According to AAA, nearly 82 million Americans were expected to travel 50 or more miles over last weekend’s Thanksgiving holiday. And among that horde going over the river and through the woods, 6 million hardy souls got to grandmother’s house by airplane. And all those flyers yearned (or even prayed) for hassle-free journeys that satisfied hopes of safe, predictable, on-time experience.
A “nice” flight is how it’s described. You exit the plane as you entered, hopefully no worse for the wear: Transported physically but otherwise unchanged. You are simply content in getting from Point A to Point B at 500 mph while dozing, reading, or listening to music at 33,000 feet. “How was your flight?” Grandma Doris asks in welcoming you home. “It was good, Mee-Maw.” A “nice” flight. No more, no less.
Perhaps the same can be said of our Sunday worship experiences: We are content with a “nice” service. Look around at the faces in this or another sanctuary, and for the most part, folks appear basically satisfied to be in church – as with airline passengers, content in sitting there, in looking straight ahead, in perhaps turning to engage in small talk with a pewmate, and then in leaving when the service ends.
Like successful air travel, a “nice” service is a safe, predictable, on-time experience that flows smoothly and uneventfully from takeoff to landing, from Point A to Point B, from opening bell to benediction. A “nice” service. No more, no less. You exit as you entered, because nothing within you has changed.
But some who come to worship Father, Son, and Spirit won’t settle for “nice.” A few travelers on the journey of faith – for us, now, again on the road to Bethlehem – step into the sanctuary prepared for something more. We enter his gates not just with thanksgiving but giddy with excitement over the possibility of experiencing something divinely new and different – maybe even looking forward to the thrill of riding out a little holy turbulence that helpfully shakes and rattles us.
These are the human spirits who enter Sabbath worship with childlike wonder and enthusiasm – like youngsters taking their first ride aboard a jet airliner, thoroughly consumed by the majesty of it all and expecting great, beautiful, and marvelous things to happen.
Such wide-eyed kiddos travel with noses pressed hard against airplane windows and absolutely love munching on stale airline pretzels. Tiny hands clutch the pair of pin-on plastic wings received from the flightdeck crew on the quick cockpit tour they somehow finagled through precocious personality, sheer luck, or simple question – “Can I please meet the pilot?”
And all because they entered the fascinating and mesmerizing space of lighted dials and rows of switches all controlled by a hospitable and accommodating pilot, those littles step off the plane not merely content to have arrived at their destination but with faces beaming and hearts bursting. It wasn’t a “nice” flight. It was a great flight! When can we go again?!
So also with none other than Jesus. On one particular journey, his would be a great flight, too. His long trip with close friends – to stand in worship before the very presence of God – ends in faces beaming with glory and hearts bursting with awe. Listen in the Gospel of Matthew for the Word of the Lord –
Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white.
Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. Then Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!”
When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear. But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Get up and do not be afraid.” And when they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone. (Matthew 17:1-8)
This mountaintop experience was no accident. Finding Jesus and his friends together in worship doesn’t happen by whim or coincidence. Jesus doesn’t awake one morning, glance at the calendar, check his watch, and suddenly realize, “Zoinks! Today’s the day we’re supposed to go the mountain.”
Simple logistics suggest otherwise: Jesus had to have made preparations for temporarily putting on hold his ministry and service to others, so that ministry and service to his heart might come through worship. Jesus clears his calendar to make worshiping God his Father his No. 1 priority – far and above anything else demanding his time and energy.
Since his chosen worship space was some distance away – no less up the rocky side of a mountain, Jesus had to map out the right path and stay on his selected way, all the while keeping his chosen friends close at his side. And by the time he made it to the foothills and climbed its peak, Jesus was ready – well prepared for worship.
Rather than just waking up Sunday mornings and casually coming to church without much forethought, let me urge you – if you aren’t already doing so – to come to worship prepared to worship. Lest you settle for a “nice” service, do some warm-up exercises to ensure a great service: Pray before you come so you’re ready to pray when you arrive. Sleep before you come so you’re alert when you arrive. Read the Bible beforehand so your ears are tuned to listen and hear when you arrive.
Come hungry, come willing. Come expecting to be fed. Come eager for God to speak directly to you. Come asking, as you walk through the door, like that excited little boy on the plane – “Can please I meet the pilot?”
That’s the eager, childlike energy you feel when you unwrap the Lord’s Christmas gift of a worshipful heart. You come not merely in expected contentment with a “nice” service. You and your worshipful heart come expecting a great service – like the one that day on the mountaintop, which verily changed the face of its most-well-prepared worshiper.
The gift of a worshipful heart and its connection to your face is by God’s design. The Lord intends to cup our faces – the most exposed and recognizable parts of our earthly bodies – and to change our appearances to reflect his goodness. When we gather with worshipful hearts, God invites us to see the divine face, so God can change our faces to display heaven’s glory. To the Corinthians the apostle Paul declares –
“All of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, by the Spirit.” (2 Corinthians 3:18)
That’s no small task – as any careful sculptor can attest. But the Lord never shies away from such transfiguring artistry. As another describes, with soothing fingers God rubs away wrinkles of worry. Gaunt shadows of shame and doubt become masterpieces of grace and trust. God relaxes clenched jaws, clears lumpy throats, and smooths furrowed brows. God’s balm removes bags from beneath tired eyes and turns tears of despair into tears of peace.
At first blush, such facial glory seems impossibly far-fetched. But how it happens is no great mystery: God changes our image and outlook in worship, when all God’s people gather with worshipful hearts that magnify God, as with the Old Testament’s King David in Psalm 34 –
I will bless the LORD at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
My soul makes its boast in the LORD; let the humble hear and be glad.
O magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together.
I sought the LORD, and he answered me, and delivered me from all my fears.
Look to him, and be radiant; so your faces shall never be ashamed.
This poor soul cried, and was heard by the LORD, and was saved from every trouble.
The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them.
O taste and see that the LORD is good; happy are those who take refuge in him.
Be in awe of the LORD, you his holy ones, for those who hold him in honor have no want.
Those who seek the LORD lack no good thing.
Come, O children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the LORD.
Which of you desires life, and covets many days to enjoy good?
Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking deceit.
Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it.
The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their cry.
The face of the LORD is against evildoers, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.
When the righteous cry for help, the LORD hears, and rescues them from all their troubles.
The LORD is near to the brokenhearted, and saves the crushed in spirit.
Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD rescues them from them all.
He keeps all their bones; not one of them will be broken.
Evil brings death to the wicked, and those who hate the righteous will be condemned.
The LORD redeems the life of his servants; none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned. (Psalm 34)
That’s a mighty big view of God! And isn’t that the gift we all hope to spy under the Christmas tree? Or discover tucked in that stocking hung by the chimney with care: A big view of a big God who guides us safely through big problems, big worries, big questions and doubts? That’s the big view of God that worship paints before our very eyes, when we come to church with worshipful hearts. A bright, shining face is solid mark of one who has stood in God’s presence with a worshipful heart.
If your appearance is fake or veiled in false hope, if your face reflects little else than human brokenness within and around, then try standing before God with a better-prepared, more worshipful heart. And let God do the rest! Let the brilliance of God’s glory wipe away bitter tears, mop up nervous perspiration, and soften lines of constant worry. And thus we sing –
Hail the heaven-born Prince of Peace! Hail the Sun of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings, Risen with healing in His wings. Glory to the newborn King.
A worshipful heart, a changed faced. Plan carefully your journey, my friends, and be not content with “nice.” Expect great things when you ask with both innocence and sincerity, “Can I please see the pilot?”
Dona nobis pacem. Give us peace. Amen, and amen.
Pastor Grant M. VanderVelden shared this message in worship on the Fifth Sunday of Advent, December 7, 2025, at First Presbyterian Church in Waukon, Iowa, USA. It is adapted from the reflections of Max Lucado and is part of Pastor Grant’s Advent series, “Let Every Heart Prepare Him Room.”