Taking It Seriously
by Nathan Brown
Writer Annie Dillard asks the question: “Why do we people in churches seem like cheerful, brainless tourists on a packaged tour of the Absolute?” She goes on to observe, “On the whole I do not find Christians…sufficiently sensible of the conditions. Does anybody have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke? Or, as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it? The churches are children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT…It is madness to wear ladies' straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews.”1
It’s worth thinking about. Amid the bustle of Sabbath mornings, the mechanics of church organization and the comfortable mediocrity of our week-to-week religiosity, how often do we stop to think about the Consuming Fire (Hebrews 12:29; see also Deuteronomy 4:24), supposedly the centre of our faith and lives?
Sometimes God scares me — and He probably should scare me more often. We need to remember the truism that He is God and we are not. We must take it seriously. We talk much about friendship with God and this is an important way of understanding our relationship with our Creator and Saviour. But like all real relationships, it must be based on serious respect: “Friendship with the Lord is reserved for those who fear him” (Psalm 25:14, NLT).
The mystery and magnitude of God cannot be allowed to slip down the back of our religious couches as we settle in for another episode of consumer church.
When we take it seriously, the Bible stories are not just morality tales for children, rather we recognize the same God as has touched our own lives at work in awesome ways. Taking it seriously, the death and resurrection of God-in-our-world become the most profound facts of history and in the individual histories of our lives. But without sanctified seriousness, worship will simply be a routine to be endured or a succession of experiences to be sampled. Unless we take it seriously, concern — and action — for the wellbeing of others will be considered merely an optional extra to our convenience Christianity. Until we take it seriously, the Second Coming is just a nice idea, instead of an earth-shaking reality — an alternately terrifying threat and joyful promise, perhaps often both.
Only when we take it seriously will the teachings of Jesus begin to make sense in our lives. When we take it seriously, we can begin to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us (see Matthew 5:44), even if it means being ripped off. Taking it seriously, we realize there is real value to “treasures in heaven” (Matthew 6:20). Until we take it seriously, the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:2-12) will never sound like more than an exercise in pious idealism. And so it goes.
Half-hearted faith is nonsense. Half-hearted unfaith is equally so. Given a glimpse of the eternal significance of our lives, we step back into the banality of our world, either with a divine mission or with utter hopelessness. These are the only two ‘serious’ options — and we must take it seriously.
But this ‘taking it seriously’ is not a prescription for somber and narrow introspection. Paradoxically it is the foundation for true joy and creativity. It was precisely because he took it seriously that Paul could exhort his readers from his prison cell, to live lives of rejoicing (Philippians 4:4). And on this solid, ‘serious’ foundation, we can best celebrate the good things of life, engage with those around us and risk ourselves for the sake of the kingdom of God.
Perhaps it might be worth dressing differently for church next week — helmets and life preservers recommended — even if only to remind ourselves of the awesome Mystery we approach in worship, in Whose terrifying presence we live out our unwitting lives and Who reaches down to touch our lives in alarming, glorious and eternal ways.
1 Teaching a Stone to Talk: Expeditions and Encounters, HarperPerennial, page 52.
Nathan,
Amen! Amen! Amen! Well said.
This is a powerful piece. But much of the time I can't relate church to the "awesome Mystery we worship." I ask myself why this is so. I find worship more meaningful on a personal retreat or in nature. It's not the fault of my pastors. I think they must be terribly frustrated by the lack of enthusiasm in church. I did find a nearby church that has a prayer meeting where they actually pray rather than study some evangelist's book, and I think this comes closer to what worship is supposed to be. But in church, I just can't seem to make the connection. What am I missing? Sometimes I wonder if I need a more "high" church with reverence and contemplation; but other times I find more worship in the more charismatic-type Adventist church.
I would recommend you read "Sacred Pathways" by Gary Thomas.
Ella,
If you're thinking about finding a "high" church to help you worship, you need to study your Bible and discover what worship is. I'll tell you right now, there is no such thing as "high" worship except in the pursuit of tradition and tradition is deadly poison to faith. I have never been more disconnected from God in a church service than where I was surrounded by grand architecture and my ears were assaulted with the volume of a pipe organ.
A few years ago I began studying the concept of worship in scripture. When I used my concordance to look up the word "worship" I didn't find very much. The word "worshipped" was far more revealing. What I found was a series of people who have encounters with God and their response is worship. Notice and keep this straight: they first had an encounter with God. Their response was worship. How did they worshp? We are seldom told how. A wider study of postures involve with worship finds about equal numbers of verse talking about kneeling, falling on your face or standing with your face toward heaven. It isn't your posture or place, architecture or music that defines worship. It is the question of if you are having encounters with God and responding back to Him with your own adoration and praise. How you do it will not always be the same and their are no rules except those imposed by traditions that destroy faith. The most important question you must answer is not how to worship, but if you are having encounters with God so that you will be able to worship Him.
'Churches' made without human hands offer far more comfort, and insight than the man made variety. My visit to the Vatican was more like a trip to Disneyland, but most of the world considers it to be the epitome of Christain worship.
An observation by the comedian Cathy Ladman is worth repeating.
"All religions are the same: religion is basically guilt with different holidays."
Yes, people are enamored on visiting the Vatican, but then so are Adventists from small country churches on visiting the Loma Linda church for the first time! Quite a comparison!
Elaine,
Yes, but I can show you a long list of people from larger churches like Loma Linda who say they've never felt closer to God or had a more uplifting worship experience than in our little church that is a remodeled house!
That's what I meant when I said more spiritual insight can be gained on a hilltop than in church. I attended both LLU & White Memorial Churches during med school. Frankly, all I remember was having to leave the sanctuary on several occasions due to near asphyxia from an amalgam of perfumes!
The perfumes have driven me out on many occasions because I am allergic!
Why do we even feel we must "go to church" to find peace and spirituality?
Elaine,
That concept is backward. Worship is our expression of adoration and praise back to God after having an encounter with Him. We should find peace and spirituality in our individual relationship with God. We should generally not be going to church to find spirituality, but to express our adoration and praise to God as a community of believers.
A person who goes to church to peace and spirituality is weak. Whether or not they find that reconnection depends heavily on what happens at church. If they are surrounded by the traditional architectural elements that have come to represent religion and the primary element of the service is a sermon in an order of worship that hasn't changed in ages, their risk of not finding that new connection with God is very high.
My experience was that, for many years, attending a tradition-bound church was leading me to spiritual death. I praise God that he has delivered me from that trap and restored my relationship with Him. Today visiting a traditional church leaves me depressed and hungering for the freedom to praise and adore God that I enjoy at my home church.
This is a very important thought, Nathan. Thanks for sharing it.
Could it be that we really don't believe? Many take James' admonition that, "Faith without works is dead," as license to focus on works as a means to salvation. Perhaps James was saying, "Faith without works is not serious."
If we took what we believe seriously, would we not act on it? Is that not the evidence of our belief?
Belief in His Advent would, one would think, create an urgency of action. What we believe is demonstrated by that urgency — or lack of it.
What does "urgency of action" look like? We have been told since Christ was here that the "end is near" and it's been preached by Adventists for nearly 150 years. Yet, what does it look like? What is our mission in practice? Cliches are meaningless and repeated ad nauseum yet what should we as a church, or individuals be doing?
For me, urgency looks like: People jumping for joy at God's goodness and bowing low at His greatness. It looks like people being continually filled (Ac 2:4) and blasted (Ac 4:31) with the Holy Spirit in our meetings and going out to preach the Kingdom, heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, and to cast out demons on the street, at work, in the store etc (Mt 10:7-8).
It looks like people gathering the lost in their homes to worship, study, receive ministry and minister to others. It looks like people coming back to corporate gatherings and sharing the spoil (testimonies) of what God has been doing and living in greater expectation of what God can do in our meetings, in our neighbourhoods, and in our cities.
Urgency is about getting serious about the Kingdom of God (Mt 6:33) and the the power of the Spirit (Ac 1:8) to complete the mission of Jesus: "And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come." (Mt 24:14).
There it is, Matt! Well said.
"What we think or what we know or what we believe is, in the end, of little consequence. The only thing of consequence is what we do." John Ruskin
This harmonizes beautifully with Jesus' words to those who cared for those in need–Mat. 25.
“Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words.” Francis of Assisi
Neither worship nor spirituality are necessarily enhanced in any certain environment. Worship may for some be meaningful in community; while others may find both spirituality and worship solitarily in the beauties of nature with no cacophonic disturbances. Some particular church settings may invoke such thoughts–difficult to escape in the large cathedrals of Europe with the music of the choir and organ. Different strokes for different folks.
Hi Nathan,
I miss your friendly, provocative editorship.
I agree that, too often, worship is a human excercise, untainted by awareness of the awesomeness of God.(Gen 4:3)
Our awareness of our falling short, indicates we believe that true worship is achievable and therefore a true goal, but how do we measure success? How do we acknowledge the awesomeness of God?
To keep it brief, to my mind the answer is a developing of the gifts of the Holy Spirit and the consequent image of Jesus. You do not develop that by willpower or exposing its absence. You only develop it by allowing God to work. The gifts of the Holy Spirit are aspects of the character of Jesus and the potential of each gift is only realised when all gifts are actively in service.We will not need any public relations campaign to make people aware of the SDA beliefs if we follow God’s plans. If we get serious about each one giving of our HS gifts in service in our local fellowship, then the worship experience in our local fellowship will be such an extraordinary thing in our community that people will flock to it.
Please don't think this is the only thing I think we need to do, it is just a beginning.