Fairhaven Sermon 2-9-2025

Well, this morning we are beginning a new three-week mini-series on worship, which will take us up to the beginning of Lent. Worship is a topic that both Pastor Dylan and I have been looking forward to talking about, and as he mentioned at our recent partnership meeting, it's easy to fall into the trap of religious routines, he said, and I totally agree. So with this series, we hope to breathe some fresh life and a new spirit into our worship services. And the Christian tradition of worship has many expressions.

If you've ever gone to visit other churches and felt taken in how they worship, I love visiting other churches. I love to see how other traditions approach the Lord and learn from the Lord. And I'm glad that we'll have an opportunity to do this again this coming Lent, to worship with some of our neighbors for midweek services. Worship is something that involves both time spent with God and time spent in the company of God's people.

We come together to give thanks to the One who has given us everything. And we spend time with the Creator of the universe. Doing this should be anything but routine and boring. But then there are other times when life is difficult, that we might feel a little bit disconnected from each other and from God, and this is normal.

At these times, we may not particularly feel like worshiping, and that's okay. It's enough just to be here and to reconnect with God and with each other as much as we are able. We come to church not because we're obligated to, but in order to be inspired by God and refreshed by God. Because our relationship with God truly is a relationship.

If we were to see a friend who is feeling down, we would give them a kind word, and God is the best of friends. During tough times, God will be there for you. And if we should see a friend who is happy about something, we would join in their happiness, and God does that as well. So what exactly is worship? Well, the word worship comes from the Old English worth ship, which actually had two meanings.

The first was sort of like a form of address, like Your Highness, your worship. The other, though, is a shortened way of saying worthy ship. In other words, a boat that doesn't sink, a ship that doesn't leak. And it's interesting that hundreds of years ago, that's how people saw the church, as a ship that doesn't sink, a ship that carries us from the shores of earth to the shores of heaven.

That's where we get songs like Michael Row the Boat Ashore. Hallelujah. In fact, back in the day, they even built church buildings to look like upside down ships. And you can still actually see a little bit of the pattern of that in the ceiling of this church.

You can see the arches come up like that. And then we have all these beams going across. Basically, I mean, in an older church, that would be more pronounced. You'd have actually wooden sort of like pillars looking across, like ribs across the church.

That's how they built churches, so they're all in the same boat together. And that's how God meant it to be. We can worship by ourselves, certainly. It's a good thing to read the Bible every day, to talk to God every day, no matter where we are.

It's a good thing to take a walk and enjoy God's creation, which in my opinion is one of the best ways to spend time with God. But God also desires that we come together as a family of faith, especially when we gather around the family table for communion. When we come together on a Sunday, we come as the family of faith in this location, in this suburb of Pittsburgh, and we do so knowing that other families are also meeting with God, Lutheran families and Catholic families and Presbyterian families and so on. We also know that other families around the world are meeting with God on this day.

In Africa, in Europe, Asia, South America, Australia, our family of faith literally stretches around the world as the earth rotates on its axis, like the old hymn says, the voice of prayer is never silent because somewhere on earth, someone is always praying as the world turns. And our God is worthy of praise. God loves all people everywhere and believes and welcomes all of us into God's house. To put it another way, all believers make up the body of Christ and each one of us is a part of that body.

So we come on Sunday morning to give God thanks and praise for all these things and for all that God has given us and all that God has done for us, and that's just the beginning. Of course, the next question is, who exactly is it that we're worshiping? How does one define God? And this is an important question because not everything that people worship is God. There are lots of idols out there and sometimes they even creep into the church. There are idols like celebrities, sports figures, TV personalities, or impersonal things like wealth or power.

So who exactly is God? Well first off, God is one. There's only one God. We understand God in three persons, God the Father, also called the Creator, God the Redeemer, Jesus, and God the Holy Spirit. Or to think of the Trinity another way, God above us, God with us, and God in us.

In our reading today from Exodus, Moses asked for God's name and God replied that his name is I Am. In Hebrew it's Yahweh, but in English it's I Am. And that's the name that God gives Moses. I don't know about you, but the first time I heard that, my reaction was one of being puzzled.

I mean, my thoughts were along the lines of, You are what? You are great, you are glorious, you are all-powerful, you are all-knowing, and God is certainly all those things. But I was asking the wrong question. God's name is I Am, just as there's no uncertainty. God is.

And God is the Creator of all and the Keeper of all and the Sustainer of all. And I think that might be why we feel so close to God in nature, because when we're outdoors we are surrounded by everything that God has created and sustains. It feels almost natural to worship when we're in the middle of a forest or when we're surrounded by mountains. But God also invites us to step into God's house for worship.

And by the way, as I speak of God the Creator, just in case anyone's wondering about evolution and how that stacks up, it is entirely possible that our universe is as old as the scientists say. It is entirely possible that evolution is one of many tools in God's universe-building toolbox. This does not go against what the Bible teaches. And I say this because I have heard some preachers preach otherwise, and I don't want to get into that debate right here and now.

But if anyone has questions about that, has doubts or issues, please talk to me later, give me a call during the week or something, and I'll do my best to explain how the two might come together, God the Creator using evolution. For now I'll just say this, that many scientists agree that the Big Bang, which began all things, was caused by a sudden appearance of light, as in let there be light. So moving on then to Psalm 138, which we read a moment ago. This psalm gives us an example of what worship looks like and sounds like.

It's full of thanksgiving to God and praise of God. The psalmist says, I called and you answered me. You increased my strength of soul. For though the Lord is high, he regards the lowly.

And though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve me. When we worship, we tell God how good God is, not because God's ego needs it, but because when we say thank you to God, we share our pleasure with God, pretty much the same way that we say thank you to our loved ones as a way of sharing pleasure, expressing how glad we are that that person is in our lives. How often do we say things to friends or members of the family like, You look really nice today, or I love this thing that you made, or You know, that thing you did over there, that was really cool. We say these things to people because we love them, and the same goes with God.

In this psalm, King David is worshiping God because he says God is great, God's love is faithful, God answers prayer, God gives us strength and encouragement, God hears, God protects, God has good plans for us, and God's love is forever. I think part of David's confidence in God comes because of the fact that he prayed and then waited for God's answer. When David finished praying, he didn't just get up and go on with his day. He actually sat quietly in God's presence for a while, kind of reaching out towards God with his spirit.

He expected God to answer, and he waited to hear that answer. And this, by the way, is waiting for God's answer, is part of the idea behind that prayer initiative that they're talking about, which we'll be doing during Lent. The initiative is a practice of listening to God as well as praying, instead of just rushing on to the next thing. You'll be hearing more about that in the next few weeks.

Moving on to our passage from Isaiah, this reading gives us another glimpse of worship, only this one a bit different from David's experience. In this passage, Isaiah sees a vision of God in the temple, and whether or not Isaiah was actually in the temple when he had the vision is not clear, but in his vision, Isaiah is standing in the temple, and Isaiah sees God, or at least the hem of God's robe, he says. And the hem of God's robe fills the temple. Now, this of course is a metaphor to try to describe the greatness of God.

The temple back then was about the size of a city block, and to have a hem, just the hem of God's robe fills this temple, gives you an idea how big God is. And of course, even that is a metaphor. In the vision, Isaiah also sees seraphs, angelic beings with wings who sing, Holy, holy, holy, which we'll be singing in a moment. God is the most pure, the most perfect, the most weighty, that's the holy, holy, holy, and speaking truth about God is a form of worship.

Seeing all of this, Isaiah is overwhelmed, and his reaction is to cry out, Woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips among a people of unclean lips. And this doesn't mean that God's people are horribly evil. It just, we just don't necessarily look all that good next to God's perfection, that's all, which is true of all of us. But God provides the solution.

God commands one of the seraphs to take a coal from the altar and touch Isaiah's lips, a metaphor for disinfection and healing. And then once Isaiah has been made right with God, God asks, Who will go for us? And Isaiah answers, Here I am, send me. It's not unusual during worship, as we listen to God's voice, to sense questions or to sense things to pray about or to talk to God about. And if that happens, when that happens during a worship service, it's okay to stop following the order of worship for a moment and just sit and pray quietly and listen to what God is saying to you.

It's also not unusual during worship to get the feeling that God wants us to do something. And if and when that happens, Isaiah's answer is a good one, Here am I, send me. And then last but not least, we turn to our reading from Luke. Now this passage doesn't take place during worship, but it ends with worship.

On this particular day, Jesus and the disciples were standing next to the Sea of Galilee, Gennesaret or Genesaret is another name for Galilee, so it's the same place. And they're in a place, there's a rocky beach, not all that large, but a rocky beach surrounded by high hills behind it. And so the crowd is so large that they're practically pressing Jesus and the disciples into the water, okay? So Jesus spots a couple of boats on the shore and he borrows them from the fishermen who are washing their nets. And Jesus and the disciples get into a boat, and from that boat, a safe distance from the crowd, Jesus continues to teach.

And the steep hills behind the crowd act as almost like a natural amphitheater so everyone can hear. When Jesus was finished teaching, he said to Simon Peter, whose boat it was and whose fishing team it was, Put out into the deep, let down your nets for a catch. And Peter answered, But Lord, we've been fishing all night and caught nothing. Still since it's you asking, we'll let the nets down one more time.

And they did. And they caught so many fish that the nets started to break. So they called for the other boat to come from the shore to help them. They caught two boatloads full that morning.

This is where Peter's worship begins. He falls on his knees in front of Jesus and he says, Go away from me, Lord. I'm a sinful man. Which is not all that different from what Isaiah said to God.

Peter's overwhelming sense of doubt is not a lack of trust in Jesus, but a lack of trust in his own worthiness. And it's not all that unusual when we become aware that God is nearby to feel completely and totally unworthy. Not because God wants us to feel that way, but because next to God, any virtue we have kind of looks like dirty rags. When we see Jesus for who He really is, His total perfection and glory can be overwhelming.

And this is normal. In fact, if anyone is not uncomfortable with God's holiness, I'd be worried. This is why our communion service, the original old-fashioned service, begins with the words that we actually used this morning to begin the service with, Almighty God, to you all our hearts are open, all desires known from you, no secrets are hidden. Sense the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you and worthily magnify your holy name through Christ our Lord.

Very traditional opening that goes back hundreds of years, traditional opening to worship. That's where worship starts. There is no other starting place, really, but it is just the start. It goes on from there.

Jesus says to Peter, Don't be afraid. From now on, you will be catching people. Just like with Isaiah, God's answer to our shortcomings is always, I have made you clean. Now go.

God gives us a commission, a task to do. Sometimes during worship, this happens to us. We come to God on a Sunday morning feeling unworthy, knowing that we haven't always done things God's way. But when we're honest with God about this, God forgives us, cleanses us, and then calls us into his service.

And this calling gives us a place of honor in God's household. By the way, I should also point out that the net result of Peter's adventure was that he and the other fishermen immediately went and followed Jesus, leaving behind on the shore two full nets of fish, so that all the poor people in the town must have had quite a fish fry that night. And probably the cats as well probably just ate some of that. When we worship God and do what God asks us to do, the result is something that's a blessing for everyone.

Where it comes to worship, God calls real people with real imperfections and then makes us equal to the task for which we were created. So as we come to worship, we remember all that God has done. We stand in worship in a line of believers that stretches back over 2,000 years and around the world. Second, we listen for God's voice.

God's word makes us new and then makes us able to do good in the world following God's direction. Sometimes in worship we sing the old songs, Holy, holy, holy. Sometimes we sing the new songs. Either way, the songs we sing give praise to God.

And last but never least, we praise God for the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord, who makes us worthy to stand in God's presence. So next week we take a look at why we worship. Until then, go with God's blessing into the week ahead. Amen.

Thank you.