Spiritual Service of Worship

Some weeks back both my wife and I were independently struck with this question part way through our church service, “Why is worship always associated with singing?”  We asked this question because we go to a church that is overly fond of singing, to the point where singing appears to be the only way in which they can really feel that they have worshiped God properly.  You won’t hardly find a formal book-prayer, or a moment of silence, or a prolonged period of introspection anywhere.  What you will find is the usual evangelical formula of song progression that mixes exuberance with solemnity and tries to bring everyone into the presence of God.  I would think it should be the other way around.  Maybe we should first check if God is in the house, then behave accordingly.  Once again I think this attitude stems from the lack of comfort we have in just living our lives as followers of Christ.  We cannot conceive of holiness as anything other than something we do, and so our tithes are not just our freely-given support of the church but the building up of the Kingdom of God (just how much input does He rally have in our annual church or home budgets anyway?), our outreach is always done somewhere "out there" on the mission field, and our worship is always in church and when we sing.  But I read Romans 12 and it says “present yourselves a living and holy sacrifice (sounds church-like to me), acceptable to God (a good thing to do what He wants), which is your spiritual service of worship (there is that troublesome word).”  Somehow that does not sound so much like something we do only on Sunday in a gathering of people accompanied by musical instruments.  It sounds more like day in and day out being a good spouse, an active parent, a faithful employee, a just employer, a man or woman of your word…that Paul says is truly a spiritual service of worship.  Or to summarize the prophet Micah’s take on what an act of worship is that brings us into the presence of God (Micah 6:6-8), it is to always act justly in every situation; to deal with kindness and compassion in every circumstance, and to walk humbly before and with the God who has called us.

The Road Less Traveled

I used to be zealous for the Lord when I was first touched by His grace.  My deliverance, my healing, my salvation was new and fresh and I felt that everything else about my life was also new and fresh.  But as I have grown older the first blush has faded from that early bloom.  It’s not that my Christianity has tarnished or rusted and is now somehow a poor representation of what it once was, it’s just that I see my life lived as a follower of Christ in a different light that is somewhat molded by the reality around me.  The image of the ideal may no longer burn brightly inside of me, but the tempered reality of the foundation is still present, and I think that I am stronger because of it.  Somewhere along my spiritual journey the proverbial two roads diverged in the woods.  The first led into correct dogmatics and doctrine and it was very enticing to me for many years.  I struggled to get my doctrine just right and force my belief to match that doctrine, but I found that year by year it was hard to live by doctrine.  It tended to separate me from a lot of good things that filled my life, it put a hardened edge on me that always needed to be right and to make black and white pronouncements, and it turned out to be a cruel taskmaster that always demanded a lot of me but gave very little in return.  So I retraced my steps back to the other path and found that the more I walked down it, the less sure I was of anything.  Things I once considered sacrosanct were looked at in a different way, things I felt imperative to hold onto now weighed me down and had to be left at the roadside, convictions were examined and tested to see whether I would still stake my life on their tenets.  But somehow this road feels right and I am sure that ultimately it will lead me to the final destination I seek.  I don’t see as clearly as I used to think I once did when everything was new and fresh, and I find myself saying quite often “I see men as trees walking” and asking for a second touch from Jesus.  But that’s all right.  To go back to the poem about the two paths diverging, “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.”

When Life is Less than Ideal

There seems to be some level of realization within each of us that the way things ought to be does not match the way that they really are.  And somehow we feel that our religion, our relationship with God, should make things different.  And when things turn out otherwise, contrary to our expectations of what ought to be, we find ourselves uncomfortable.  Rather than just accepting the reality we see, we feel that we need to somehow reconcile it to the ideal.  So when we are faced with disappointment, failure, or even outright evil, we don’t just squarely face up to the challenge, we try to redeem it by proclaiming that God can work through even this circumstance in our lives.  Well maybe that is or isn't so, but we further muddy the waters by trying to understand whether these things are from His hand or according to His will.  Maybe, at that point of disconnect, we can simply live, knowing that there is a taint everywhere in our world, that life is not fair, and all that is expected of us is to do the best with the hand we have been dealt.  I know that does not sound very spiritual, but it does sound very real to me, and I am getting very tired trying to spin every circumstance in my life into some spiritual growth opportunity.  Even if the hand of God is in it, there is no assurance that I am ready or willing to accept what it is that He is trying to accomplish.  But at least I can face it honestly.

I am not going to pretend that I understand everything or that I have an answer for every question by just opening up the pages of the Bible.  The reality of the situation is aptly expressed in Hebrews 2:8, “For in subjecting all things to Him (Jesus), He (God the Father) left nothing that is not subject to Him.  But now, we do not yet see all things subjected to Him.”  We live in the now, not the someday (or the sweet by and by).  The only thing that makes it bearable is the next verse and I paraphrase.  I may not see all things under the direct control of Jesus, but I see Jesus Himself, and that reminds me of all that God through Him has done on my behalf.