John 4:7-15, 19-24
My wife and I were talking shortly after
morning worship, and the topic of response to having received the Bread of the
Eucharist came up. As a child I was
always taught that the proper - and only - response to having received Bread
was "amen". Then, of course,
when the Cup was offered to the congregation after Vatican II, the same
response was taught. I had mentioned to
my wife that one particular boy always says, "thank you" whenever he
is offered the Bread; but there are only two adults who respond with
"amen".
Of course there is more to the Eucharist
and worship than mere words spoken by the pastor or the congregation but having
been raised in the Roman Catholic tradition, I have often wondered what truly
constitutes "worship" for Protestants. I often endured well-intentioned jokes about
the "up and down" of the Catholic Mass of standing, kneeling, and
sitting, responsorial readings, and scripted responses as part of the liturgy. For me, of course, it was perfectly normal
and, yes, "proper" because it is what I was raised in.
So recalling my first experience at a
Baptist church with a friend, I was completely out of my element because the
best I can remember, all that was required of me was to sit quietly and
listen. I was not asked to "do"
anything except to come "get saved".
Very strange experience. And now
sometimes I wonder if as a pastor I am not leading these same, "sit
quietly and listen" services in which I once felt so out of place and virtually
useless since my presence nor my participation seemed to make much of a
difference one way or the other.
The textbook definition of
"worship" is "reverent love and devotion accorded a deity, an
idol, or a sacred object", "the ceremonies, prayers, or other
religious forms by which this love is expressed,
and "ardent devotion and adoration"
("thefreedictionary.com/worship").
Ah.
Now we get to the heart of worship: "expression". How we worship is an expression of ...
what? Adoration? Reverence?
Love? Devotion? Respect?
And is our expression a "correct" or even an adequate one? Can any expression, for that matter, be
"wrong" if it is a genuine expression of what is in the soul and on the
heart?
We live in an age of
"spiritualism" and what one writer called "religi-tainment"
that has nothing to do with "discipleship", the many self-proclaimed Christians
who have distanced themselves from the fellowship - and discipline - and yes,
the hypocrisy of the Church, and they have left for any number of stated reasons
(most of them "your" fault or "mine"), but most of the
excuses I have heard simply boil down to "it isn't necessary. I don't need the Church to be
saved." And this, I think, is in part
the biggest failure of the Reformation; its central question focusing purely on
"what must I do to be saved".
Never - EVER - asking, "what can I do for you, Lord". Offering "thanks" only when
everything is going "my" way - but - always asking "why me"
when it is not.
To those nay-sayers who insist religion
and its corresponding worship are nothing more than a man-made system by which
to control the masses with threats of eternal hellfire, we can only fall back
on St. James' definition of "pure religion": "Pure and undefiled religion
before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble,
and to keep oneself unspotted from the world" (James 1:27). So how must we "worship in Spirit and in
Truth" in a manner not only pleasing to our Holy Father but which
justifies and expresses the ongoing relationship that must surely define
life in the Church with its requisite "fellowship" and
"discipline" while distancing ourselves from the
"hypocrisy"? What is the "acceptable
worship" the writer of Hebrews
insists is necessary?
It is the dominant question on my mind
each week as I look at the previous week's bulletin and plan the next week. My greatest fear is that which may have
already come to fruition: we are in a rut by doing the same things over and
over again essentially for the same people week after week. It is my great fear in offering Holy
Communion every week; that once we begin doing something on such a regular
basis that it becomes only "something we do" and is not necessarily
or always a true expression of what is within us. When we "receive" Communion, we
should be making a statement of unity not only with our Lord but with His
Church; that is, one another, and there should be an expressive response. And when we "drop" a check in the
offering plate, we are doing what is expected of us. Even worse, the ushers have to "come and
get it". Is this
"worshipful"?
I think if we were to truly study the
history of worship, we would find regional and cultural reflections that are
only universal in that what seems to work for "that" church may be
worth trying at "this" church.
And I think if we were to critically assess our own worship today - that
is, evaluate each element of each segment - we would likely find not
"expressions" but mere "habits"; things we do only because
it's what we've always done and have been somewhat programmed to do - that sure
and certain sign of a church not in mission but in decline.
In the Marine Corps there is what is
called an "initial strength inventory", a physical fitness test to
determine whether a recruit is physically up to recruit training. If this inventory is failed, the recruit is
sent to a physical conditioning platoon where he or she stays until they can
pass the test. Once they pass the test,
they are then recycled to a regular training platoon where the real work of
becoming a "warrior" begins.
It is time for the Church - and perhaps particularly Asbury - to undergo
an initial strength inventory of its own.
Rather than the many "kinda-sorta try and ultimately fail"
programs that don't really get any traction because no one really is prepared or
willing to invest in it, we must first determine exactly where we are. Maybe then we can discover who we
truly are and Who - or what - is really most important to us.
We can read all the reports and polls
and assessments we want, but the strength or weakness of any congregation will
be determined not by how well we please ourselves but how earnestly and
honestly we please our Lord. What do we
do well? What do we do only because we
think we're supposed to? What do we do
only because we think we owe it to "Joe Blow" or "Nancy
Pants"? And how much of it do we do
not for the Church or for one another - but - truly, earnestly, and honestly do
for the Lord?
I believe the Lord is waiting, and I
believe with every fiber of my being that Asbury is sitting on the edge of a
great blessing. The only remaining
question is: do we want that blessing badly enough to actively reach for
it? Time will tell, "for indeed our God is a
consuming fire". So we must
ask: will our Lord burn the place down once and for all ... or will our Lord fire
us up for His Holy Name once and for all time?
No comments:
Post a Comment