How do you start an important event? And how many times do you need to start in order for the event to be real? Sometimes it feels as if we start our worship service multiple times. We have a prelude, followed a greeting and announcements. If the Trinity Choir is singing there is usually an Introit. Next comes a Call to Worship and then an opening hymn. Six items just to get us rolling. Why so much effort to begin a service that has so many other elements in it?

At a baseball game, the umpire simply yells, "Play ball!" and the proceedings get underway. Although, that is not really true. A baseball game, at least from the fan's perspective, has multiple starting points as well. There is, if you are like me, the excitement of walking up to the stadium. I have been accused (accurately, I am sorry to admit) of abandoning my children by walking too fast as I get near the stadium. There is thrill of joining a large crowd, the smell of hotdogs, and then seeing that jewel green field for the first time. But at a baseball game there is also the ritual of buying a scorecard and filling it out. There is joy of watching the home team run out onto the field, the singing of the National Anthem, and then, and only then, does the umpire yell, "Play ball!" There are levels of starting that draw us deeper and deeper into the experience. Baseball can be played without any of these rituals, but without them it wouldn't have the same impact - at least for a baseball fan. The same scenario could be played out with going to the movies, a concert, and on and on. The joy we feel at a special event is greatly enhanced by a process of being drawn progressively into the experience.

So is that why we start worship so many times? To increase the drama? To draw us into the experience? That is certainly one of the reasons. Last week we talked about how our worship service is a carefully constructed drama - a drama in four major acts. And like any drama, like any play, part of Act I is setting the stage. The mood is set, the themes for worship are developed, and the actors are introduced. But here is where worship is different from other spectator events. One of the most important actors in our drama of worship, I would argue the second most important actor after God, is you the people. Worship is not fundamentally about watching other people do things like sing, pray, and preach; worship is about God's people actively worshipping God. The preacher, liturgist, and choir lead worship, they don't worship for you. So beyond setting a stage and drawing people into the experience, our Gathering portion of the worship service is primarily about defining who we are in relationship to God.

Think of the various parts of our Gathering. The Greeting: you will notice that when the greeting is given, it is not I or another worship leader who greets you, but it is "Grace and peace from....God, and from our Savior Jesus Christ." The Greeting establishes the relationship that we will focus on during this sweet hour of prayer. The Greeting is usually followed by the Announcements. Now Announcements are tricky things. I can't recall how many conversations I have had about where we should place them in our service, or whether we should even have them. For the time being we have kept them, and have placed them at the beginning, one, because they seem less obtrusive there, but also because they serve a gathering purpose. Not only is our identity as worshippers defined by the God who greets us, but by this community of faith. The announcements serve as clue that we come to worship as this particular expression of the Body of Christ. On Trinity Choir Sundays we have an Introit - which is kind of like an ecclesiastical "Play Ball!" It is a piece of music that moves from focusing on ourselves to focusing on God. The Introit is followed by a Call to Worship - which begins the dialogical part of worship. Each week, we use a portion of the Psalms that allows the worshippers to take up the dialogue. The Call to Worship puts the words of worship in your mouth. And finally we have an opening hymn - almost always a hymn that speaks of God's goodness and God's greatness.

So in a few minutes, we have done more than set a stage: we have moved from a "me" to a "we" by being reminded who we are - the people of God together, gathered as one body; we have been reminded who God is - the God who greets us, the God who calls us together, the God who loves us; and we have been reminded who we are in relationship to God - covenantal partners who live out that relationship in praise, in prayer, and in community. That actually is a decent description of every part of worship: worship is about defining who we are, who God is, and how we can and do live in relationship with God. There are so many times and places throughout our week and our lives where that happens as well - and worship is so significant because it enables us to practice that relationship, to go deeper into that relationship, so that relationship remains strong and vital throughout our week and throughout our lives.

Throughout our worship today, I invite you to pay attention to the places where we are gathered and regathered as God's people - to the places that remind us who we are as the people of God. Notice the places where your participation is vital to our worship. Rediscover the places in worship that make your heart resound with the psalmist's words: "I was glad when they said to me, 'Let us go to the house of the Lord.'"