We Will Worship
Getting it wrong. For all the energy we put into getting it right, or trying to convince others that we are, it is, perhaps, not surprising to discover that it is difficult to admit when we get it wrong. And yet, getting it wrong, is probably something that we do more often than we might like to admit. But when we put a high premium on being right, sometimes always right, this can make for tense situations.
One of those issues that people sometimes invest a lot of energy into getting it right, and not wanting to admit when we don't, is Worship.
Today we listen to a lot of angst being shared over worship styles and worship music. Not many people "getting it wrong" about this - just ask them!
Interestingly enough, people have been getting it wrong about worship for a very long time. One of those places where the worship conversation surfaces is in a well known story - a conversation - that takes place between Jesus and a woman who most of the "chosen" were sure knew nothing about worship. She had her questions about whether the Jews had it right as well. But in the conversation that ensues, Jesus helps put things back in perspective. That's what Pastor Jon explores with us in the sermon this week. If you would like to listen to the sermon again, or perhaps for the first time, click here to access our sermon library.
As you reflect on the sermon and the passage to the right, what do you hear God saying to you about worship. Not about being right or wrong, but about worship. Listen carefully. Think about what you hear.
John 4 (TNIV)
4Now he had to go through Samaria. 5So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.
7When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, "Will you give me a drink?" 8(His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
9The Samaritan woman said to him, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)
10Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."
11"Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?"
13Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."
15The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water."
16He told her, "Go, call your husband and come back."
17"I have no husband," she replied.
Jesus said to her, "You are right when you say you have no husband. 18The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true."
19"Sir," the woman said, "I can see that you are a prophet. 20Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem."
21Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23Yet 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. 24God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."
25The woman said, "I know that Messiah" (called Christ) "is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us."
26Then Jesus declared, "I who speak to you am he."