Worship Fully

My message prep this week has forced me to take a new look at “worship.” If you know me, you know that I am a conflicted individual when it comes to worship… that is probably why I am always compelled to put the word in quotes. I often question whether what we spend so much time and money on doing in our churches is actually REALLY worship or not. But that is a different post for a different time.

Anyways, I have been reading the story of Jesus being presented at the temple in Luke 2:21-38 and Simeon and Anna’s response to Him. I am struck by several things but one thing in particular…

As the scene goes, Simeon is an old man who has asked God to not let him die without having the chance to see the Messiah. He hangs out at the temple, the main center of worship for Jews, on a daily basis. He is probably intimately familiar with it and its people. All aroud him, people are “worshipping” God… they have animals for sacrifice, their families, they are praying, it is basically a worship swap meet with all the modern fixings to boot.

But despite all the opportunities for “worship” around him, Simeon manages to see a lower-class, poor couple and their newborn baby boy through the crowd and hears the voice of God tell him, “There He is, my son, your Messiah.” At that point, all else fades for Simeon, he is locked in on this baby and begins to worship Him.

He lets out a prayer from the depths of his soul as he HOLDS JESUS in his arms… and he worships. No quotes, just worship. Then Anna shows up and similarily thanks God for the baby Jesus and becomes the very first evangelist as she tells all who would listen about the Christ.

It is stunning to me that the backdrop of this story in Luke is that everywhere there are people worshipping God but they fail to realize that He is in their actual, physical presence! Maybe they are distracted by the process required to formally worship God at the temple, maybe they are in a hurry to get in line to be the next sacrificer, I don’t know, but the Scripture here DOES NOT say that immediately people around stopped what they were doing to worship their Lord.

Today, in 2008, we have Christ with us. The Holy Spirit was sent by God almost 2000 years ago and Christians now experience Christ differently than His actual disciples did, but regardless He is here. We have him in our prescence. Still, I struggle to recognize that. I worship the system, the process, the good and the bad things, His blessings, and often forget that the same baby that Simeon held in His arms is available to me to worship directly.

I don’t want to miss Jesus when He is right in front of me anymore.