"ARE YOU READY?"

Are those the true sentiments of our hearts and spirits this morning...or are they just words on a page that were cut and pasted and copied so we'd all have something to occupy our hands in this hour?

"Joyful, joyful, we adore you, God of glory, God of love; Hearts unfold like flowers before You, opening to the sun above. Melt the clouds of sin and sadness, drive the storms of doubt away; Giver of immortal gladness, fill us with the light of day."

Do we sing those words...and others like them...with feeling and desire? Or are we mumbling along to a nice, catchy tune that might just as easily be playing on an elevator?

We enter today into a new season of the church year...a season that, as far as I know, no other church in the world celebrates...for we created this season here in M.C.C. of Greater St. Louis. The Season of "Revelation"...when we remember that God's revelation to the world did not end in the first century nor did it end when the Bible was compiled and set in its finished form. God's revelation is alive and continuing even today. God's Word in Scripture is calling us to engage in an ongoing conversation about faith. Christ, alive in the church, is calling us to be change agents for the world. The Holy Spirit -- present and working within and around us -- is calling out to us in music and in prayer to enter into a real process of living lives that are centered on God.

What we do together in this place is not the artificial world of television or movie screen or Internet. This hour of worship is a "real time" encounter with nothing less than God! The question is...are you ready?

In her book, Teaching a Stone to Talk, Annie Dillard speaks about the presence and power of God that we tend to so easily take for granted. She writes, "Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke? Or, as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it? The churches are children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, passing time on a Sunday morning, unknowingly mixing up a batch of TNT. It's madness to wear fashionable hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews. For the sleeping God may wake someday and take offense, or the waking God may draw us out to where we can never return." Are you ready?

Worship is not something we come to get. It's something we come to give. We are here, first and foremost, to celebrate the "worth-ship of God." The process we engage in, the planned acts and parts that worship includes, are called the "liturgy," a word that means "the work of the people." As with any work we do, we must be prepared and engaged and expectant.

We have lots of teachers in our congregation. Think about a teacher's work. There is a great deal of preparation involved. No decent teacher walks into their room two minutes before the class begins, leaves the moment the final bell rings, doesn't prepare in any way beforehand and just steps up before the students and says, "Well, here's hoping you learn something today." Teachers have to be prepared to teach...and worshipers need to be prepared to worship.

How did you prepare to come and worship this morning? Did you turn in early last night so that you'd be rested and energetic this morning? Did you rise in time to have some breakfast and take some quiet time to "be still" with God...to, perhaps, read some Scripture or listen to some music that evokes a sense of God's presence...whatever style of music that may be for you? Did you ask God this morning to prepare your heart and mind and spirit to come and worship in a real and meaningful way?

Some of you may have. For many of you, though, what I just described is a concept so foreign as to seem ridiculous! I won't embarrass anyone further by describing the actual sequence of events on Saturday night and Sunday morning that "prepared" you to be here right now. Suffice to say that, for some, Sunday mornings include reluctant rising, harried dressing, aspirin and a "breakfast" consisting of a large coffee purchased at a drive thru! That's not a judgement about a way of living...just an observation that it takes more than making it into this building to actually prepare us for worship! Sunday is just the icing on the cake that we should be preparing all week long. Worship is not something we come to get. It's something we come to give. We need to do the work to be ready to come and worship.

Worshiping....worshiping "in spirit and in truth," as Jesus spoke about...demands that we be engaged in the process. This is a participative endeavor. Last week I made a statement that, upon reflection, was incorrect. Because Mark was preaching, I chose to sit out in the congregation, and I said during the announcements that I was taking the opportunity "to actually worship." But, you know, I became aware that, really, I am more engaged in worship when I am participating actively here, up front. It's not the being up front part that makes the difference, though. It's the being an "active participant." I feel God's presence most and am able to extend my energy outward more easily when I am focused completely on these acts of worship we share together and not "watching" to analyze what's happening.

Now most of you don't have the luxury of being up here...where being engaged comes with the territory. You will have to work at it. Where is your mind when we're praying and the Scripture is read and the message is being delivered? If, at the conclusion of worship, you have compiled your grocery list or decided where to go for lunch or identified someone you want to meet during the social time after service, then perhaps your mind was not focused on God.

Where is your heart when we're singing? Now I will say: this congregation has gotten a lot better over the last couple of years about singing out and being more expressive. But we may need to have those last 6 or 8 pews back there checked because there's something about them that makes people go mute.

Trust me. The person next to you doesn't care what you sound like when you sing. They're way too busy worrying about what they sound like when they sing. And after all those times in the shower and the car and in front of the bathroom mirror, believe me...God has already heard you sing. And God loves you anyway. So here's the deal. If it's your first, second or third time to worship with us, you don't have to sing if it's really that frightening. After that, well...don't make me come back there!

Now you might say, "But I don't know all these songs." All the better to help you engage. Listen. Learn. I didn't grow up singing "La Vida Loca" either...but after about halfway through the first time I heard it, I caught on. Prepare for worship. Be engaged during worship. And bring a sense of expectation to worship. We can -- and should -- expect to hear something, learn something, see something or experience something that will change our lives for the better every time we worship. Learn to enter into our time of worship saying, "I know there's something here, and I expect to find it." Don't ask, "Who's preaching today?" Expect to find something here. Don't worry about whether or not the choir's going to sing or when your favorite soloist will sing: expect to find something here. Don't spend so much time watching other people that you fail to see what God has here for you today. There IS something here...it's God; expect to find it!

"Perfect submission, perfect delight! Visions of rapture now burst on my sight; Angels descending, bring from above echoes of mercy, whispers of love. This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long; This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long."

Those are words of worship. But they demand that we be prepared...and engaged...and expectant in God's presence. Let a 24-7 awareness of God's presence and power in your life be your story so that, when we come here together on Sunday, you can worship and mean it! And next week, when you arrive for worship, before you get out of the car, turn the rearview mirror and look into your own eyes and ask, "Are you ready?" Amen

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