“Why Go to Church?”
Rev. Dr. David E. Gray
Bradley Hills Presbyterian Church
Matthew 18: 12-20
Last week I saw another flock of geese flying overhead. Maybe you have experienced them this winter. It starts with a honk and then the birds flying in formation. When you see them it means it’s finally cold enough out that they need to head to warmer climates. It’s a sacred ritual of nature, like salmon swimming upstream or sparrows returning to the Capistrano.
There are many rituals in our lives that are worth returning to. When I’m back in Ohio I like to go the same restaurants and ice cream stores. Each August my family makes a pilgrimage to upstate New York to the same family conference center we’ve gone to for decades, even with our current crew in the minivan. And then there some things are not worth returning to. I read about a cruise being planned this year to return to the exact spot of the sinking of the Titanic. With the challenges facing cruise liners recently, perhaps it would be better to leave well enough alone.
Humans like our rituals. The prodigal son eventually returns home. We are creatures of habit. One habit we have each week is the ritual of returning to church every Sunday.
Why do you go to church each week? Or as often as you do? Is it because others expect you to? Is it because that is what you were raised to do? That is where it started for me. I went because my parents took me. Is it because God expects you to? The Bible supports this view. In our first lesson, David writes, "Give to the Lord the glory due His name; bring an offering, and come before Him. Oh, worship the Lord." The Psalmist writes in Psalm 99 that we are to worship God because God is holy. The Gospels record Jesus quoting Deuteronomy that we should “worship the Lord our God…” The Sabbath is set aside in part to worship. One of our confessions, the Shorter Catechism, defines the end of humankind first and foremost to “glorify God.” So if you are here because you feel called by, even expected by, God to glorify God in worship then you are on very solid theological ground.
And yet author Tony Robinson observers that because cultural norms have shifted, American Christians today no longer predominantly go to church because they are expected to do so; rather they go if they feel motivated to go. After all, there are so many distractions on Sundays. Family time, school projects, sports practices and even work get in the way. Long work weeks lead to exhaustion on the weekend. Many of us in this part of the country travel on weekends as well. And even if you are interested in church, you could stay home and watch Joel Osteen or the church channel all morning. You could turn on the radio and hear worship services. Technology even makes it possible for you to watch many of our sermons the next day.
And yet despite it all, you are here. And I am very glad. I’d be lonely without you. Plus there are good reasons to want to go to church.
When I became a young adult and began to choose how my time was spent, I used to go to church to meet other people. I would sit in the front of the balcony each Sunday with other friends and admittedly was more interested in what my friends were doing than what the pastor was doing. The music, liturgy and theology managed to impact me profoundly despite myself, but it was the people who kept me coming back so it could.
There is no community like a church community. No group, expect perhaps your immediate family, cares for each other like a church family does. I received a note from one of you this week about receiving a visit in the hospital from a couple of church members and you described how much that visit meant to you. We have members who met their life companion at the church. There are a myriad of activities here where you can find people who will both rejoice with you around the most sacred moments of the year and of life and will come be with you when you need them most.
A member of a church I once served emailed me this week because she wanted to come to Kay Biggs memorial service next week. She recounted how she used to sit with Kay in decades past and would have the best time doing church accounting together.
The church community matters because the church is the body of Christ today. Christ is no longer here with us physically, but remains with us spiritually. Therefore, we collectively are Christ’s body, drawn in the Spirit’s tether. And individually members of it. That is why we spend so much time at Bradley Hills talking about how we want to be a welcoming congregation that embraces every journey.
Think about our second lesson for today in which Jesus provides a process for how the church deals with discipline. You go see a person who has misbehaved individually, then you take a few others along and then bring the issue to the whole church. And the goal in each step is restore relationship. That is why this section of Matthew 18 falls between Jesus’ statement about the joy of a lost sheep returning to the community and a discussion on forgiveness. Each and every sheep of the fold is important to the shepherd. Every part of the body of Christ is important to Christ. Every member here; every person in this room matters to Christ. God has given you unique gifts and experiences. Because of the uniqueness of your journey, you are wanted and needed here. And why stay home on Sunday when you can go somewhere where you are wanted? Where the gifts God has given you matter.
The entrance into involvement in this and any church community is worship. Pastor Juli and some of our members attended a presentation earlier this month by church leaders Sara Miles and Paul Fromberg in which they discussed the connection between participating in worship and participating in the rest of the life of the church. Part of the reason we have congregational responses, lay readers, unison liturgies and prayers, and verses of songs to sing, is so we can be involved in worship as an invitation to be involved in the body of Christ. The more you put into the church the more you get out of it. And that begins with worship.
Now while I started going to church because I was expected to and then continued to meet people, over time I began to love worship because there I was able to meet God there.
Our second lesson ends with well-known statements of Jesus, “where two or three are gathered, I am there.” and “When two of you agree on what to pray for it will be done.” Maybe you have heard these before but you might not have realized they end a section of scripture about church discipline. The phrase actually has deep roots in Judaism where it was said that when two or more gathered to study the law, God’s presence and glory were there.
We are called to glorify and worship God. The Bible is clear about that. And passages like ours this morning remind us why we gather together. You could imagine a time or situation when technology might allow everyone to have their own worship service. It would be like those seats on airplanes now that have their own TV screens so you don’t have to watch the one movie the pilot puts on, you can choose to watch whatever you want. Or a really well off person hires their own pastor. People gather for worship in part to pool resources. It doesn’t work for each person to have their own choir or organ. But even if you could would you really want to? It’s much better to glorify God together. We all don’t have every gift and worshipping together allows us to bring our gifts together. As our lesson indicates, we are meant to gather together, prayer together, and worship together. Over and over again, Jesus called followers to worship in community. Whether giving lesson to crowds in Galilee, a dozen around a table or 5000 sharing bread, Biblical worship happens by-in-large in groups. For in community the presence of God is heightened. As our lesson suggests, the power of prayer is magnified. We worship together because community focuses us in worship. And commitment in worship brings us closer to God.
When we take our worship seriously, we will find that we meet God. Each part of our worship service focuses us on God. We prepare our hearts for God as we gather together. We confess our shortcomings and praise God. We experience God’s word. We respond to God’s word. And we go forth to serve God.
John Calvin explained that people gather on the Sabbath to hear God’s word, experience the sacraments and engage in public prayer so that God’s spirit can meet us where we are. In other words, the value of the Sabbath for Calvin lies not in our doing nothing, but in our coming together so that God could work in us.
In our worship service God speaks to us in music, in prayer and in experiencing God’s word. When we come to the house of the Lord, God meets us here. I find there is no other place where I feel God speaking to me as clearly as in Sunday worship.
As Lanny Wolfe wrote, “Surely the presence of the Lord is in this place.
I can feel His mighty power and His grace. I can hear the brush of angel’s wings. I see glory on each face. Surely the presence of the Lord is in this place.”
Where two or three or more are gathered, God is present.
But I find I also take something important from my experience here. It prepares me for the week to come. . We don’t live in this sanctuary. We live our lives out in our homes and schools and in our jobs.
Jesus connects his statement about being His present in community to a section of scripture about restoring relationships because what we do outside of worship matters to God.
John records Jesus as saying that “A time is coming when you will worship God neither on the mountain nor in Jerusalem.” In other words our worship extends beyond the sanctuary. The root of the word “worship” in Hebrew is about serving God. And so wherever we serve God, we worship God.
How we act ethically at our job is worship. Being honest on exams is worship. Saying no to peer pressure at school is worship. Serving in the church as our officers will commit to do in a few minutes is worship. The way we treat our spouse is worship. Standing up for someone being bullied is worship. Volunteering at a kitchen ministry is worship. Living obediently to God all week is worship.
We come to church to reinforce the values that allow us to worship God all week long. The early church changed the ritual of ending the week with the Sabbath on Saturday to beginning the week with worship on Sunday, so that worship could prepare us for the week to come. We commentate Easter each Lord’s Day when we gather. Much as Easter resurrects our lives to go forth with new possibilities, Sunday worship begins our week with an intentional emphasis on hearing from God so we can stay grounded during the week.
Then we continue to build on that preparation during the week. Two or three or more of us gather for centering prayer, Bible study, Daybreak Devotions, evening spirituality groups, and men’s fellowship during the week to reinforce the value of worshipping God in what we do all week.
One member of our Bible study shared recently that for Christmas one of her friends sent her a card that said simply, “You pray for me and I’ll pray for you.” The people we meet at church and the ideas we get when we meet God on Sunday prepare us to live out our lives.
So keep coming to church. Sing to the Lord. Tell of God’s glory to your friends. Pray to our creator. And worship God by how you live out the faith you engage with on Sunday.
There is a story about a man who went to his Presbyterian pastor and asked, “When Jesus comes back, what church will He go to?” The pastor replied, “The Presbyterian church, of course, why would he change after all these years?” Every church hopes it’s that on the right track.
We should be confident that God has called us to gather together and to meet God here, but we should never forget who it is we are worshipping. We gather to worship a relational God of community, of expressive loyalty and of glory.
So as the hymn-writer puts it, let us true disciples be. Alleluia, alleluia, let us serve God faithfully. May it be so. Amen.
