Today's Gospel

The Power of Worship

Our lives change when our habits change, and Lawrence had one habit. Lawrence was born in a very poor family and he received no formal education. But he turned out to be far wiser than most of us humans. Lawrence became a soldier, and then he became a household servant when his military service ended. Lawrence became a household servant for a group of monks, a group of monks who were created exclusively to pray, to pray and to worship God, to seek the heart of God. So Lawrence, as their servant, spent each day in the kitchen sweeping, scrubbing, cleaning, cooking. He saw himself as the servant of the servants of God. Lawrence led a life of humble, menial, tedious service, cooking, cleaning, mending shoes, that kind of thing. Lawrence lived all of his life doing those menial tasks, caring for the monks, doing the tasks that most of us dread or put off as long as we can. The odd thing was Lawrence took great pleasure and joy in those menial tasks because Lawrence had a habit. One habit. The habit of living every moment in the presence of God. To make a deliberate effort to worship God in everything, every task that He did. Every pot that he scrubbed, Lawrence scrubbed as he worshiped God. Every pan that he rinsed, he rinsed as he worshiped God. Every floor that he mopped, he mopped as he worshiped God. Lawrence gave himself over entirely to worship. He found ways to drive out of his mind anything that was capable of interrupting his thoughts of God. He developed a habit. Lawrence worshiped God all day long. He formed the habit of returning to God in the middle of every task. He said his goal was to become completely God's, to give my all for God's all. Lawrence lived as if there were nothing in the world except him and God.

By reminding himself over and over, eventually worship became his habit, not something he had to remember to do, but something that just flowed naturally in everything that he thought, said or did. And what he found was that by repeating these acts, he developed a holy habit, a habit of worship, taking everything you do and turning it into worship. So much so that Lawrence became known as the lord of all pots and pans. He just worshiped. He wrote private notes and pages that nobody even knew about until after he died. And when they discovered them, they put them together into a little booklet called Practicing the Presence of God. Brother Lawrence describes in that little book how he transformed every mundane, tedious moment into glorious worship and praise of God. In the gospel reading today, a teacher approaches Jesus and asks him, "What's the most important teaching in the Bible?" Jesus replies, "Well, the first thing is this, love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul, and with all your strength." In other words, love God completely. God wants all of you. God desires every bit of you. He doesn't want half-hearted leftovers, partial devotion, occasional obligatory obeisance. You were made for God's pleasure. He wants all of you given completely to Him. That's your first purpose in life, to bring God pleasure. That's why He made you in the first place. It's all about God. It's not about you. And how do you bring God pleasure? Worship, revere, adore, honor, praise, treat with intense admiration, worship, to declare the excellence of God. Brother Lawrence understood this well. Worship isn't a part of life. Worship is life. It's the purpose for which you and I were made.

Jesus replies to the teacher, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul, with all your strength." Whatever you do, do it for the glory of God. Whatever you think, think about the glory of God. That was Lawrence's one holy habit. Now, if you're like me, most of us say, "How in the world can I possibly do that?" Well, Brother Lawrence left two simple keys for discovering that worship his life, and they both start with C. Number one is to change not what you do, but your attitude about what you do. Number two is to continually pray. Rather than seeing prayer as something that only occurs on your knees or in a church or beside a bed, to learn how to grow into a life of continual prayer. One way to do that is to memorize short one-sentence prayers that you can use when you find your mind wandering or your heart distracted or just when you need to call yourself back to your purpose by saying simple one-sentence prayers like these, "Lord, you are with me. Father, I receive your grace. Jesus, I'm depending on you. Christ, help me trust you. Holy Spirit, I belong to you. Lord, I give myself completely to you. Father, you will never leave me. Lord, you are my God." Or maybe you take the gospel reading from today with that beautiful instruction that Jesus gives, and you turn it into a one sentence prayer like Brother Lawrence would have, where you say, "Lord, while I mow my grass, I love you with all my heart, with all my soul, with all my mind, with all my strength. Lord, while I care for my mother, I love you with all my heart, with all my soul, with all my mind, with all my strength.”