The Who, Where and How of Worship - Sermon for the 14th Sunday after Trinity

Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity, September 18^th, Year of Our + Lord 2022
Our Savior’s and Our Redeemer Lutheran Churches
Hill City and Custer, South Dakota
The Who, Where and How of Worship

     Dogs always know to whom to give thanks.  Shelee and I have had five dogs over our
three and half decades of marriage: Bailey, Gus, Jack, Dan, and now Maggie.  And all of them have known whom to give thanks.  We human beings often struggle to rightly understand worship, but not our dogs.  They get it. 

    1^st, they give thanks to whomever feeds them. 

    2^nd, they give thanks to whomever walks them. 

   3^rd, they give thanks to whomever pets and grooms them. 

They are not picky.  Whoever feeds, whoever walks, whoever pets, to that person our dogs give thanks, rejoicing and barking their praises, wagging their tails off.  Oh, that we humans could so naturally and easily worship rightly.

     I don’t think the Nine Lepers who failed to return to give thanks to Jesus were unthankful.  How could they not be overjoyed and filled with praise, when, as they walked to show themselves to the priests, they were cleansed of the horrible sores that covered their bodies?  One moment in chronic agony, the next, clean, whole, free to re-enter society, to go back to living with their families and friends again.  Whoo-hooo!  Of course they were thankful.  They were even trying to worship rightly, according to the Old Testament Ceremonial Law, heading off to show themselves to the priests, to be certified clean.  What they don’t know is the new Who and Where of thanksgiving and worship.  What they don’t understand is that, when God’s Son became a human being, when He was conceived and born of the Virgin Mary, everything about thanksgiving, praise and worship changed.  Because Jesus is the fulfillment of the Law.  Jesus is the fulfillment of the Temple. 

     Before the Incarnation, before God became a man, first an embryo, then a newborn, then growing into manhood, before Jesus did all that, thanksgiving, praise and worship were all properly aimed toward Jerusalem, toward the Temple, that house built for God. There, safely separated from the multitude of sinners by walls and curtains, smoke and priestly sacrifice, there in the Temple the LORD God made Himself partially accessible to His people, to all people, actually, any who would come to Jerusalem for worship. 

     For the safety of the pilgrims, the different areas of the Temple were separated off into levels of access:  Most highly restricted was the Holy of Holies, where only the High Priest went, and only once a year, on the Day of Atonement.  Then there was the Holy Place, where only priests entered to offer the daily sacrifices and prayers.  Then a court for Jewish men, and another for the Jewish women, and finally a court for the nations, for the “goyim,” the Gentiles, non-Jews who had heard of the LORD God and believed.  Even though their access was limited, many Gentiles believed and came to the Temple, getting as close as they could, to pray, praise, and give thanks. 

   All those walls of separation were necessary because God is Holy.  God is the Destroyer of sin, and people are sinful.  So giving thanks to God is dangerous, since it entails sinners coming into close proximity with the Holy, Holy, Holy LORD.  Worshiping the true God requires regulation and protective barriers, to keep God’s Holiness from destroying the sinners He wants to bless. 

     But after Jesus came, after the LORD God Almighty entered into human flesh, all the rules for thanksgiving, praise and worship changed.  Jesus, God become man, came to fulfill the law for mankind, and to take all our sin from us.  All sin, from every person. Jesus took it all to His Cross, where He suffered in the place of all humanity.  Christ died and then rose from the dead to destroy the power of sin and death.  That is, to destroy their power to separate us from God and condemn us to an eternal leprosy of body and soul.  The animal sacrifices of the Temple foreshadowed the self-sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross.  Now, risen from the dead, Jesus has made a new place and a new way for worship. 

     This is what, by God’s grace, the Samaritan leper already understood, even before Good Friday and Easter had come to pass.  The Samaritan leper understood that now, with God’s Son present on earth, sinners properly and safely worship God in the person of Christ.  Sinners can now approach God without fear, through the flesh of Jesus.  So the Samaritan returned to Jesus, praising loudly, and fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving Him thanks.  Having received great blessing from Jesus, he thanks and praises Him as God.  Because Jesus is God, come to save sinners, come to heal lepers eternally, come to give new life to dying men, women and children. 

      The nine other lepers didn’t get it, not yet anyway.  God in Christ had done a great miracle for them also, healing their leprosy, and showing them that a new day had dawned, a day of worshiping God in the flesh of Christ.  But they didn’t get it.  They hurried off, blessed by God, but still trying to find Him at the Temple, according to the Old Testament laws of worship, which were passing away.  They didn’t understand that access to God now comes by gathering around Jesus. 

     Judging by the attendance rates at Christian Churches today, most people still don’t get it.  God showers blessings down on people today, and every day.  Our lives are usually filled with many material blessings, all from God.  And even when our lives are difficult, God through His Word and Sacraments freely delivers the Solution, the eternal fix for sin, disease, guilt, sorrow, shame and death.  All of us sinners have access to perfect healing, by faith in Jesus Christ.  But do our churches overflow with people giving thanks?  Are the people of God demanding more and more services, that they may give thanks each day for His rich bounty?  Are we even filling the pews one day a week? 

      A big part of the problem is that many people, including many of the Baptized, think they can give thanks to God any way they please.  For that matter, for many, any god will do.  Claiming that there is just One true God, and just One Man through whom we sinners can approach the LORD is considered by many to be rude.  Declaring that salvation comes through Christ alone is very taboo these days, very much incorrect in polite society.  I mean, we don’t want to offend the Hindus, the Jews, the Moslems, or the Atheists.   The Samaritan leper knew to worship God in the man Jesus.  But out of a misguided desire to be “nice” to people, even at the cost of eternal truth, we all too often get the Who of worship –Jesus Christ alone – completely wrong.

     Even when people get the Who right, even when we claim to be worshiping the Triune God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, as revealed by Jesus, we still very often get the Where wrong.   Because, after all, “I can worship God in nature.”  “I can commune with the Lord on the lake.”  Except no, you can’t really.  This isn’t to say you can’t be a Christian and go camping or to the lake or whatever.  Nor am I saying we can’t look at nature and say a prayer of thanksgiving for this wonderful world we live in.  Nor am I denying that Christians in their personal devotions are drawing near to the Lord.  Reading or hearing the Word and praying to God during the week is a tremendous thing.  By all means, do it!  Jesus did, after all, withdrawing to solitary places to pray.  But Jesus also attended the Synagogue, and the Temple. 

    Even more for us mortals, personal devotions are a good thing, that flow from the best thing, from the main thing, the heart of worship.  Along with teaching you about your sin and Christ’s forgiveness, the Word of God you read and pray privately will tell you to congregate, to go where Jesus is gathering His believers.     

      Because the heart of worship is coming together around Christ.  The worship that matters most, and which empowers our personal devotions, this worship happens when, like the healed Samaritan, the believers in Christ gather around Him, to receive His blessings and give thanks, praising Him and worshiping Him.  Through Jesus, we worship in the Spirit, and we worship the Father as well.  Jesus, the Son of God who has become also the Son of Mary, was born to build a Church, that is, a gathering of people.  Right worship is a gathering around Jesus, and we can do this, because He promises to be wherever two or three or more gather in His Name.  Jesus Christ coming to us through His Word is the Who and the Where of worship. 

      Which just leaves the question: How?  How does Jesus want us to worship?  How has Jesus taught His Church to worship?  From the Samaritan we have learned the Who of worship (Jesus Christ, who gives us the Holy Spirit and brings us to God the Father), and also the Where of worship (wherever Jesus is, there is the place for worship, and Jesus promises to be where His people gather in His Name).  With the right Who and Where, we are definitely headed in a good direction.  But once we’ve gathered around Jesus, “How do we worship?”  

      Again, the Samaritan leper shows us the way.  In fact, the shape of the Divine Service can be seen in his story.  The lepers start out confessing their sin problem.  Standing at a distance, acknowledging their leprosy, they cry out: “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.”  Then Jesus speaks to them, declaring a Word of promise and blessing on their disease.  After receiving His healing by the power of His Word, the Samaritan, the leper who believed in Jesus, approaches God in Christ, praising Him as he draws near, falling at His feet in thanksgiving.  Then Jesus sends him away with the sweetest benediction – “Rise and go your way, your faith has saved you.”  Notice that – Jesus says, “your faith has saved you.” The obvious miracle in this account is the cleansing of his skin from the sores of leprosy.  But this healing is the lesser miracle.  The greater miracle, the point of this whole episode, is not healing from leprosy, but rather it is salvation from sin and eternal death, by faith in Jesus.   

      The How of worship is Divine Service, God through Christ coming to us sinners to serve us, to heal our souls and save us, to receive our praise, and then dismiss us for our daily lives, another day, another week, lived under His blessing, under His benediction. 

     And so, we also gather to confess.  Some of us, like the lepers, even stand at a distance, way in the back of the church.  We gather, confessing our sin problem, not leprosy, but a thousand other manifestations of our sin.  We confess the impact of sin, and we confess our sinfulness, how it messes up our lives and the lives of others.  We confess the guilt we carry because of our sins.  We cry out, in Confession, in Kyrie and Gloria and Agnus Dei – “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” 

    And He does.  Jesus speaks forgiveness and blessing to us through His Word, reminding us we have been washed clean from the leprosy of sin in our Baptism.  And still today, because our sin causes us so much doubt and pain, Jesus cleanses our souls again and again, in Absolution, in His Word put to song, in reading and in Sermon.  Your sins are forgiven, in Jesus Christ. 

      Rejoicing in His gift of forgiveness, we praise God and come to Jesus, kneeling before Him.  We meet Christ, our face before His hidden flesh at the Communion rail, worshiping by receiving the Eucharist, which means the thanksgiving meal, the meal where Jesus gave thanks, for the privilege of saving sinners like you and me.  So we too give thanks for Jesus, by receiving Him in our mouths.  There is no higher worship than to eat and drink His Body and Blood, trusting they are given and shed for the forgiveness of sins.  We worship by eagerly receiving forgiveness again, and again.  Because our sin is just that bad, but Jesus is just that good. 

      Forgiven by faith in the flesh and blood Jesus, we hear His blessing, “Rise and go, your faith has saved you.  The Lord is with you, the Lord smiles upon you.  Go in His Peace, Amen.