“Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.” Jesus declared, “Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.” John 4:19-21

Dear Faithful Seed-Sowers,

Here we are at the end of October! Today is the 31st–one of my favorite holidays: REFORMATION DAY! Yes, on this date in 1517 Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the Wittenberg church doors in Germany! Oh, what a glorious day. God’s church should always be forming and reforming in Christ Jesus our Lord. Yet, here we are in 2020: the pandemic is still with us, it’s election season and things appear to be uncertain but I know One who is not uncertain. Let us learn more about worship in this Seed of Faith.

I love the passage in 2 Corinthians 12 when Paul asks the Lord to remove a thorn from his flesh.  The Lord answered Paul with these words, “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. ¹⁰ That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” 2 Corinthians 12:9-10

Growing in grace during Covid-19 is hard.  I think we all wish to ask to have the Covid thorn removed from our flesh and our lives. Hear what Christ says, “My grace is enough for you! My power is make perfect in weakness.”  I know that during this time of panic and pandemic, anxiety and anger, fear and frustrations, doubt, and despair, worry and wonder, we can rest assured that God’s grace will be sufficient (enough) for us. Growing in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is what we are called to do.

Here are a few acrostics for COVID to ponder:

COVID
Christ
Overcomes
Viruses
In
Due time

COVID
Christ
Overcomes
Viruses 
Including
Diseases

Worship!  When you hear the word worship what comes to your mind?  Where do you worship?  How do you worship? When do you worship? Who do you worship?

These are the questions we wrestle with over the next few weeks.  We will look at the place of worship. The position of worship. The purpose of worship. And the PERSON of worship.

The woman at the well was surprised by Jesus.  She came looking to fill her empty water jars. Jesus came looking for her. Jesus found her hiding in the heat of the day, drawing water from a well that would never satisfy.  Jesus surprised her in her prejudices.  Jesus surprised her in sin.  Jesus surprised her in her evasiveness and avoidance.  Notice after Jesus tells her all about her life and how she has been married five times and the man she is with is not her husband, the unnamed woman changes the subject and asks Jesus about worship.  This is called distracting, avoidance, or redirecting. This woman is avoiding the subject, and changes the subject.

“Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.” Jesus declared, “Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. John 4:19-21

“Where do I worship?” is the question that the Samaritan woman counters to Jesus as He is telling her about her life. I wonder if we are so different from this woman? Jesus tries to enter our lives. He knows everything about us and…we ask a distracting question desiring to get the heat off us and onto something (or someone) else.

I do have to hand it to her, the question of where we worship is truly a hot topic, especially today in 2020. We are meeting outside per state stipulations. It’s almost November. Yes, even today the topic of where to worship is HOT, HOT, HOT.

From Abraham to Ezra, the people of God built altars as they traveled. For 1500 years, the people of God built altars and offered sacrifices to God.  Moses built a portable sanctuary that traveled with the people for 40 years as they moved with the cloud by day and fire by night.  It was not until the time of Solomon that the first temple in Jerusalem was built. In 586 B.C.E. the Babylonians conquered Jerusalem and destroyed the temple. It was seventy years before Ezra and the people came back and started rebuilding the temple and Jerusalem. Six hundred years later, the second temple was destroyed around 70 A.D. when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem, just as Jesus had predicted. It appears that the people of God have always struggled with this question: where do we worship?

“Surprised by God” is the series that we are in.  Did Jesus surprise the woman at the well with one of her evasive and elusive questions, “Where do we worship?”

In my career before becoming a pastor, I was blessed to be able to travel with Goodyear.  They sent my wife and I on amazing trips to the Netherlands, Italy, Hawaii, Japan, Hong Kong, and China. I must be honest with you, I was not always a follower of Christ.  I was like the woman at the well.  I was seeking the things of this world to fill my thirst and satisfy me. For more years than I care to remember, I made the trip every morning to the wells of the world. I was not aware yet that they would never fully satisfy my thirst.  During our trip to Italy, we went to the Vatican, St. Peter’s church and the Sistine Chapel in Rome. I was memorized by the opulence and massive size of what I saw.  Not only did we tour Roma, we also went into churches in Milan, Florence, and Venice.  We toured the places where Michelangelo placed his magnificent sculptures. While in China, we visited Buddhist and Hindu temples. Here in the USA, when Jac and I travel, we always find a church on Sunday to attend. While living in California, we have enjoyed visiting the California missions. God’s people all over the world place a high value on the beauty of their places of worship.

Today, during COVID 19, many of these magnificent edifices are now closed or are only open for a small number of masked people to attend.  Here in California our churches have been closed and opened and closed yet again. As I said before, the SEED Christian Community meets in a city community center in Rancho Cucamonga and the city buildings are closed. We have not worshiped together in our church home in Central Park since March. As we’ve prayed as a leadership board, we have decided do virtual church online together. Thank God for ONLINE CHURCH! It has helped many churches and thousands of people to stay connected and to worship together. Since the beginning of October, a pastor friend of mine has opened his church’s parking lot to us. We currently meet outside AND online!
What a great question asked by the Samaritan woman, “Where should we worship?”

So What?
A 2012 Pew study tracked the rise of a new religious group: the “nones,” or the religiously unaffiliated. One-fifth of Americans—and a full third of adults under 30—say they belong to no religion at all.  Yet, argues Casper ter Kuile, a researcher at Harvard Divinity School, this group is still looking for elements of religious experience. His 2015 study explores ways modern millennials seek out meaning, community, and ritual in the absence of organized religion. The study started by profiling organizations they deemed particularly formative in the lives of their students. One of the most striking spaces? Fitness classes. Institutions like CrossFit and SoulCycle are offering their students more than just a chance to lose weight or tone up. They function like religions.  “People come because they want to lose weight or gain muscle strength, but they stay for the community,” he said. “It’s really the relationships that keeps them coming back.” We heard people say, “CrossFit is my church,” “SoulCycle is like my cult,” in a good way. “Once that religious perspective had been opened in our eyes, so many things came out. Whether it’s the flag [on display] in every CrossFit [gym]; the way that the space is set up; or how you could follow a kind of liturgy in a SoulCycle class, especially through their use of light and sound. So, it’s really an emotional and spiritual experience as well as a physical one.”

The Samaritan woman raises an important question that is still important to this day: where do we worship during this time of Covid-19? I wonder if during this time of panic and pandemic if we as Christians have learned that the place of worship is NOT IN A BUILDING or a parking lot. The real place of worship, the place Jesus is speaking about, is IN OUR HEART.

Maybe this is one lesson we can all learn during this time of lock-down and of being shut-out of our churches. We don’t need a building. Church can be a building without walls. Church can be online. Church can be in a parking lot. Church can be in your car. Church can be on you tube.

Because of covid, my wife is teaching preschool for two little boys. They meet twice a week and she gives them the best experience she can. (She taught preschool, directed preschool from 1979 on. She retired two years ago.) She came home the other day and said that as one of the little boys was leaving preschool, he ran back. “Miss Gee, I have Jesus in my heart.” Miss Gee (aka Jac, my wife) has been teaching them a bible verse and a bible story a month. She was overjoyed to hear the good news her little preschooler shared with her. Here’s the truth, friends, if you have Jesus in your heart, you can worship GOD anywhere, any place, any time. AMEN?

Before Covid 19, if someone asked me, “Where do you worship?” I would have answered, “At Central Park in Rancho Cucamonga.” Not anymore, after months of videotaping my messages and learning a new way to preach, teach and reach, I have a new answer. “Where do you worship, Pastor Dave?” (Point to your heart.) “Right here.” I hope you have learned this wonderful insight, too. This is what the Bible means when it states that God will bring good out of the bad.

Your homework for the week: WORSHIP GOD. Anywhere. Anytime. Focus on creating within your own heart, the most beautiful place of worship you’ve ever been to. Is your heart a wooded forest? A cabin on a lake? The ocean at sunset? Is your heart extravagant like the Vatican? or the Sistine Chapel? Your heart is Christ’s home. It isn’t closed down, locked down, or shut down.

I have a great idea. Put on some Christian tunes and sing praise to God from your heart–where your Savior now lives! And let’s create the most beautiful place for worship ever known to humankind: YOUR HEART. AMEN.

See you Sunday!

God loves you and so do I,
Pastor Dave
www.theseedchristianfellowship.com

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