Well, good morning. It's five past the hour, so we might get underway.
I'll pray for us, and then our theme this morning is worship as a classroom.
My original draft was to call this worship is a dinner party,
but I wondered whether Americans would hear the words dinner party in the same way that I might.
I thought classroom was much less ambiguous, so we'll go with that today.
So let me pray for us.
Our gracious Lord, we thank you so much that we can be together.
We're safer when we're together than when we're apart.
So we ask you this morning to help us, to bless us individually,
that we might bless those sitting around us and those new people we'll meet.
And please give us a deep learning about how we might think of and participate in Sunday worship.
May this be for us an enormous encouragement along the way.
For we ask it in Christ's strong name. Amen.
Well, as I've done in the last few weeks, it's worth taking a few moments at the beginning of our time
to summarise or reflect on the last few weeks together.
As a teacher, I do this at the beginning of all my classes,
just to be reminded how little they learnt last time.
What have been your ongoing reflections or thoughts about these conversations on worship?
Every day, the notion is clearer and clearer.
I know that something inside me always wants to sin.
That law of sin that Paul talks about in Romans 7.
But I'm utterly, utterly, utterly dependent on His goodness and on His grace
and on the knowledge that He gives me through the Spirit and His Word that points me to Christ.
I suffer from depression, really bad depression.
And sometimes I just have to hang on and just repeat scriptures
when I'm in bed under the sheets for 17 hours or, I mean, anywhere.
I'm watching TV or I'm bored or it's just that I'm utterly dependent.
But that something inside says that there's a hope.
You're suffering, you're suffering, you're suffering, but there's a hope.
So, Royal's point is that we need to be reminded of our dependence on the Lord.
Our dependence, which I think in the...
The word faith, I think, in the end just means dependence.
And that's what we have to do.
I suppose church, coming to church, worshipping at church,
reminds us of our dependence or teaches us that dependence.
Thank you.
Can people remember what the actual metaphors, the topics were over the last two weeks?
Church is a party.
Church is a party, which was...
Worship is a party.
Worship is a party, that's right.
That was last week's topic.
Worship is a compass.
And worship is a compass was the first week, that's right.
And anything about those particular images that have resonated with you over the last few weeks?
Yes.
I've been thinking a lot about, in that first week,
when you talked about how we come in response to God.
Yes.
That's personal, we come in response.
And just reflecting on how that's true in my personal relationship with Him,
that I come in response, so I don't have to work to get His attention.
Yes, sure.
Yep, yep, yep.
I have to be there to respond.
Yep.
It's already been said on that.
That's been really helpful for me the past week.
Yes, great.
And I think when I visit lots of different churches, not just in the US but elsewhere,
one of the things I notice is that more and more,
and I think it's partly through the influence of the charismatic movement,
I have a lot of regard for the charismatic movement,
but at this point I'm less patient,
where you come to church to get God's attention,
or the intensity of your singing gets God's attention,
or your intensity of experience more generally gets God's attention.
And I think it's just fundamentally wrong-headed that actually God's voice goes out.
And the fact that you and I are in church this morning is because we're responding to the voice that already went out.
He was here in church before we are.
He's the one who's calling us together, right?
We don't bring down his presence.
He's here waiting, right?
And I think that's a very fundamental kind of pattern that we need to be aware of and hold on to.
Anything on the Trinity from last week's presentation?
I might remind you that one of my fundamental pitches last week was that the greatest danger to the church in America and beyond
is that we're giving up on the doctrine of the Trinity.
For good reasons, we think that we're being friendly to outsiders by talking down our understanding of God, the Holy Trinity,
but actually in the end it will be the undoing of us.
We cannot relinquish our faith in the Trinity.
After we talked about that, I realized, looking backward,
how often I've heard and cooperated with, I guess,
evangelists who say, oh joy, are you looking for joy?
Come, come, you'll find joy in Christ.
Yes, yes.
Oh, you're looking for security?
Then, you know, you can look for Christ for security.
Yes.
Instead of saying, here is our God, behold our God.
Yes, yes.
And then, eventually, by knowing Him and experiencing Him, you will know security.
No, of course, and we place our trust in joy, or we place our trust in security,
or, to be a little bit sharper, sometimes we place our trust in justification.
Actually, we should be placing our trust in Christ, who gives us joy,
who gives us security, and who gives us justification, right?
Well, this morning, perhaps the least kind of encouraging of the metaphors,
worship is a classroom.
Not all of us have had positive experiences of classrooms in our life,
either from being a student or from being a teacher.
But I think, nonetheless, it picks up some really important themes
that we need to engage with.
For this is our challenge.
The average Australian, and I suspect it's no different for the average American,
watches six hours of advertisements on TV per week.
All right?
And that's the average.
So there'll be people who are watching a lot more of that.
If you think every hour of television has about 20 minutes of ads,
it only takes a few hours a day to add up to quite a substantial amount.
And what we're doing in church is we're trying to reshape people's loves
and imagination and hearts and minds in 90 minutes a week.
90 at the best.
Some churches only have 45, 50 hour-long services, right?
So just think of that for a minute.
There's six hours of ads shaping your head and your heart.
And we try and combat it with 90 minutes of church.
We don't have a lot of time to address those who are in church,
their hearts and their minds and their souls and their spirit.
That 90 minutes of church here at Trinity, it's 90 minutes.
That 90 minutes of church is just so important.
We've got to do it so carefully and thoughtfully and well
because the opposite kind of pressures are loud and strong.
What might be some other cultural pressures
which church on Sundays is trying to combat?
I think the lady here.
It's always the sports teams.
Oh, yes, I see.
Sure.
On Sundays, you mean?
Yeah.
Yeah, sure.
Literally, that time slot has competing priorities.
I can't even remember when it was just starting.
Yes.
Now it's everywhere.
Yeah, yeah.
And much more acceptable.
So that's a really obvious time tabling challenge.
Yep, yep.
Our son is an oboe player and started missing school
because that's when the classes were.
And now he's in one of the greatest schools,
got his master's at NEC.
He stopped going to church.
You mentioned last week, I think.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Out there.
Yep, so those are kind of time tabling pressures.
What are some other cultural pressures,
some things that make church look boring
or make church look unattractive?
TV.
So why TV?
Rather?
Yes.
Oh, entertainment is, you know,
maybe the, one of the greatest values in society.
Yep.
This has struck me that in the colonial US,
for a while the Massachusetts legislature,
considering a law requiring all churches
to have their midweek Bible study term meeting
on the same night
because they were concerned that some farmers
were going out every night of the week to church
and they wouldn't be, you know,
energetic enough to do their work well
because that was the entertainment.
Yes, yes.
Church was the entertainment,
which may have brought along a certain temptation
to weakness.
But whereas we had the corner on entertainment at one time.
Yeah, sure.
We don't.
Yes, of course, in days gone by,
churches where you got the political news that you shared
and you got to hear a speaker
who would be the most interesting presentation that week.
You didn't have much news from outside
or you didn't have people who were educated
who were speaking to you.
So all those kind of things.
But now entertainment is excellent and everywhere.
So sometimes it can make church look a bit dull, right?
Well, I was reading one guy this week who said,
in the MTV generation,
where you have visual clips that last perhaps for two seconds
or three seconds
and you go to the next frame or the next shot
and how can that kind of editing,
that kind of stimulating presentation
compete with one guy standing up the front
without different visual takes for half an hour?
No wonder church seems boring for people, right?
And I think this image that worship is a classroom
can make it worse for us.
If you say church is a classroom,
people, oh, I don't do classrooms.
Or if you go to some classrooms today, actually,
they're hyper-stimulated environments.
So I'm nervous about using the language of classroom
because it can have negative connotations.
The flip side of it is I think we can't
theologically get away from the fact
that church is for words.
Church is for learning, right?
So whatever we do,
these 90 minutes have to be well thought through
because we've got a massive opposing agenda
that we need to be confronting at some level somehow.
Now, of course, we have Bible study groups
or prayer meetings or other kinds of fellowship in the week.
So I'm exaggerating slightly to say
it all builds around these 90 minutes.
But I think you can probably see my educational point, right?
A lot rides on how we teach on Sundays.
Well, let me read to us from Psalm 95
because I think it has an important lesson for us
in our conversation this morning.
O come, let us sing to the Lord.
Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.
Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving.
Let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise.
For the Lord is a great God and a great King above all gods.
In his hand are the depths of the earth.
The heights of the mountains are his also.
The sea is his, for he made it,
and his hands formed to the dry land.
O come, let us worship and bow down.
Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker,
for he is our God,
and we are the people of his pasture
and the sheep of his hand.
Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts as at Meribah,
as on the day at Massa in the wilderness,
when your fathers put me to the test
and put me to the proof,
though they had seen my work.
For forty years I loathed that generation and said,
they are a people who go astray in their hearts,
and they have not known my ways.
Therefore I swore in my wrath,
they shall not enter my rest.
Well, this is a familiar hymn,
a familiar psalm to many.
It's been turned into a hymn frequently.
But basically it has just one or two major points.
The first half describes worship as singing and praise.
Worship as us speaking.
And it gives a reason in verses three, four, and five.
We worship, we praise, we sing,
because God is a creator.
But in the second half,
our worship is not speaking.
Our worship is listening.
Let us worship and bow down, verse six.
Let us kneel before the Lord, our maker.
He is our God.
We are the people of his past,
the sheep of his hand.
So it's not just that we're created,
not just that we're creatures,
but we're redeemed creatures.
We are the sheep of his hand.
And what does sheep do?
Well, actually, better than that.
Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts as at Meribah.
So the first half of the psalm is,
you worship by singing or praising.
And the second half of the psalm is,
you worship by listening.
Because sheep should listen.
Obviously, on occasions they don't.
Sheep should listen to the voice of the shepherd.
And John 10 points this out as well.
But basically, Psalm 95 said,
worship is about words.
Either we speak words or we hear words.
And certainly when I use this psalm with my students,
they're a bit shocked to think that you can be worshipping
by shutting up and listening, right?
Because we're so now shaped by the idea that worship is us,
singing actually,
was actually here in Psalm 95.
To worship is to sing, to speak,
and it is to listen as well.
If you want to worship in Sundays,
we need to speak and we need to listen.
Worship on Sundays is a classroom, right?
Someone's speaking,
someone's listening,
most of the time.
And I think our daily worship,
our daily God-focused living,
God-centred living,
as well as our Sunday God-centred living,
is about words.
Okay, Romans 12 tells us that we worship God with all our body,
as our living sacrifice, of course.
And next week we'll talk a little bit more about that.
But at least we can't get away from the fact that
our basic relationship with the Lord involves words.
How does man and wife make a marriage?
Well, they give words of promise.
How does God make a covenant of people?
Well, he gives them a covenant,
which is words of promise and words of threat.
How do we exercise our faith in the Lord?
Well, Calvin says,
the chief way you know you've got faith
is by praying,
by using words,
expressing our dependence.
You can't get away from words,
though some people try to, right?
And assume that worship is about silence.
I have no problem with silence,
as long as in worship,
our silence is about us listening to the Lord.
There was a chaplain,
a very liberal chaplain at my university
when I was an undergraduate,
and he didn't believe that words were so important.
In fact, he used to,
it was very strange,
he used to not use the word God.
He used to just talk about G-O-D,
because he thought that was kind of
getting closer to not using words.
But it always sounded to me like
there's a little kid present,
and he was wanting to swear,
wanting to curse.
So he'd spell out the curse word, right?
Because he was very embarrassed
about using the word itself.
I just thought it was very weird.
But that was his trajectory,
that worship was about
using fewer and fewer words,
and trembling in silence.
Okay, so let's talk about
our experiences of Sunday worship.
What are things that have helped your learning,
and what are things that have hindered your learning?
And if worship is a classroom,
then teaching and learning are essential elements, right?
Our speaking and listening.
What are things that have helped
that process of speaking and listening,
and what are things that have hindered
that process?
James?
I'm just thinking that
I've not ever been a very good Bible memorizer,
but I'm a pretty good hymn text memorizer.
Oh, yes, yes.
So I think hymns are really important
in teaching and that's why it's important
to have real spiritual content in hymns.
Yep, sure.
So the medium of versified songs is really important
because it takes thoughtful writing
to create theology that's memorable, right?
And it's very important, yeah, yeah.
I went and saw, I was in Chicago this week,
and I went and saw Hamilton,
and I've had, because it's just such brilliant writing,
and I've had the raps going through my head all week.
I haven't been able to shake them.
I think somehow having the truth taught
and proclaimed from various perspectives
is really comforting.
I love that we have three pastors.
Oh, yes, I see.
Wonderful.
So we hear the truth,
those words that are in a different line.
Interesting.
Of different trajectory.
Yeah, sure.
And so you get, you know,
much fuller appreciation.
That's a good point.
And even if a church doesn't have
a pastoral team like Trinity,
having different voices can actually be
of great help in our learning, right?
Different, and it's true, isn't it?
People have their own style,
and I warm to that person.
I warm less to that person.
That person uses images, which I relate to.
That person uses sporting images,
which I just don't even understand
or begin to pretend I understand.
And of course that's going to happen,
and that's a good point.
Thank you.
I think also, as Susan started talking,
I was thinking of different perspectives,
as in within one service,
when I'm able to make connections between,
say, a hymn, the scripture reading,
the sermon text,
like across the service,
there's varying ways,
and it's the same truth that's expressed,
or different angles.
Yeah, sure.
The facets of the same.
Yeah, and I think that's really important,
and I think the folk at Trinity do this really well,
that I think if you've got this 90 minutes,
and we want to make it count,
and we want to make it an effective learning unit,
then I think every part needs to somehow bear
a connection to every other part,
and so that each part becomes mutually strengthening,
and so you've got one big teaching aim
that's expressed through the songs,
or through the prayers,
or through the reading,
through the sermon,
through the testimony,
whatever it might be,
and I think that's really, really important.
So I actually,
this is giving away my biases,
but I think it's really useful
that there's one mind behind a Sunday service.
In many contemporary churches,
contemporary worship-styled services,
they have a mind that's put together
the bracket of songs,
and a mind that prepares the sermon,
and a mind that might have
some other responsibilities in the service
for communion or something else.
I think that can mean that one part
is kind of knocking up against another part,
and there's not necessarily a helpful connection
between all three.
So I run the daily chapel service
at Ridley College where I teach,
and my students find this very odd
because they're so used now
to having different minds
behind different parts of the service.
There's one person who puts the service together.
There's one mind behind it.
Okay, that mind might not be the person
who's leading.
It might be.
That's a subsequent question.
But to have a unified educational
educational or pedagogical unit,
I think is very important.
But picking up Susan's point
about different voices,
well, something that it's useful to do,
even if you've got the same preacher,
is when you have Bible readings
to have two or three people
speaking the Bible reading.
It especially works well
if you've got an Old Testament narrative
where you've got King David
and you've got Absalom
and you've got Abigail or something.
I don't know if they ever appear
in the same passage.
I just made that up.
But if you've got three different voices
or gospel narratives
where you've got Jesus speaking
with different people and a narrator
and having some different voices
can freshen the Bible readings as well
because you've got a woman
speaking the woman's part or something
and you've got an excellent narrator
speaking that part and so on.
They're not big things,
but those little things
can make enormous difference
in lifting the mood of the service.
Sister, I think you had your hand up there,
did you?
Well, for me,
I think it's metaphor and similar
that I seem to learn from the most.
Like, I'll listen to all the words
and take notes
and then I get home
and don't remember the specifics.
Right.
I will remember a metaphor
that the pastor has used.
Yes, I see.
Or a simile or something very sharp.
Yes, and you might have a mind
that kind of is readily engaged
with kind of pictorial kind of presentations.
Yeah, yeah.
I really like the portion of the service
about confession and prayer,
like the movement through both
the reading of the word
and then the assurance of our pardon
in that time.
That's when Nick and I were first married.
We were in a Presbyterian church
that passed the peace.
Yes, yes.
And for a newly married couple
passing the peace every Sunday,
this idea of not letting our hearts get hardened.
Oh, interesting.
Yeah, right.
That clause before hearing the sermon
Yes.
To have a soft heart, I think,
is really that assurance.
Yes, and at least in Australia,
Baptists rarely do that moment of confession.
I love it when we do it.
Yeah, yeah.
And it's a moment that uses words importantly
as we try and engage the whole congregation
and their recognition of their own sin
and give some very strong words of assurance.
It's a very, it's a profoundly gospel moment
in the service,
and it's also an importantly wordy part.
I mean that positively.
In the Old Testament, I don't know where,
but it says that we suffer because we forget.
And it's not that,
it's because we forget words.
Words from the pastor,
words from his book.
We suffer because we forget.
We forget his words and we turn away from them.
Yep, sure.
And Moses reminded the people
before they entered the promised land
that they were likely to forget
when they got prosperous
and that they had to remember.
And Keller, I just want to go to Redeemer,
one thing he said was that
there aren't any wild sheep
in the wilderness.
They die.
They need a shepherd.
You might see a wild wolf, bison,
but never a wild sheep.
Ah, I see.
Yeah, sure, sure.
Sure.
Not out there.
They die.
We're safer when we're together
than when we're apart.
That's true.
Any other hindrances,
I can't even say the word,
hindrances or helps
that you would want to share
about your worship?
Maybe just hindrances,
sorry,
as far as my mind wandering.
Yes.
So I'm just trying to remain focused.
Yes.
Do you have some tips for us?
When I feel myself wandering,
come on,
back.
Yes, yes.
Can I talk to you?
Yeah, sure, sure.
I suppose that means,
from my perspective,
because worship is a classroom,
our Sunday service is a classroom,
that it really means I need to get
a good night's sleep on Saturday night,
because I would do that
if I were attending classes myself
on a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday.
Why would I then think
that a late night on Saturday night
is the appropriate way to go
if I'm going to turn up
to a classroom or something?
Well, I think if it's a classroom,
we need energy to learn, right?
That's just the way it is.
I know that Mr Willow Creek,
whose name escapes me,
Bill Hyvel, thank you,
would never go out on Saturday nights.
It was a prayer meeting for him.
Any social engagements he'd say no to,
because he'd say,
I've got to make sure
that the night before Sunday,
I'm rested and I've prayed.
And while I don't agree with him
on all his thinking about church,
I really think that's just so commendable.
I mean, he probably had a big day
on Sunday as well, right,
with 75 services
and 2.5 trillion people turning up.
I have a similar thing
with mind-wandering,
but one of the words
that comes to mind for me
is I need this,
this is for me,
you know,
that reminder that
in our corporate gathering,
this word is for my heart.
Yep, yep, yep.
Yep.
Yes, a little bit of
wrap yourself over the knuckles.
I beg your pardon?
You have the right to take
so taking notice is huge.
Yeah, it is, isn't it?
And most weeks, I think,
at Trinity,
there's some blank space,
isn't there,
in the pew sheet
for taking notes.
You might have your own
journal otherwise.
Are you saying then
that there's no place
for emotion
or perhaps you've talked about
I wasn't here
the other two weeks
about emotion in worship?
So no,
I'm thinking emotion
is a big part,
but it's responsive.
The word always comes
before our reaction.
And I think one of the most
fundamental lessons of worship
is that it's responsive.
The God speaks first
and that's why we gather,
that's why we learn,
that's how we build each other up.
No, I'm more than happy
for worship to be
an emotional experience.
I think actually
the range of emotions
in church these days
is so narrow
we ought to broaden
the band.
So before Christmas
the staff asked me
to preach
the lament service
here on the Sunday
before Christmas
and I made this point
that actually
the band of emotions
these days
has got smaller
and smaller
and smaller in church.
You're only allowed
to be happy.
I have nothing
against happiness.
I enjoy it most of the time.
But it's okay too
to include other emotions,
right?
In fact,
the Psalms give me
a third of the Psalms
are laments
and they give me
permission to be sad
in church as well.
Isn't that part
of what we're being taught?
It's a classroom.
Yes.
The Psalms teach us
how to express.
Yes, that's right.
That's right.
The rest of the world
isn't doing that much better
than the church
and not,
the rest of the world
doesn't really want you
to be anything
but happy either.
Yeah, that's true.
That's true actually.
That's probably one of the ways
that there are cultural pressures
that we've given into.
Yeah, yeah.
I'm thinking of James' point before
about repetition
or memorisation of verses
which is kind of a struggle
for some of us.
What do you think
is the value in church
of doing things repeatedly?
It sinks in.
It sinks in, sure.
Yeah.
Like a cow chewing the cud.
It just sinks in.
That image is going to stay
with me all day.
Yeah.
So he does all day.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Well, in preparation
is this kind of
inculcation?
Yep, yep.
It's always been a methodology
especially because
we've grown up
with so many
beliefs
and grievances
that we think
within ourselves
that to go ahead
and replace them
or like John Baptist put it
you know,
he must increase
that I may decrease.
Why am I going to do that?
Well, by continually
to study
and show myself
a truth.
So by inculcation
and learning.
Yep, yep.
I'm with you.
It's a pretty
hard sell
in many churches
to say
we're going to do
the same thing
every week
because we want
it to be fresh
we think
repetition
is inauthentic
we want it
to be spontaneous
so it's actually
a hard gig
teaching people
the value
of repetition
unless you're a parent
and you know
that you've got to
tell your kid
17 times a day
to say please
and thank you, right?
we kind of
but we don't
take it the next step
and say presumably
therefore
even adults
have to be taught
to say please
and thank you
in church
kind of regularly
or at least weekly.
Michael Horton
says that
the problem is that
people don't know
what to do
when they're bored
and that boredom
is a bad thing
and most of life
is full of
rote
rhythmic
you know
we do the same
thing every day
and you know
to look for excitement
around every corner
it's not a good thing.
No, that's right
and lots of our kids
are overstimulated, right?
My niece
is like always on her
I mean she doesn't
even talk to me anymore.
Yeah, sure, sure.
Yes, please.
Just the fact that
I think in our culture
we so worship technology
and entertainment
we've lost connection
to the rhythms of life
you know
the tide comes in
the tide comes out
the night follows day
and there's a certain
goodness
in tune
with those rhythms
that God has given us
and we're just
cut off from it.
Well the modern world
has been all about
disconnecting
from the
patterns of nature, right?
So we can
use electricity
and stay up at night
rather than going to bed
when the sun goes down
and all those kind of things
yeah, sure, sure.
I think the more potent
argument against repetition
is that things become
rote
and then we disconnect
from them.
You know, I think
I've been in churches
where we say creeds
we say
our Father
maker of heaven and earth
Jesus Christ
his Son
we say very important
profound things
that are not boring
at all
but we say them
in the same way
in the same fashion
at the same time
and we all get up
and it becomes
almost like a chant
like ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba
ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba
and then sort of
on to the next thing.
Yes, yes.
I mean an example
for us here
would be communion
because that's
obviously a thing
we repeat
regularly
and it's very similar
in its forms
and I think
the bottom line
is
do we collectively
as a church
recognize
the problem
of human nature
and the fact
that
we need
these constant
reminders
of ultimate
reality
and
I think
you know
if you take communion
in particular
that's a big part
of what's going on
in communion
and you're right
the danger
of repetition
is that it becomes
we think it becomes
inauthentic
we're just going
through the motions
we're just
we're just going
through the
the process
but actually
getting rid of
the regularity
or saying
the Lord's Prayer
in church
or having communion
however often
it might be
doesn't mean
that my mind
is necessarily
engaged either
that is
I've been in
in churches
that are very lively
without any sense
that there should be
repetition
or liturgy
but my mind
has wandered
and I've seen
other people
scrolling through
YouTube
and kind of
doing their
thing
in church
and I think
well
losing repetition
doesn't necessarily
mean that I'm
going to be
more engaged
it could be
that some
things repeated
actually helps
my engagement
I was actually
going to say
just push on that
a little bit
because
I grew up
in a church
that had
more liturgy
like that
and I
some of those
turns of phrases
or some of the
things that we
said
frequently
come back
to my head
as like
a little promise
and again
it's sort of
you know
not trying to
excuse that I
should memorize
more scripture
but these hymns
these liturgies
these things
that we've
done
do
are easier
to call to mind
because they
were placed
so deeply
that's right
I remember
being
I was just
saying
that's the
critique
against them
not that I
agree
I'm actually
very pro
I actually
heard a
really great
sermon
podcast
not at a
church
that was
about the
Lord's Prayer
and it really
convinced me
that it's
not a cop
out to
say that
daily and
frequently
I was
at the
bedside
of a man
who was
dying
and his
face looked
like it
had lost
all affect
and so
I said to
him
Jim
let me
pray with
you
and so
I knew
that he'd
learnt the
Lord's Prayer
he'd been in
church all his
life
and in the
old King
James version
so I
started praying
our Father
which art in
heaven
and his
eyes popped
open
and his lips
started moving
and he was
able to pray
with me
the Lord's
Prayer
and then
at the
end
there was
just no
affect
left in
his face
at all
it was
so deep
in his
soul
that even
in his
dying
breaths
he knew
how to
kind of
express
his
thankfulness
and his
dependence
on the
Lord
it was
just
wonderful
so I'm
a big
fan of
repetition
in church
done
kind of
well
and carefully
of course
but the
idea that
church should
be totally
different
every week
is just
an extraordinary
burden on
the pastoral
team
as well
as educationally
not necessarily
very wise
when your
kids are in
five or six
presumably they're
going to learn
their we say
times tables
is that what you
say
and they just
have to repeat
and repeat
and that's the
way you learn
now point six
I'm going to
leave on your
sheet the
relationship
between the
Bible reading
and the
sermon
that is
probably more
relevant in
some other
churches where
there are
very little
sermon and a
lot of
Bible readings
but we
might skip
that and
turn over
the page
what I've
been saying
this morning
is that
worship is
like a
classroom
given the
cues from
Psalm 95
that it's
about words
God's words
to us
our words
in response
or God's
words to
us and
listening to
his words
as a kind
of worship
as well
but this idea
that worship
is a classroom
has not been
a dominant
idea in
Christian history
and I
thought for
the architects
amongst us
this morning
I'd put in
some pictures
just to keep
them on
board
in the
Middle Ages
church was
understood as
a fort
and I've
given you a
small picture
and Matt's
helpfully
included them
in colour
a fort where
there's very
few windows
very close
to the ground
very thick
walls because
the world
is evil
and you need
to be in a
fort for God
to hold back
the evil
empire
but then as
the church
grew more
confident and
powerful
more and more
the church
was seen
not as a
fort for God
but as a
palace for God
with high
walls
lots of
glass
architecturally
the walls
could stand
up because
they'd invented
flying buttresses
or small
stone
pillars
outside
that enabled
walls that
were load
bearing to
have lots
of glass
in it
and this
was a
kind of
church
when the
chief goal
was to
help you
understand
that Christ
is king
not a bad
goal
but certainly
not designed
around hearing
and speaking
then after the
reformation
church became
a theatre
especially
amongst Roman
Catholics
who were
trying to
reassert the
centrality of
the mass
and so
the interior
of a
church
became more
and more
ornate
and full
of dramatic
imagery
a good place
in which to
celebrate the
drama of the
mass
but then in
the 17th
century and
forward
Protestants
especially
have seen
church as
a classroom
that is
built around
listening
not around
seeing the
mass
performed
and acoustically
designed such
that people
could hear
not with
a sung
voice
but with
a spoken
voice in
each part
of the
building
and I
think this
has become
more or less
standard
amongst many
Protestants
except
in the last
perhaps I
don't know
30-40 years
where we're
taking our
cues for
building
churches
not around
the church
being a
classroom
but an
entertainment
space
so we're
taking our
cues for
some modern
church
architecture
from the
concert hall
or from
the rock
stadium
not so much
as a place
for teaching
and learning
or for words
to be
transacted
so this
worries me
to be quite
frank
so churches
that have
the lights
so dim
in the
congregation
that even
if you had
a bible
when you
get to
my age
you can't
really read
it
or you
can't take
notes
as our
sister at
the back
said
because
you can't
see to
write
or you
have to
turn on
your phone
and shine
it down
on your
piece of
paper
and that
distracts
people
around
you
I don't
mind
there being
a band
on the
platform
I have
no problem
with bands
with various
kinds of
instruments
I'm not
saying we
have to
have organs
but I want
the architecture
to somehow
say that the
word is
important here
and having a
pulpit
or having a
communion table
which is God
speaking his
word through
bread and
wine
seems to me
really important
ways of
reminding ourselves
that church
is a
classroom
not just
an entertainment
space
now I get
the fact
that our
world feels
comfortable in
entertainment
spaces and
so we build
buildings that
are going to
be comfortable
for people
but I'm not
sure their
primary goal
is helping
people to
feel comfortable
because if we
are in church
to enjoy the
presence of the
Lord
well there's
going to be
moments that
are slightly
less comfortable
right
and making
architectural
space for
the word to
be highlighted
and our
learning to
be enabled
seems to
me to be
of extraordinary
importance
we've got a
couple of
minutes until
10-2 so you
might have some
comments or
reactions
in talking about
repetition one
thing that I
thought a lot
about is how
you just
mentioned you
mentioned the
story of the
man who was
dying
and how for
a generation
for generations
that was the
Bible and
that's what we
heard anywhere
it didn't
matter where
you went
you read the
King James
and you read
the King James
and you know
that was fading
as I got into
my mind
but there's a
value in that
in having the
same translation
that I've just
really come to
find very
important that I
told my read
the same
translation that
is being preached
from a single
translation
it is quite a
significant thing
isn't it when
many of us in
the room will
have different
Bible translations
and so on
I went to my
aunt's funeral
I don't mean to
be talking lots
about funerals
this moment
I don't know
why this is
happening
but I went to
my aunt's
funeral and it
was a civil
service she
wasn't a
Christian
there was a
civil celebrant
and there was a
little handout
with the order
of service which
was fine and
then this woman
who was she
was probably
in her 60s I
think who was
leading the
service went
off script and
said now we're
going to say the
Lord's Prayer
together and
everyone there at
the funeral who
was over 50 knew
the Lord's Prayer
in the King
James Version and
everyone under 50
had no idea what
was going on I
was asked to read
Psalm 23 and
this guy who was
about 40 came up
to me afterwards
and said mate that
was a great poem
you read
and I said
yeah it's a
poem like in
the Bible there's
a whole book of
poems called
Psalms he goes
well I don't
even know what
that is and I
thought what
happened those
over 50 all knew
how to recite the
Lord's Prayer the
guy under 50 didn't
even know what the
Bible was I think
the answer is the
1960s and 1970s
actually but yeah
but it just shows
you that in days
past that was part
of people's
learning now they
the people who
said the Lord's
Prayer probably
most of them
weren't Christians
that they'd
learnt it from
school or Sunday
school whatever it
might have been but
still it was quite
dramatic contrast
yeah that's right
brother make this
last comment
when you were
talking about
how it became
the entertainment
actor that
becomes
the people that
ends up happening
is that because
it addresses the
flesh more than it
does the spirit
it separates even
further and the
adversary's goal
from the very
beginning is to
buy and conquer
and doing it
since the beginning
and if we're
all lost in
the dim
lighting and
they got
lasers they got
the lighting
just like a rock
concert it's all
nailed to the
flesh and praising
God at whatever
level is wonderful
except for the fact
that what ends up
losing what gets
lost is the
cohesiveness of
the body because
there's no
interaction it's
loud it's
so it becomes a
very individualistic
experience yeah
what I think
those folk would
say in those
churches is
accountability comes
through small
groups and so
they've radically
changed the balance
where accountability
lies from the
Sunday meeting to
the midweek
meeting and I
mean that that
has some value
but I still
think there's a
loss okay thank
you brothers and
sisters
next week worship
is a gym so if
you're feeling like
getting your
fitness on then
join us at
nine o'clock