Warning! This blog post may (unintentionally) offend some people.
Ok, now that I have that out of the way, I want to just start out by saying, "I am a Christian - unashamed, and unrestrained, a Christian." I believe that the Bible is the word of God. I believe that Jesus is the only way for salvation and that apart from Jesus' death, burial and resurrection we are lost and trapped in our sins. I also believe that the world tends to view Christians as a joke.
Yes, I said it. The question is "why?" Why would I say that the world views Christians as a joke?
As I start this answer, I want to preface my answer by saying, I love being a Southern Baptist Pastor. I love the fellowship I have within my denomination. I also love my brothers and sisters in Christ that are in other denominations.
With that being said, it is time we wake up and look at what we are doing.
In John 13:35 Jesus said, "By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." Yet around our country and around the world, the church is so fractured, so split apart, that the world is laughing at us. We argue about doctrines, we argue about music, we argue about Bible translations, we argue about how to dress, what is ok to read, what we can watch, what we can or can't say, and on and on... Churches have split over the meaning and mode of Baptism and churches have split over the color of the carpet in the sanctuary.
The fact is we are called to love each other, but the divisions in the church have become so wide that we even have denominational hymnals. You can get: The Presbyterian Hymnal, Baptist Hymnal, The New National Baptist Hymnal, The Companion to the United Methodist Hymnal, The Pentecostal Hymnal, The Lutheran Hymnals in America, The 21st Century Universal Denominational Hymnal, The Psalms & Hymns Of Reformed Worship. We can even get The African American Heritage Hymnal if we would like to have our worship songs based on race.
Really? What if we were to put Pentecostal hymnals in a Baptist Church? Or we could put Lutheran Hymnals in a Methodist Church while putting their song books in a Presbyterian Church. Is one Hymnal somehow more holy or more sacred than another?
Wait! That makes me want to ask other questions: Do we even need a hymnal? Do we need music to worship God? Do the instruments used in worship determine the holiness of a song? If so, what about the rhythm or beat of the music?
Or maybe, the worship that God really desires is a worship that results in lives being changed for the good. Maybe God wants our very lives to be worship, our thoughts, our actions, our relationships, our jobs, our words, our deeds, our creativity, our play, our relaxation....
Maybe worship, true worship, won't build walls of separation but instead will tear them down. Maybe we can embrace our brothers and sisters rather than bash them. Maybe we can encourage, strengthen, and inspire one another.
Mark 7:6-8 says, "He replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: “‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.’ You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men."
Wow! Can you imagine what it would be like if we thought of these words as applying to us rather than "those guys". We read these words and think, "Way to go Jesus! Stick it to those Pharisees!" Yet, what if these words, that God put in the Bible for us today, were intended to open our eyes to our own flawed worship?
What if we began to worship God in spirit and in truth (John 4:24)and truly embraced the words of Paul in Romans 12:1, "Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship."
When we offer our bodies as a living sacrifice we won't be caught up in having to be right all the time, and we might just start reaching out to others no matter where they are in their spiritual journey and show them the type of love that stretched His arms from one nail to the other.
Jesus paid the price! Let us honor Him in all our ways!
Love it!
ReplyDeletePeople spend far too much time these days "branding" their denominations and IMO, stripping away the Christianity of their churches to appeal to the unchurched to an extent that their so many bells and whistles and rock bands and coffee shops that I think the message in some cases is so diluted that it is non-existent.
The church I currently attend does not have hymnals at all. There are a few songs we sing on a weekly basis as part of service, and you would have had to grow up under a rock not to know them. Other songs are printed in the bulletin, and they are all over the board. I know this because I have been all over the board so to speak :)
One of the best pastors I ever had the privlege of hearing very often challenged us to "make spiritual" whatever situation good or bad we found ourselves in. I do that a lot with music...especially secular music. There are a lot of good songs out there that aren't church songs, and by being able to discern the spiritual in them...well, I am better able to connect with people who need it.
Any way, great post!
I certainly can agree that there seems to be more focus in the American church on labeling ourselves as "not one of those guys" with arrogance. As if in some way God is patting us on the back for being so much smarter and better Christians that others. Yet in our submission to Jesus we realize that the standard is not each other, but Jesus himself - thus resulting in falling facedown in awe and unworthy worship.
ReplyDeleteAnd while I can easily get frustrated with the way we in the Body of Christ, seem to focus on each other over Christ, I wonder if the original intent f denominations was to build walls or in an effort to follow Christ more closely. I guess the heart of man is so hard to figure out. In that Truth is Truth, Christ can redeem anyone, but we all mature in different ways as we try to understand the scripture. The trouble I have is when Scripture is interpreted without context or based on man's thoughts verses God's thoughts. I don't ave Baptist in my blood, but I do have the Holy Spirit in my heart helping me to discern Truth. And the only concern I have regarding some denominations is whether Truth is being determined by Man's explanation or tradition or by God's own dictation. But, Brad, no man was exhorted into maturity by a denomination mocking his immaturity.
Loving our neighbor is critical in encouraging maturity and total surrender to Christ's Truth and Christ's Word. Obedience is a vulnerable thing. Surrender is a vulnerable thing. And being mocked for even trying to discern the Scriptures or just allowing someone else to discern the Scriptures for us because we're not in the habit of applying our minds is no more worship than a Bible-based church arguing about worship styles.
Thanks for the post and applying your mind to Jesus.