“Boring Worship Is an Oxymoron”

Revelation 5:11-14

[“If you’re happy and you know it…”]

What was that all about? Worship: joyful, energetic worship. Hand-clapping, foot-stomping, “amen!”- saying worship. When we were saying amen (or ah-men) we were acting out what an amen is all about. An amen is supposed to be a robust affirmation that God’s will is being done – on earth as it is in heaven.

But all too often our demeanor in worship tells the world that our outward amen hides our inner thoughts about God’s will being done, as we say in our hearts, “I hope it’s true.” The title of today’s sermon suggests that boring, passive, half-hearted amens are part of a worship style that is boring, passive, and half-hearted. Boring worship is by definition an oxymoron. What is an oxymoron? It is a figure of speech in which contradictory terms are combined, as in “deafening silence” or “mournful optimist.”

Today’s text is a vision of worship in heaven. Countless thousands of angels sing out in praise of the Lamb, who is worthy of receiving power and wealth and wisdom and might. Then every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea proclaim that God the Father and his Son Jesus - the Lamb who was slain – are to be given blessing and honor and glory and might. Then the four living creatures say a powerful “amen!” And the elders fell down and worshiped.

That is our model for worshiping God not just in some heavenly future, but here and now on earth: mighty songs of praise, no-doubts-whatsoever amens, and even falling to our knees as we worship our Triune God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – with passion and exuberance. There’s an old country-western song called “Love Me Like You Mean It!” When we worship the Lord our God we should do so like we mean it. If we’re happy, we clap our hands, move our feet, and say “amen!” like we mean it.

A few quotes on the subject: first from William Barclay, “Here [in this text] is the truth that heaven and earth and all that is within them is designed for the praise of Jesus Christ; and it is our privilege to lend our voices and our lives [our very lives] to this vast chorus of praise, for that chorus is necessarily incomplete so long as there is one voice missing in it.”

From N. T. Wright: “[Our text is not] a vision of the future… but [offers] a glimpse of what is going on, night and day, in the present time. The question that has faced the world since Easter is… granted that a new, transforming, reality is let loose in the world, are we prepared to join in the song?”

And Eugene Peterson: “Christians worship with a conviction that they are in the presence of God. Worship is an act of attention to the living God who rules, speaks and reveals, creates and redeems, orders and blesses.” [and] “[People] who worship sing.”

And this very short quote from Christian Rossetti: “Heaven is revealed [in today’s text] as the homeland of music.”

There are some common threads running through all of those quotes: singing, music, the conviction that we are in the presence of God, and the reality that our worship coincides with the worship of the angels in heaven. People who worship join with all of heaven and earth in songs of praise and thanksgiving. The truth is that praise and thanksgiving are all that we really have to offer God. People who worship do so as if they are in the very presence of God - because they are in the very presence of God. Worship as described in today’s text is carried out in the present tense. It’s not something that we’ll do some day. It’s something we do now.

I’ve said before that the worship and music I experienced in this place almost six years ago were major attractions to Grace. You guys sing – and play - like you mean it. Sometimes as I listen to the choir or praise team or the CWF break out into two or three or four part harmonies I’m reminded of an old Garrison Kiellor routine about singing in the church choir. To paraphrase his words, when on a Sunday morning the choir sings in perfect four part harmony, it’s better than sex and almost as good as sweet corn. You guys are that good.

And why shouldn’t you be? You are in the presence of God and God’s people, joined by the Spirit in worship with every Christian on earth, the Communion of Saints above, and the entire heavenly host. And when we sing as a congregation we should follow the example our singing groups set for us. No, the harmony doesn’t always have to be perfect. No, not everybody is blessed with a gift for song. The point is that we do our best and that we do it joyfully, passionately, and like we really mean it.

I will be the first to admit that I’m not 100% committed to worship every Sunday morning. Just like you I bring the worries and concerns of life into this sanctuary with me. Sometimes I’m tired. Sometimes I’d like nothing more than to be sitting on a beach somewhere gazing at the ocean. But something happens when the service begins. It might be the choir. It might be the music or lyrics of a hymn. Sometimes it’s the praise team or CWF. Sometimes it’s simply the energy that flows from the sanctuary to the pulpit as you guys worship like you really mean it. Sometimes I’m even surprised by my own sermon. Whatever, the necessary inner buttons get pushed, the tiredness dissipates, the worries get shoved to the back of my mind, and I can’t imagine being anywhere else than right here worshipping our Lord with you.

And sometimes in those moments I can’t help but remember the second line of today’s Affirmation of Faith: “The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.” The greatest thing a human being can do is worship God in spirit and in truth: to honor, glorify, and praise the Lord; to remember the Great Prayer of Thanksgiving as we lift up our hearts to the Lord and give him our thanks and praise - like we mean it.

And then there’s that word “enjoy.” We are to enjoy being in God’s presence, to enjoy being the people who are saved by his grace. We do so with our songs and prayers and litanies and responses. We do so as we share the peace of Christ. In the enjoyable presence of God we find ourselves laughing, smiling, and shedding tears of joy. And this enjoyment is to be forever: on earth and in heaven. Even in this present moment we can say with the angels above and creatures below: “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing! To the One seated on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever! Amen!”

But what about those who first heard these words? They were enduring a bloody persecution. In the midst of that did that glorify and enjoy God? Yes, yes they did. Writes Eugene Peterson, “Nothing could be further from the truth than to imagine the Christians in those [Asian] congregations as huddling wretches, holding on to their faith by their fingernails, with [John], their pastor, reaching frantically for a desperate means… to secure their endurance through the worst of times.”

Furthermore he writes, “These men and women from the moment of their baptism in the name of the Trinity, knew their lives as miracles of resurrection. The people who gathered each Lord’s Day to sing their Lord’s praises and receive his life were the most robust in the Roman Empire. They were immersed in splendors. They brimmed with life.”

And: “Even when their zeal cooled, as it sometimes did, and their taut loyalties went a little slack, as sometimes happened, there was far more going on in their lives than in the Babylon-seduced lives of their contemporaries. And they knew it… There cannot have been many dull moments in those lives, nor need there be in ours. When dull moments did come, they were recognized as the work of the devil and were chased [away] by the apocalypse-informed imagination at worship.”

Their worship was not boring or dull or rote. It was alive. They knew that John’s visions of heaven had nothing to do with pie-in-the-sky-by-and-by. What was happening in heaven was happening on earth as they joined the heavenly host in glorifying God and enjoying him forever.

And nothing has changed. Can I get an “amen?”