SO WHAT?
Here we are again: at another worship service praying and singing, confessing and reading. We have taken time out of our Sunday morning to come to God’s house. Many of you have driven quite a few miles just to get here. Many more of you have not missed a Sunday morning worship service in who knows how long… But so what? If you are here this morning because that’s just what you’re used to doing on a Sunday morning, so what? If you sing a couple hymns today about loving others, but never put that scriptural directive into practice during the week, then so what? If you hear about the compassion of your Lord in the Scripture readings and the mercy of the Lord in the songs of the liturgy but have no intention of showing compassion and mercy to those “out there,” then so what? If you just go through the motions each week of sitting down and standing up and bowing your head and saying what you’re supposed to say when you’re supposed to say it… so what?
Back in the time of the prophet Isaiah, the Israelites had been just “going through the motions” for centuries. They had been saying the prescribed prayers and refraining from the restricted foods and fasting on the appointed days… but they were doing those things simply because that’s just what they did! That was their culture, their heritage. They wouldn’t dare do anything different, but the problem was: they weren’t doing those things out of faith; instead they were doing those things out of obligation. They didn’t think about what they were doing and they didn’t care about why they were doing it; they just knew that they were supposed to and so that’s what they did.
But that’s not what the Lord wanted, of course. He didn’t want his people to simply perform the appropriate acts of Old Testament worship life without meaning it. And he definitely didn’t want his people to go through the prescribed steps at the temple while neglecting all of the other things that he wanted them to do in their everyday lives. God wanted them to act like real Christians. “For day after day they seek me out,” the Lord said, “they seem eager to know my ways, as if they were a nation that does what is right and has not forsaken the commands of its God” (Is. 59:2). The Israelites hadn’t been following God’s commands to help and treat others well, but they still expected to be treated well themselves simply because they were faithful in carrying out the religious customs of the day! “‘Why have we fasted,’ they said, ‘and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed’” (Is. 59:3)? “What’s wrong, God? Why are you ignoring us? Why aren’t you fulfilling our requests? Aren’t we putting into practice all of the different elements of worship that you have prescribed? Aren’t we praying and reciting and fasting like you told us to?” The Lord’s answer is where our Old Testament reading begins: “Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for a man to humble himself? Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed and for lying on sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the LORD?"
“So what?” the Lord was basically saying. “So what if you go without food for a certain amount of time or mouth the words to some ancient prayers or decline the invitation to eat pork at your neighbor’s house? So what? I don’t care if you do those things in a mindless manner, without understanding why and without the proper motivation in your heart! If you really were my people and truly did believe in what I have promised to do for you, you would be living like Christians all the time and not just trying to act like it on Sabbath mornings.” The Lord wasn’t fooled. And he wasn’t buying it either. He knew where the hearts of the people were and they certainly were not focused on him - no matter how their outward worship life may have looked to anyone else at the time. And so the Lord told them exactly what he wanted: “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter — when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.”
If the people of Israel really had loved their Lord and really had wanted to “worship” him, they would have been helping the poor and assisting those who were oppressed and giving aid to the hurting and all of the other things that Christians naturally do. But they weren’t doing those things. Instead they were ignoring those in need; they were quarreling with one another; they were sinning over and over again against a variety of different commands that the Lord had laid out for them. Their actions outside of the worship services was telling of their true motivations inside those worship services. And so when they were worshiping, they weren’t really “worshiping” at all.
And so here we are, in one of our own worship services again. And here we pray and here we sing and here we read and here we confess. In fact, we have already performed all of those actions earlier in this worship service. On the very first page, p.26, I began by saying, “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you.” But did I really mean that or did I just say it without thinking about what was written on the page? Of course, you then responded with, “And also with you.” Did you mean that or did those words just come out of your mouth automatically because that’s what you were supposed to say? Next we confessed our sins with a familiar formula we have used countless times before. But did we really confess our sins or is that just what it sounded like? We continued on the next page with a responsive prayer. I read the portions of the prayer off the page and we all responded by singing, “Lord have mercy.” But did we really pay attention to the words of that prayer, did we truly ask the Lord for his mercy at that point or were those notes that came out of our mouths completely disconnected with the thoughts of our minds? We sang the song “O Lord, Our Lord;” we read a lesson from Isaiah, we sang a Psalm, we read another lesson from 1 Cor. 2, we heard the Verse of the Day and responded with the Alleluia words of praise, we stood for the gospel and heard words from the Sermon on the Mount, we sang another hymn, and now we’re sitting here. Was all that just a routine? Was it simply a repetition of a habit that we have conditioned ourselves to do over the years? Were we just going through the motions like the Old Testament Israelites did during the time of Isaiah? And if that is so, then so what?
So what if we sang hymns and confessed sins and joined in songs and had the Word of God read in our presence if we didn’t really listen and didn’t really pay attention and didn’t really care. So what if we make it to God’s house on a Sunday morning but God’s Word is sadly absent from our lives during the other six days of the week. So what? Is that really the kind of “worship” that makes the Lord happy? Is that really the kind of attitude that he wants his people to have? Simply coming to church doesn’t please the Lord. Simply attending a Bible class or Sunday school doesn’t please the Lord. Simply putting a few bucks in the offering plate because that’s what you should do doesn’t please the Lord. The act itself is secondary. The reason why we would want to do any of those things is what matters the most to our Lord. The reason why we would want to do anything as a Christian in this life matters most to our Lord. So what is the reason why? The reason why can be found right here in a worship service.
Every week we sing hymns here about Christ and what he has done. Every week we confess our sins to Christ and hear that wonderful news about the forgiveness that Christ has won for us on the cross. Every week we join in liturgical songs that revolve around Christ. Every week we read parts of the Bible that point us to Christ. Every week we listen to a sermon that is focused on Christ. Every week we pray the Lord’s Prayer that was taught by Christ. Every week we end our worship with a blessing from Christ. So what? Why would we do that? Why would we repeat ourselves week in and week out with the same material that we’ve all heard before? Because that is our salvation. And, therefore, that is also our motivation. That is the reason why. That is the “So What.”
Do you remember what the Lord said through the prophet Isaiah that he does for those who truly are his children? Those who are clearly his people because of how they act in this world and what they do for others? “Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.” We sing about Christ and confess to Christ and read about Christ and listen to Christ in every worship service because Christ never lets us down. He never blows us off. He never has something else to do. He is never too busy to take care of our needs. And he doesn’t take a day off! He is always there for you in this world making sure that no permanent damage is ever done to those he loves.
Which also means that when you pray to him here in a worship service or in your own home, he doesn’t only give you his half-hearted attention. No, he sits up and takes notice and looks you in the face. He listens to every word that you say - not interrupting, not overreacting, not shaking his head in frustration because he’s heard it all before. He died for you, after all! He gave up his own life for you! And so when you come to him now in prayer he is not going to put you on hold or only give you the time of day if he has nothing else to do! Your life is the very thing he sacrificed his life for! And so he’s certainly going to pay attention to you now when you come to him for anything that is bothering you in this life of yours that the Lord himself saved! The Lord doesn’t just go through the motions of answering your prayers…
And when you come up in front of his altar, and take his body in your hand with the bread once again, and hold his blood up to your lips with the wine once again, he doesn’t treat that as if he has done it a thousand times before for thousands of Christians throughout the world - even though he has. No, he loves this! He can’t enough of this! He eagerly anticipates those moments when you have a chance to participate in his Supper because this is where he is as close to you as he was at your baptism. And he reaches out and he says, “This, this is my actual body given up to death for you on the cross: take and eat. Please take and eat. And this, this is my actual blood poured out for you for the forgiveness of sins on that same cross. Take and drink. Please take and drink. This is me for you. This is another way you can have my forgiveness yet again that I worked so hard to earn for you. Take it and enjoy it and believe it.” The Lord certainly doesn’t just go through the motions when it comes to this spiritual Feast. This unique Meal is precious to him - every time - and he treats it as such.
And the same goes for his Word. When we are singing the hymns and the psalms, when we are listening to the Scripture readings and paying attention to the sermon, the Lord doesn’t sit back and do something else for a few minutes. No, he is right here, taking each word we sing and read and hear and he works it, he directs it, he kneads it into our hearts so that our faith is bolstered and our hearts are refreshed. He is constantly at work, making sure that the message of his cross settles deep into our souls and sticks and grows and matures. He does not waste a moment in any Christian worship service in any place at any time to feed his people with his saving gospel.
And so… so what? So what does that mean for the way we will live our lives? Are we going to just go through the motions for the rest of this worship service so that we can get out of here as soon as possible and get on with our lives? Are we going to ignore what God wants us to do for others during the rest of the week as long as we show up again here next Sunday? Are we going to act as if we “have done our duty” here at church and so there’s nothing more left for us to do? How could we? How could we have that attitude after all that the Lord has done for us? How could we possibly disrespect him by going through the motions when he has never treated us that disrespectfully? How could we possibly ignore his Word when he has never ignored us? How could we possibly neglect those in need when he never neglected our needs? How could we think that we have “done our duty” here at church when the Lord has made sure that we don’t have a “duty” to do at all? He has done it all! He has won it all! He has provided it all! And so what an opportunity we have to live our lives for him without any requirements attached! To thank him and praise and show him at least a little bit of appreciation without a punishment hanging over our heads! We won’t ever do that perfectly of course; we won’t ever fully make up for what he has given to us. But so what! He’s forgiven us for those failures! That’s why we’re Christians in the first place! So we can live in peace and happiness knowing that our lives don’t have to be perfect to please him; we already are pleasing him by living lives through faith in Jesus as our Savior. And that he has given us. And he has given us multiple places to display that faith: in this world and in this town and in this congregation and in this building and in this very worship service that we are right in the middle of.
We have the Nicene Creed, a couple prayers, the Lord’s Supper, and some hymns left this morning. We have Bible class and Sunday school afterwards. We have a full week’s worth of opportunities outside these walls. And then next Sunday we get to let loose our faith all over again from the beginning. We have any number of ways in which to thank our Lord by the way we live our lives in these next few minutes and these next few days and for however many years we remain on this earth. Christ has supplied us with the “so what.” So what can we now do to thank him?
Amen.
“Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory!” - Rev. 19:6-7
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