Worship Matters - "The Lord be with you."

I'm starting a new thing at MCC during worship called Worship Matters. The premise is simple and comes out of having read the book, Desiring the Kingdom by James K.A. Smith. Basically, each week I will offer a brief explanation about why we do what we do in worship and how understanding it better can transform our worship. Feel free to offer other points - I consider this a conversation about what we do as Christians and why it matters.

Invocation – “The Lord be with you.” “And also with you.” Have you ever asked yourself, “Why do we do that?” or “What are we doing?” So, what are we doing when we begin with the Dominus vobiscum? How might such an invocation transform our worship?

1.      We begin our worship with a biblical prayer.

·         We join with friends from the Bible who used this phrase like Boaz, Azariah, Saul, David, Solomon, and even the Apostle Paul.

·         This greeting, then, is more than a “Hi, how are ya?” It’s a prayer that reminds us that the whole Bible, Old and New Testaments, fundamentally shape our worship

·         prayer is critical to worship – it’s how we begin and end our service.

2.      We mark the boundaries of who we are.

·         We say this with Christians who begin their service the same way around the world over hundreds of years - so worship isn’t new and isn’t even only us.

·         what we do in worship stretches back across space and time – the living and the dead, seven continents, diverse ethnicities, said in churches with steeples and catacombs and those with folding chairs in shopping centers.

·         Worship maybe personal but it is never merely private, and never done alone

3.      We remind ourselves that we belong to God.

·         It’s an important moment when we acknowledge that it is God who has called us together, and that it is God who will keep us safe.

·         This prayer then stretches forward – for we know that life will tumble in – it always does – but we need not be afraid.

·         This is the prayer that Saul gave to David before he slew Goliath. This is also the invocation that David gave his son Solomon to build the temple. And when we say it to each other we are remembering “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31). The Lord be with you!