Let Us Worship
And Bow Down (I):
The Loveliest Place
Bible Reading:
Psalm 84
PREPARED BY
KEN GEHRELS
PASTOR
CALVIN CHRISTIAN REFORMED CHURCH
NEPEAN, ONTARIO
Let Us Worship And Bow Down (I): The Loveliest Place p.1
"What on earth was I thinking?"
It was a dark February evening when this thought kept pounding in Sandra’s
head. “What have I done?”
The cold sleet outside seemed like some kind of cruel reinforcer of the
numbness and chill she felt in her soul.
Only a few months before it had seemed so right.
Right to leave her boring marriage of 17 years, Mike and the kids. It had all
seemed like cheap vanilla.... so dull.
Especially compared to the new sales rep at work who cared, and
listened, treated her romantically, did exciting things in new places.
So she’d left for a new life, a future with him.
What she didn’t anticipate was that as quickly as Mr. Romance blew in, he
blew out. On to his next adventure.
And she was left, alone, in this cramped downtown apartment.
With nothing.
No-one.
Realizing that what she had written off in such a cavalier fashion was
actually rich, deep and solid.
She began to crave it, long for it.
Richard was longing, too.
Richard was in his first year of university - experiencing life on campus. Had
to do his own laundry. Had to source his own food (notice I didn’t say "cook").
Get up and out to class all by himself.
Suddenly, life with mom looked awfully, incredibly good.
He longed for a real home-cooked meal;
for someone to fold his socks;
to welcome him when he walked in the door.
Going home for Christmas was going to be mighty nice.
What was it that Canada’s folk music icon, Joni Mitchell, sang in Big Yellow
Taxi:
"Don’t it always seem to go
Let Us Worship And Bow Down (I): The Loveliest Place p.2
that you don’t know what you got till it’s gone?"
What we have we take for granted...... till it’s pulled away for a time.
Ask anyone who’s seriously ill or becomes disabled.
Colwyn Francis Balmer - may that never happen to you.
May you never be lulled to sleep in the face of great blessing and
opportunity; but instead live to see and appreciate it for the gift of God that it
is.
May your life be filled with gratitude instead of longing and regret.
Longing -
A deep desire for something or somewhere or someone.
We’re going to read some words from the Bible that are filled with exactly that
emotion - longing, yearning, hungering......
Let’s read it together:
PSALM 84 p.671
The author is listed as one of the “Sons of Korah”.
Same folks who wrote the words of longing found in Psalm 42 -
As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O
God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When can I go and meet with God?
We’re not terribly clear on what led to this cry from the heart:
My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord....
A straight forward, deep hunger to be in church;
the gathering place to worship, meet and experience God.
That’s the bottom line of this piece of ancient poetry.
The writer wanted to be in the house of God.
But you get the sense that it was out of reach; couldn’t get there -
Let Us Worship And Bow Down (I): The Loveliest Place p.3
- perhaps life circumstance through family situation or finances didn’t
permit.
- perhaps, as happened on regular occasion, it was too dangerous to
travel. Roving bands from surrounding enemy nations terrorized the hill
country. You would head for the temple at the risk of your very life....
something we’re not familiar with at all, but common to many believers around
the world still today.
We will, by the way, be focusing on that this evening. We will gather at
the Communion Table with the theme of prayers for the persecuted church.
Our special guests will be a group of Sudanese Christians who know firsthand
what it is to suffer for their faith. They’ll share their story with us.
The poet thinks jealously of the birds that flew through the Temple courtyards
and made their nests in building nooks.
Ah!! To be near God, that way, all the time!
What a wonderful thing to be in Church.
The minutes spent there are precious - better than a thousand elsewhere.
Better even an entry level position, just getting your foot in the door of
hanging around church.....
....better that than well heeled and retired in some rich resort.
There’s the theme and focus of the poem - a celebration of Temple worship.
For Old Testament believers, the Temple was the central place to be
renewed in faith,
restored in hope,
refocused in life priorities,
reconnected to God.
How wonderful and important to be there.
For us, as we read this poem, well -
we don’t have a temple.
And we who are Christian live in the promise and truth of Jesus that He sends
His Holy Spirit into the very heart and life of each believer.
God with us.
God in us.
Let Us Worship And Bow Down (I): The Loveliest Place p.4
Always.
It is not so that we need to go to some building or through some priest to find
Him.
And yet.......
True as that is......
I want to submit to each of you here that the main thrust and longing of this
poem still fits. The sentiment is still valid today.
Problem is - we in cozy, comfy, peaceful Canada don’t often recognize
it.
Remember Joni Mitchell -
You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.
We have the freedom to gather each week, more than once, with other
believers in worship.
We have the privilege of taking all our struggles, pains, joys and
accomplishments......
Our worries, our hopes, our routines......
Our lives.....
We have the freedom to take them and present them in a focused
fashion to God; to have our spiritual sights reset; our sense of
heavenly vision restored; our conduit to God through Jesus Christ
unclogged; our souls refreshed; our sins confessed; our promises
renewed.
We can do that without distractions of tasks around the house, salespeople
calling, televisions blaring, job lists nagging.
A set apart place and time -
- holy space.
With set apart people who are struggling through the same sorts of
things we do in the same sort of imperfect way -
- holy people.
What a huge privilege!!
Let Us Worship And Bow Down (I): The Loveliest Place p.5
How lovely.....
Colwyn: what a richness you inherit here this morning!
Dave & Sheila, raise him in that.
Hogeveen clan, nurture him in that.
Family of Christ at Calvin, draw and grow him by your word and example
into the richness of Church life.
The richness that is found through the focused experience of Jesus Christ in
this place and time; a focused experience you won’t find anywhere else.
Loblaws doesn’t stock it on their shelves.
Local Heros doesn’t off it on the menu.
Nortel isn’t manufacturing it.
Governmental departments don’t give grants for it.
St. Augustine said, centuries ago, that there is a spot way down deep inside
of every human being — right in their nucleus, so to speak ----
a spot way down inside that is God-shaped.
Nothing else fits in that spot.
And until that spot at the centre of our lives is filled with Him, we
will remain fundamentally unsatisfied with life. We’ll always have a sense,
somewhere that something is missing.
Remember Disney’s animated movie Toy Story?
How many of you saw it?
Remember Woody, the toy cowboy?
At one point, he confronts Buzz Lightyear, a toy astronaut, with the fact that he
is only an action figure and not really a space hero. Woody shouts, "You’re not
a space ranger! You’re an action figure—a child’s plaything."
After he fails to fly, Buzz realizes the truth of Woody’s statement.
Grief-stricken and disillusioned, Buzz hangs his head in resignation, declaring,
"I’m just a stupid, little, insignificant toy."
Woody later seeks to comfort his friend by underscoring the love of the
boy who owns them both. "You must not be thinking clearly. Look, over in
Let Us Worship And Bow Down (I): The Loveliest Place p.6
that house, there’s a kid who thinks you’re the greatest, and it’s not
because you’re a space ranger; it’s because you’re his."
As Buzz lifts his foot, he sees a label affixed to the bottom of his little
shoe. There in black permanent ink is the name of the little boy to whom he
belongs. Seeing the image of his owner, Buzz breaks into a smile and takes
on a new determination.
Buzz needed to belong.
Guess what?
So do we.
Not to a little boy, but to the divine Maker of Heaven and Earth.
Ecclesiastes 3:11 tells us “…God has also set eternity in the hearts of
humanity…” – the hole in the soul that only God can fill.
Church is the one place and group and time in society that specializes in
helping us get that sorted out;
the one place and group and time that helps fill that empty spot with the
right ingredient -
a living relationship with Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
Now - while the rote action of walking through the doors of a church won’t do
it...... anymore than walking into a garage turns you into a car......
There is no place quite like church for getting that relationship with the
Lord squared up, energized and focused.
Where else do we spend concentrated time with Him?
Where else do we show devotion like that?
Where else can we find inspiration like that?
Where can we find challenge and stretching?
You know, we can say that it is possible in other places and ways.
“I can worship God in the quiet of my bedroom; I can experience Him alone in
the woods; I can sense Him while walking along the canal.”
Ever heard that...... or found yourself saying that?
And - how true that is.
Thanks to the presence of the Holy Spirit, it can and does happen.
Let Us Worship And Bow Down (I): The Loveliest Place p.7
But equally true is the fact that for most of us, while it may be a
possibility, it doesn’t end up happening. At least not on a regular basis, with
the consistent sort of rhythm that we need to maintain and deepen our spiritual
walk with Christ.
It just doesn’t happen.
Because in other corners and places of life, there are too many other
things clamoring for our time and attention.
Psalm 84 talks about the Valley of Baca, which literally translated means
“valley of tears.” The Valley of Baca was part of the desert country. The
valley was filled with thorns, wild animals, pitfalls, vipers and all sorts of
danger. In addition, there were wells of water but they were often far apart and
hard to get to. It was nearly impossible to travel this valley without facing
extreme hardship and suffering.
Somewhere along the way every one of us goes through such a valley.
Because of job challenges, marital struggles, family disputes, illness of body
or mind, hopes not realized, frustrations of various sorts.......
The tough times.
If you haven’t experienced them, better look over your shoulder.
For the poet the valley times were endurable because of the Temple times.
Hard chapters of life could be handled because there were also the times of
refreshment, when a dry and thirsty soul could be refreshed in God’s
presence.
You can see the connection to our lives, can’t you?
How many of you go camping?
Do you build campfires?
Can you tell me how many sticks it takes to build a fire?
At least two or more, right? You can’t build a fire with a single piece of
wood.
What happens when you pull a burning log out of the fire? What happens to
the flame?
It goes out.
Let Us Worship And Bow Down (I): The Loveliest Place p.8
The gathering as Church is the coming together of many little souls, individual
embers of faith. Huddled together, they can roar into a blazing fire of
passionate devotion to Jesus. Pulled apart, the glow of faith dies and grows
cold.
One of the realities of people is that we tend to relate well, respond better to
things that are visible than things that are not.
If, while preaching or teaching, I give you an illustration which you can
picture in your mind, you’ll remember it longer than a simple statement of
truth.
And if I happened to be holding some actual object in my hand, you’ll
remember that even longer than the illustration.
What we can see and touch impacts us.
We cannot see God.
We cannot touch Him.
We can see and touch fellow believers.
We can hear the singing of fellow saints.
We can experience the hug and touch of a supportive believer.
And we get these through our involvement in church.
At this concrete place and time.
Through this community known in the Bible as “the Body of Christ.”
Equally true, of course, is that as much as the Body of Christ on earth is made
up of people, it is made up of sinful people, imperfect people.
It is a body with warts and wrinkles
a body with scars.
Which means that sometimes instead of drawing each other towards Christ,
towards the Lord, we actually drive people away.
Instead of replenishing others, refreshing them - we drain them.
Instead of offering healing - we hurt.
Instead of sharing in generosity and service - we become selfish,
demanding our way, our interests, our rights.
Instead of supporting - we become controlling.
That’s sin.
Let Us Worship And Bow Down (I): The Loveliest Place p.9
And that demands repentance - seeking forgiveness from God and from the
one we have hurt.
Seeking forgiveness..... and working to change our behaviour.
Repentance - that’s the first call of response today.
And..... the second item:
Renewed appreciation.
Come on out tonight, listen to our Sudanese brothers and sisters, and
you’ll realize in a fresh way just how good we’ve really got it here.
So here’s another challenge.
Can we look around and appreciate this moment, this space, this family
of people for the rich gift of God that it is?
I worry about that sometimes...... that we have come to take this
beautiful community of Christ at Calvin CRC for granted;
I worry about that when I see how we sometimes blow little
inconveniences into huge obstacles;
I worry about that when I see how we slap labels on and shun each
other, we absent ourselves from service for the silliest of reasons;
I worry about that when I see people treat this treasured community like
a buffet table - dipping in for a nibble here, a taste there, and then voom out
the door.
In the name of God, I say:
Celebrate it!
Support it!
Take part in it!
Share it!
Give thanks for it!
Pray for it!
For Colwyn’s sake........ for Christ’s sake.
