VU784 Psalm 66 is not just a song of praise but it is also a song of worship.

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1 Deuteronomy 6:1-9 When asked what the greatest commandment is, Jesus basically answers that we must love God above all else and love our neighbors as we love ourselves. But the words Jesus uses are actually a quote from the Shama, the words of God s law that are found in this passage from Deuteronomy. These words are more than simply a personal directive, however. They are words that are to be shared by all people from generation to generation. Teach them to your children Repeat them Write them on [your] doorposts. Psalm 66 (Parts 1 &3) VU784 Psalm 66 is not just a song of praise but it is also a song of worship. John 4:19-24 In the story of the Samaritan woman who meets Jesus at the well, there is a portion of the conversation in which the woman talks about the differences in worship practices between the Jewish and the Samaritan people. Jesus responds to her that it is not where or how God is worshiped that matters. Rather, God is Spirit, and only by the power of his Spirit can people worship him as he really is.

2 We Sing of Scripture and Worship Each week as we gather here on Sunday morning, we begin with a Call to Worship. We sing praises, we recite prayers, we read scripture, we listen and we share. But these are all the acts of worship. What is the meaning behind these acts? Why do we choose to gather together to worship? Can we worship God without gathering together? Can we worship alone? Our Song of Faith says, We offer worship as an outpouring of gratitude and awe and a practice of opening ourselves to God s still, small voice of comfort, to God s rushing whirlwind of challenge. How often do we think about our worship as an outpouring of gratitude and awe? How often do we allow worship to become more than something we do? How often do we allow worship to open us to the experience of God? Through word, music, art, and sacrament, in community and in solitude, God changes our lives, our relationships, and our world. We sing with trust. When I asked our study group what part of our worship services spoke most profoundly to them everyone had a different answer; the music, the message, the Lord s Prayer, the silence. Each of us is touched and changed in different ways by worship and this includes not only the worship we share as community on Sunday morning but also the worship we experience in solitude, whether that is sitting alone by the water, watching the bees and butterflies in the garden, or even during intentional times of personal devotion or meditation.

3 Scripture is our song for the journey, the living word passed on from generation to generation to guide and inspire, that we might wrestle a holy revelation for our time and place from the human experiences and cultural assumptions of another era. As a church it is Scripture that is at the very heart of our worship. But scripture is not simply a record of our history or a prescription of how we are to live within our Christian tradition. Scripture is the living word and like all living things, it must be allowed to grow and develop so that it can become an inspiration and a guide for us in our own lives today. In order to do this, we must wrestle a holy revelation for our time and place from the human experiences and cultural assumptions of another era. Scripture can only become a living, growing, inspiring guide when we take the time to dig into the context in which it was written in order to understand not the words themselves but the message and meaning behind the words. It is often only when we begin to look at the circumstances and the cultural assumptions under which a specific passage is written that it begins to make sense for us in our modern context today. God calls us to be doers of the word and not hearers only. Worship and Scripture should never be simply an escape from reality that allows us to find comfort and peace. It should also be a call to action.

4 The Spirit breathes revelatory power into scripture, bestowing upon it a unique and normative place in the life of the community. The Spirit judges us critically when we abuse scripture by interpreting it narrow-mindedly, using it as a tool of oppression, exclusion, or hatred. Like everything else, in order to become truly alive, the Spirit must breathe life into Scripture. But the Spirit that breathes that life into Scripture also knows how we choose to us it. When scripture is used to oppress, exclude or dismiss anyone who does not read and understand it in the same way we do, we place ourselves above the Spirit, claiming that we know better than anyone else what the Spirit is saying through the words. This is perhaps one of the ways in which the United Church of Canada comes most strongly into conflict with many other denominations. And this is not a conflict that is merely historic. Just this past week I listened as someone said that they had refused to continue in a Bible study when someone in the group had expressed their personal opinion that Joseph may well have been the biological father of Jesus. The same individual when on to say that he was very upset when someone said to him that John 14 verse 6 I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one goes to the Father except by me only applied to Christians. For him it applied to all people and therefore anyone who does not accept Jesus as their personal Lord and Saviour is condemned. He went on to say that it is our responsibility as Christians to save everyone else.

5 The United Church of Canada would tend to disagree. As a church, we do not see other religions as somehow being wrong nor do we believe that only Good Christians will go to heaven and that all others will be condemned to eternal damnation. The wholeness of scripture testifies to the oneness and faithfulness of God. The multiplicity of scripture testifies to its depth: two testaments, four gospels, contrasting points of view held in tension all a faithful witness to the One and Triune God, the Holy Mystery that is Wholly Love. We cannot simply pick and choose the scriptures we like and discard the rest. Some of the scriptures are very challenging and very difficult. There are some that we simply have to admit that we do not understand. But that doesn t mean that they might not have something to teach us, even if we don t know what it is. It is in the wholeness of scripture that we begin to sense the immensity of God. What may not speak to us today may have helped someone in the past or it may help someone in the future. Perhaps if we were to dig deeply enough we might even find something that speaks to us. But regardless of what passages we do find helpful and what passages we don t, it is in the whole that the amazing depth and breadth of the scriptures is found. A multiplicity of scripture contrasting points of view held in tension.

6 Our Scriptures are not one continuous story written by one individual expressing one particular interpretation and understanding of the God that our Song of Faith refers to as Holy Mystery. Our scriptures are a multiplicity of different forms of literature, different individual authors, different cultural settings, different interpretations and different ways of expressing an understanding of God. And as such, there are times that the ideas and interpretations expressed completely contradict each other. That is not something that everyone is comfortable hearing. But within the United Church we do our best to hold these contrasting points of view in tension. Do you believe that after meeting an angel at the tomb on Easter morning that the women, left the tomb in a hurry, afraid and yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples as Matthew tells us or do you believe that they went out and ran from the tomb, distressed and terrified. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid. That is what Mark tells us. Or do you prefer John s version in which Mary Magdalene refuses to leave the tomb and meet Jesus herself, but mistakes him for a gardener? Our Scriptures are full of stories that not only have slight variations but at times completely contradict each other. But we do not throw them out nor do we dismiss the differences as trivial. Instead we strive to hold in tension the differences, looking beyond the words to find the deeper meaning.

7 This is the way in which we can learn to fully, deeply engage with the scriptures to see them as one complete whole, all a faithful witness to the One and Triune God, the Holy Mystery that is Wholly Love. Difficult as they may be at times, contradictory as they may appear, confusing as they sometimes are, the scriptures are at the very heart of our faith. They are our song for the journey, the living word. They are the guide that leads us and the prod that urges us forward. They are the source to which we turn as we try to learn more about and understand more deep the Holy Mystery that is Wholly Love. Amen.