Voices In Worship

 My pastor didn’t preach yesterday.

It was Palm Sunday--

A huge Sunday in the church universal.

Yet she didn’t preach.

 

This is unheard of in many church traditions.

What is “worship” without a sermon?

Isn’t the entire service of worship just the warm-up to the sermon—

The precise moment of deliverance of the message?

 

It turns out that the answer can be no—

That worship can be designed and experienced without the sermon being the focal point—

That the message and action can come through praying, singing, silence, and

The actual Word of God.

 

That’s what happened yesterday.

Many voices from many congregants worked together to read Matthew’s account of Holy Week.

Different cadences, different timbres, different life experiences,

Reading the same story and delivering God’s message without there being a sermon at all.

 

As I lay in bed listening to the voices,

Not knowing exactly whose voice was whose,

I marveled at how those voices were joining with millions of other voices around the world,

Experiencing God’s story

Together.

 

In a time when popular worship is characterized as a rock concert or motivational speaking event,

May we remember that worship is about believers coming together as one,

Unifying our voices in praise and adoration of the One Who Is…

And is to come.

 

Amen.