After a beautiful morning of worship this past Sunday, I am giving thanks today. Baptism, the Lord’s Supper, beautiful songs, old and new, and the opening of God’s word made it a wonderful morning. Best of all, we were together. I started the day eating cake in celebration of the 70th anniversary of Joe and Norma Mosley. I am so glad God lets me belong to a multi-generational church.
Following 70 years in exile, unable to sing, having hung their harps in the willow trees (Psalm 137), the people of God came together to worship again. When Ezra stood to read the Torah, the people spontaneously stood up. There was wonderful reverence for God and his word. Reverence is important in worship. The early church worshiped with awe when they saw what God was doing (Acts 2:42-47). In our current fixation with music as the identity of worship, reverence can be lost. If it is, we are impoverished.
As the people heard what God had to say about their sin, they wept aloud. Then they were told to rejoice before God because the “joy of the Lord” was their strength. Worship also involves rejoicing. Like good Baptists, the people ate desserts and drank sweet tea or the equivalent. The next day would be a day of repentance, but they needed to celebrate their return to Jerusalem for a new beginning.
In the New Testament, Paul makes the case that every person in the body of Christ is a member (1 Corinthians 12-14). All members are essential. We need each other. Somehow, even our worship has become consumeristic in our consumer world. So for a generation now, in Western Christianity, singing in our favorite way has sometimes become more important than relationships with the people with whom we worship. This is well and good in a consumer culture where we find a church to go to. But if the church is a body, then we belong to it. Belonging implies a lasting connection. We need each other. Unity of the body transcends styles of music.
Our lives are formed more by being together with our fellow worshipers than by our favorite songs or the quality of the sermon. When Jesus is our Way, we don’t have to have things our way. It is enough to walk together on the Way, singing each other’s songs, with reverence and rejoicing. Having reared three kids who love Jesus, I am convinced that the amazing body of Christ in which they were formed is what makes them who they are. I pray my grandchildren will find a home in a multi-generational congregation as well. We are glad to belong with you to the body of Christ.
