Exodus 32:1-20 & Luke17:20-30 - Trinity
25 - November 9, 2014
Christian
Worship Is Divine Service
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Last week, I spoke of two
mountains. There was the mountain of
curse, and the mountain of blessing. The
mountain of curse was Mt. Sinai from where God spoke the 10 Commandments to Israel. It is the mountain of curse because the law
curses all who disobey. The mountain of
blessing is where Jesus fulfills the law for us and blesses us with the
righteousness that he earned in our place.
For the sake of contrast, last week I spoke of this mountain as the
place where Jesus preached the beatitudes — “Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven,” and so forth. But the mountain of blessing is more than just
where God speaks the blessing. It is
where God earns the blessing. It is Mt.
Calvary. It is where the curse of the
law was spoken against the Son of God in our place. Jesus placed himself under the law for us, and
suffered and died as our holy Substitute.
Without the cross, there is no blessing.
Without Mt. Calvary, there is no Mt. Zion.
The law can teach us much. But it cannot teach us how to worship God,
because it cannot give us peace with God.
Only the gospel teaches us how to worship, because only the gospel
creates faith. Faith is the purest form
of worship, because it lays hold of Christ who has atoned for all our sins. The mountain where Christ speaks blessings
depends on the mountain where Christ earns forgiveness. Right here is Mt. Zion. And this is how we worship. This pulpit and this altar is the mountain of
blessing to you – because here is where we preach Christ crucified
– here
is where we proclaim the death of Christ until he comes again — so here
is where we offer our praise to him who regularly comes in the name of the
Lord.
Because we have God’s eternal favor
through the blood of his appointed Lamb, he has set us apart to be his own
special people – holy in his sight and free from the demands of the law. We find our freedom and blessing by listening
to his word. We, though Gentiles, are
the new Israel who worships the Father in spirit and truth. The history of Israel, therefore, is our
history, because it is the history of God teaching his people how to worship. And so this morning I’d like to explain what
happened in our Old Testament lesson from Exodus 32, and then tie that into
what Jesus teaches us in our Gospel lesson as well.
Our theme will be:
Christian Worship is Divine Service
The Israelites camped at the foot of
the mountain. God told them to wait for
Moses. Through Moses, God had freed them
and led them, he had protected them and fed them; and now he told them to
wait. Moses had already given the Lord’s
instructions concerning the law – there were laws governing every aspect of
their lives. But then he went back up
the mountain. He was up there for 40
days and 40 nights receiving instructions on how God’s people should worship
him. He was receiving directions on the
Tabernacle, the altar, the priesthood, the sacrifices, and so forth. In other words, Moses was learning how to
teach God’s people the gospel. But – and this is the point – God’s people
could not wait for this. They grew
impatient. More than they desired God to
teach them the gospel, they were overcome by their own desire to offer praise. More than learning about how God would
forgive their sins, they were interested rather in feeling close to the
Lord. And so their idolatry began.
Now, it’s not like they went to Aaron
and asked for a different god. Idolatry
usually doesn’t begin with a blatant replacement of the one true God in favor
of a statue or something. That’s not how
Christians today reject the true religion either. They don’t usually opt for some totally made
up religion. They usually go on
pretending that they still have the same God they’ve always had – even though
they don’t. They form religions with
enough truth in it to seem right, but also with enough personal touch to make
it really attractive. So also, the
Israelites didn’t want a new
god. They wanted to worship the true God – just in their own unique way. That’s why Aaron sculpted the calf. And it’s not like they actually thought that
their little sculpture really was
God. They weren’t stupid. They just wanted to feel the nearness and
presence of the Lord in some tangible way.
But here is where idolatry is born.
It was a false comfort totally devoid of God’s command and promise. Instead of waiting for Moses to return and
give instructions on how God wanted to be worshiped, they decided to go ahead
and worship God according to their own best ideas. Instead of learning from the gospel, they
worshiped God based on what they thought they knew about the law.
And, you know, as it turned out their
worship didn’t look half-bad. They
certainly gave generous offerings. All
the gold they took out of Egypt they donated to Aaron in order to promote their
worship. And they got certain features sort
of right. Aaron formed a young ox to
symbolize the victim of sacrifice. That’s
kind of good. And then they offered
actual sacrifices just as God had always required. By most standards, not bad. Then Aaron called a feast day to the Lord who
had so graciously rescued them from Egypt.
Pretty pious, huh? So what was
really so bad about all this?
Well, look what happened. By worshipping according to their knowledge
of the law alone, they ended up transgressing the law. They broke the 1st Commandment by forming
a graven image; they broke the 2nd Commandment by placing the Lord’s
name on it; and they broke the 3rd Commandment by not waiting, but
by anxiously working to invent their own form of worship. They presumed to worship God and give him
thanks without first learning how to do so.
And so their worship taught nothing about Christ. Because of this, instead of their worship pleasing
God, it incited his wrath against them. What
they needed more that to express the gratitude of their own hearts was to hear
God express the grace of his heart. More
than they needed to feel the presence of the Lord, they needed to know where
God would continually dwell among them in mercy. They needed the Tabernacle.
And here is the horrible irony. This is exactly why Moses was taking so long
on the mountain. He was being taught how
to build the Tabernacle where God would take up residence with his people –
forgiving their sins and teaching them how to worship in true faith – teaching
them how to hope in Christ.
God was going to destroy them all for
their terrible rejection. But Moses
interceded for God’s people. He reminded
God of the promise he had made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He reminded God of all that he had done to
rescue these poor miserable sinners from slavery and death. God would have been right to damn them all. But he was also right to have mercy instead. Because the promise to which Moses appealed
was the promise of Christ, the Seed of Abraham.
It was the promise that God would take out all his damning wrath upon
his own Son in the place of his idolatrous children. The Lord would lay upon him the iniquity of us
all. It would please the Lord to make
him an offering for our sin. Because of
this promise, God relented of his anger and chose instead to have mercy. He continued with his plan to dwell with his
people and serve them with the forgiveness of their sins.
Now what does all of this have to do
with Christian worship? Well, Christian
worship is divine service. This means
that we praise God not by coming up with new ways to please him or compliment
him or anything like that. Rather, we
praise God and worship him by being served by him. The gospel teaches us how to worship. We wait on him by going where he promises to
come to us.
And this is where the Church is
today. We are like the children of
Israel of old. We wait for the glory
that will be revealed. But do we ever
get impatient! Just look at how Christian
worship has morphed in many circles — including congregations of our own
synod! Instead of focusing on the mercy
they need from God by singing the Kyrie –
“Lord, have mercy; Christ, have mercy; Lord, have mercy” – they compose all
sorts of so-called praise songs that teach little to nothing about the faith
that saves. Instead of singing, “Christ alone is our salvation,” they
sing songs that focus on the individual and his personal expression of praise. This is exactly the error that the Israelites
fell into while Moses was on the mountain.
They were more infatuated with their ability to worship than with what
God wanted to reveal.
Oh, but folks are persuaded that
worship is more Spirit-filled when it is spontaneous and less structured. Why?
Because their emotions are engaged.
They feel something – like the presence of the Lord, they might suppose. But meanwhile, the clear teaching of the law
and the gospel is relegated to the background or to some official position on a
website. But how seldom is it
preached! Christ’s saving work is
largely absent from their praises. The
Israelites thought that their worship was pretty Spirit-filled too. But they would not wait for Moses to come and
preach. They wouldn’t wait for the
wonderful news that God himself would take up residence among them in the
Tabernacle. By focusing on their own
praise, they abandoned the gospel itself.
The Spirit does not come through our
feelings. He comes through the word of
God. We do not draw him to us. He comes
graciously when the gospel is preached and the sacraments are administered. He
delivers Christ and all his benefits. When
we gather in Jesus’ name, Jesus is there with us – not far off on a mountain,
but with us – among us and within us. Christian
worship is divine service. God serves
us.
“The people sat down to eat and drink,
and rose up to play.”
This was their worship. And so it
is also how many worship today. They
treat the Lord’s Supper as though it were their supper. For most Protestants it is mere bread and
wine, and so becomes a celebration of their own commitment to God rather than
the means by which our greatest need is met.
When Lutherans practice what they call open communion – when they invite
everyone to eat and drink the body and blood of Christ – regardless of what
they may believe or what their spiritual state might be – they sin against God. They show more concern for their worship than
for Christ’s humble service to sinners.
But Christian worship is divine service. God serves us.
The meal where Christ provides his very body and blood for the
forgiveness of sins is an intimate meal where we not only receive, but express,
our unity with Christ in all things. It
is not a game. It is a sacred pledge of
peace from God to us.
The Israelites learned to build idols
of gold by looking at their pagan neighbors to see what they did. But it was wrong. Likewise, many Christians today – including
Lutherans who have forgotten their rich heritage – look to the culture around
us to invent new forms of worship that are more entertaining and exciting and
that seem at first sight to draw in the crowds.
But they are at the very best distracting, because they do not richly
express what Christ has done to redeem us from sin, death, and hell. This is very dangerous, as the example of
Israel proves (1 Cor. 10:6). We should consult
with our culture on how to worship our God about as much as Noah learned from
his culture and as much as Lot learned from those who lived in Sodom. The world is perishing. But we learn from God who dwells among us. And so in Christ alone we find life and
salvation. Christian worship reflects
this truth because Christian worship is divine service. It is God’s inestimable service to us.
Jesus told his disciples, “The
days will come when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man,
and you will not see it. And they will say to you, ‘Look here!’ or ‘Look
there!’ Do not go after them or follow them.” We also long to see just one day of
glory. We want to see unity and we want
to make it happen. We want to see the
word bear fruit and accomplish what it should – like in the days when the Son
of Man walked the earth. We want to feel
and know his presence even now. But the
Son of Man was rejected and crucified.
He is now risen and has entered his glory. Today his Church does not praise him by
raising itself up. We do not praise him
by watering down the word of God that teaches us, or by compromising the truth
in order to make treaties with those who teach errors. To do so is to run after a false christ. But no, we praise our Lord by bearing the
cross of scorn from the world. We
confess Christ by identifying where he is.
He is with us in word and sacrament.
He is with us where he promises to dwell – full of grace and truth. Here alone, where God serves sinners, true
unity is found despite all appearances.
Moses destroyed the golden calf and
ground it to dust and forced the people to drink it with water. The next time they saw their gold they would
be reminded of the true value of their self-invented worship. But we need more. We need what does not perish. We need what does not simply pass through
us. We need God to come down to us and
teach us how to worship. And he does. He comes with the truth that saves poor
sinners. He sees us in our physical
needs, our emotional confusion, and our spiritual poverty. He sees what our sins have earned. And like Moses before he intercedes for
us. But better — because he does not
point to something yet to come. He
points to what he himself has done – to the wounds that he sustained by taking
sin and death into himself. He points to
the Sacrifice that has the Lord’s name on it.
By his intercession at the Father’s right hand, we are clean and holy –
and so our praises of thanksgiving are acceptable too. They are pleasing to God as surely as our
cries for mercy are heard.
The kingdom of God does not come with
observation. No, it is, as Jesus says,
within us. This doesn’t mean that that
is where we look to find salvation. It
means that we lay hold of salvation by faith alone. We won’t see the glory we so desperately want
to feel. But by faith in the gospel, the
forgiveness of sins rules our hearts and conscience. And he who now makes us wait here at the base
of Mt. Zion will descend again – with trumpets of joy. He will not rebuke us. He will not shatter the Testament of stone in
anger like Moses did. No, because the
Testament that saves us is sketched into his flesh that bears the scars of our
salvation. He will not make us drink the
gold of a false god. No, he gives us to
drink of his Holy Spirit who remains within us, giving us life. He who invites us here to eat and drink the body
and blood of the true God will prove at last that it has been our salvation. And when his Day is revealed, we will feast
with God forever in heaven where he dwells.
Amen.
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