Today’s Scripture Reading (June 18,
2015): Genesis 33
Worship is a
strange thing. It is something that is highly personalized, and yet we also
share it with those around us. Actually, worship is probably best when we are
alone – and the bulk of our worship should be happening in those solitary times
(if the bulk of your worship is happening in the hour you are in church on
Sunday Mornings – or whenever it is that you go to church, then you are most
likely in deep spiritual trouble.) Unfortunately, in the last few decades the
idea of Christian worship has begun to be tied to tightly to the idea of a
specific form of music. It is not that music shouldn’t be a “part” of worship,
but the key word is “part.” Worship is more than just music. The most basic definition
of worship is anything that gives worth to something. Christian worship honors
and gives worth to God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Any actions that you take
that accomplish this is essentially worship. In other words, worship should be
an essential part of everything that you do, because in everything we want to bring
honor to God.
So Jacob
arrives in Shechem and he buys a piece of land. On that land he builds a home
for his family, and an altar dedicated to his God. Since God had recently
called Jacob “Israel,” Jacob dedicates the altar to the “God of Israel” (El
Elohe Israel.) This is the first time in Scripture that God would be called
this, but it will not be the last time. Here the “God of Israel” will be worshipped.
Centuries in
the future this idea of worshipping the “God of Israel” in Shechem will be
revisited by a Jewish Rabbi named Jesus and an unnamed Samaritan woman. In that
conversation Jesus will be sitting on a well that was believed to have been
built by Jacob on this spot (the Hebrew Bible makes no mention of this well,
but the digging of a well would have been a common occurrence in ancient
times.) As Jesus sat by a well built by Jacob in the vicinity of the place
where Jacob had built an altar dedicated to the worship of the “God of Israel,”
the Samaritan woman would complain that the Jews believe that the “God of
Israel” needs to be worshipped in Jerusalem, while her people want to worship
him on their mountain. Since the woman knew that the well was built by Jacob,
and that Jacob had himself drank water from this well that Jesus wanted to
drink from on that day, she was most likely well aware that that “our father
Jacob” has also worshipped the “God of Israel” on this very site. To deny the
inhabitants of the area the privilege that Jacob had enjoyed (and Jacob was the
convergence point for the Jews and the Samaritans – he was the common ancestor
to both groups of people and truly “our father”) simply didn’t make sense. The
earliest worship of the “God of Israel” had happened on this very spot. Jesus
reply to the woman was direct –
“Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the
Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You
Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for
salvation is from the Jews. Yet
a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the
Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the
Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit
and in truth” (John 4:21-24).
And then Jesus would reveal his nature, likely for the first time ever,
to this woman by the well of Jacob – he would tell her the he indeed was the
Messiah. It was the Messiah himself who had returned to Jacob’s altar. And in
this conversation between Jesus and the Samaritan woman, God was once again
worshipped at Shechem.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Genesis
34
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