The Great Ends of the Church: Worship

Amos 5:18-24

Alas for you who desire the day of the Lord! Why do you want the day of the Lord? It is darkness, not light; as if someone fled from a lion, and was met by a bear; or went into the house and rested a hand against the wall, and was bitten by a snake. Is not the day of the Lord darkness, not light, and gloom with no brightness in it? I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt-offerings and grain-offerings, I will not accept them; and the offerings of well-being of your fatted animals I will not look upon. Take away from me the noise of your songs; I will not listen to the melody of your harps. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. 

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Amos did not mince his words this morning as he addressed the people of God. From his perspective, people have grown lazy/apathetic. Their worship and offerings no longer came from their zeal or passion but from a desire to appease God with routine sacrifices. The people departed from the teachings of the law and built for themselves a false idea of what it meant to follow the One who liberated them from slavery and brought them to a land where they were free. As we ponder our act(s) of worship, do we think that God would be pleased? Or would God question our worship's quality (not quantity) and whether or not we are trying to do the bare minimum or live fully as disciples who embody worship as a holistic practice? 

The Prophet Amos did not come from a noble lineage. He was not originally a prophet (with formal religious/theological training), not the son of a prophet. Simply put, Amos was a backwater sheepherder who followed the call of God. Amos preached a message of economic and social justice to a kingdom and people who exploited the working class, propped up the wealthy and allowed influential people to have their way. Yet, for us today, as we reflect on the "maintenance of divine worship," Amos' call to just worship rings true. Amos could have cared less for the ritual trappings of worship if the people and religious leaders abandoned the moral worship of God; then, the spiritual and ritual worship of God carried no weight or value. Worship, and the maintenance of our worship, will take us outside the bounds of Sunday mornings and into every aspect of our lives.  

As I've gone around consulting services for other churches, recurring questions get asked: 1.) How do we get more young people and families to attend? 2.) How do we get children in worship? 3.) How do we, teens and youth to go back to church? Before you say anything, yes, those questions are all permutations of the same question, "How do we get more people in the church?" Yet it's the wrong question for us to be asking. No amount of changes to our worship, programming, or music could bring more people into the church. Well, let me rephrase that, yet, it might bring people in, though they won't stay very long. People, especially younger people, are pretty keen on picking up BS/inauthenticity, and they won't stick around if we're only flash and no substance. 

What if instead of asking questions centered around getting people "in," we ask questions about how we can be better neighbors? What would it look like for our worship to carry outside the sanctuary's four walls? Even better, what would it look like for us to worship God in everything we do? Because let me tell you, friends, if we can work on reforming our worship to practice that is all-encompassing and permeates every ounce of our being, then everything else will fall into place. Because if our worship proclaims love, justice, healing, and compassion above all else, those who bear witness will be drawn to hear more, to be a part of something more. Our worship is an act that occurs not just once a week to "appease God," but every waking moment of our days. 

Perhaps that is what the late Dutch Reformed Theologian, Abraham Kuyper, thought when he stated, "There's not a square inch in the whole domain of human existence over which Christ, who is Lord over all, does not exclaim, 'Mine'!" But it is not a stipulation or a claim with riders attached. We cannot say, "I'm all for worshiping God on Sunday, but during the week, I'll do whatever I want to (spreading fear or hate or misinformation, cutting lousy business deals, mistreating service staff in various industries)." If we say we worship God, they let it be said that our worship covers every square inch. If we teach, let our worship be known in our embrace of time-tested science, history, and math (our love of knowledge). If we work with our hands, let our craft show our worship in our sweat and hard labor. And regardless of our work, let our worship be seen in our love for all God's people (who carry the Imago Dei). 

The Church is called to oversee the "maintenance of divine worship." How will we enact such a sacred duty here in our church? How might we continue to expand upon our worship experiences outside our walls (we heard one last week in Johanna's testimony about the Midnight Run)? We know that God does not desire the worship of our hearts that are checking off our time with God as something that we need to do. God wants worship that encompasses our whole selves, worship that takes the sacrifice of Christ as something that gives us purpose and meaning and a higher calling. That act of worship may begin today (especially if it is your first time hearing the gospel), but don't let it end today. The heart of God, the justice of God (as Amos would remind us), and the compassion and mercy of God show us that our lives are ongoing acts of worship. Worship that God has claimed from the very beginning, as God claimed us in love.