The "Where" and the "Who" of Worship.

Remember the Samaritan woman at the well? Jesus seeked her out. That's right. She did not seek Jesus. It was the good Shepherd that seeked her out. They had a conversation and in the course of which this is what she said in John 4:19 ...

"Sir," the woman said, "I can see that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem." And to that Jesus replied ... (v.21) "Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, 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 spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.

It's been over 2000 years since then and today, we are still in the rut. We still brag about our places of worship. We tell our friends, "I worship in ______ church." "Our worship services is better than your church." "Come join our worship service. We have this awesome band performing tonight and ______ is preaching." And on and on we go bragging about our place of worship.

That's what the Samaritan woman did. She said, "our fathers worship on THIS mountain but you Jews claim the place we must worship is in JERUSALEM." If you would notice Jesus' reply to this, He said a time is coming and has now come where the true worshipers will worship the Father ..." Where? Jerusalem? The holy mountain? No! BUT in "spirit and in truth"! In other words, if you would strip away the band, if you would take away the song leader, if you would strip away the air-conditioned building we call church, if we are stripped of all these "amenities", where will we worship God? Jesus said, "IN" ... your spirit and in truth! Is it a wonder then that Paul said, "Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit?" You are the church. You are the place of worship. That's why Jesus said, "a time is coming and is now come ...". Church is in the worshipers. It's not in the WHERE. The WHERE we worship is nothing compared to the WHO we worship. 2000 some years later we still got it wrong. We emphasize the WHERE of worship instead of the WHO that we worship. And so, in a commercialized sense, we have turned the church into a brand and Christians are "brand" conscious today! They want to belong to a particular church because it is the happening place. It's like the Samaritan woman ... "You worship in Jerusalem? Oh but we worship on Holy Mountain."

Is the WHERE we worship more important than the WHO we worship? Is church all about buildings and programs and activities? If there is a persecution and all church buildings and programs and activities cease to function, would you still be able to worship? For the first 300 years, the New Testament church did not meet in buildings. They had no mega buildings or mega churches. Jesus did not own a building He call church. He came not to build buildings but to build true worshipers. And true worshipers ... that is His church. Not bound by four walls. Not restricted to fixed days and programs. A church that is lose and like a mustard seed, carried by the wind wherever it blows and when grounded it flourished into the unstoppable church of Jesus Christ!

Can we still be the church today according to the blueprints of Jesus Christ?

God bless.