Reflection: Going to Church with Jesus (January 27, 2013)

The 3rd Sunday after the Epiphany
Nehemiah 8: 1-3, 5-6, 8-10; 1 Cor. 12:12-31a; Luke 4:16-30


“Going to church” is a way that we commonly refer to attending and (hopefully) participating in worship. Going to church has been a part of American culture for generations. But, like so many things in our culture, it isn't what it used to be. In order to attract people to worship or keep worship from “becoming boring,” churches have changed worship, introduced novelties, and even replaced it with entertainment. It seems that many Christians who grew up asking “What would Jesus do?” haven’t given much thought to how Jesus worshiped and what that means for us. Imagine what we could learn if we could go to church with Jesus.

In today’s Gospel lesson we do go to church with Jesus. During a visit to His hometown, Jesus attended the synagogue service on the Sabbath day. Synagogue worship began during the Babylonian exile, over 500 years before Jesus was born. Separated from the Temple, the Jews built places of worship and developed a pattern of worship that is largely unchanged to this day — and forms the basis for liturgical Christian worship. When Jesus observed the Sabbath by attending services at a synagogue He was worshiping in much the same way that we do. Going to church with Jesus shows us a lot about what worship should be like.

The text tells us that attending Synagogue worship “was His custom,” so we learn from Jesus that we should attend and participate in worship services frequently, preferably every week. We also learn that Jesus embraced the Jewish way of worshiping. He didn't change the service to suit Himself or adapt the old ways to meet new ideas or tastes. He followed the tradition of standing to read from the appointed lesson for that Sabbath day. Then Jesus taught the people from the Word of God that He had read to them. He could have condemned people for their sins or taken them to task for not being faithful or used the opportunity to highlight the problems with the theology of the Pharisees, but on the Sabbath in the assembly of God’s people in worship he spoke “gracious words” to all who were present. While we end up letting all sorts of things drive what we want worship to be, Jesus shows us that the main thing in worship is to hear and receive God’s grace, love, and forgiveness — to experience what it means to go to church with Jesus.

Audio file of the sermon "Going to Church with Jesus."