(Ex 17:1-7; Ps 95; Jn 4:3-42) JG White ~ 10:30 am, Sun, March 8, 2026, FBC Amherst

I have no numbers to back this up, but isn’t it possible that more people in the Town of Amherst attended yesterday’s Rambler’s game at our arena, than worship today in all the town churches combined? 

Bless God: worship together. Is this what a Christian is? A person who gets together with others for worship services? One Bible word for the Church is, in Greek, ecclesia, which means the gathered ones, or the called out ones. Jesus once said to Peter, “I will build my church, and the gates of hades will not prevail against it.”  Some of the faithful would definitely say, ‘Yes, this is what it is to be a Christian.’  

Well, it is one part. Maybe one of ten different parts of being Christian, if this sermon series is at all correct. Today’s Bible texts touch on worship, in one way or another. Let's explore three questions about this activity we are doing right now. 

Number one comes from the first bit of Bible we used, Psalm 95. It was actually a modern poem we recited, based upon the Psalm. Come let us sing a song of joy. Let us kneel with humble hearts. Let us pray with raised hands. Us, us, us - it is a community event. First question: what is so special about worshipping together? Isn’t doing it on our own enough?

Of all the ten parts of being Christian on the cover image, this one I have been devoted to all my life. Worshipping in Church. Blessing All by giving and sharing has not been my strong point. Beseeching God in prayer is not something I do well or often enough. Believing the right stuff is not me: I am all over the place in what I think about God and what God is up to every day. But going to Church, I can do that. I probably average 51 Sundays every year. I’m trying not to brag; I’m just trying to admit this is one Christian practice I have stuck with. Almost my one and only priority.

But how’s it working? Does something different happen together with God than in all the other times we are on our own in God’s world? Does something more happen together? Something special, even from time to time? 

One thing I know: I keep hearing in my adult life that togetherness has been lost in our modern age. Before the modern era - in Bible times, for instance - people around the world were more community oriented. Less individualistic. So even beliefs like God being a Saviour was more about saving the whole people, not about saving individuals, one by one. Being obedient was about the whole group, not just what each person did. And worship was about the community, even when the worship activity was done only by one or two priests. 

So we, at the end of the modern era (apparently) are in need of togetherness, community, fellowship, connection. To share a ritual, share the words of the same prayer, share in singing together, share in hearing the same word of God spoken (more on this later), is needed, amid all the spiritual things we might do on our own. 

I remember some very special worship events in my life, and you might too. The memorable ones are the different and strange times, of course, that are impossible to forget. Same for you?

Me, I remember the ordination of my brother as a Roman Catholic Permanent Deacon. The liturgy was celebrated in a military chapel in Ottawa, about fifteen years ago. The one super memorable moment was some chanting prayer at the pinnacle of his ordination. It was very Catholic, with an impressive posture. Steve, at the top of the aisle, facing the altar, got down on the floor, face down on the floor, prostrate! Then the liturgists and choir chanted for a long, long list of saints to pray. St. Theresa, pray for us. St. James pray for us. St. Kateri pray for us. I don’t actually remember the exact words, or the list of saints, but it was… it was a moment in worship that meant something. Even when I was rather sceptical about talking to dead Christians in prayer - I never do that. 

Yet, as a protestant, even a Baptist, I appreciate the Biblical teaching of the communion of saints, the mystical fellowship we somehow have with those who went before us. When we worship together, we consider we are one with the dead, who are yet alive in Christ. As Hebrews chapter 12 says, after the previous chapter lists a whole bunch of dead people: since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us… run with perseverance…

And when we are together as those who are alive, we can connect with the Spirit in different and sometimes greater ways than the wonderful times we have on our own. 

We must get on to the next question. Do we hear from God in a worship service? Is God with us or not? If we had read all of Psalm 95 today, we’d hear, 

O that today you would listen to his voice!

Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah,

                 as on the day at Massah in the wilderness…

This is looking back to the story we heard read from Exodus 17 this morning. Another of those unhappy moments of Moses and the Children of Israel. Complaining in the wilderness, we read that the people’s attitude was, ‘Is the LORD among us or not?!’ 

Maybe you noticed, in the brief story here, it was Moses who had a conversation with God, and took action to provide water for the thirsty and grumpy people. 

Whatever our modern circumstance, we at times also ask, ‘Is God among us, or not?’ Sometimes we are like those ancients and are just saying: Prove it, God! Are You for us or against us? Other times we truly want to know. Are You there? Are You with us? 

When we were in Windsor, I knew a fellow from Hantsport who was actually a Springhiller. He told the story of the day (in 1971?) when the Springhill Baptist Church burned down. Of course, a crowd gathered, as the fire department worked. The people moaned and wept. People cried, “Our church is gone!” But one of the members there at the scene said, “No, the building is ruined, but the Church will live on. We are the Church. We will rebuild.”

God was with them. Even when they could not meet in their own building, they surely sensed the presence of the Saviour when they gathered elsewhere. They heard from God. Keep blessing God, and keep blessing one another. 

On ordinary Sundays, when the Church is not on fire - and I also mean not exciting or energetic - are we hearing from the Spirit of Christ? I believe so. When forty or sixty people wonder about the same scripture together - and the same scripture that thousands of others have heard this same Sunday, Christ speaks. When we sing some old song that gets us expressing ourselves in harmony, and was sung by thousands before us in many places, Christ speaks. When one voice speaks prayer, or we all speak the same words on a page, we pray to Christ and with Christ and in Christ. 

What’s special about worshipping together?

Do we have God among us, to hear from together? 

Third: How much do we need a special place for worship? Perhaps that story about the Springhill fire starts to answer this. We also have today’s Gospel story of a woman meeting Jesus by an ancient well, in Samaria of old. 

The Church has loved and told this story for two thousand years now. There is so much here. This unnamed woman gets Jesus saying all sorts of amazing things. Then she rushes back into her town and becomes a far better witness than Jesus’ own disciples were, that’s for sure. Jesus works at training his disciples, then they spend a couple extra days in Sychar with the townsfolk, who are so impressed with this Jewish prophet. 

So, Jesus and the woman at the well talk about worship. She brings it up. Seems like she is changing the subject when she says to Him, “Sir, I can see that you are a prophet. 20 My ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews say Jerusalem is the only place to worship.”

21 Jesus said to her: Believe me, the time is coming when you won't worship the Father either on this mountain or in Jerusalem… 23 But a time is coming, and it is already here! Even now the true worshipers are being led by the Spirit to worship the Father according to the truth.

Where to worship? This was important in those old religions, Judaism, or the Samaritan religion. But a new day is coming, said Jesus. It will be about spirit and truth. It already is here.

Of course, special places happen, when God breaks through. You may have your special places: likely this is one for many. Even where you are in this room can be special. As much as how we sit in here is a failure, as fifty people, it also can have its meaning. 

Sharon and I remember a woman we knew who’d grown up in Windsor. When she would visit Windsor Baptist on a Sunday morning she always sat in a particular spot, even when someone beckoned her to join them. She explained: As a child, I would come here with my grandmother Redden. We always sat here, in the Redden pew. And one Sunday, when I was here, I connected with Jesus, and became a Christian. 

That pew is now gone, actually, the old Redden pew. The Church sold their building and moved to a new one. And the old building is now torn down. But special, sacred places remain valuable, part of the story, even when they are no more. Just as the people who are gone are still blessing us. 

To worship in spirit and in truth. Some Christians aspire to this far more than others. So it is. When we do, let us still discover what it is to meet together, by the grace of God. Let us still discover what it is to know the Holy Spirit among us. Let us still discover what it is to find holy ground, wherever we happen to gather.