Spirit and Truth

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.  God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."  -John 4:21-24

Within an unusual conversation, Jesus tells us that we must worship in spirit and truth.  What a welcome word for this woman.  She is a Samaritan with a history of sleeping around.  Of all people she would be the last that makes it into the temple to worship.  She's just not qualified to worship God the way God must be worshiped.  Maybe this is the reason she asks the question.  She may have been hoping to hear that the mountain is a better place to worship.  But Jesus, being the Son of God, would not satisfy her expectation or anyone else.  Its not about the place, said Jesus.  Its not about the people, said Jesus.  And its not about the style of worship.  The Jews only advantage in having Jerusalem was that they inherited a long history of walking with the Lord.  In short, they knew God while everyone else was guessing who God is.  That is why salvation is from the Jews.  But it is not about Jerusalem or the Jews, it is about God's plan.

For us today, it is not about the church.  It is not about how we pray; some will be elegant, and some plain; some will be creative, and some use liturgy.  We may pray on our knees or looking up at heaven; we may pray shouting or without an utterance.  Our religion is not about doctrine, or having the right education.  Our religion is not based on dogma, or survive on hermeneutics.  Those things are only a means to the end.  Its all about God, and as this verse says, God is spirit.  Contrary to how so many view spirit, it is not a mystical thing but very real.  Its not that sentimental romanticism, also known as hogwash.  What we worship is very real (more real than we are), and worshiping in spirit and truth is the only way to worship.  These material things serve a purpose, but they are not a requirement in and of themselves, nor are they the point of worship.  Getting past the material things, in our thinking, is important to being a Christian.  Maybe when you first became a Christian you thought it was all about following the rules, and maybe you still do.  Then, after maturing, you have, or should, come to realize that living by faith and spirit is the only way to truly follow the rules; that the rules are not there for technical purposes.  The goal is to get to the point where righteousness is so natural that we never even think about it.  That would be when there are no rules, just as there was only one rule in Eden.

On this thanksgiving day there will be people eating all different kinds of food, or giving thanks in many different ways.  Then there are many around the world that do not have this as a holiday.  We must all give thanks from our heart no matter where we are, who we are, or what we're doing.  That is true appreciation.  To simply act thankful, while being ungrateful in heart, is a shallow pretension, which the sight of God pierces through like a bullet through clothing.  Just as we look for the jelly inside of a doughnut, so God looks for the spirit inside of our expressions.  The doughnut might be glazed or have sprinkles on top or just be plain, but that doesn't matter as long as the Spirit of God is the jelly that fills us.