Thursday, June 23, 2005

Ready for another helping of "Worship, Evangelism, and Ethics-On Eliminating the And"? Here's another taste:

"We believe that God's salvation is nothing less than participation in God's very life through word and sacrament. Worship is what we do for God, but in that doing we believe our lives are made part of God's care of creation."

God is always turning the tables on us and surprising us with more. Remember the story of King David? He decides he wants to build a "house" for God-a temple. And at least as the story is told in 2 Samuel 7, the king has good intentions: he wants to honor and worship God. He would build a house for God as a gift given in thanks. But God turns the tables on David and promises instead to build a "house"-a dynasty-and the promise of a descendant to rule justly forever. (And those who know the story also know that a mere thousand years later, a descendant of David is born to a backwoods girl named Mary, who names her son Jesus.)

David, of course, has no idea how God will work through him when he makes the offer to build a temple. But as it turns out, it is simply God's character to turn the tables on us, to grace us beyond our imagining, and to draw us into the divine life. We think we will offer God a gift-and at its best, that is what our worship is-but God always beats us to the punch with something more. And what's more, the great exchange doesn't stop there, because our God never settles for simply turning our gifts around. No, we too are turned around, transformed, and drawn into God's saving work. In the table-turning grace of God, we are both gifted and gifts ourselves, both blessed and blessing. In that sense, our worship is always dangerous-or at least adventurous-because it opens us up to receive surprising gifts and to be drawn unexpectedly deeper into the life and love of God.

Connection: God is already at work in you and through you today, even in the mundane details of your day, even in ways you cannot perceive. How might that change the way you face the encounters and tasks in front of you?

Surprise us with grace, O God. We barely know what we are getting ourselves into to ask it, but we ask it nonetheless. Turn the tables on us, and make us into your gifts for the world.