The Samaritan woman in her conversation with Jesus naturally wants to bring up a key theological disagreement between Jews and Samaritans. It was the disagreement over the right place to worship God. The Samaritans believed that the right place to worship God was on Mount Gerizim, and the Jews, in Jerusalem. Jesus sweeps this whole debate aside by declaring that a new era is at hand in which people will worship “in Spirit and in truth”, in other words, they will, through the Spirit, fulfil what true worship is. They will become as living sacrifices (Romans 12:1) fully yielded to God and led by his Spirit. We live in this era, and yet too often we focus on worship in terms of form and practice. We can get caught up in questions of which church has got it right or does it better. But worship is a choice that each of us must make to yield ourselves to God. The outward forms are there to facilitate this. True worship is not something you find in the right church or in the right technique. True worship is a choice you need to make to yield yourself to God in response to what he has done for you. Whenever people gather together in Christ’s name you have the option to stand with them wholeheartedly to declare your choice, or to withdraw and separate yourself from the intention of the worshipping assembly. You may not like the music and the words may not be the way you would say it, but your heart can nevertheless declare itself to God in this context. What will your choice be?
Make a choice to engage with corporate worship.
Read John 4:15-26
