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United Church in the Valley: Sept 30, 2018Student Minister: Matthew HeesingFollowing the Way of JESUS:“Uplifting Worship!”Scripture Reading:Psalm 122:“ I was overjoyed when those around me said,‘Let us go up to the house of the Lord!’…And now, our feet are standing within your gates, Jerusalem…All the tribes are going up to the temple,all the people of God, they come to praise God’s name, as God commanded…all the people are coming up,to give thanks to the name of the Lord.”Luke 4: 15-21:Every single week, Jesus went to the Jewish synagogue to worship. And one day, as he was just beginning his ministry,Jesus ended up back in the town of Nazareth,the place where he had grown up as a boy. And on the Sabbath day, as he always did, Jesus went to the local synagogue. During the worship service, it came time for the reading from Scripture.At once, Jesus stood up: he wanted to read. The reading that morning was from the prophet Isaiah.Jesus carefully took the scroll with the Scripture reading,unrolled it, and found the part that said,“The Spirit of our God is upon me:God has chosen me to preach the message of good news to the poor.God has sent me to announce pardon to prisoners,and sight to those who are blind,and freedom to those who feel oppressed and captive. And God has called me to proclaim that this is God’s time to act—God is indeed moving and working in the world!”Jesus rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the assistant, and sat down.Every eye in the place was on him. You could have heard a pin drop!Then Jesus said,“You’ve just heard Scripture make history.It came true, just now, in this place.”Sermon:As you all know,the theme for this morning is Uplifting Worship,one of five core values that our United Church in the Valley Boardhas chosen to focus on as we move into the future—values that form the word JESUS:Joyful Outreach, Exceptional Generosity,Surprising Care, Uplifting Worship,and Supportive Family. Now I’m assuming,when you first heard the phrase Uplifting Worship,you thought—okay, Uplifting Worship, yeah, that’s what I experience here at the United Church in the Valley—on a Sunday morning, the music is energizing,the service is inspiring, the preaching is—okay—it’s a wonderful way to start my day,I leave feeling uplifted. Uplifting Worship. I do hope that’s the case.But this morning, I would also like totry to expand how we understandthe concept of uplifting worship,and specifically, I’d like to speak aboutthree ways that the very act of worshipcan uplift each and every one of us—three reasons why worship matters,why it matters to us, as disciples of Jesus. And the first way that worship is uplifting,is the way that we already talked about earlier in the service:worship lifts up our heads. Worship lifts up our heads. And I don’t mean that literally,even though we do raise our heads to read the words on the screen,but rather, what I mean is thatworship lifts our minds, and mental attention,our focus, and our personal sense of perception,worship lifts up our heads, to behold something more. Worship lifts up our heads, to behold something more. Because so easily, and so often, I think it’s safe to say,in our day to day lives,our heads are down.After all, it’s an ordinary and sometimes even necessaryevolutionary instinct, to focus only on that which is in front of us,from our overwhelming fears and worries,or the many items on our to-do list,to our own agendas or personal goal,to that which is in our limited control,and all the while charging blindlyor otherwise anxiously inching one step at a time towardthe unknown way that we think we need to go. And even though we might not like to admit itsometimes, our heads are so far downthat all we end up doing is staring at ourselves, navel-gazing, we could say,what Cambridge Dictionary defines as“the activity of spending too much timeconsidering your own thoughts, feelings or problems.”But when we come to worship on a Sunday morning,we sing songs of praise and adoration,we give our admiration to a God that is far biggerthan our own finite and constricted perspective.When we come to worship,we enter into our Sacred Story—a story larger than our own little daily narratives.When we come to worship, we pray, not just for our own personal problems,but for the needs and concerns of others,even those around the world. And when we come to worship, we take our placein the church across both time and space,a communion of saintsa great cloud of witnesses, Paul calls it,all of whom have come and still comeand will come to worshipthe source of love that we call God:Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer. Worship lifts up our heads to behold something more:to behold that we are not alone,that God is with us, and so are others on the journey,in worship we behold the more that signifies that we are not the centre of the universe,nor are we in control of the universe,that life is more than the little section that we see,in worship, we behold that we can bepart of a larger story,a larger purpose a larger Way of life laid out for us to follow. Worship lifts up our heads to behold something more. We heard in our reading how Jesus went to worship every week,that was his custom,to regularly worship in the Jewish synagogue—it was essentialto the way he lived and worked and was.But how easy, it might have otherwise been,for Jesus to keep his head down,to only serve his own agenda,to lose sight of the larger vision,and miss out on God’s grander mission,imagine, if he hadn’t often gone to worshipto behold something more. Worship lifts up our heads.And worship lifts up our hearts. Because so easily, and so often, I think it’s safe to say,in our day to day lives,our hearts are down. We see the news. We hear the heart-breaking verdicts and vulnerable stories. We know that those around us struggle,and we struggle too. There are moments when we are overwhelmed,and don’t know where to turn or what to say,throughout our day, our hearts can be so down. But when we come to worship on a Sunday morning,we take some time for gratitude and recognitionfor all the gifts we have been given.When we come to worship, we are reminded of life and resurrectionand the infinite possibilities of lovethat are promised through the cross and by the empty tomb. And at the end of worship, before we leave the room,we receive a blessing to go and share.We hear of how God offers care,no matter the ways we have failed or fallen short,And even when we don’t know what to say or how to pray,we practice, with thanks, and help and wow. And occasionally, we laugh, together too, don’t we?Most of all, when we come to worship,we hear of God’s great dream for the world,the stories of God’s kingdom not only here and now,but also still emerging,like a mustard seed in the ground,peeking out from the soil to the surface,blossoming forth before our eyes, a constant surprise. Not only does worship lift up our heads, to behold something more,worship also lifts up our hearts to hope for what God has in store,“The Spirit of God is upon me,” said Jesus in our reading,“God has chosen meto preach the message of good news to the poor.God has sent me to announce pardon to prisoners,and sight to those who are blind,and freedom to those who feel oppressed and captive.And God has called me to proclaimthat this is God’s time to act—God is indeed moving and working in the world.”Worship lifts up our heads. And worship lifts up our hearts. And third, worship lifts up our hands. Because so easily,and so often, I think it’s safe to say,in our day to day lives,our hands are down.Just like in a classroom, we’re not always keen to raise our hands.occasionally, because our plates are fullwith all the other things we need to make or do,but sometimes it’s simply because we don’t know how to make God’s dream come true,we can sometimes feel powerless, paralyzed too—who am I to make a difference?What impact can I possibly have?What does discipleship look like, here and now?We aren’t sure how to act or what to do with our hands and our lives.We can even feel helpless. But when we come to worship on a Sunday morning,we practice passing peace with our neighbors,one handshake at a time.When we worship,we share our financial offering,knowing that the money that we giveis but one way that we can join in God’s generosityand share the gifts that God has given us,when we worship,we hear about the work of the church,the reports from past events,and announcements for the future,each of them an open invitationto join and serve and get involved,when we worship,even our prayerssmall as they are, make an impact,when we worship,we are remindedthat we are called and commissionedto participate in the unfolding work of God,to play a role,to not sit on our hands, but to respond. Worship lifts up our heads,to behold something more,worship lifts up our heartsto hope for what God has in store,and worship lifts up our handsto help make it happen. Jesus concluded his reading that day with the message that“You’ve just heard Scripture make history.It came true, just now, in this place.”May we help Scripture also make history. May we also make God’s dream come true,just now, in this place too,with uplifted heads and hearts and hands,together.That’s why we worship.Thanks be to God. ................
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