maybe even shouting, and the next stanza calls for us to worship and bow down. There is a tension there, isn't there? Perhaps what David is describing is less tension, and more balance. Perhaps what God wants is not swinging from the chandeliers nor icy, somber worship. Let's go back to the passage from last week in John 4.
Jesus tells the woman at the well that God desires his people to worship in spirit and in truth. Let's put that in context of the conversation. The woman asked Jesus which place was correct for worship, Gerazim or Moriah. What's the difference? The Samaritans rejected most of the Old Testament, and had their own version of the Pentateuch, the first five books. You could say that their knowledge of God was deficient, because they didn't have the whole thing and what they did have was their own version. But the worship on Gerazim was passionate. It has been described as enthusiastic heresy—Plenty of spirit, but no truth.
On the other hand, on Moriah, the Jews worshiped with a barren, lifeless orthodoxy. They had truth, but no spirit. What Jesus was saying was that the location didn't matter, what mattered was the balance of worship.
When Jesus refers to worship in spirit, he is talking about the inner person, affirming that worship involves the emotions. You can go to church, wear the right clothes, say the right words, sing the right songs, stand, kneel, and sit at the right time—and still not worship. That's because worship is not on the outside action, but what flows from the inside spirit—it springs from the heart.
When Jesus refers to worship in truth, we need to know that we are worshiping in accordance with what the Bible says. True worship is not our version, but is grounded in, based upon, and is an expression of God's truth.
John Piper writes, “Truth without emotion produces dead orthodoxy, and a church of artificial admirers..but emotion without truth produces empty frenzy and cultivates shallow people who refuse the discipline of rigorous thought. True worship comes from people who are deeply emotional AND who love deep and sound doctrine.”
My challenge for you this morning is to ask yourself where you are in worship. Do you limit your emotions—worshiping without life or heart or spirit? Or are you on the other extreme, not grounded in scripture, with little interest in what the Bible has to tell us about Truth? Christ calls for us to worship in spirit AND in truth—not one or the other. At the same time, notice that Christ calls us to have both in our lives, for it is possible to exist without either—but we can't call it worship. Worship MUST have spirit and truth, expressed in heart and head, and it will bear fruit in our daily lives—our hands.
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