March 5, 2000

Pastor David G. Mullen

Mark 9:2-9

A common Sunday question is, "What did you get out the service today?" The question is about our hope that something will happen when we go to church! We certainly donât want to come to worship and be bored! No, something is supposed to happen to us at worship. Just what that something is supposed to be÷thatâs what weâre not always clear on. Consequently, there are many answers to the issue of what weâre supposed to get out of church, or hope to get of church.

Commenting on the whole modern obsession with "user-friendly worship" a famous Christian writer, Annie Dillard, wrote: "Why do people in churches seem like cheerful.. tourists on a packaged tour of the Absolute?·On the whole, I do not find Christians ·sufficiently sensible of conditions. Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke?· It is madness to wear ladiesâ hats [and other finery]; we should all wear crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews·"

Sure, she exaggerates, but she makes her point. I kind of like the idea of us needing to be buckled into our pews like weâre boarding a simulator ride at DisneyLand, expecting something powerful and even frightening may well happen. Buckle up.

The whole experience up on the mountain of Transfiguration -- something that ended up looking a lot like worship -- absolutely terrified the disciples. I donât think that the idea of "user-friendly worship" quite fits what happened to Peter, James, and John when they saw Jesus shining brighter than the sun and heard the voice of God thunder from the cloud, "This is my beloved Son, listen to him."

On this day of the Transfiguration we might with some justification worry just a bit about how comfortable÷or "user-friendly we should be at worship, and maybe we should think about whether what we think we should be getting out of a service is really what ought to happen.

That such terrifying experiences of God in the Bible, such as what Elisha saw happen to Elijah in our first lesson today are embedded in the memory of church ought to warn us again about worship heresy. What is meant by heresy is when sincere Christians take good ideas too far, to the extremes. Heresy is Christian extremism. I think the various feuding camps in what some call "the worship wars" are engaged in heresy.

Let's think about this for a bit. One front in the worship wars is worship as entertainment. Huge mega-churches have sprung up exactly on this concept. Lively music accompanied by rock bands; professional singers and actors doing performances; stand-up comedians, charismatic speakers, these are all part of worship as entertainment, designed to lure people in from the cares of daily life and give them a little lift and some helpful hints for living and an introduction to ideas about God and Christ. There is good in all that, but surely worship is about more than merely being entertained.

Another view of what we supposed to get of a worship service can be called "spiritual therapy". This is worship designed to make us feel good, to offer a sense of spiritual rapport and healing, a comfort in a world of sorrows, of being lifted up and embraced by divine love. Surely this view also presents something important about worship. Coming to worship does indeed comfort, heal, and restore hope for many, but surely worship is about more than even that.

A third view of worship is presented in certain strongly evangelical churches: worship as education, with the whole service leading up the sermon, which will be long and will be accompanied with an outline in the bulletin so that the congregation can follow the preacherâs point, and take it all home. What you get out of a service like that is supposed to be the true teaching of the Church, designed for to build up your faith and knowledge about God and morality. That, too, is a good and noble effort, but surely worship is about more than even that.

Well, what should we get out of the service today, then? All of the above, I hope, but all those choices pale in comparison to what the Scriptures would offer us to seek: God. I think that what is most often forgotten is that worship is about God. In the modern worship wars the emphasis seems to be on us: what we want, what we need, what we desire, what we demand to learn. But I think the Transfiguration story is showing us that the service is finally about God, not us. We are here to worship God, not ourselves.

But if there is a chance weâll meet God here, watch out! If the disciples were terrified seeing the divine glory of Christ on the mountain, isnât there a chance God might get through to us like that? We face the possibility something might happen a worship that will to shake us to our very foundations, convict us our sin, and so to speak, transfigure our lives to be more like Christ.

There have been other eras in the life of Godâs people when at least a few were well aware of the risks of coming into the presence of God. "Located at the heart of the Temple in Jerusalem was a room called the ÎHoly of Holies.â It was so sacred that only one person, the high priest, could enter it and he but once a year on the Day of Atonement. The room was empty except for a single throne, which was itself empty. Two golden cherubim spread their wings above it, facing each other across a deliberately empty space. When the high priest entered, he had to do but one thing. He had prepared to do it for months. He was to utter the ineffable name of god, a name made up of four letters of the Hebrew alphabet, all vowels, a name no one quite knew how to pronounce. [It was the name Moses heard centuries earlier at the burning bush.] Maybe it meant, "I am Who I Am" [the words Moses thought he heard the Holy One speak at the time].

"But now here is one more savory detail. Before the high priest went in to the Holy of Holies, [the other priests] tied a rope around his leg. Just in case he should drop dead in the presence of God, they would have a way to drag him out without risk to themselves. User-friendly worship indeed."

What did you get out of the service today? What would it mean if the answer was: God, the Holy One of Israel! Christ, dazzling our hearts! Christ, Beautiful Savior, King of Creation, Son of God and Son of Man, hope for the world, who is worthy of all glory and honor, praise and adoration, now and forevermore! Weâd best put on our spiritual crash helmets and buckle up our souls in readiness to worship him. You just never know might happen to us÷conversion, renewal, if the Holy One shows up and thunders in our ears about Christ: Listen to him!

And then he leads us down the mountain to the poor, the lost, and the Cross. Amen.