Crested white drifts of snow filled with sparkling crystalline flakes revealed a unique landscape this morning, the pristine beauty accompanied by a silence and stillness in our lives this Sunday. Like a gigantic whole-note rest on the frantic staccato sixteenth-note-filled score of our lives, the storm caused us to pause in awestruck wonder, even if momentarily. The rush to our cars and corporations was deterred today by copious amounts of snow covering cars that have become mounds of abstract snow art.
Routines are the routine in our lives, it seems, and when suddenly our local Starbucks and church are unreachable, we are stuck at home pseudo-worshiping gods named Keurig and Instagram. With hundreds of Sunday morning services cancelled throughout Lancaster County this morning, where will we worship today? And who or what will we worship?
Some may scoff at those words, or bristle and choose to be offended, but the truth is that we are all created to worship, and worship we will. We will be drawn to worship something, someone, or possibly an entire team with a losing record. Yesterday I came close to worshiping a snow blower.
In the absence of the ability to attend a church this morning, where will you worship? At home, most likely, whether or not you ever go to church or believe in God. You will worship, even if you had no intention of attending church. Chances are you’re worshiping food, or football, or your iPhone. I know, because I’ve done the same, sometimes simultaneously.
In the silence that surrounds you in this unusually serene setting, will you open a dialogue with a God who may seem near, distant, or completely nonexistent? Will you express gratitude that your power stayed through the storm on and you survived yet another day? Will you lift up cares and concerns small, large, or super-sized?
In the Bible, the woman drawing water at Jacob’s well asked Jesus about where to worship. She had heard conflicting reports about where people should go. “Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
Jesus didn’t provide a physical address or the name of a church with a great children’s ministry. He didn’t Mapquest directions for her to the best-looking edifice with a rocking worship team.
He simply said, “Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.” Then he elaborated a bit: “Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.”
What does worshiping in spirit look like today? If we are cut off from our congregations, do we consider it a reprieve from Sunday-morning duties and drudging routine? Is our worship time-limited to the 1-3 hours we appear in a church, or are our hearts lifted to him no matter where we are?
One aspect of worshiping in truth is a practice that considers taking our truths to God in worship. If you haven’t worshiped in a while, will you speak honestly to God about when and where you last parted company? Was it a text-message break-up? Did something from the pulpit/in the Bible/spoken by a hurtful church-goer upset you so much that you never spoke to God again? Have you been ignoring God’s calls?
Is it possible that truth is actually a spiritual location that manifests as we study the word of God? When we worship in truth, the lies upon which we walk out our lives suddenly give way, shifting our steps to solid ground in a moment’s time.
On the snowy white canvas that surrounds us, may you create a colorful picture of worship today, in spirit and truth.
