Imagine that you go to a restaurant to meet a dear friend for lunch. Afterwards someone asks you, "How was your lunch?"
How might you answer?
"Well, I got there early, but a friendly hostess chatted with me while I waited. The food was fantastic and the waiter did a great job. The ambiance was OK 'cause the background music was a bit loud. But they had a great dessert menu. Overall, it was an excellent lunch."
One problem. There was no mention of the friend you went to meet in the first place.
To me, this can all too easily be church today. Many times when I ask people, "How was worship this morning?" they reply with answers like this:
"The people were friendly." - Hostess
"The sermon was fantastic." - Food
"The preacher did a great job." - Waiter
"Didn't like the worship music." - Ambiance
"There are so many neat ways to serve and plug in at that church." - Desserts
What happened to the dear Friend we went to meet in the first place? Remember Him? ... the Lord God Almighty?
Isaiah 1 sends a wakeup call about worship. The "good" nation (southern kingdom, Judah) worshipped God by the book, but God loathed their offerings. Why? Their sacrifices were plentiful, but sin-stained, resulting in God's judgment and spurning of their prayers.
God hates worship tainted by sin as much today as He did millennia ago. Like Isaiah, the Apostle Peter taught that our prayers could be hindered by sin. So it's possible that Christian worship, though it may be "by the book" of our worship tradition, be something God resents. The cause could be unrepentant sin, but perhaps the problem is that the objects of our worship aren't God. Perhaps we're too busy being caught up in other things at the "restaurant."
I'm not saying people aren't trying. Perhaps it's all we know. After all, God is mentioned over and over again during our services (in songs, Scripture prayers, etc.). All I'm asking is, "Wouldn't personally serving the Lord God Almighty leave enough of an impression to dent our conversation afterwards?" Do we leave church having truly encountered God in worship?
I'm not placing the blame on how various church traditions design a worship service (that's another conversation). I just think that, if we leave a service talking about everything but our Lord, there's a problem. We may have missed Him sitting across the table the entire time. Maybe something blocked our view ...
Followers of Christ shouldn't be going to church to be entertained, impressed by a spiritual hero, exalt an institution or movement, or even to glean more truth (which we already have in full in our own personal copy of Scripture). Since it is a worship service, we should be there to serve God in worship.
According to Isaiah (ch. 6 particularly), personally encountering God should have an effect on us. People who leave church without any mention of God on their tongues likely missed the whole point of going (and maybe the entire point of human life). It's not to know about God, but know God Himself (there is a big difference). A worship service isn't for appreciating accutriments pointed in God's direction, but for encountering the living Lord.*
(*FYI, I am intentionally not defining what a spiritual encounter with God looks like. Jesus encountered people in countelss ways based on their need at the time, so it's likely the Lord does the same today with each of us at different times in our lives).
May our worship leave us more than just musing,
"That sermon could have used more salt,"
or "I prefer music with less spice ..."
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6 comments:
Very convicting. I've focused on the waiter and the food for too long. Unfortunately I think this will be a hard habit to break in my own life. But one that I need to break.
I agree, and that's a good analogy. There will always be true worshippers and those whose worship will be rejected b/c of their sin (which in my view is indicative of the "heart" - Heb. 4:12 tells us how the heart's condition is discerned). So did God scrap the sacrificial system in Isaiah 1? It seems like he didn't do that until Christ came. I think what he "scrapped" was the people's "meaningless" worship. The same is true today.
Tolstoy wrote about "Church" Christianity vs. true Christianity 120 years ago, and I'm sure countless others before and after have done the same (in effect, its the same discussion we're having). Tolstoy's conclusion was flawed, and he ended up dying a hermit with no real relationships. We should learn from cases like that. Maggie's question stated the obvious query in everyone's mind, especially for the people in that room. I'm a little scared about some of the implications though, and I think this place would be a great place for people to bounce biblically-supervised ideas off each other instead of only in the limited time we have on Sun. nights.
good stuff bro, hard to do though since we have become a society of retaurant critics rather than relationship specialists. let us not give up hope though. if you tell 2 people and they tell 2 people and so on the word will spread, let us pray for fertile ground and willing spirits (not many of those in restaurants these days).
This revolution will not be fought without casualties.
My “worship” or “encounters with the Lord” don’t usually happen at church. I don’t look for church to be a place that I necessarily go to meet God. Instead, I look at church service as a place to fellowship and study the Word in a corporate setting (Acts 2:42-46).
My personal “worship” usually happens when I am playing with my kids, on a five-mile run, or at 3 a.m. in the morning when I wake up and have something on my mind. My “worship” happens while I am vacationing with my family, driving through the beautiful Pacific Northwest. My “worship” happens when I am at Starbucks with my laptop, preparing a study for our teens at church – fully absorbed by the God’s Word.
I see church for what it is. It’s a place to say “hi” to my friends and it’s a place to learn something about God – but not necessarily meet Him and worship Him. Thank goodness I haven’t relied on Sunday mornings to worship Him – otherwise I wouldn’t ever get to know Him!
That’s my two cents.
Thanks for the blog, though. I like it. It makes me think!
Peace,
Jonathan
I love my friend Jonathan very, very much. But his admission of what a service of worship has degraded to (by his own admission) saddens and scares me.
We've got to seek the Lord, people. Not just accept the models that mean going through motions.
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