The corner has been turned and we really have no idea what to expect ahead of us. The long-awaited year of 2021 could either bring us a step closer to the happy place of “what used to be,” or hurl us further into a dark world of uncertainty. Who knows!?
So, what will we do? I suppose, as those who are children of God, we must do what’s been done since humanity began – look to God, who never changes.
Continue to trust in the One you first trusted. The same God you trusted with your eternal salvation – years, decades, or days ago – is the same God you can trust this very day, in the middle of a global pandemic.
He will guide us through His word and by His Spirit – we have to quiet our souls and listen.
He will provide steadiness and peace when circumstances are raging – we have to keep our focus on the One who is steadfast and unmovable. Not the waves. Not the storm.
He is our hope when the world and even our own minds demand that there is none – we have to rest in His promises. He feeds the sparrow. He clothes the lily with beauty. How much more will He care for you?
Here’s a snapshot of reality in 2021: Your job is uncertain. Your health is uncertain. Gathering with those you love – family, friends, church – is uncertain. Odds of going into a restaurant or grocery store without a mask is uncertain. A return to your life as you once knew it is uncertain. Your next breath? Yep. Uncertain.
So, why on earth would we not reach up and desperately grab hold of the God who is the very essence of certainty? I imagine something like that quickly passed through Peter’s mind as he dropped below the waves while the Master of H2O, hand extended, stood still.
Jesus, help us know how to keep our eyes on You and off the storm. Help us trust and hope in You as we plunge headlong into this year. Guide us through an onslaught of doubt and worry, and bring us to the other side of it, stronger than we’ve ever been. Give us such heavenly peace that those around us notice it, and wonder, “How?”
The older I get, the more entrenched I get in these routines and the more annoyed I become when said routines are interrupted.
I get up and make a pot of coffee at a particular time and in a certain way every morning.
I have a particular place I sit and have my quiet time in the morning with my coffee that I fixed a particular way. This then continues into my method of getting ready for the day – laying out my clothes (the night before), showering, brushing my teeth, mouthwash, etc. It is all done in……..you guessed it, a particular order and in a particular way.
When this routine gets derailed in any manner, I quickly become unraveled, crawl under the kitchen table, and am simply unable to function as a sane human being for the remainder of the day. Okay, it’s not quite that bad…but close.
You may be the same way. Maybe you can’t relate at all. But there’s a passage in the Gospel of John that comes to mind as I reflect upon my excessive routine.
A Divine Encounter with a Samaritan Woman
In John chapter four, Jesus, passing through Samaria, happens upon a Samaritan woman drawing water from a well. Perhaps you know the story well. If not, I encourage you to read the whole story. In short, Jesus introduces her to His living water, as opposed to the temporary water of the well she was drawing from.
Convicted, and realizing His spiritual authority, she immediately changes the subject and tries to engage Jesus in an argument about Samaritan worship versus Jewish worship. The Samaritans had their routine – a particular place and way to worship God. Don’t mess with it. The Jews, too had their particular routine and place of worship.
But, in so many words, Jesus minimizes this dispute and focuses the attention on a much deeper issue. He tells her, “True worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship Him” (John 4:23). Since Jesus had arrived and consequently ushered in the kingdom and the New Covenant, worship would now be done differently.
Something Entirely New
Mark 2:22: No one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins.
This was a new concept Jesus was presenting to this Samaritan woman. She (and pretty much everyone else at the time – Jew and Samaritan alike) was accustomed to worship that was performed at a particular location at specific times and in a prescribed manner.
This of course is best exemplified in the Old Testament passages describing and prescribing Tabernacle, and later Temple worship, employing mediator-priests, offering a multitude of specific sacrifices on fiery altars, and keeping a calendar full of various feasts.
So, it must have been downright hard to grasp, to say the least, when Jesus said, “You won’t worship on “this mountain (where the Samaritans worshiped) or in Jerusalem (where the Jews worshiped).” I feel sure Jesus could have argued with this woman for hours about the correctness of Jewish worship (He was a Jew!). But instead, He honed in on a much larger reality.
What Is Spirit?
He went on to say that God is Spirit (He has no form, no locale, He’s not bound by time) and therefore seeks worshipers who will worship Him in spirit (no particular form, no particular place, no particular time).
Just one chapter earlier in John’s gospel Jesus said, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:6, italics mine). So, since God is Spirit, we must worship Him accordingly.
What Is Truth?
But what about truth? What is truth? It’s the age-old question that even Pontius Pilate posed to Jesus. As Christians we believe that truth comes from scripture, which is the inspired Word of God. But here, more specifically, John is speaking of The Truth!
Later in this same gospel, John records Jesus’ own words that He Himself is, “The way, and the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6, italics mine). In his commentary on the Gospel of John, Edwin Blum writes, “True worshipers are those who realize that Jesus is the Truth of God and the one and only Way to the Father. To worship in truth is to worship God through Jesus.” (The Bible Knowledge Commentary, 286).
Additionally, the author of Hebrews wrote, “Therefore through (Jesus), let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God” (Hebrews 13:15, italics mine). So, when we worship in truth, we worship in and through Jesus Christ!
Take Away for Today
So much from this passage can still be unpacked, and gallons upon gallons of rich theology can be squeezed from these verses, but I’d like to wrap up this brief devotion by offering you just one refreshing cup.
Here’s a beautiful truth: Jesus is putting to one side the many issues that divide worshipers, and is nudging us altogether to a powerfully unifying spirit-and-truth kind of worship. Despite the theological, doctrinal, methodological, and even stylistic differences we adhere to, we are nevertheless unified at the very core of our worship, which is simply spirit and truth.
We, as brothers and sisters in Christ (Methodist, Presbyterian, Assemblies of God, Baptists, Hispanic, African, Caucasian, Asian, Contemporary, Traditional, and so on) equally redeemed by His precious blood and presented before the throne of God as righteous and holy, can worship the One who has purchased us and made us one, in spirit and in truth.
Please leave a comment below and let me know how this passage in John 4 has spoken to you about worship!
Sean's World Beat 