Thursday, November 25, 2010

"Instead of a Show"

This is a well-done and convicting video based on Amos 5:21-24 -- "I hate, I despise your feasts, 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 peace offerings of your fattened animals, I will not look upon them. Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream."

4 comments:

Aussie John said...

Eric,

So relevant.

The formalistic thing Christians have been conned into believing is worship is literally a thumbing of our noses at God's requirement of worship "in spirit and in truth".

Genuine worship creates, in such worshipers, a sincere desire to know more of the person of Jesus Christ and to obey and serve Him.

Our endemic traditions have caused us to worship, what we call "worship", which in turn causes us to glory in what we feel during our time of "worship", newer forms have only served to enhance this counterfeit of true worship.

The result is that when these times of "worship' finish, we want more of the experience rather than we do of Jesus Christ.

It is so easy, in the traditional scene, using the right hymns, prayer, and skilled rhetoric, to create an atmosphere longing for the feelings we get when hearing of Christ,but not Christ himself.

In all of this congregations have learned to worship the experience, rather than worship our great and sovereign God in all of His Triune glory.

Eric said...

John,

I have been wondering a great deal lately about the "worship service." The ceremony isn't really worship and it certainly isn't service. So what is it?

Aussie John said...

Eric,

I came to a place where I believe that what we traditionally call "worship" is no more than an expression of modified Roman Catholic ecclesiology, as is our leadership practices and attitude towards the, so-called,laity.

Worship, as I understand it is a whole of life exercise expressed by the way we show our love for God revealed in Jesus Christ and our neighbor, in all aspects of life and relationship, including, when we gather.

Eric said...

John,

Thank you. It's amazing to me that the "high point" of the week for many churches is a ceremony that we can't find anywhere in the NT church. Something is very wrong with this picture.