Gordon E. Ellis
May 6, 2007
WORSHIP IS HALF-TIME
We’ve ALL seen it! In fact, it’s SO proverbial that even the TV show, Friday Night Lights, USED it just a couple of WEEKS ago. And our OWN, Gino Auriemma, is the MASTER of it! How many TIMES have we SEEN it happen with the UCONN women? It’s the SAME old story: a football team, or basketball team, will meet in the locker room for HALF-TIME, and whatever HAPPENS in that locker room -- USUALLY a coach’s PEP-TALK, or maybe a CHANGE in the team’s GAME-PLAN -- but whatever HAPPENS in that locker room will CHANGE the entire COMPLEXION of the game! SUDDENLY, the LOSING team comes out after HALF-TIME a DIFFERENT team. Suddenly, they’re all FIRED-UP! Suddenly, they have a NEW game-plan! And those of us WATCHING the game REALIZE that HALF-TIME, and what HAPPENED there, was absolutely CRUCIAL to the team!
Well, friends: I’D like to suggest that, for CHRISTIANS, Sunday worship is HALF-TIME! And JUST like a football, or basketball game, can be turned around, DEPENDING upon what happens at HALF-TIME, SO can our LIVES be turned around, DEPENDING upon what happens in WORSHIP. You SEE: the GAME itself is not played here at CHURCH! The GAME itself is what we do with the OTHER 167 hours in our WEEK. The GAME itself is in our HOMES and FAMILIES, and how we RELATE to those with whom we have made COVENANTS, the people we have promised to LOVE and CARE for and SUPPORT. THAT’S why I call our MARRIAGES and civil UNIONS a MINISTRY. That’s why I call our PARENTING and grand-parenting a MINISTRY. THAT’S where the REAL game is being played -- and it’s being played ALL week long!
The GAME is also out in our WORKPLACES! If I’m a CHRISTIAN shoemaker, I’M going to make the BEST quality shoes I CAN, and SELL them for the FAIREST price, and stand BEHIND what I sell. If I’m the CEO of a company, I’M going to treat my employees with RESPECT, CARE and COMPASSION, and PROVIDE them with the best salary and benefits package I can possibly AFFORD, from my top level managers right down to the guy sweeping the FLOORS. And I’m going to make SURE that my company deals FAIRLY with our CUSTOMERS and CLIENTS, and NEVER cheats ANYONE. You see: THAT’S why I call our VOCATION, or our CAREER, a MINISTRY. And the SAME reasoning APPLIES whether I’m a STUDENT or a VOLUNTEER or a RETIREE, because THAT’S where the GAME is played!
And I could talk about EVERY dimension of our lives, from the WAY we coach a Little League team to the way we VOTE in the voting booth, from the way we interact with neighbors to the WAY we spend our money, from the HOMES we live in to the internet sites we VISIT. EVERY single thing that we DO, 24-7, is part of the GAME! It’s PART of our DISCIPLESHIP! And THEREFORE, it NEEDS to be INFORMED by God, AND by our FAITH!
And WHAT we do here in WORSHIP is to gather, like a TEAM at HALF-TIME, to LISTEN to our COACH! And by the way, I’M not your COACH! I’M just this team’s WATER boy! I just provide you with a little NOURISHMENT and try to stay OUT of the coach’s WAY. Or MAYBE I’m a TRANSLATOR because, like PROFESSIONAL sports teams today with players from ALL over the globe, there are MANY who DON’T understand the LANGUAGE and CULTURE of God’s Holy WORD, the BIBLE. And I’ve had a little bit of TRAINING, so that I can HELP people understand. So MAYBE I’m just the translator! Or SOMETIMES, I think I’m just a CHEERLEADER! But in ANY case, I’m NOT the COACH, and WORSHIP is about LISTENING to our COACH, whose WORD we find in SCRIPTURE! And friends, AS we listen to our COACH, we are MOTIVATED and RE-ENERGIZED to go BACK into the GAME, or BACK onto the field. AS we listen to our COACH, we are RENEWED for our MISSION! And AS we listen to our COACH, we are REMINDED of our GAME-PLAN, of WHAT it’s all ABOUT and HOW to play the game! And OCCASIONALLY, through the work of God’s Holy SPIRIT, AS in our Scripture Lesson TODAY, our game-plan gets REVISED.
You see: I believe that the Christian church would not have even SURVIVED the first century, and it CERTAINLY would not have become the worldwide, world-changing MOVEMENT that it IS, WITHOUT the TRANSITIONAL experience that happened in today’s Scripture Lesson. IF Christianity had REMAINED simply a SECT within Judaism, it would NOW be EXTINCT. Those FIRST Christians HAD to reach out to the GENTILE world, the NON-Jewish world. And THAT would NOT have HAPPENED if Paul and those early church LEADERS had NOT experienced the MOVEMENT of the Spirit as they DID in our Scripture Lesson, AND in the chapter PREVIOUS to it! You see: for THEM, worship was HALF-TIME! Their coach REVISED their GAME-PLAN and sent them OUT of the locker room, and ONTO the court, RENEWED and RE-ENERGIZED!
As I ALWAYS tell our NEW members: worship is the HEARTBEAT of the church. It is, by FAR, the MOST important thing that we DO here! And if YOU participate in nothing ELSE here at church, participate REGULARLY in WORSHIP! WHY? Because it’s HALF-TIME! OTHERWISE, you’ll get INTO the GAME of life and NOT know what you’re doing! You WON’T even have a GAME-PLAN, much less a REVISED one. And when THAT happens, YOU will DO what everyone ELSE is doing. And you can CALL yourself a CHRISTIAN if you WISH, but there WON’T be any DIFFERENCE between YOU and the NEXT guy. And THAT means that the culture AROUND us will have WON the day. And friends, just take a look at ANY newspaper or NEWS show, and you’ll REALIZE why THAT would be a TRAGEDY! We CANNOT let the culture AROUND us WIN the day! SO, worship, worship, worship! Worship is the KEY to a MEANINGFUL and PURPOSEFUL life! And it’s ALSO the KEY to transforming our WORLD, for as EACH of us LIVES those 167 OTHER hours of every week as a MINISTRY -- as OUR gift to GOD (who is our COACH) and according to our COACH’S game-plan -- the RIPPLES that will extend forth from OUR lives, and from OUR church, will HELP to TRANSFORM and HEAL this broken world! So, think of WORSHIP as HALF-TIME and DON’T miss it!
I told you LAST week that I had a major ANNOUNCEMENT to make today. Well, that ANNOUNCEMENT has to do with WORSHIP, with our HALF-TIME. And it came out of a DILEMMA, just as the decision by the EARLY church to reach out to GENTILES came out of a DILEMMA for Paul and the leaders of THAT church. OUR dilemma involved our 6:00 o’clock service on Sundays. It began when we started hearing from BRANCHES, our worship team (and NOT in a COMPLAINING way at ALL) that playing 2 services EACH and every Sunday was taking its TOLL. And I can certainly UNDERSTAND that. A LOT of them end up giving their ENTIRE Sunday to CHURCH. And I’m SURE you can IMAGINE just how long YOU could DO it! SO, our church STAFF and DEACONS began thinking about, and PRAYING about, how to DEAL with this DILEMMA. Should we try to recruit a SECOND worship team? WHAT should we DO? And WHERE might God be LEADING us? THAT was BIG question for us. Well UNANIMOUSLY, staff and Deacons alike, feel that WHERE the Spirit is LEADING us is just AMAZING and BEAUTIFUL! And we’re VERY excited about it!
HERE’S the PLAN. You’ll be receiving a LETTER this week TELLING you all ABOUT it, so don’t worry if you DON’T remember every DETAIL. Starting next fall, AFTER Rally Day, our 6:00 o’clock service on Sundays will become a CONTEMPLATIVE service called: Be STILL: Contemplative Worship. You’ll still hear the SAME scripture and SERMON. You’ll STILL have weekly COMMUNION and ANOINTING. But it will be a QUIET service, a CANDLELIGHT service, and a service with some SILENCE sprinkled into it. And it will be a very PRAYERFUL service, which will include elements of TRADITIONAL worship, CONTEMPORARY worship, and TAIZE worship, because it will also REPLACE our Tuesday evening TAIZE services, where we’ve ALSO had trouble maintaining ENOUGH musicians. There will also still be Church School, though the kids will go directly to CLASS at the beginning of the hour.
Now, the MUSIC at this new service will be SOFT and BEAUTIFUL, provided by our OWN, Rich Szulczewski and Steve Casillas, sometimes with help from OTHER vocalists, instrumentalists and choral groups. [Rich and Steve will provide music during communion TODAY, so that you can HEAR them]. On Sunday, June 10th at 6:00pm, we will offer a SAMPLE of our new CONTEMPLATIVE worship. I encourage you to come check it out. Then on June 17th, we will have our last EVENING contemporary service, and then STOP our 6:00pm service for the summer, which will help us TRANSITION to our NEW format, as well as save us the expense of air-conditioning the Meetinghouse every Sunday afternoon all summer long. And then, it will start UP again as a CONTEMPLATIVE service on September 16th.
Now, KNOW that CONTEMPLATIVE worship is NOT something NEW. In fact, it’s something very OLD, but it’s becoming NEW again. In a culture filled with NOISE, it enables us to BE STILL and LISTEN for the voice of GOD. And recent RESEARCH tells us that THIS is actually the kind of worship attracting YOUNG people today, people in their TEENS and early 20’s. But, only TIME will TELL if the RESEARCH is true for US. SO, we’d like to give it a TRY! We can always change BACK in the future IF it doesn’t work for us. But I believe that people of ALL ages will COME to it and will LOVE it. AND, it will offer ALL of us another OPTION, a 4th kind of WORSHIP in this church, so that EACH of us can find at least ONE service here that really MOVES us because, after all, worship IS the most IMPORTANT thing that we DO. It’s our HALF-TIME!
And FINALLY, for those who WONDER where the MONEY will come from to hire Rich and Steve, let me ASSURE you that no NEW money will be USED, just a re-distribution of our current MUSIC budget. Friends, if you have QUESTIONS, PLEASE talk to ANY of our pastors OR any DEACON.
But let’s all REMEMBER the main MESSAGE of this sermon: that our WORSHIP life is EXTREMELY important, because it is our HALF-TIME. It’s WHEN we LISTEN to our COACH, who EMPOWERS us to go BACK out onto the field, or the court, and live the OTHER 167 hours of EVERY week with MEANING and PURPOSE, HOPE and JOY, making EVERYTHING that we DO and SAY a MINISTRY, a MINISTRY of LOVE and GOODNESS, PEACE and JUSTICE, that will give GLORY to God AND help HEAL and TRANSFORM our broken world! THANKS be to GOD! Amen.