Worshiping Among the trusses

by Joel Bates

Through the ages, when folks wanted to worship, they would gather supplies, muster their strength, band together, and build.  Worship, true homage to God, demanded a tabernacle, a temple, or an altar be built before psalms, prayers, and sacrifices could begin.   The other day a simple truth about worship sank in as I, too, gathered supplies, mustered my strength, and banded together with some brothers in Christ to continue working on our new staff house here at DM.

We had been working on random days to build but were now under the gun to get a roof on the structure to protect the timbers from UV rays and rain showers.  A team of volunteers donated their valuable time to bolster our staff so that we might complete the task.  In less than two days, we hoped to cover the bare trusses with sheathing, place the underlayment barrier, and finally screw down a blanket of metal panels that would protect the house for the coming decades.  Honestly, as I considered the probability of completing the task within the time constrains, it seemed next to impossible.  

​Because none of us would gain much personally from the work we did, one might expect to see people standing around, leaning on shovels, taking extra breaks to shoot the breeze, or knocking off early in search of some food and relaxation.  I saw none of these things, however.  Over those few hours, joyful volunteers and underpaid camp staff threw themselves into the task as though it were their highest aim in life—as though they would earn a fat paycheck at week’s end or someday live in this home as they raised kids and grew old with their spouses.  No, these workers would see no such benefits of their labor, yet they poured themselves into the assignment.
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As we worked, I discovered something else being built in my heart, mind, and spirit.  We were not just building something that would someday enhance our worship and pleasure.  We had joined together to worship through the process of construction right here…right now.  

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​In chapter four of John’s gospel, Jesus rests beside the town well in the despised region of Palestine called Samaria.  Here, He has a surprising conversation with a local woman.  It is surprising because the culture does not approve of a holy-man speaking with a lone woman, and it is even less acceptable for Jesus, a Jew, to speak to a Samaritan.  I love that Jesus disregards the oppressive and engrained social stigmas and forges ahead with His purpose.  He initiates a deeper conversation than the well they were drawing water from, to focus on the topic of worship and identity.  In this exchange, Jesus reveals a remodel of the whole order of things as He clarifies Whom and how we should be worshipping.  As pastor and teacher, Mark Moore puts it, “Jesus now introduces a new relationship with God where the Spirit of God and the spirit of man co-mingle.”  It’s a concept of worship that was inconceivable to ancient believers and somewhat unpalatable even to us in the 21st century.  

Jesus said to the woman, “You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.  But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship Him.  God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth” John 4:22-24 (ESV).

The Jews of Jesus’ time needed the temple, the structure, to really truly worship, but Jesus makes His first clear statement in His ministry about how things were going to change.  Interestingly, it is also to this wayward, Samaritan woman that He first reveals who He really is—the Messiah.  In this private conversation, He simply says that the true worshipers will worship in Spirit and in truth. 
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Jesus says worship requires a willing heart rather than a fancy temple.  But does this make it any easier to worship?  In some ways, yes.  Now we are the temple of the Holy Spirit, so now we can worship in Spirit and in truth any time, anywhere.  But for many of us, it might be simpler just to have a place that makes it official, to have a duty to fulfill, and to have a box to check that says we did enough to fulfill worship for another week.  Maybe this attitude explains why many of us still gravitate to a church sanctuary for “real” worship, complete with an organ piping out the old hymns, penned in past times and leaving us the perception of happier days, hallowed songs written by holier people.  Don’t get me wrong, the church sanctuary, in my opinion, is where last week’s worship ends and this week’s worship begins, but the building is not the place reserved for worship in Spirit and truth.  Worship flows from the heart.  

This brings me full circle back to the house project where, at the end of the time set aside to build, we gazed at our handiwork.  The roof lay secure and complete!   Wearily we leaned on the shoulder of the man next to us and just stood in silent appreciation for the seeming miracle we were beholding.  It wasn’t a church sanctuary; there had been no singing except the song of the hammers and nails, but it was worship in Spirit and in truth. 
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As we considered our accomplishment, we weren’t worshiping ourselves—our abilities or success.  We had been worshiping God through all the long hours of labor because it was within that process of sacrificing ourselves to a greater purpose where our spirits mingled with the Spirit of the Almighty, resulting in nothing short of true worship. 

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“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”  Romans 12:1 ESV