PREFACE
This sermon note is an excerpt from a sermon series entitled Bodily Worship by Rev. Jethro Rachmadi on the account of online worship. As the world is partly shut down due to the pandemic, churches around the world find a solution in technological aid to continue religious services. And for some people, such abnormality might even be considered a more efficient way of worshipping and should therefore be the post-pandemic new normal of worshipping".
By addressing this issue, we do not by all means force or promote shaming towards those who choose not to come to bodily services during the pandemic, because some congregants may live with elderlies or juveniles, doctors or nurses, or simply would like to be more cautious for themselves.
Our sole purpose in addressing this issue is to acknowledge that online worship is an inevitable abnormality that we must all hope and pray to return to normal bodily worship.
This is the fourth session of the Bodily Worship series. Previous sessions talk about how liturgy exists inside and outside of the church gate and how liturgy takes a big role in shaping the hearts of men. Though ordinary, liturgy is a double-edged sword that powerfully and actively changes its doer down to men's most inner desire. We know that the heart reflects men's desire, but it's almost as important to remember how the heart also plants men's desire. After all, we are what we desire, or more relationally, Who we desire.
For more information on the prior sessions, please click on the link below:
Bodily Worship #1: https://griikg.org/bodily-worship/
Bodily Woship #2: https://griikg.org/bodily-worship-2/
Bodily Woship #3: https://griikg.org/bodily-worship-3/
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BODILY WORSHIP: ORDINARY, REPETITIVE...AND A LIFE-CHANGER
1. The Derision towards the Ordinary
Our Lord works through ordinary things. You might have even heard of this parable of a city that was drowned in a big flood. A man sought safety on the roof of a house, as he prayed, "Lord, have mercy on me and be quick to save me!" Not long after, a man in a wooden boat rowed towards him as he offered a seat on his boat. But the man shook his head saying, "Sorry, sir. I've prayed to God to save me. He will be the one who saves me". And so the wooden boat left him. Soon after, a navy boat approached him and threw a rope towards him, but the man rejected the rope for the same reason. Finally, a helicopter hovered above him and with a loud voice a soldier cried, "Sir, take hold on the ladder, we will pull you up, the water has reached your neck!" But the man replied, "No, sir. God will be the one who saves me Himself". At the end of the day, the man died and went to heaven. He asked God why He did not save Him, and God said, "I sent you a wooden boat, a navy boat, and a chopper, but you refused. You waited for an extraordinary rescue, while I work through the ordinary."
Romans 10:17 says that "[...] faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the Word of God", but let us go back to its preceding verses, "and how are they to hear without someone preaching?" (verse 14b). Someone preaching the Word is an ordinary act. We constantly expect spectacular repentance testimonies. Honestly, nobody wants to hear, "I came to believe in the Lord Jesus by reading the Bible for 20 years, or by coming to the Sunday School diligently as a kid." The story that we want to hear is of a murderer who repents. But even when we study such extraordinary testimony, there is always an ordinary matter that we missed. Say that murderer repented because when he was imprisoned, he happened to find a piece of small paper that happened to be torn from a Bible. But surely somebody had to first bring a Bible to the prison, somebody else had to print the Bible and somebody had to translate it to another language. And how are they to hear without someone preaching?
When we go to a doctor's appointment, nobody wants to be prescribed you just need enough rest, some vitamin C, exercise regularly, and don't forget to hydrate. What we wish to hear is us needing a super dose of vitamin C or other extraordinary solutions.
Finally, have you not noticed that it is through ordinary things that the God we know in our Bible creates the most extraordinary things?
