A few days ago I wrote:
Here are some.
1.) Worship is not for us. It is not entertainment; it isn't to make us feel good or 'blessed' or stronger or whatever. Worship isn't even the same as evangelizing, but is instead an offering to God. All that matters is that He be pleased. Self-seeking is the very opposite of worship.
2.) Many, many people, especially in our Western culture, confuse 'fun' with real joy. It isn't, any more than relaxation is true peace or sex is true love. We have, on the one hand, the spiritual reality, and on the other, its physical counterpart. Many of us seem only to notice the latter, the physical, the things of the flesh. Romans 8:13a: 'For if you live after the flesh, you shall die...' You will miss everything truly worth living for, miss your calling, your glorious destiny.
3.) Providing Christ is truly in our midst, then to the degree we are aware of Him and to the degree we love Him, we will never find worship services tedious. Corollary: The Gospel, pure and straight and properly preached (there's the rub; see below), already draws in the people and feeds them. There is no need to dress it up with skits or clowns, live donkeys or dance or water pistols, no need to mount the precious diamond* in plastic on the theory that plastic is more attractive to the people.
The major part of the problem, of course, is that people find they don't really love God all that much, and in our culture, the main reason for that is the way He is preached, namely with hellfire and damnation, obey or roast in hell. And going right along with that, this monstrous, heterodox theory that God needs to punish us, or else punish His own Son in our stead. That's the main thing that, no matter how much one may love Jesus, keeps one stand-offish concerning His Father, and disconnected from the Holy Spirit.
Psalm 50/51:17
A sacrifice to God is a broken spirit:
a broken and a contrite heart, O God,
You will not despise.
Forget the soap bubbles and the clown costumes and all the other cheap gimmicks.
*This metaphor assumes the Anglicans have 'the precious diamond,' which assumption, I realize, may or may not be warranted.
I think I've understood now the thinking of many Anglicans (and of course, others here and in America and elsewhere) about their new church services. It seems to be: As I must go to church, or most certainly should, at least it ought to be made into an enjoyable experience for me.
Can you spot the flaw(s) in that line of reasoning?
Here are some.
1.) Worship is not for us. It is not entertainment; it isn't to make us feel good or 'blessed' or stronger or whatever. Worship isn't even the same as evangelizing, but is instead an offering to God. All that matters is that He be pleased. Self-seeking is the very opposite of worship.
2.) Many, many people, especially in our Western culture, confuse 'fun' with real joy. It isn't, any more than relaxation is true peace or sex is true love. We have, on the one hand, the spiritual reality, and on the other, its physical counterpart. Many of us seem only to notice the latter, the physical, the things of the flesh. Romans 8:13a: 'For if you live after the flesh, you shall die...' You will miss everything truly worth living for, miss your calling, your glorious destiny.
3.) Providing Christ is truly in our midst, then to the degree we are aware of Him and to the degree we love Him, we will never find worship services tedious. Corollary: The Gospel, pure and straight and properly preached (there's the rub; see below), already draws in the people and feeds them. There is no need to dress it up with skits or clowns, live donkeys or dance or water pistols, no need to mount the precious diamond* in plastic on the theory that plastic is more attractive to the people.
The major part of the problem, of course, is that people find they don't really love God all that much, and in our culture, the main reason for that is the way He is preached, namely with hellfire and damnation, obey or roast in hell. And going right along with that, this monstrous, heterodox theory that God needs to punish us, or else punish His own Son in our stead. That's the main thing that, no matter how much one may love Jesus, keeps one stand-offish concerning His Father, and disconnected from the Holy Spirit.
Psalm 50/51:17
A sacrifice to God is a broken spirit:
a broken and a contrite heart, O God,
You will not despise.
Forget the soap bubbles and the clown costumes and all the other cheap gimmicks.
*This metaphor assumes the Anglicans have 'the precious diamond,' which assumption, I realize, may or may not be warranted.
2 comments:
"I think I've understood now the thinking of many Anglicans (and of course, others here and in America and elsewhere) about their new church services. It seems to be: As I must to to church, or most certainly should, at least it ought to be made into an enjoyable experience for me."
Bingo.
Well said, ....and one of the many reasons I became Orthodox 4 years ago.
Many years, Amy!
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