passionate worship

from my sermon on 3/7/10 from Psalm 84

Passionate worship....I have been in worship for as long as I can remember. Passionate, I am not sure, but regular, yes. I am a cradle Methodist. My earliest memories are of being welcomed in worship, especially here at this table, at this feast called communion. I love it that we UM's practice an open table, that all are welcome to receive communion. I felt that as a child. I knew what we were doing was holy and that I was invited to be part of it. Growing up, we only had communion once a quarter, every three months, so it was a big deal to go down front and kneel and eat. I remember the old words, "Ye that do truly and earnestly repent of your sins and are in love and charity with your neighbors and intend to lead a new life following after the commandments of God, draw near with faith and take this holy sacrament to your comfort." The food was different. Remember those little dry white crackers. I thought they looked like fish food. I bet they could survive a nuclear attack. I have no idea about whether they were gluten free or not. And the grape juice came in little shot glasses.

I didn't know it at the time, but I was being shaped, welcomed, converted, and included by this feast. What are some of your earliest memories of worship? Can you get a feeling for the pilgrims who sang Psalm 84 as they were on the way to the Temple in Jerusalem....how they longed to worship....to be in the house of the LORD.

I still yearn for worship. This past week I actually got to worship. It's funny, but we pastors write worship services, we lead worship services, but how seldom do we actually get to worship. This past week I did at the Bishop's Convocation. Even though I had some leadership responsibilities, I worshiped. A lot of it came through the music that John Thornburg led. He and I went to seminary together. He now travels all over the world with his music. It says in the psalm that my heart and my sould sing for joy to the living God. John taught us an African chorus that I would like for you to sing with me now.

Come, bring your burdens to God. Jesus will never say no.

We can lay all of our burdens at this altar, on this table. Jesus will never say no.

I actually got to worship on Thursday also. After 3 years as pastor here, I finally got to lead the chapel service with our pre-school kids. Usually they do it in Wyatt Hall, but we were hosting homeless families through Interfaith Hospitality Network this week, so we did it down front here in the sanctuary. It was my birthday, so the kids sang "happy birthday" to me. That was great. Miss Jane asked the kids what color did they see. Purple, they said. And purple stands for what? It is the color of preparing. What are we preparing for? Easter, they said. One boy said, "Easter.....oh, yeah, I've done that once before."

We have too. In fact, every Sunday is a little Easter. Look at the number of days between Ash Wednesday and Easter. It is more than 40 days. You see the Sundays don't count as part of the 40 days of Lent. The Sundays are not fast days; they are feast days. And so we come here today again to eat again with our living Lord, to grow deeper and deeper with God.

We can grow so close to God that even as we go through the valley of tears, we can make it a place of springs (Ps. 84: 6). Many of you know that I am Parko the Clown. You know that I have even served communion as a clown here in worship. I want to tell about a whole church full of clowns. That's right, they all come to worship in their clown outfits and personnas. They pop popcorn. They exchange the peace of Christ. Then they serve popcorn to one another. Then they take bags of popcorn out into the world to share with others.

One clown went to a very hard place...the burn unit in the hospital. Have you ever been there? I have. The first thing that gets me is the smell. I can't describe it, except to say it's awful. A nurse directed the clown to a patient who had been totally unresponsive. She was so down, so withdrawn, she showed no sign of wanting to live. The clown, a mime, entered the room with his bag of popcorn. What could he possibly do? He looked upon the precious girl, disfigured, hooked up to tubes, wrapped in bandages. He began to cry. He simply cried for her. As he did, she began to cry. It was the first response she had made to anyone since her burns. Then the clown took a kernel of popcorn. She couldn't swallow it, so he took it and soaked up her tears with the popcorn. Then he ate it. That was communion. That is passionate worship. That is coming into the presence of God. That's what we are called to do.

Amen.