Tag Archives: Worship

Focused worship

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[Another old bulletin article… I’ll get back to fresh writing soon…]

I’m not really into poetry. I’m often frustrated by my lack of culture, my lack of appreciation of many of the “finer things.” I don’t particularly care for opera, nor ballet nor classical music. And I don’t read poetry.

When we had to read poetry in school, it was the rare poet who really appealed to me. One that did, however, was Robert Burns. And one of his poems that stands out in my mind is one called “To A Louse,” with the subtitle “On Seeing One on a Lady’s Bonnet at Church.” The poem addresses a louse which is crawling around on the head of a young lady. The real point of the poem, however, is the vanity of the young lady. She, noticing the looks and pointing directed her way, vainly thinks they are admiring her and begins to toss her hair. The last stanza, in modern English (Burns wrote in Scottish), says:

O would some Power the gift to give us
To see ourselves as others see us!
It would from many a blunder free us,
And foolish notion:
What airs in dress and gait would leave us,
And even devotion!

It’s a brilliant thought, and I could certainly do worse than write an article on this idea. Yet my thoughts are turned a different direction. I’m wondering how many of us would play the part of Mr. Burns in that church service, focusing our attention on the young lady in front of us and the people all around us, rather than focusing on the worship we profess to perform. How many times have we come away thinking about Jenny (the name of the girl in the poem) and her louse, rather than our Lord and His sacrifice.

I remember numerous times in Sunday School when, following a prayer, one of the children would announce: “Mrs. Davis, Bradley didn’t have his eyes closed.” This would lead to the inevitable question of course: “How do you know?” It never seemed to dawn on us children that spying on one another during the prayer was worse than not closing your eyes! (And, of course, you couldn’t close your eyes and still spy, so you were guilty of the same offense as the accused).

It’s easy to laugh at such things in children. It’s much harder to laugh at them in adults. In fact, it makes me want to cry from frustration at times.
“He raised his hands!”
“She tapped her foot!”
“He didn’t sing!”
“She sang too loud!”
and the list goes on and on.

It makes me want to reply: “How do you know?” Before you answer, let me help you with the answer: you know because you weren’t focused on God. “Well, she distracted me.” Is that her problem or yours? If you are truly focused, you don’t get distracted that easily.

I can see it in myself. There are many times when I can’t even tell you what the person next to me was doing during the service. Those are the times I was focused on God. There are other times when I’m watching the passing of the communion trays, when I’m seeing if Brother So-and-So is here, when I’m worried about the sound or the air conditioning, and I realize that God does not have my full attention.

Not to criticize Mr. Burns, but I wonder just how concentrated he was in his worship to notice the louse, to follow its movements for several minutes, to notice the reactions of those around him, to watch Jenny toss her hair, etc. If I were in his place at that moment, I would take a moment and apologize to God for my disrespect to him.
Maybe we could rewrite the poem a bit:

O would some Power the gift to give us
To see ourselves, not those around us!

Nothing good is said in the Bible of those who critically observe the worship of others (think Michal and David!). Much good is said of those who strive to worship God in Spirit and in truth.

Don’t let the lice distract you. Fix your eyes on things above. Concentrate on your worship. Because, in the final day, whose worship is God going to ask you about: yours or those around you? Will He praise us for having spotted the errors in those around us or rebuke us for neglecting Him while spying on our brothers? I’d rather not find out.

Everyday acts of worship

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[Here’s another bulletin article from a few years ago. Love to hear your thoughts on the subject…]

We can learn a lot by looking at worship in the Old Testament, especially those passages in which God’s prophets told the people what they were doing wrong. Since we don’t want to repeat the mistakes of the past, we do well to find out what mistakes were made.

One of the biggest mistakes made by God’s people was the mistake of ritualistic religion. That is, they thought that religion was made up of doing certain things during a time of worship. God tried to tell them that more than “religiosity,” he wanted a people that dedicated themselves to doing good. A good example is this passage from Isaiah 1:

11 “The multitude of your sacrifices — what are they to me?” says the LORD. “I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals; I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats. 12 When you come to appear before me, who has asked this of you, this trampling of my courts? 13 Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me. New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations — I cannot bear your evil assemblies. 14 Your New Moon festivals and your appointed feasts my soul hates. They have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. 15 When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you; even if you offer many prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood; 16 wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight! Stop doing wrong, 17 learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.

It’s not that God was against sacrifices and such. he merely wanted the people to realize that our religious acts must be accompanied by compassion toward our fellow man.

We see in the New Testament that things haven’t changed. Look at what the Hebrew writer says in Hebrews 13:16: “And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.” Our good deeds toward others are “sacrifices” that we offer to God. Remember James’ words in James 1:27: “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” Paul said, “Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.” (Galatians 6:10)

When people come to us looking for help, we can often see that as a distraction from the “true work of the church.” Yet nothing could be further from the truth. We are to be about helping people. We should be grateful when people present us with an opportunity to help. Jesus, in his ministry, spent much time helping people. Remember how Peter, when preaching to Cornelius, described Jesus’ ministry: “…how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.” (Acts 10:38) Jesus went about doing good and expects the same from his followers. Remember how he described Judgment Day in Matthew 25. He doesn’t speak of doctrinal correctness or church attendance. He speaks of helping those in need. And he says, “The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’” (Matthew 25:40)

In fact, Paul says that God’s plan for us is that we do good. In Ephesians 2:10 Paul writes: “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Paul told Timothy what to teach the rich people: “Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share.” (I Timothy 6:18)

We, as Christians, are supposed to be helping people. It’s what we were made for. It’s what Jesus modeled for us and what he expects of us. Every time that someone presents us with an opportunity to help, we should be grateful. Otherwise we would have to go out looking for those who need our help.

For some, it’s second nature. They are constantly aware of people who have needs and are constantly meeting needs. For others of us, we need to depend more on God and his Holy Spirit to help us develop a heart of compassion for our fellow man.

It’s not a small thing. It’s central to who we are as Christians. It’s a critical part of our worship of God. May God help us do it better.

Worship a la carte

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So how do we deal with differing tastes, differing convictions, differing needs and differing desires? When some want variety and others predictability? Or when some want nothing but modern praise songs and others want classic hymns? Or when some want stoicism and others want passion?

Some of the answers:

  • Majority rules—whatever most people want goes
  • Tradition rules—whatever we’ve always done goes
  • Age rules—the younger folks can do it their way when their time comes
  • Separate but equal services—one service for one group, another for the other
  • Worship style determined by each week’s praise leader—different men in the congregation take turns leading, with each one determining what style will be used that week
  • My way or the highway—if some folks don’t like it, they can find themselves somewhere else to worship

Are there other suggestions? What’s the best way to handle our differences?

Liturgy vs. variety

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C.S. Lewis was no fan of change within worship services. He wrote, “Every service is a structure of acts and words through which we receive a sacrament, or repent, or supplicate, or adore. And it enables us to do these things best—if you like it, it ‘works’ best—when, through long familiarity, we don’t have to think about it.…But every novelty prevents this. It fixes our attention on the service itself…” He goes on to quote an unnamed source that said, “I wish they’d remember that the charge to Peter was Feed my sheep; not Try experiments on my rats, or even Teach my performing dogs new tricks.” (The Joyful Christian, pp. 80-81)

Personally, though I highly esteem Lewis as a thinker and a writer, I don’t agree with his views on familiarity in worship. I find that familiarity often breeds unthinking repetition. It becomes too easy to “go through the motions,” without being aware of what we’re doing or why. We say things without even thinking what they mean. We sing without being aware of who we’re singing to (is it a song of encouragement to my brothers or a song of worship to God?). We instinctively reach for our checkbook while sipping the homogenized grape juice from the plastic cup.

I think that we need change at times if only to make us aware of what we’re doing. My high school choir director used to say, “A rut is just a grave with both ends knocked out.” We need to be conscious of the forms of what we’re doing and the meanings behind those forms.

What do you find to be true? Is change a distraction or a call to awareness? Is routine an aid to worship or a hindrance to our worshiping with our minds as well as our actions?

[Edit: Changed the title of the post; had used “spontaneity,” which really didn’t fit]

Spontaneous structures

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Years ago, I read a book called A Man Called Peter, which was the biography of Peter Marshall, the man who was chaplain of the U.S. Senate (not the game show host). The book told of the time when reporters asked Marshall if he could give them a copy of his prayer in time for them to run it in their papers, rather than having to wait until he actually delivered it. Marshall explained that that was impossible, since he merely prayed as the Holy Spirit moved him at that time. One reporter called out, “Couldn’t the Holy Spirit move you ahead of time?”

One of the great tensions in planning an assembly is just that: how much should be planned? Can we allow for spontaneity without falling into chaos? Can we organize our assemblies ahead of time without limiting the Spirit?

I feel a need for a balance of both spontaneity and organization. If I had to lean one way or the other, I would lean toward organization, merely because human nature can often lapse into sloth and call it spontaneity. I find nothing particularly spiritual about a song leader who does not choose songs ahead of time because he wants to let the Spirit move him. Why not spend time in prayer and study during the week and let the Spirit move you as you plan the service?

The larger the gathering, the more structure that will necessarily need to be involved. Still, there needs to be room for someone to bring what God has placed upon their heart. There needs to be enough flexibility in our schedules so that someone can share a thought, a prayer need, or a timely passage without everyone in the congregation groaning about the delay.

I’m not sure of all the ins and outs of that, and I know that this can be a touchy subject for some. I’ve written before about assemblies and don’t want to rehash all of that again. But I know that we can grow in our understanding of how to have structure and flexibility at the same time.