The Nowhere Place

We have begun a season of discernment related to worship at Seneca Presbyterian Church. We anticipate some transitions in leadership (for very good reasons) for our contemporary service, so we are using this time to contemplate the best options for us and especially for the community of faithful persons who worship at that service. We want our decisions to thoughtful, wise, and far reaching, rather than simply what is the most expeditious solution to the immediate challenge.

We have gathered a team and charged them with making the recommendation. That team is starting out with a time of study and reflection. Each member of the team is bringing his or her experiences in worship to the table, and I’m grateful for the diversity they represent.

In light of that study, and at the beginning of the long season of ordinary time, I will devote the Sundays of June to a sermon series on worship. I’m using a book by Don Saliers as my springboard. It’s called Worship Come to Its Senses. The book is actually a series of lectures where Dr. Saliers focuses on “the sense of awe and mystery, the sense of delight and spontaneity, the sense of knowing and being known by God truthfully, and the sense of hope in a confusing and violent world.” I appreciate his approach because it says worship can happen in a variety of styles, with different music, and in widely different spaces and still be genuine if it honors the presence of the holy as experienced through these four senses.

            For this Sunday, we will be attentive to the sense of awe. It is the proper starting point. All varieties of worship are meant to bring us into an encounter with God, an experience of the holy. Scripture offers us many places to turn for a story that will ground our understanding of the shape of holy encounter. We could look toward Moses and the burning bush, Isaiah and his vision in the Temple, Paul and the road to Damascus, or Mary and her angelic visitation. I’ve chosen someone a bit more like us. Jacob was a scoundrel, a cheat, and a liar. He knew life on the run. He loved one woman passionately and worked fourteen years in order to have her. He was his mother’s favorite son and then played favorites with his own sons, and knew the grief it brought.

            Jacob fell asleep one night in the middle of the desert, and when he did, he met God. He heard God’s claim upon his life and God’s promise for his life. His encounter with God changed him. Encounters like that can change us too. It is why we worship – to meet God, and be made anew.

            We’ll examine a portion of Jacob’s story this Sunday when we gather for worship at Seneca Presbyterian Church. It’s found in Genesis 28:10-22. We know God will be there. We’ll try to be ready for the holy encounter.