Worship

Click here to read Isaiah 30

I read the first version of this chapter and my first thought is, "Ouch"...that is a little too close for comfort.  I think of all the ways I take shelter in the stuff of my life.  I think of the way I listen to the wisdom of the world...rather than scripture.  I think of the times I rely on my plans rather than trying to listen for the still speaking voice of God.  Many Mainline Protestants would prefer not to think of this tension.  Most of our churches still proclaim the Gospel of Enlightenment that tends to think our thoughts are God's thoughts...rather than hear the wisdom of Isaiah coming up in chapter 55:8, "My thoughts are NOT your thoughts and my ways are not your ways."  

Yet, it is not as though God shuts and locks the door on the People of God in this chapter.  In verse 15, we are reminded that it is in returning to God we find our rest.  I think this is why people find familiar worship so comforting.  Like a cozy pair of well-worn slippers, worship has a steady rhythm and people know what to expect.  Opening hymn? Check.  Lord's Prayer? Check. Sermon that drones on and on? Check and check!  

Worship is important within the faith because it helps remind us what is central to full life: God.  We worship a lot of things in this society.  To get a glimpse, flip through the latest issue of People magazine when waiting in the grocery line next time you are there.  We worship people who lose weight and the latest diet craze.  We worship celebrities - especially male athletes.  We worship those who are wealthy.  I don't claim to know what God thinks about all the idols we have made.  I know in Exodus 32 the People of God convince themselves that the calf represents God.  In the midst of their fear and anxiety that Moses was gone too long, they think the calf will provide some kind of reassurance.  Like Isaiah 30, I see a lot of myself in that passage.  We can convince ourselves that our wealth and athletics and body images are about God rather than us.  Think back to how many times football players reference God.

Worship can comfort and challenge us in good ways to examine our lives.  And yet, I do get concerned about that line between being comfortable and complacent.  It is a thin, easily passed over line and we are so astute (see Enlightenment above) that we can even convince ourselves that we are no where near that line, that our prayer life, volunteering, worship and such is still as vital and vibrant as ever.

On the last post, I asked about your dreams.  One of the things dreams can do is stretch us and tell us about our deepest desires.  This is why we don't often share our dreams with others, lest they tell us we are foolish and we fear they may be right!  We can also make idols of our dreams that if we don't achieve them exactly as we have in mind, we are mad at God.  I encourage you over the coming days to think prayerfully about your dreams and about the idols in your life.  Are there similarities between the two?  Bring that to worship and be honest about that in the presence of God and the People of God at worship.  That might actually be a faithful way to worship this Sunday and allow us to get a glimpse of the traces of God's grace.

Blessings and peace!   

Click here to read Isaiah 1

Okay, so maybe Isaiah does not have the most optimistic opening to his book in the Bible. He is a bit on the deary side. He is a bit like some person giving a gloom and doom sermon on the street that causes you to avert your eyes, study the sidewalk and pick up the pace to get past.  Somewhere around verse 6 with talk of sores that won't heal maybe you started wondering, why?  And then the whole city goes up in flames and you wonder about my sanity in wanting to comment about this book.  

I will be honest that the first time I read this Isaiah did not seem like the sort of warm, cozy slipper-like faith I often yearn for to comfort me in these difficult times.  Yet, I think that is the point.  Isaiah says that something is broken in our relationship with God.  We don't like to hear that, but I know there is truth in that sentence.  I cannot pretend that just because I post this blog or say a quick prayer or go to church on Sunday that I have somehow pacified God.  Isaiah takes our worship to task when we go through the motions.  And let's face it, there are moments when we have mumble our way through the call to worship or start thinking of what to have for lunch during the silent prayer or glanced down at our watch to see how long the sermon is or if we are going to make it home by kickoff. 

Worship is not the only place we nurture our relationship with God.  In fact, Isaiah says in verses 16-17 that it is our actions toward the least, lowly, and lost in this world that will truly be a place where we can reconcile with God.  (By the way, in Luke where Jesus is constantly reaching out to the least, lowly and lost in this world, Isaiah is one place where perhaps he got idea.  Perhaps that is why Jesus reads from Isaiah in his first sermon).  At the close of worship, I often encourage people to see 11 am on Sunday not as the end of the worship event but as the beginning of our worship in the world.  Again, that is what Isaiah is inviting us into.  What we say to our co-worker's sarcastic comment about our new shirt or how we treat the clerk when we return that sweater we got from Christmas, what if that is every bit as sacred as what we do on Sunday morning?  What if worship becomes not a place where we dump all those regrets and feel guilty so we can go out and keep repeating the same miscues and missteps, but a place where we are reminded this one hour is how every hour should be?  

That is why, in spite of Isaiah's perhaps too honest and in-our-face assessment of our human situation in the opening verses, I still appreciate this book of the Bible.  I don't want worship to be an escape. Worship can be a safe haven sure but with an awareness of the storms of life.  I want worship to be the place where we as the people of God "settle the matter" (vs. 18).  Actually, I prefer the NRSV where God says, "come, let us argue this out." Maybe we think arguing does not have a place in church, certainly not in worship.  But arguing does not need to be shouting or trying to win points.  Arguing can mean being engaged and invested in our relationship.  That is what God invites us into: an engaged relationship that makes all the difference.  That is what worship can be in the best sense: an engaged way to nurture that relationship.  

So maybe there is more to Isaiah than sores and fire and references to blood, maybe there is something that can help us see the traces of God's grace in our lives that makes worship part of our life every day.

Happy 2013 and God's blessings!