Epiphany 1
4 January 2026
Vineville Baptist Church
Macon, Georgia
Gregory Pope
IN THE BEAUTY OF HOLINESS: The Sacred Actions of Worship
#1 of 7: THE GATHERING
THE GATHERING: WHY ARE WE HERE?
Isaiah 6:1-8. Psalm 122:1. Hebrews 10:19-25. 1 Cor 14:26
Christians have been gathering for almost 2000 years in a service of song and prayer, scripture and sermon, communion and offering. The order of the service is loosely based on Jewish synagogue worship originating from the Babylonian exile some 500 years before Christ. Why have we been gathering? What is the reason for this hour?
I begin with you today a series of sermons addressing the meaning of this hour, asking the question: Why do we do what we do in congregational worship? On Wednesday mornings and evenings this winter we will be discussing the sermon from the previous Sunday as we work together toward a congregational understanding of corporate worship. This morning we talk about the purpose of congregational worship. And the next four weeks we will walk through a service of worship looking at the essential elements to a service that fulfills worship’s purpose.
I want to begin by making the assertion that it is part of our human nature to reach beyond ourselves for something transcendent. Worship gives us the opportunity to offer our lives to the God who is beyond us, the God who placed within us the desire for Something more. The Westminster Confession says that the chief end of humanity is to glorify God and to enjoy God forever. Faithful worship enables us to fulfill this purpose.
But why do we meet together? Is there something that happens in worship together that cannot happen in worship alone? Can we not just read a good sermon or devotional at home
and stream our favorite worship music and not bother gathering with other people for worship who may like music we don’t particularly care for? Is congregational worship really necessary?
Many “non-churchgoing Christians” or “post-congregational Christians,” as some prefer to be called – they will tell you: You don’t need a congregation in order to worship. They will tell you
that they can get their personal religious needs met without the church or congregational worship.
As we consider such a perspective, it is significant, I think, to remember that scripture almost always addresses a group of people, not isolated individuals. Scripture tells us that we are each members of the body of Christ, and can no more cut ourselves off from the congregation than an arm or a foot can say to the rest of the body, “I don’t need you.” When we come together for worship we are acknowledging and affirming the reality of our interconnectedness as the one body of Christ and our need for each other. We are here not only to DO something – worship – but to BE something – the church.1
Walter Brueggemann says that our presence in worship is essential. We must show up, he says, as a visible testimony to the world that we are aligned with God and God’s people.2 The writer of Hebrews warned early Christians not to neglect to meet together, but to encourage one another with their presence (Heb 10:25). The very act of gathering is an act of mutual encouragement. We cannot overestimate the power of this fellowship. We gather from our homes and a variety of walks of life to meet in one place as an expression of our shared life together.
As we gather we are enacting a centuries long tradition described by Justin Martyr as early as the second century. He writes: On the day which is called Sunday, all who live in the cities or in the countryside gather together in one place.
We gather on Sunday because Sunday is the Day of Resurrection. Sunday is the first day of the week, the day God began the creation of the world. It is also the day God began the re-creation of the world with the Resurrection of Jesus.
We gather here because God has called us together. We are not here only because we decided to get up this morning and come. The initiative was actually God’s. God has invited us here and called us together as God’s people. God has invited us here to bring the entirety of our lives before God and offer them to God for healing, for direction, for transformation. If we’re not careful we may think we are here to be entertained or inspired, or to feel good, when our actual purpose for being here is to offer our lives, our complete selves to God in worship.
Now, just because we have gathered in one place doesn’t necessarily mean we think of ourselves as worshiping together. Are we here lifting our hearts together as one people? OR Are we here as a collection of isolated individuals offering our private personal worship? Should the worship service be constructed primarily for the enrichment of individuals or to unite God’s people as the church? Though these two aims are not mutually exclusive, our answer to these questions has great consequence for what we expect in this hour.
It is my conviction that though this is a service where individuals offer their worship, I think the Sunday worship hour should have a congregational, communal focus rather than be primarily shaped for individual purposes. I am aware that worship focusing on the needs of the individual is usually more popular and more well-attended than worship services that call us to think of ourselves as a faith community. Tom Long reminds us not to focus on the size of the crowd because not everything that attracts people to the sanctuary is authentic worship.3 We cannot judge authentic worship by the size of the crowd or the approval of worshipers. Worshipers must not be viewed as consumers that worship planners seek to please. Worship is for God and God alone.
The worship hour is where we live into the Great Commandment to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Worship is about turning our hearts and lives toward God. Worship is about encountering the Holy One, seen in the Isaiah story we read earlier.
One way in which we bring a more communal focus to our worship is through the pronouns in our songs and prayers, using “we” and “us,” more than “I” and “me.” Individual expression, while still present, is to be caught up in the communal expressions of worship we live into together. Sunday worship is a communal event where we unite our voices in praise and prayer. And our daily private worship flows out of our Sunday communal worship.
I mentioned earlier those “post-congregational Christians” who say their personal religious needs can be met without the church or congregational worship. And I would say to them that they are partly right. You can worship anywhere. And many of our personal religious needs can be met without the church or congregational worship. However, I would want to submit the idea that biblical worship is not about getting your personal religious needs met. This hour is not about you or me or our needs. It is about God. It is about God’s people uniting together to offer our lives in worship to God so that together we can better serve the world around us. In worship. we learn to live with others and for others, rather than living alone and only for ourselves.
We all have deep spiritual hungers and personal needs that must be met. Today we gather after a week of losing four beloved church family members in a matter of eight days. And we need God to comfort us, to minister to us, to strengthen us. Without God we are powerless and lost. And God is available any hour of the day, any day of the week, any place in all creation, for us to pray to God and rest in God’s presence and allow God to heal our broken places. And sometimes our personal needs can be met in congregational worship.
However, I would question coming to worship only to see what God can do for us. The primary purpose of this hour is not for us to be blessed or ministered to. This hour is for the worship of our hearts directed toward God. We must not focus our worship on ourselves and our needs. The Bible calls that idolatry.
Many people enter worship for the purpose of being spiritually fed. We often evaluate worship based on what we “receive” from the service. Part of that mind set comes from living in a self-centered culture that encourages us to think first and foremost about ourselves. I also wonder if we do not turn occasions meant for the congregational worship of God into opportunities for personal benefit because we do not sit alone in God’s presence during the week to be fed by personal prayer, worship and devotion.
Scripture speaks of worship as a ministry to God. We often turn worship on its head, making it a ministry to ourselves. With so much of our lives revolving around ourselves and our families, I wonder if we could not at least devote this one hour to God? Can we enter this place not looking for what we can gain for ourselves, but looking for what part of ourselves we can offer to God more fully, even if that part is our grieving hearts? The primary issue of this hour is not what God will do for us but what we will offer in the worship of God.
It has been said that worship has both a horizontal and vertical dimension. The horizontal is what happens among ourselves when we gather as the Body of Christ. The vertical dimension is our directed attention toward God, the subject and reason for our worship gathering. If we’re not careful we become confused as to why we are here.
Soren Kierkegaard was disturbed in his day to discover that Christians attended worship much like they attended the theater. The worship leaders were seen as the on-stage actors, God was the off-stage prompter, and the congregation was the audience. Kierkegaard said that in authentic worship: the actors are the worshipers in the congregation, the worship leaders are the off-stage prompters, and the audience of worship is always and only God. I agree with Kierkegaard, but I would add that as the audience God is engaged in audience participation. God acts, speaks, heals, forgives, challenges, and calls us as we worship.
This is the hour we worship the living God. And we do well to call this hour “worship.” When I was growing up we often referred to the 11:00 hour as “going to church” or “going to preaching.” But the church is something we are. Preaching is only one act in the hour. Worship is what we are all here to do.
And authentic worship, while addressed to God will meet the deepest need of people, which is, to offer our lives to God for healing, guidance, and purpose. The result of worship is that the church is edified. Christian worship has been described as “the glorification of God and the sanctification (a making holy) of the faithful.” When we praise God we become shaped more deeply into God’s image. The fourth century African bishop St. Augustine said, “We imitate whom we adore.” Worship builds us up as a body of believers and shapes us into the people of God. Paul instructed the Corinthian church to let all things be done – not to feel good or to be blessed – but for the building up of the Body of Christ (1 Cor 14:26). “In the act of corporate worship, our union with God and with each other is strengthened.”4
The reason for worship is to glorify God and God alone. We gather here each week at the corner of Vineville and Pio Nono to glorify God and to be enriched by the fellowship of one another. When we enter this hour of worship in this holy space may we remember that we are here to offer our lives more fully to God. As one song writer put it: We sing and pray together before an audience of One.5
I conclude this morning with a story from Episcopal priest Barbara Brown Taylor where she tells of being assigned to lead worship at a seminary one Wednesday at noon with a former Catholic priest named Bernard. She writes:
After the clock struck 12 we waited five more minutes . . . but no one ever came.“Do you
want to cancel?” Bernard asked me. “I don’t think so,” I said, although my hands were starting to sweat. In the absence of a congregation, there could be no mistake about whom the service was for. Bernard looked as timid as I felt. “Will you come inside the altar rail and say the service with me?” I asked him, and he nodded.
For the next 30 minutes, we were the church. We praised God’s holy name. We proclaimed God’s word. We interceded on behalf of [others], and we confessed the sins of the whole world. After we had received absolution, [forgiveness], we exchanged God’s peace. Then we broke bread and fed each other from God’s table.
After it was all over, we both knew that there was no sense trying to talk about it, so
Bernard put on his coat, hugged me and left. I . . . turned to fill in the service book. Everything was obvious except “Number Present.” I knew that “2″ was right, but it did not seem true. I would have written “(an infinity sign)” if I had thought I could get away with it. I finally settled on “3,” to include the Invisible One whose presence is all that really counts.
She said her eyes were opened to a profound truth that day. She writes: While a congregation
might benefit from participation in the prayers, the services are not for them. The services are for God. As long as God is present, the show goes on, and the house is always full. After years of planning services designed to fill the pews I was in need of this reminder. When was the last time I had chosen a hymn because I believed that God would like it? I work hard to make worship gratifying for those who attend. But I wonder if that work does not backfire sometimes, by fooling those same people into thinking that they are the chief ones to be pleased by their worship.
The services are for God. As long as God is present, the show goes on, and the house is always full. And the church becomes the church.
______________________________
- Louis Weil, A Theology of Worship, Cowley, 2002, 35
- Walter Brueggemann, Worship in Ancient Israel, Abingdon, 2005, 13
- Thomas Long, Beyond the Worship Wars, The Alban Institute, 2001, 17
- Weil, 35
- Mike Pilavachi, Foreword, in Matt Redman, The Unquenchable Worshiper, Regal, 2001, 13
- Barbara Brown Taylor, The Christian Century, “Full House”, 17 January 2001