Every Who down in Who-ville, 高的和小的, will stand close together...伴随着圣诞的钟声. 他们会手拉手站在一起...和那些谁...会开始唱歌!
圣诞怪杰讨厌这样. He hated everything associated with Christmas –– the hand-holding and 唱歌, 丝带和蝴蝶结, 树和长袜, 赠送礼物的, 最重要的是, 这盛宴! Apparently, it was because his heart was two sizes 太 small. 不管什么原因，圣诞怪杰是个讨厌鬼. 和, after 53 years of enduring the same vexatious Who-family Christmas, 他决定结束这一切. You know the rest of the story: the Grinch disguises himself as Santa Claus (and his dog like a reindeer), sneaks down into Who-ville in the middle of the night, steals everything in the village associated with the Who Christmas celebration, and then heads back up the mountain to listen for the sorrowful cries of the Who- community as it wakes to find that Christmas had been stolen from them. 剧透一下，他的计划没成功. The presents were gone, but the Who-community still received their gift. 金箔和缎带都被拿走了, 碗橱空了。, 墙壁裸露着, but they still had cause to stand together and sing. 圣诞节到了. 或者，更恰当地说，是圣诞节的基督!
对我们很多人来说, holiday seasons can epitomize the notion of celebration, 对一些人来说, “呼呼镇的每个人, 高的和小的, 等,唤起一幅迷人的画面，提醒我们, 太, have a place and a reason to gather as a community. 类似的, Venite(拉丁语“哦”的意思), 来”), the song of praise taken from Psalm 95:1-2 that is sung at the beginning of Matins and Morning Prayer, invites the Christian community to gather in celebration:
哦，来吧，让我们来 向耶和华歌唱; let us 你们要向拯救我们的磐石欢呼! Let us 带着感恩来到他面前; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
事实上, celebrations mark our love for the things that have captured our heart in a remarkable way, 虽然我们可以自己庆祝任何事, the best celebrations always seem to be the ones where everyone comes together under a common invitation. The animated Who-families emerging from their homes standing together, 手拉手, 唱歌, seems to be in response to some sort of invitation. Not unlike the one we receive in Psalm 95 –– 哦，来吧，让我们来...向耶和华歌唱. 哦，来吧，让我们来...你们要向拯救我们的磐石欢呼. 哦，来吧，让我们来...带着感恩来到他面前. 哦，来吧，让我们来...用赞美之歌发出欢乐的声音.
In our common life as Christians we encourage one another as baptized brothers and sisters in Christ, to regularly join together with thankful hearts in the presence of the Triune God. Worship, as celebration, expresses the love we have for Father, Son, and Spirit. 这就是我们的工作. 但这只是敬拜故事的一半. The reason WHY we gather is the most important part –– He first loved us in his Son, 耶稣!
诗篇95篇3-7节继续:
For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods. In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also. The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. 哦，来吧，让我们来 worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker! For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.
希伯来语“ki”(kyi), 字面意思是“因为?,在诗篇95篇中被翻译为“for”, and is the signpost pointing to the WHY of our gathering. The Triune God is “a great God, and a great King above all gods.“他是万物的创造者. He is our Maker and our God, and we are “the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand.” He is our Lord and the “rock of our salvation” (Psalm 95:1). What this psalm is anticipating comes into focus with the coming of Christ. 在耶稣里，造物主成为了他的创造物的一部分. Our great God takes on our weakness and suffers the cross to save his people. The Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep of his hand. We worship in response to what God has done for us in Christ.
At times we are tempted to think that worship is something we initiate or just something that we do for God. When we look more closely, however, we see that the opposite is true. 上帝创造了我们. 基督救赎我们. The Holy Spirit calls us to faith and gathers us together as the people of God. Our heavenly Father gives his gifts to his gathered people –– his word, his grace, his mercy. 他一次又一次地付出, so it is only natural that we respond with expressions of praise and thanksgiving. The fullness of God and all that he graciously gives to us in-and-through Christ is the WHY of our thankful worship!
和 what about that huge list of toys that drew the ire of the Grinch: jing-tinglers, floo-floobers, 和sloo-slunkers, 仅举几个例子? Cindy Lou Who knew the difference between a trum太ka and the real gift of Christmas, while the Grinch mistakenly thought that these trinkets were synonymous with Christmas itself. He was wrong, and sometimes we 太, wrongly value the style of our worship gathering – the band vs. the pipe organ – instead of the Triune God himself. We can never afford to confuse the trappings of our worship gathering with the living and giving God we encounter therein! 敬拜的装饰并不能给我们生命, only 耶稣 does that; and when we gather to celebrate in worship, 我们知道其中的区别. 愿我们的主和救主, 耶稣, grant us this wisdom for the sake of a world whose heart is often “two sizes 太 small.”
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崇拜神学