"​​​​What is Worship?"

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As our tradition practices the liturgy, it is something like this: We gather. We put aside the guilt of our mistakes and hear a word of forgiveness. We sing of who our God is. We pray and listen to stories told over and over through generations and reflect on how they impact us today. Then we share what we have brought of both our labor and our peace. Setting the table which Christ commands, remembering that it unites us with our ancestors in the faith as well as with Christians around the globe, who speak many languages and live many struggles. Thus refreshed, we return to our daily lives, encouraged and challenged, fed and forgiven! 

Worship is almost more for our benefit, as we remember who it is at the center of our faith, as we remind ourselves who we follow and what God has to say about who we are (no matter what anyone else says)!

God can survive without our worship, without our prayers and praise. But we worship to remember that God remembers us, we tell the stories and sing the hymns to reconnect with our faith and all those who follow Jesus across the world. The scriptures we read on Sunday morning are read in Palestine and in Sudan, our prayers rise to the same God who hears and sees our siblings in Korea and Japan. 

How those other eyes and ears, those other hands and feet, are blessed by the worship we share is a blessing to us, too! Our community of faith opens us up to the strength and resilience of those whose faith is currently bringing them through drought and famine, through war and disaster!

We pray each Sunday with the undocumented migrants who came here clutching their rosaries, and with the LGBTQ kids who love Jesus even when their churches throw them out, with the babies just learning Bible stories for the first time, and with the elders who carry community memory, who understand forgiveness through the wisdom of experience! 

Worship is a singular moment that contains multitudes, that stands firm in the face of oppression and injustice, that declares peace and hope and liberation in spite of whatever powers threaten violence and despair. Even, if not especially, when it is messy, worship brings us into awareness of the Holy who is always among us. May it be for you what you need, this globally shared history and this forever hope given through the life, death, and resurrection of Christ Jesus!

Grae and Peace,

Pastor Andrew Tobias Nelson