March 16, 2008 -- Palm Sunday

Scripture: John 9:35-38

35Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?"

36"Who is he, sir?" the man asked. "Tell me so that I may believe in him."

37Jesus said, "You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you."

38Then the man said, "Lord, I believe," and he worshiped him.

A little old lady answered a knock on her door one day, only to be confronted by a well-dressed young man carrying a vacuum cleaner. “Good morning,” said the young man. “If I could take a couple minutes of your time, I would like to demonstrate the very latest in high-powered vacuum cleaners.

“Go away!” said the old lady. “I haven’t got any money!” and she proceeded to close the door. Quick as a flash, the young man wedged his foot in the door and pushed it wide open.

“Don’t be too hasty!” he said, “not until you have a least seen my demonstration.” And with that, he emptied a bucket of horse manure onto her hallway carpet. “If this vacuum cleaner does not remove all traces of this horse manure from your carpet, Madam, I will personally eat the remainder.”

The old lady stepped back and said, “Well I hope that you got a darned good appetite, because they cut off my electricity this morning!”

Putting your faith in your product can be very costly! The same is true for putting your faith in a person. The blind man found that out. He was excommunicated from church and very possibly ostracized by his supposed friends. He was persecuted by the religious leaders and in some ways his status after his healing was worse than before his healing. But having his sight was worth it – not just his physical sight; more importantly, he had his spiritual sight. And this new found trust in Christ led very naturally to worship.

Worship is a natural progression of belief.

On his son’s 21st birthday, a father gave his son a beautiful gold pocket watch. His presentation speech, in full, was as follows: “Son, we had always planned to give you this watch when you reached the age of wisdom; we’ve decided it’s better not to wait.” Do you have a child or children in whom you wonder if they are going to ever get it? Remember, faith is a journey. We don’t all get it at the same time or in the same way.

Look at the blind man (I kind of hate calling him the blind man. Now he sees. I will call him the sight man!) The sight man first acknowledged Jesus as “the man,” then “prophet,” then “from God,” then “son of Man,” and finally, “Lord!” It took a little while, at least, to get from man to Lord. The same is true for us. But once we get it, really believing it, the next natural step is worship.

So, let’s define worship. The easiest way to define worship is with two little words: “glorifying God.” That involves praise, adoration, and honor. It can be done anywhere. There are more components to worship, but this is the best starting place. People, being different, glorify God in different ways. Some do so in a traditional manner. Others, in a more contemporary way. And that is ok. I kind of like Billy Graham’s take on different denominations. He said that God knew we all were not the same, so he allowed different means of faith expression. The important thing is that we, who are different, glorify the same God.

The second point here, and I have already alluded to it, is this: worship is not necessarily tied to a place. There is importance in place, but place is not imperative. You can have a worshipful experience in your car, in your church, by the campfire, in jail. Jesus qualified this when he talked to the woman at the well: true worshipers worship God in spirit and in truth. Place can and does enhance worship, but we must not fall into the pit of worshiping in one and only one place. If we do that, we segment our lives, compartmentalizing the faith to the extent that our faith does not influence all the areas of our lives.

Last, worship is tied to a person and to a people. Worship gains its fullest expression as we praise God for his amazing gift – Christ the Lord. He, the one who saved us with himself, made religion about a relationship, not rules. And the natural progression from a relationship with Jesus is a relationship with others. This makes corporate worship absolutely vital to our spiritual maturity.

I don’t have much of a green thumb. What I’ve learned about plants I’ve learned the hard way. I know that a plant is limited in its size by the size of the pot it is planted in. If we don’t give a plant enough room to grow, its growth will be stunted. The same is true for us. To worship alone is to stunt our growth. We were meant to celebrate our faith in community. It is where we get comfortable with heaven. It is where the life events of others encourage us. It is where we hear God most, because God speaks to us through others. Don’t fall prey to limiting your worship to nature or to your prayer closet. It will stunt your growth.

Sooner or later, you will find a challenge to your desire to be in corporate worship. How do I know this? Because our membership is 504 and our attendance is 192. We have a good 150 people that we never see – people who took the vows of membership, pledging their attendance, among other things, and yet, they are not here. Don’t fall prey to that being ok – for yourself or for others. It is an unholy scheme perpetuated from below. Instead, step into the full light of God’s presence – and seek His will above all others – including our own. Seek Him publicly and seek Him privately. Glorify Him! That is worship.