Have you ever given thought to what you're going to do in worship this coming Sunday? I mean, have you planned your own worship?
I'm not talking about being part of a worship-planning session. I'm not talking about planning what the sermon will be or what the music will be or when you will say the Apostle's Creed in the service or what the prayers will be like and when they will be said.
I'm asking if you've given thought to your personal worship plan. Or do you simply show up, pull a bulletin from an usher's hand and do whatever it tells you?
In Nehemiah 12, the prophet thinks things through, and he prepares for the children of Israel to worship. And, by golly, they do -- worship, I mean. An incredibly complex worship service is held for the first time in this fashion in more than 70 years. Imagine that. You've heard of worship, been told of worship, but you haven't exactly done it, for many of them, in your lifetime. Oh, for some of you that might not be hard to imagine after all.
Stop for a second and see it in your mind: two enormous choirs lead people to give thanks for the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem, for returning to their homeland, for being able to worship in the land of their fathers, or their God. The choirs walk in along the top of the recently built walls, one from the right, one from the left, singing Awesome God, I imagine. Okay, I made up that last, but it would be similar.
The choirs meet in the middle, and pour themselves into the Temple, together. A man named Jezrahiah leads the choirs, and they made a joyful and plentiful noise without microphones, headsets, guitars, or even written rehearsal plans. They just walked, and they sang .... TO THE LORD.
They did all this because they felt the Spirit of the Lord moving them into an open and wonderful manner of worship, though they hadn't "done" organized worship before. The scriptures read, "I (Nehemiah) followed them (the choirs) on top of the wall, together with half the people -- past the Tower of the Ovens to the Broad Wall, over the Gate of Ephraim, the Jeshannah Gate, the Fish Gate, the Tower of Hananel and the Tower of the Hundred, as far as the Sheep Gate. ... The two choirs that gave thanks then took their places in the house of God." Oh, the joy of walking past those gates and into the house of God.
It wasn't the planning. It wasn't the singing. It sure wasn't the instruments, for they had none.
It was the praise. Personal and piercing. Deeply moving and equally guilt-filled. Worship that settled somewhere in the hearts of those who watched and heard two choirs becoming one, doing the best they could to birth a God-filled moment into human existence. In the book of Ezra, describing the same worship service, the writer says, "While Ezra was praying and confessing, weeping and throwing himself down before the house of God, a large crowd of Israelites -- men, women and children gathered around him. They too wept bitterly."
There are some who will tell you that the responsibility for crafting and defining a church's worship mission rests with the pastor or pastors, the elders or deacons or whomever is in church leadership, or perhaps the worship leader or leaders or even the musicians.
I believe, however, that good and proper and meaningful worship comes straight from the pews with the heavy, heavy emphasis on our God being worshiped. The Apostle Paul wrote, "There are different kinds of service in the church, but it is the same Lord we are serving."
I hear from time to time this statement, or one like it: "I didn't feel anything today in worship." Or, "I still felt hungry when this service was over." Or, "I believe I will take my family somewhere we can be fed by the Spirit."
Friends, friends, friends. We are not to be fed or even led in worship. We are to feed the living God with our worship of Him. It is not, or never will be, about us. Only about Him. Anything different and we've missed the mark, and missing the mark is a fine, fine definition of SIN.
Nehemiah 12: 43 reads, "And on that day they offered great sacrifices, rejoicing because God had given them great joy. The women and children also rejoiced. The sound of rejoicing in Jerusalem could be heard from far away." It wasn't the practice, the routine, the merry men. It was worship from the heart.
Open the doors of the church and let the sounds of praise be heard, friends. Stop all this stone faced worship. The frozen chosen must thaw because the love of God is so warm.
The scriptures continue, "At that time men were appointed to be in charge of the storerooms for the contributions, first fruits and tithes. From the fields around the towns they were to bring into the storerooms the portions required by the Law for the priests and the Levites, for Judah was pleased with the ministering priests and Levites."
In other words, things were going great because God was great. They gave what they had because He had given all He was. They brought their tithe, they gave on top of that (even more), they sang their praise, and the people rejoiced, dancing into the wonderful evening in response to the wonders of God.
Nehemiah closes this wonderful book with these words, "Remember me with favor, O My God."
And let the worshiping people of the Lord all say, Amen.
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