Hymn

Responsive Psalm

Introduction

Song

Prayer

Message

Song

Responsive Benediction

          Last spring, when Dr. Brittain asked if I would speak in chapel, I told him that I would be participating, during July, in a 2-week seminar on worship, and would like to share with you out of that experience.  And what an experience it was, spending nearly five hours each day with an amazing group of Christian college professors, seminary professors, and pastors, making our way through some two dozen books related to worship.  Each day we began with about 30 minutes of worship—praying together, singing together, reading scripture aloud and reflecting together on it. 

Once the two weeks were over, and really even during the time we were there, I began to feel as though I was being somehow changed.  Not struck by a bolt of lightning in a Damascus-road-style conversion.  But I began to notice that my random thoughts during mundane events of life—waiting in lines, reading homework assignments, playing with my 4-year-old---my thoughts were ever so gently turning from anxiety and cynicism to peace within and grace towards others.  It was as though I was being formed, quietly and gradually, to be a more fitting vessel of God’s love and grace to the people around me.  Was this somehow related to all the reading and talking about worship, or the interacting with others who love God, or the worshipping itself? 

I think the answer is “yes”, and I so wish that I could bottle that concentrated experience of worship and hand it out in little vials, one for each of you, and that somehow drinking it would instantly fill you with that same depth of peace.   In praying about and preparing this message I have asked myself, over and over again, “How can I capture the essence of the riches of those two weeks, and present it in about 20 minutes?”

Of course I can’t, and in one sense, perhaps I don’t need to.  I’m certainly not the only one here who has had a mountaintop experience of God’s grace.  But I hope, in these minutes, to help us all become just a bit more aware of some of the ways God accomplishes his work in us as we worship together. 

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