Worship in the Gospel of John
23Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will
worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the
kind of worshipers the Father seeks.
24God is spirit, and his worshipers must
worship in spirit and in truth." (John 4)
1. What does it mean that worship must be conducted 'in spirit and truth? Clearly Jesus is wanting to introduce something new here - something that has not characterised worship in the past and certainly something that the Samaritans have not been acquainted with but what is it? If we begin by looking first at the concept of 'worshipping in spirit' we may say that the word spirit we understand something that is not directly 'material' but which is still of the nature and character of a living think. When we speak of the spirit of a man or a woman we are indicating something that truly represents them, perhaps even sums them up but, which cannot yet be seen and is, in this sense, immaterial. Together with the words flesh the spirit constitutes all there is to a person. So 'flesh and spirit' means everything there is to that person. The spirit can refer to that which is the unseeable part of a person as well. Let me add in the very next breath that this does not mean that we dismiss the importance of the material or we deny its existence as some heresies in the early Christian period wanted to do. Rather, when we speak of the spirit of a person we speak of that which drives them and guides their actions and sums up their attitude to life.
2. To worship 'in spirit' therefore means at least two things. It means that worship touches the very essence of who we are - or another way of saying it that it comes from our heart. Furthermore 'worship in the spirit' must also means worship that in the character of God - worship 'in the Spirit'. In other words, it is worship that truly pleases God. So worship 'in spirit' means worship which both conforms to the character of God and which comes from our heart.'
3. John's Gospel also contains some clues as to what it means that worship should be somehow 'in the character of God.'
4. In chapter 6 we read these words…
63The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. (John 6)
5. 'The words I have spoken to you are spirit…' Our worship conforms to God's Spirit and character when we deal with and in the words of Jesus. His words convey to us the power and Presence of God's Spirit; they lead us into that spirit, they enable to truly worship. We may go a little further. Obedience to His word is, in fact, the true nature of worship. Wherever you find the early church in obedience to God in the NT you find a community of great influence for God. Certainly this is the testimony of Acts. As they gathered and worshipped God blessed them, blessed their community and blessed the city they lived in. And this accords with the great principle of the Old Testament outline first in 1 Samuel 15
22But Samuel replied: "Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the LORD? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams. (1 Samuel 15)
6. And why is this? It is because obedience touches the human heart. While sacrifice was a form of obedience in the end it became a sacrilege because it took the place of real heart transforming obedience. I think, if we're honest, we've all seen this sort of thing in our own lives. It is so much easier to take a form of obedience and make it everything. We come to church regularly and we give regularly and this is good. But if this is all that our Christian life consists of we need to ask the question has the habit of Church replaced true obedience to God? Perhaps we hide behind the illusion of being 'good' people. Perhaps our sense of being 'OK sort of people' is really our god and when someone points out that we are really not that good we find it so offensive that we get very angry as the Israel did when reminded that sacrifice wasn't really what God was after.
7. The answer is… a changed heart, something that only God can achieve.
'Lord change my heart and make it be, ever only all for thee, take my moments and my days, let them speak in ceaseless praise.
Let my love for You not grow, cold and heartless through and through, rather let love's first embrace, be the light by which I face,
each moment which is granted me, to lift my voice and worship thee.
8. Worship of God 'in spirit' means not this thing or that, not a particular hymn or song, not a particular type of service or a particular way of worshipping but life lived in relationship with God - a life open to the transforming work of the Spirit of God. 'Those true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit…' - these are open to the Way God works, to the character or God in His dealings with humankind - open to grace. We can get so much right, so much that is scriptural, so much that appears good and yet still miss the Spirit of God because we replace spirit for pattern, grace for works, love for law. Peter is a classic example of this. One of the first disciples, an able leader, a deeply committed disciple and one who appears to be ahead of his peers in faith and courage. It is Peter who gets out of the boat and walks with Jesus on the water. It is Peter who is invited up onto the Mount of Transfiguration, it is Peter with whom Jesus shares the terrible truth of His impending fate at the hands of the Romans. And yet… it is Peter who, when the crunch comes and despite all his protestations of loyalty - demands that Jesus turn back from the Cross, deserts Jesus in His hour of need, denies Him three times and finally, in Acts, stays strangely loyal to Jewish customs even when he is aware the Gentiles are acceptable to God.
9. In other words, Peter allowed a pattern of living to dominate what he knew of Christ. He allowed old wine to burst new wine skins - and, if we're honest we all do this from time to time. Worship in spirit, however, means allowing God's Spirit to pioneer ways of being before God.
10. So what are we saying here? Are we saying that there should be no order to Christian worship - that anything goes so long as it appears to be 'in the Spirit of God?' Absolutely not. Order is a sign of God's Spirit. But it is order that exhibits God's grace and love - not order that suppresses these things. So often order is used to insist that things be done our way rather than God's way. Now yes, it is clear that there are some pretty solid boundaries to God's way. Worship does not take place in a context of abuse, deceit or hatred. Christ reminds us of this over and over again.
23"Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you,
24leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift. (Matt 5)
11. And in the book of James we read these words…
27Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. (James 1)
12. True worship has both boundaries and a character - the character of God. But within that is room I am sure, for an absolute plethora of variety.
13. This brings us to the 'Truth' in which we are to worship as well. Perhaps this seems less problematical because we all, don't we, know what we mean by truth… or do we? What is the nature of God's truth and how can we know when we come across it? This is where the interplay of these two terms becomes vital because, as Jesus suggests in John, Truth is personal and exists in relationship or not at all.
6Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
7If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him." (John 14)
14. The truth says Jesus is more, much more, than simple proposition. Black and white statements of, so called, truth will not cut it with God, they cannot represent the Truth of God in any way that could be said to be Truth. Truth, rather, is personal. It exists and has life in relationship. What the creeds do and what theology does is to point to this Truth by using propositional language but this language in itself is not the Truth that Jesus is pointing to. Rather, it is an approximation to the Truth, If you like, a rough map of where Truth may be found but one in which only the really major features of the landscape can be made out - a bit like a map of New Zealand with two roughly drawn islands and only the mountains over 10,000 ft showing. And even if the map were wonderfully detailed it is, of course, only a map - it's never the real thing!
15. Now this doesn't mean that there aren't some things that are true and some things that are false. Some philosophies down through the years have indicated that Truth is in fact a fiction - that there are no truths because everything is relative and it all depends on one's point of view. Post-modernism has an edge like this to it. But this is not what is being indicted here. Rather, what we are saying is that the truth of God is of such a nature that it cannot be fully understood apart from a relationship with God. And even here we must be careful. That of God which we can express in words must also be considered to be, in some sense at least, provisional - not quite there - always requiring something greater than words can communicate.
16. So how do we get to the Truth of God? How can we truly know God? In John the single path that is offered by Jesus is that of communion with Him. We know God by entering in to communion with God through Jesus Christ. That communion is expressed in a number of ways but none are more vivid than that of feeding on Jesus.
51I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world."(John 6)
17. If, as Jesus claims, He is the Truth, then the way to the Truth is to feed on Jesus - to partake of what he offers - which is His Life.
18. Communion with God is expressed in all that Jesus is and does. And through his obedience to His Father Jesus offers up perfect worship. And this is another strong theme in John - that of obedience.
29The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him." (John 8)
37Do not believe me unless I do what my Father does.
38But if I do it, even though you do not believe me, believe the miracles, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father." (John 10)
19. So what is 'True' worship or worship 'in Truth?' It is to partake in that perfect worship which Christ offered. It is to join with Him in the offering He made to the Father and to be included with Him in that perfect act of worship.
20. This cuts across the common understanding of worship as being something we offer as individuals out of our understanding of what real worship is. Rather, says John, we only offer worship as we include ourselves in the life of Jesus through communion with Him and by partaking of His flesh and blood. This cuts across any conception of worship that is bound up in the form we adopt in our worship services. No longer can we say 'Well the Presys really did get it right or, no, the Baptists do it better or even - the Catholics had it right all along!' For a starter that concept of worship is far too small because it covers only our life when we come together in fellowship. When Jesus said to the Samaritan woman '20Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem." He rejected this as true worship and in doing so relegated place and pattern forever as secondary to what True worship entailed. Rather it is the Life of the Son which is key in this conception of worship. In that same conversation Jesus begins by offering 'living water' to the woman - water that comes from Him and that will 'well up to eternal life.' In other words He encourages her to receive from Him the Life she needs - the Life that will lead to God. And throughout John this same theme is repeated. We worship God by partaking of Christ, by being included in His offering - the offering of His Life. And this brings us to the conception of worship in John. My belief is this - John's conception of worship is obedience but only secondarily is it our obedience. Yes, our obedience is called for but it is our participation in the obedience of Christ which is true worship.
21. And Jesus reiterates this time and time again in John's Gospel as we find it in Chapter 6…
38For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. (John 6)
57Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. (John 6)
22. Our inclusion in the obedience of Christ is True worship. None who chose to be included in His obedience will be lost to God. This is the promise Christ makes a few verses later. And what is it to be included? It is to live our lives in communion with Christ and in His Spirit. As I said before, His Spirit is both His nature and His Power. As we conform to His nature and allow ourselves to be lead by Him so we worship Him - in Truth because in this way we have true communion with him - in other words, we worship God 'in spirit and in Truth.'
23. This is not a fleeting or short term exercise. This is a life's journey. And I want to say very clearly that this is not an exercise that is essentially about not making mistakes. Jesus does not couch worship in terms of 'not sinning' but of participating - of being involved. As soon as we become obsessed with our sinlessness we conceive worship again to be about our offering and our praise when Jesus conceives it to be about his offering and his praise.
24. Does this mean that, in any sense, sin is OK? Absolutely not. But our ability to live lives apart from sin is not about pulling ourselves up by our own bootstraps. Rather it is something we gain from living in relationship with Christ. The same is true of love. We can focus as much as we like on becoming a 'loving person' but if we can't or won't live in relationship with someone else our so called 'love' is really just a sham - it doesn't hold up in the real world.
25. Worship is a journey in which we will make mistakes but which also we can be assured of success because our hope lies not in what we do but in what Christ has done for us. AMEN