Worship in Spirit

I want you to think of one of your favorite places. Go there in your mind’s eye. It could be a vacation spot. It could be a place you go camping. It could be your hometown. What about the place makes it special for you? Now, think about one of your least favorite places. Why is this place so unattractive to you?

Believe it or not your favorite and least favorite places have at least one thing in common – they have the power of place. They elicit feelings and emotions from you. For example, I sat in the car of a world-class roller-coaster the other day. This coaster speeds you up to 120mph in four seconds and then goes straight up in the air. As I waited for the ride to start, my feelings of anticipation and nervousness rose. The boy sitting next to me asked me if I was scared. Places bring out different feelings in us. The controversy over the proposed mosque at the site of the World Trade Center memorial comes to mind. The place is stirring strong emotion and heated debate. There is power in “place.”

We come upon this idea as we listen to the conversation between Jesus and the Samaritan woman who is drawing water at her village’s well. The woman broaches the subject of where is the best place to worship God.

“Sir, I see that you are prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.” John 4.19-20

When the woman says “this mountain” she means Mount Gerizim. Gerizim was a place where Abraham and Jacob had made altars. In Deuteronomy it says that Gerizim is the place where the people are to go to be blessed. So for the Samaritans, who lacked most of the Old Testament outside of the first five books, anytime scripture referred to “the good mountain” they took it to mean Mount Gerizim. They had strong feelings about it. The Jews had equal or greater feelings about Jerusalem. The woman points out to Jesus, “ you (as a Jew) say Jerusalem is the right place to worship God.” It’s an interesting side note to mention that the Jews didn’t always believe this. Well, at least not all of them. There was controversy during the time of the Judges, during David’s day and the building of the Temple under his son Solomon. Some other sites, “high places”, were touted by some as the right place to worship God. But eventually the Temple in Jerusalem won out. If you were a true worshiper, at least once, you made the trek to Jerusalem to worship at the Temple.

Jesus response to the woman’s question is pretty revealing. First, he tells the woman that times are changing.

“The hour is coming when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for such the Father seeks to worship him.” John 4.23

The woman is interested in the place to worship and Jesus turns the conversation to the better way to approach God. Earlier in this Gospel John describes the scene of Jesus angrily clearing out the money changers from the Temple. The zeal of the Lord was upon Jesus as he made the point of saying you’ve made this place a flea market instead of a house of prayer. So certainly, the Temple in Jerusalem was not unimportant to Jesus. But then he refers to a new temple, the temple of himself.

“Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.” John 2.19

Not only did Jesus fulfill this promise, but the fact is his death and resurrection meant the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem as a viable religious system. “After Jesus offered the sacrifice that would put away the sins of the world, what place would there be for a temple in which the central act was the offering of the bodies of animals on the altar? When Jesus died, the temple died as the center of a religious system.” (Leon Morris) This was true not just for Jewish Christians but relatively soon for all Jews, where the sacred place of worship moved from Temple to local synagogue, each viable community having its own sacred space.

So the answer to the question of where is the right place to worship God did indeed change. It went from high places, Mount Gerizim and Jerusalem, to synagogue and, in the case of the early Christian Way, the house church. But Jesus introduces a new idea – the way you worship is more important than where you worship. The right way to worship is “in spirit and truth.”

What does this mean? It means we worship the Jesus way. Jesus is the way to the Father. So in our spirits we approach the Father not “by buildings made with human hands” but by a spirit right before God.

Psalm 24 speaks of this reality – “Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? Who shall stand in his holy place? Those who have clean hands and pure hearts, who do not lift up their souls to what is false, and do not swear deceitfully. . .such is the company of those who seek him.” 24.3-6

Likewise in the New Testament , the one who worships the Lord is the one who presents themselves utterly and honestly before God.

“I urge you brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” Romans 12.1

To worship in spirit is to be completely present before God. We present ourselves – this is “spiritual worship.” St. Paul continues on this theme in the first letter to the Corinthians:

“Don’t you know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.” 1 Corinthians 3.16-17

You are the temple of God. Not some high places. Not some holy mountain. Not even Jerusalem. You are the place where God’s Spirit lives. You are that temple. All this has been made possible by “the mercies of God” revealed in the person and work of Jesus Christ.


The old hymn, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing, speaks of the experience of the believer who calls upon the presence of God in worship. It speaks of “raising an Ebenezer” which is a makeshift stone or wood altar. Where do I raise this altar? Here. Wherever I am, (I don’t even have to have stone or wood), I raise my heart as the altar of worship to a holy God. Take my heart, Lord and seal it. The believer can call upon God anywhere, anytime.
We are living temples. We are literally the moving church. It’s not that places and spaces aren’t important. It’s just that they are not as important as the way we worship God. How do we worship God rightly? How do we “ascend the hill of the Lord with clean hands and a pure heart?”

We honor God with our best in worship. So our best might start with how we get ready physically, emotionally, intellectually. Are you showing up for worship rested and ready or are you drained and dead? Some people get ready by putting on their best clothing. Some people don’t feel ready to worship unless they have a suit and tie on or their best dress. For others, being ready is being comfortable, and discomfort would stand in the way of being real before God. I say, dress the way that best readies you for worship.

Are you showing up for worship with an openness to God’s Spirit and God’s Word? Are you teachable? Is your mind quick to engage and ask questions? Do you present yourself humbly and willingly before God? Do you sing with passion even if you can’t sing? You do pray with intensity even if you don’t know how to pray?

When I asked you to imagine your favorite places, did any of you keep your eyes open because right here is one of those places? If not, I wonder, is it because of the place or is it because of us?


Let me take you back to one of my favorite places – to that rollercoaster seat. Imagine the anticipation and excitement you feel. You are nervous. You are even a little bit scared for your life. You know you are not in control. But it starts, maybe slowly for you at first. You ascend, clink, clink, clink. . .and before you know it you are up higher. You see things you didn’t see before. You are awed and amazed. And still you anticipate what comes next. Because now the ride really begins and it’s humbling and thrilling at the same time. And you feel alive. You laugh and scream and you raise your hands. Nobody tells you to do these things. They just happen naturally, from your spirit, if you will. And every twist and turn, up and down, you are fully engaged, gripping and holding on for your life. The ride comes to an end and it seems so short you are disappointed. But you are pleased and grateful and you turn to the person next you and smile and say wasn’t that amazing! Maybe you even get right back in line to do it again.

This is how worship should be. This is what it means to worship “in spirit.” For worship is a giving of yourself completely. It is putting yourself in the hands of the living God, which is always a dangerous thing to do, but also a very thrilling thing to do. When we worship in spirit, without a doubt we know that we have been in the presence of God. We leave changed by the experience. We leave awed and grateful. We leave wanting more. What would our church and community look like if we came ready to worship every week? What would we look like?