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Worship in Spirit and
in Truth
John 4:23-24
23... a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers
will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind
of worshipers the Father seeks. 24God is spirit, and his worshipers
must worship in spirit and in truth."
The context of this passage is the well known story of Jesus meeting
the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well whilst on a long journey
north to Galilee and asking her for something to drink. There then
follows a conversation about water (physical and spiritual) and
the revelation that the woman was rather notorious when it comes
to the men in her life.
She feels convicted over the sin in her lifestyle choices and looks
for forgiveness – which entails a sacrificial sin offering,
but where should she go to make her peace with God? For a Jew the
answer would have been Jerusalem, but for a Samaritan (for reasons
we won’t go into now) it was Mount Gerizim. Jesus responds
by telling her that it’s not so much where you worship that
matters, as the spirit in which you worship, and then follows the
passage above.
So what is this worship that God the
Father seeks, that worships in spirit and truth?
Well, let’s have a look at what it is not.
The Samaritans had a bit of a pick-and-mix theology, ignoring all
but the first five books of the Scriptures (and thereby missing
out on the Psalms and Prophets) and indeed had re-written history
to make Mount Gerizim their most sacred place (rather than Jerusalem.)
Even we Christians can be guilty of a pick-and-mix theology when
it comes to worship. If it were a sweet shop then we’d be
saying something like ‘I like humbugs but I don’t like
liquorice so I’ll avoid popping any into my bag. I like my
worship to feel comfortable, that nice warm satisfying humbug feeling
- I’d rather do without the surprise and fizz of a sherbet
dip please.’
In our places of worship the conflict comes over issues such as
liturgy, inclusiveness, pews and church furniture, upkeep of the
building, restoring the organ, modern instruments and worship songs,
though the list is probably much longer! And most of the argument
takes place outside of the context of the Word of God.
And our selectiveness passes inevitably from our worship to our
everyday life, where we start picking and choosing what we agree
or disagree about based upon our personal preferences, rather than
by reference to God’s Word. In essence when it gets to that
point what I’m saying is that my truth is more important than
your truth, even if I might accept your right to have your own particular
viewpoint.
There are lots of very devout and sincere people around who will
quite happily accept certain parts of Scripture and disregard others
because they don’t fit into their idea of what Christianity
is about. ‘I’m sure Jesus didn’t mean that….’
or ‘Oh, Paul! Well, he was just so prejudiced…’
As an extreme you only have to cast your mind back a few years to
South Africa where church leaders felt able to justify apartheid
and racial segregation by pointing to certain Bible verses.
Worship can sometimes lack knowledge, and that’s a hindrance
– It’s one thing to ask how much we understand our Bibles
and God’s Word, but do we understand the theology behind the
hymns that we sing, the creeds we might repeat week by week or even
the words of the Lord’s Prayer, which in itself is so full
of spiritual meaning?
In which case were we just going through the motions, saying the
words but not really understanding what they meant?
If we do not understand, then we’re not growing. If we’re
not growing then faith-wise we remain as spiritual children and
when someone challenges just why we go to church or what being a
Christian means to us then we’re stuck for words to explain
our faith.
That’s not the sort of worship that God wants – he
wants his people to understand about his majesty when they sing
about it, to know his power and justice when they pray for it, to
comprehend the length and breadth of his love and live in the wonder
and mystery of that knowledge day by day.
We need to know who this God is who
we worship, because otherwise what have we to share with our neighbour?
That’s not what Jesus meant when he talked to the Samaritan
woman about worship, and as one commentator says, when you grasp
what Jesus meant when he said that God is spirit then it makes so
much sense of what has gone before and is as relevant to us as it
was to her.
If God is spirit then he can’t be confined to a building,
an icon or any other ‘thing’. If God is spirit and unconfined
by anything we can make then he can be worshipped anywhere and everywhere
– be it the modern equivalent of Jerusalem or Mount Gerizim.
The early Christian saints in this land understood that, and their
worship encompassed their working day as well as their leisure and
devotional life. They felt the presence of God in the ordinary places
that they inhabited, and in the fields in which they laboured and
among the people whom they served.
Can you relate to that? It’s quite a liberating thing to be
able to take your worship outside of the confines of these walls
and into your Monday to Saturday life!
If God is spirit then our response to him must be by offering not
sacrifices as the Samaritan woman was planning to do, but spiritual
offerings – love, devotion, obedience and service. It’s
the offering of ourselves as we are, not the outward show of Sunday
best clothing, not the size of our offering, but what’s underneath,
and not only what’s underneath but what’s inside our
hearts. That’s where God looks, inside the heart to the real
you and I.
And spiritual worship overflows into
everyday lives.
The prophet Amos was most clear about this, and when you read it
in the modern Message translation it really makes you go ‘Ouch!’.
Listen to these words from Amos 5 "I
can't stand your religious meetings. I'm fed up with your conferences
and conventions. I want nothing to do with your religion projects,
your pretentious slogans and goals. I'm sick of your fund-raising
schemes, your public relations and image making.
I've had all I can take of your noisy ego-music. When was the last
time you sang to me? Do you know what I want? I want justice—oceans
of it. I want fairness—rivers of it. That's what I want. That's
all I want.”
I like the way that the modern Message Bible translates the key
verses from John’s Gospel, because that fits in nicely with
Amos’ words. (23-24"It's who
you are and the way you live that count before God. Your worship
must engage your spirit in the pursuit of truth. That's the kind
of people the Father is out looking for: those who are simply and
honestly themselves before him in their worship. –
The Message)
Worship is all about a relationship, about getting to know more
about our heavenly Father, when our spirit, our heart and soul,
that invisible and mysterious part of us that makes us who we are
connect with God himself. It’s so much more than just meeting
together in a certain building on a Sunday, as Jesus was so keen
to point out to a Samaritan women 2000 years ago.
Because spiritual worship, rooted in the truth of God’s Word
takes continues out of the chapel or church door and into the street
and neighbourhood. It continues throughout the week in the way that
lives are led and love is shared - because that’s the way
that people connect with our God, through the lives, the example
and the words of those who follow him.
As we worship in spirit and truth then we witness through our lives
to the wonder, majesty and love of the God whom we serve - it's
like the Living Water that Jesus talks of, it flows through our
worship and overflows into our lives. That’s the worship that
our heavenly Father wants!
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