Why Worship?

Jesu Juva

Hebrews 12:18-24                                          

August 24, 2025

Proper 16C                          

 Dear saints of our Savior~

        It’s another Lord’s Day in the Lord’s house.  For Christians, this first day of the week is normally a day dedicated to worship.  Why do you come to worship?  What do you expect from worship?  Worship means different things to different people.  For some it’s inspiration or instruction, edification or encouragement—a chance to pray, praise, and give thanks perhaps.  But what about you?  Why have you come to worship?  And what do you expect to find?

        The writer of the book of Hebrews tackles the worship question in today’s epistle.  Hebrews is probably a sermon put down into written form.  The main problem addressed by this sermon is that people were falling away from worship.  People were forsaking the Word and the Sacraments; and some were even leaving the church for the synagogue and the temple.

        Things weren’t going well for those first century Christians.  It was easier to be Jewish and return to the temple.  Jews weren’t being persecuted; but Christians were.  Many Christians were filled with doubts about their faith, doubts about Jesus.  They got discouraged.  They stopped gathering together for worship.

        But let’s not be too hard on those Hebrews.  What would you do if Christianity became illegal?  What if it was perfectly permissible to discriminate against Christians—such that you could be fired from your job and no one would hire you?  What if you lost your house and your bank accounts?  What if someone were standing outside the church to interrogate you on your way in—demanding to know what you were up to and the names and addresses of all your relatives?

        The sermon to the Hebrews was written in that kind of climate.  Those Christians could catch a big break by pledging their allegiance to the Laws of Moses, scurrying back to the synagogue—forsaking the sacrifice of Mount Calvary in favor of the strict statutes of Mount Sinai.  This is why the book of Hebrews goes to such lengths to show how Jesus is superior to Moses in every way—that if you forsake Jesus for Moses, you are going from the greater to the lesser—literally going downhill and in the wrong direction—missing the narrow door of salvation entirely.

        The author of Hebrews shows how Christian worship is utterly unique and supreme in the world of religion.  In every other religion, you reach up to your god and offer your discipline and works to that god so that you will be saved.  But in Christian worship, God comes to you in Christ.  Eternity and time intersect, heaven and earth join together, and the Father through the Son in the Spirit blesses us with His love.  That’s the worship we have.  That’s the worship we want—and need.  That’s the worship of this very hour in this very place.

        Today’s Hebrews homily tells us about this wonderful worship—tells us things we might not otherwise know about what’s going on here and now.  It speaks of things unseen. Oh, and it all gets expressed in one glorious sentence.  This sentence begins with three little words:  You have come.  The tense of the verb indicates a completed action—a done deal.  It’s not wishful thinking, but fact.  You have come to worship; but that’s not all:  You have come to Mount Zion, and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.  Beloved in the Lord, at this moment you have slipped the surly bonds of Whitefish Bay, Milwaukee County, and the state of Wisconsin.  You are now standing on holy, heavenly ground.  In worship you have come to God’s city where you yourself are a citizen set free from sin and death by God’s own Son—who loved you and gave Himself for you.  This is heaven—on earth.  Or, if you prefer, an embassy of heaven on Milwaukee’s north shore.

        You thought you were just “going to church” this morning.  Turns out you’ve been transported—you have come—to sacred space and holy ground.  Our text says you have come to innumerable angels in festal gathering.  If this is heaven on earth, then there must be angels among us—innumerable angels.  Even the best usher team can’t count up all the angels in attendance.  These angels worship

with us.  They sing with us.  You can’t hear them; but they can hear you.  (One day you will hear them.)  These angels are “in festal gathering,” which simply means they’re having a party.  We acknowledge their party every time we say:  with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven.

        You can’t see the angels in worship; but you can see the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven.  That’s just a delightful way of describing your fellow believers in Christ—the elect whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.  And your name is among them—sinners with robes washed white in the blood of the Lamb.  But this assembly of believers is much more sizeable that what you see between these four walls—bigger even than our district or our synod.  In worship, you have come to the body of Christ—which includes believers in Belize and in Germany and the Dominican Republic and Asia and Africa.  Our voices unite with theirs.  Here and now we stand shoulder to shoulder with all those sisters and brothers.

        Our Hebrews homily on worship continues:  You have come to . . . God, the judge of all.  To come to worship and hear the Word of God is to be judged—to hear the words, “Will the defendant please rise?”  The Word of God’s Law declares that you are guilty and God is justified in punishing you eternally.  But God has judged His Son in your place.  He made Jesus to be your sin and damned Him in your place.  He declares you innocent for Jesus’s sake.  He judges you completely righteous.  He bangs the gavel, excuses the jury, adjourns the court.  You are acquitted and free.  Why come to worship?  To be declared not guilty by God, the judge of all, whose verdicts are never overturned.

        But wait . . . there’s more.  Our text tells us that we have also come to the spirits of the righteous made perfect.  These are those you know who have already departed this life in peace, trusting in Christ.  They now rest from their labors.  They are with the Lord.  And yet, they are also here with us in worship.  How?  I don’t know.  They are with Christ; and Christ is here among us in worship.  Some people go to the graveside to be near those they love who have died.  Some gaze at old photos.  But we can come no closer to that great cloud of witnesses than we do right here—in worship.

        In worship you have come to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant.  Angels and saints are nice, but everything hinges on Jesus and His new covenant.  That New Covenant was instituted by Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross.  In this covenant God forgives and forgets.  He remembers our sin no more.  We have an Advocate—a Mediator—with the Father; Jesus is the propitiation for our sin.

        This Hebrews homily can’t conclude without a word about blood:  You have come . . . to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.  Blood is life.  Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.  Best of all, the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanses us from all sin.  That blood gets sprinkled on you right here in worship.  You can’t touch it or see it; you can only believe it.  In the water of baptism, in the words of absolution, in the cup of the Lord’s Supper, the life-giving blood of Jesus is applied to you.  You weren’t there on Good Friday when Jesus shed His blood on the cross.  But the blood He shed is here . . . today . . . for you . . . in worship.

        That blood speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.  Abel was murdered by his brother, you recall.  His blood pleaded for justice—for vengeance—for retribution.  It testified against his brother.  But the blood of Jesus testifies for you, not against you.  It pleads to heaven for your forgiveness.  It cries out for mercy, pardon, and peace.

        You have come to all this!!  You have come to worship.  And here in worship there is always more than meets the eye:  the city of God, innumerable angels, the blood of forgiveness, and our Savior Himself.  Knowing that, you never need to search for reasons to worship.  You already have them.

        In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.