JESUS
encountered many individuals during His earthly ministry. One
such person was the unnamed Samaritan woman who had the great
privilege of meeting Jesus alone at a well in Sychar in Samaria
(Jn. 4:4-42).
Jesus invited her into the kingdom of God and she gladly accepted
His gracious invitation. In the course of their conversation,
Jesus also taught her about true worship. We can learn much from
that life-changing conversation that the woman had with Jesus,
her Saviour (and ours too).
Let us begin by taking a short detour to a sermon preached by
John Wesley. One of Wesley's favourite sermon texts was Mt. 6:33
- "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and all these things
shall be added unto you." He used this text in several of
his sermons, urging people to turn from their sinful ways and
to turn to God. Wesley not only used the Scripture text evangelistically,
but also used it to encourage the early Methodists to maintain
the focus of their lives.
In one such sermon, Wesley reminded his listeners about the spiritual
condition of the Samaritans. When Assyria conquered the northern
kingdom of Israel in the 8th century, many Jews were exiled, and
the king of Assyria brought many foreigners to settle in Israel
(2 Kgs. 17:24). The resulting mixed race of Samaritans emerged.
Their religion was a syncretistic
or adulterated one. They retained some elements of Hebrew worship,
but also embraced many imported idols. Their condition is described
in the Bible: "Even while these were worshipping the Lord,
they were serving their idols." (2 Kgs 7:41).
Wesley pointed to this verse and observed how Christians were
often guilty of the same thing. He then taught that to
truly worship God is to trust Him, love Him, obey Him, and to
become like Him. This, indeed, is a helpful way of
understanding worship.
'Worship, first and foremost, is all
about God.
The centre of our attention in worship should be God.'
We are to seek God and His kingdom - this should be the motivation
of true worshippers of God. In many churches, this idea has been
incorporated into how worship services are conducted. Worship
services are to be "seeker-sensitive" in that they are
to cater to the needs, questions, and quests of seekers, people
who are not yet Christians but who are seeking for God. Such evangelistic
ideas are noble and to be commended. But there is also a danger
that when we go in this direction, we may forget the deeper purposes
of our call to worship God.
Worship, first and foremost, is all about God.
The centre of our attention in worship should be God, and not
seekers, let alone ourselves. Human seekers often begin approaching
God for self-interests. In other words, they are looking for the
gifts, rather than the Giver. This should not surprise us, for
that is often how most of us came near the edges of the Kingdom
of God.
But we must get a clearer picture of worship. In
worship, God is the most important Seeker; He is far
more important than human seekers. In His encounter with the Samaritan
woman, Jesus demonstrated who the true Seeker is. It was He who
sought the woman and brought her to eternal life. The woman came
to the well, looking for water, but Jesus came looking for her.
This is the way it often is. God is the Divine Seeker. He is the
Shepherd who comes looking for His lost sheep. He is the One who
came to seek and to save the lost.
IN HIS well-known poem entitled The Hound of Heaven, Francis Thompson describes our human inclination to run away from God and how God pursues us relentlessly till we turn to Him.
I fled Him, down the nights and down the days;
I fled Him, down the arches of the years;
I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways …
From those strong Feet that followed, followed after.
But with unhurrying chase,
And unperturbed pace, …
Thompson emphasises the fact that in truth God is the only
Seeker. It is He who follows fleeing sinners till they feel His
pursuing breath and are conquered by His untiring, constant and
persistent love.
This is what Jesus demonstrated at the well in Sychar. He shows
a God who came seeking for us. In His conversation, He taught
the woman about true worship. Like her forefathers, the woman
was rather confused about worship. The Samaritans worshipped God
but not Him alone. Jesus taught the Samaritan woman that God is
the Divine Seeker who is seeking for true worshippers. Jesus said,
"Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers
will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the
kind of worshippers the Father seeks." (Jn. 4:23).
It is clear that in worship, it
is God who is the Seeker. We must never forget this
if we are to remain God-centred in our worship services. If we
are truly worshipping God, we will discover that it is God who
seeks us; we seek only because He first sought us. In the depths
of our worship of God, we will come to realise that we are not
really the seekers; we are the sought.
What a profound experience this will be, that we have been sought
by our Creator and Saviour.
Too often, we make ourselves the central subjects in our experience
of God. God may be merely an object. And so, we emphasise that
it is we who seek Him, who love Him. But the Bible teaches us
otherwise. All have gone astray. It is God who initiates our salvation
experience. It is He who first loves us. It is He who first seeks
us. We must give more credit to God for our spiritual experiences.
We seek only because He first sought us. We love only because
he first loved us.
The celebrated spiritual writer Henri Nouwen learnt this truth
when he relates how he spent much of his Christian journey seeing
himself as the one who loved God. As God brought Nouwen deeper
into relationship with Himself, Nouwen began to see a greater
and richer reality - that he was the beloved of God. The primary
experience was not he loving God, but God loving him.
It is important that God becomes the defining centre of our lives
and worship. Yes, we need to be seeker sensitive in our worship,
but we must know who the Seeker is.
QUOTE:
'Worship, first and foremost, is all about God. The centre
of our attention in worship should be God.'