Worship in Spirit and in Truth

Our daughter came home last weekend, and as we saw her at the mall, just to see her face, just to look upon her, gave us such great joy. It reminded me that when we worship God, when we as Psalm 100 says enter his courts with praise, he feels great joy. We make him happy just by showing up. God inhabits the praises of God's people.

I preached about this this past Sunday as I wondered how we can get so excited about football games and jump up and down and scream and shout and be filled with passion for a team and sit so gloomily in worship, barely engaged with God, barely paying attention to God's magnificent presence.

I remembered that Isaiah in the temple was not the only one at worship that day, yet he was the only one who saw angels flying to and fro, heard the angelic choir singing holy, holy, holy, and saw God, the great creator of the universe, seated on a sapphire throne. Isaiah worshipped, confessed, and signed on for service in response, as we are to do every time we worship.

Then I remembered the Tudor series my husband and I have been watching on Netflix. I thought of how in the court of King Henry the VIII people came in to have an audience with Henry. They would enter reverently and drop to kneel on a pillow provided for that purpose. Then after saying whatever they came to say, they would back out, never forgetting to focus on and face the king. Do we focus on God completely?

Psalm 100 invites us to come into God's presence singing. I remember as a youth the first time I went forward for communion was at Montreat at the Youth Conference. They brought us forward 12 at a time and served us as Jesus would have served his disciples. And suddenly I felt like Jesus was really there and really serving us as we were passed bread and grape juice. He was so real to me that night, I promised him later alone, my life as a pastor in response.

Do we practice the divine real presence of God, of Christ in our lives today? I wonder. I heard a story of a man that did. He was dying and his pastor came to visit him. The pastor noticed a chair by the bed, and started to take it, only the man said to use the other one. When he asked why, he told him that it was Jesus' chair that was next to his bed. When everyone was gone he would talk to Jesus for hours, picturing him sitting in that chair. Not long afterwards, the man died and his wife called that pastor very distressed. She was so upset because she was afraid her husband had died trying to get out the bed, desperate to escape death, for he had died with his head laid over in the chair next to the bed. The pastor reassured her and said that her husband had told him that was Jesus' chair and he had simply laid his head in Jesus' lap to die.

Is God's presence that real to us. Do we truly worship God in Spirit and in Truth with passion and do we really feel God there in church, at prayer, and in our hearts. ?