Reflection: In spirit and in truth in community
Our reading today from the Gospel of John is perhaps the most well known instruction concerning how we
are to worship our God. Let me repeat verse 23, “A time is coming and has now come when the true
worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.
For God is spirit and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth”
But what does it mean to worship in spirit and in truth? This is what I would like us to reflect on today, and I
would like us to particularly reflect on what it means to worship in spirit and in truth in a
communal/congregational setting.
But first things first, what does it mean to worship in spirit and in truth?
This comment by Jesus is in the context of a conversation with a Samaritan woman – a very interesting and
controversial conversation for various reasons, but that is a subject for another day. It begins as a discussion
about thirst and turns to the revelation of Jesus as the living water. It then turns to the subject of the
woman’s life and marital status. Then again, the woman changes the subject, this time rather abruptly.
Perhaps Jesus had struck a nerve with the woman, perhaps she was uncomfortable with what Jesus knew of
her and was afraid of where the conversation was going. For whatever reason, the woman changes the tack
of the conversation, she turns the conversation to matters of the form of religious worship. She diverts
attention from herself, turning the conversation from personal to procedural matters.
Now, the woman is a Samaritan, Jesus, a Jew. We know that Jews and Samaritans did not associate; there
was an animosity between these two peoples. They despised each other. This animosity is revealed in stories
we know well – such as the parable of the good Samaritan.
One reason underlying this animosity between the Jews and the Samaritans is the form of their scriptures.
The Samaritans would only use the first 5 books of the bible as scripture, and even then some of this was
slightly different to the Jewish version of these scriptures. The Jews had the holy scriptures more in the form
of the Old Testament that we know, importantly, this includes the writings of the prophets, that speak of the
coming Messiah, the Christ. Another important difference between the two peoples was their view as to the
proper place for worship of God – for the Samaritans, the highest place of worship was Mount Gerizim, for
the Jews, it was Jerusalem.
The woman draws this latter distinction directly to Jesus attention (a distinction which Jesus would have
been fully aware of). It is in this context that Jesus makes his statement. He says, a day is coming, and is in
fact already here, where true worship will not necessarily take place at Gerizim or Jerusalem. This statement
highlights that the aspect of worship that gives it its genuineness is not to be found in a place. Of more
importance than the place of worship is the object of that worship, of greater importance than the structure
of the worship is the purpose of worship.
Whether worship takes place in Gerizim or Jerusalem, or Wellington, whether it takes place in a church
building, or elsewhere, worship of God is to be undertaken in spirit and in truth.
The concept of spirit and truth seems to me to be a multi-faceted description of worship, rich in meaning
and guidance. Let’s start with worship in spirit.
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To worship in spirit is to worship God. We are told we are to worship in spirit because God is spirit.
The way we worship God should be consistent with his nature – it should engage our spirit. It should
connect our innermost being with God, rather than being a superficial act.
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Worship in spirit also highlights to me that worship is enabled by the spirit of God working in our
lives and motivating a worshipful spirit within us.
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Jesus comment on worship in spirit may be a comment on a deficiency in the worship of the Jews,
overly focused on outward ritual.
What about worship in truth?
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Worship in truth is a call to worship in truth to who we are and who God is. It links our worship also
to the truth of Jesus Christ. It ought to engage our mind, our knowledge of the truth of God.
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Perhaps this also reveals a further aspect of what it is to worship in spirit. To worship in spirit is to
worship God apart from our sinful nature, we worship in spirit in the truth of our redemption by
Christ’s saving grace.
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As Jesus comment on worship in spirit may pick up on a deficiency in Jewish worship, this comment
on worship in truth does the same for the Samaritans, as Jesus comments that they worship what
they do not know. They do not know the truth of the coming salvation and redemption through
Jesus Christ.
Taking the two together, our worship ought to glorify God, enabled by the Holy Spirit, and made perfect
through the grace of God revealed in Jesus Christ. We are commanded to love the Lord our God with all our
heart, our soul, our mind (Matthew 22:37). We ought to worship in this same way, to worship by anything
less would be to offer God our leftovers. Our act of worship is not a pure emotional response to God; it is a
conscious choice in response to our knowledge of who God is, and what he has achieved in Jesus Christ.
There are various aspects to worship. In Romans 12:1 we are called to offer ourselves as living sacrifices, as a
spiritual act of worship. Thus there is a personal element to worship, the way we live day by day, in public
and in private. Then of course there is the community aspect of worship and it is this communal aspect that I
would like us consider further.
In the second of our readings today, from Revelation, John’s vision provides us with a vivid picture of what it
is to join together in worship. This vision portrays worship as an ongoing, never-ending act in heaven, as it
says, “day and night they never stop”. When we join together in worship, we ought to remember that we are
not initiating a new offering of worship to God; rather we are joining in with this ongoing heavenly worship,
our offerings join with those of the heavenly beings in glorious praise of God and his redemptive power in
Jesus. Perhaps in one respect this is a small way in which God’s will is being done on earth as in heaven.
This unifying nature is perhaps the most powerful attribute of corporate worship. The unifying power of
joining together in worship does not stop there (though that is a pretty powerful start), it is broader still.
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Our corporate worship unites us with other believers across space. Not only does it bring us together
in one place, but it brings us together in the knowledge that others are gathering similarly all around
the world, singing praises and offering prayers to God.
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It unites us with other believers across time. In our worship we use words of scripture (written
thousands of years ago), we speak and sing words written by faithful ancestors, we use new words
written in our time and place that will be used in the future.
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It unites us with our own past as we are reminded of God’s presence and faithfulness in our own
lives and our life together in community.
J Martin C Scott, in commentating on the passage from John, notes a powerful consequence of Jesus’
conversation with the Samaritan woman – more than remove the focus of worship from the place to the
purpose, it breaks down traditional stereotypes and divisions in worship. In true worship, there is no Jew or
Samaritan. This is reminiscent of the words Paul wrote to the Galatians: in Christ there is no Jew or Greek,
slave or free, male nor female. We are all one in Christ. It seems natural that if this is so in Christ, the same
ought to be true in worship of Christ.
Now, in our day in age, here in Wellington, we may not be uncomfortable at all with the idea of uniting in
worship with Greek or slave or men or women. But there are still various obstacles that can inhibit our unity,
that can remove our focus in worship from God and distract us. Perhaps in our present time, one such
challenge is the style of our worship, or the music by which we worship.
We all have different tastes and preferences, we come from different backgrounds, different generations,
we think differently and we connect with God differently. We respond to different styles of music, different
language in hymns and songs. Further, our experiences and faith journeys will at different times lead us to
connect in worship that focuses on different attributes of God. Thus, behind our music preferences, behind
the words are stories of our journeys with God. We have witnessed this today, as the stories, experiences
and revelations that lay behind the music we have sung together this morning have been shared with us.
But this is not just a personal idea; we can use these stories in our life together to motivate worship of God.
This is nothing new, consider the Psalms, the songs from the Exodus, these songs are born of experiences
and journeys with God that give them an abundance of meaning and truth. The stories of the bible, the
words of scripture and what they reveal to us of God are a rich source of the material we use for worship,
and knowing these stories or scriptures motivates our worship. In the same way, recognising our own
stories, and discovering and recognising the stories of our brothers and sisters can reveal to us and confirm
for us the nature of God and generate a worshipful spirit.
We can join in praising God with our brothers and sisters using words that reflect their experiences of God,
and we can be joined by our brothers and sisters in using words that reflect our experiences. This brings
unity and vitality to our worship, and meaning and understanding to what we sing.
This is worship in spirit, taking our focus from the format of the worship, from the music itself, to a focus on
God, with our knowledge, experience and hope generating in us a spirit of worship, grounded in the truth of
who God is.
In worship of Christ, there is no Greek or Jew, male or female, slave or free; might I contend, no old or
young, no baby boomer or Gen-Y, no rocker or classical enthusiast, no rapper or gospel music lover. In
worship of Christ we join with humility and respect for one another and in praise and adoration of our God.
We are one people, worshiping the one true God.
At St John’s we attempt to reflect this unity in diversity in our worship services, guided in part by a series of
principles as to how we approach music in worship. I encourage you to read and reflect on these principles
and what they mean for you and for us as we join in worship in this community in this place.
But I encourage you also to share with each other your faith journeys, the stories of God at work in your
lives, let these experiences colour the words you sing, whatever the style of music. May we all join in
worship from our joint experience, not just praising a personal God, but the God of Abraham, of Isaac and
Jacob, the God joyously praised by Mary, the God revealed in Jesus Christ, the God of our elders, the God of
our brothers and sisters, the God of our community. May the experiences of our faith community bring spirit
and truth to the worship we offer together. And may this attitude of worship encourage us to continue our
lives of worship and learning when we are apart.
Amen.