A Response

Last week, I received a response to my last post on the bulletin back page.  In the event you don’t recall, I mentioned that another congregation was advertising their church experience as being “fun.”  I said that church could be about many things…thanksgiving, fellowship, instruction, worship, humility, service, joy…but in my opinion, “fun” as generally defined wasn’t necessarily one of those.

In the response, the writer rightly says that as we enter the sanctuary, “Should we not be meditating on why we are there, or praying for our Lord to be with us?”  She differentiated here the difference between an auditorium and a sanctuary, giving the idea of some kind of hallowed area in the building that was to be used only for certain purposes.  I prefer to not designate any area of the building as necessarily holy or sanctified; rather, to understand the purpose behind any gathering in any part of the building.

However, I do not dispute her premise.  The answer is, “Yes, of course.”  As we enter our time with our church family, wherever that is, we also enter into the presence of God in a way that we normally do not do individually.  As the writer/responder says, “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I with them.”  It seems that God is present in a crowd of believers, even if only a crowd of two or three, in some way that is special and unique.

The writer then goes on.  “People all over the world are being persecuted and many killed because of their belief in our God and our Savior Jesus Christ.  They are forbidden to gather for worship or even own a Bible.  We are so blessed in our country to openly meet to worship together.  We are blessed to own Bibles and openly speak of our faith.  Can we show our God how thankful and humbled we truly are by showing reverence when we enter to worship?”

And then I thought about Psalm 100.

Shout joyfully to the LORD, all the earth.  Serve the LORD with gladness; Come before Him with joyful singing.

Know that the LORD Himself is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.

Enter His gates with thanksgiving And His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him, bless His name.

For the LORD is good; His lovingkindness is everlasting And His faithfulness to all generations.

Somehow, it seems, God desires us to sing and shout with joy, giving praise and thanksgiving to him, and gladly serve him while also humbly recognizing our brokenness and dependence on him.  While at first, these seem to be opposites, the reality is they are part of the whole of the worship experience.

Encountering God is so much more than any one descriptive term.  It transcends any ideas we have of proper decorum, thoughtful reflection, ritual exercises (communion, singing, etc), fellowship, commonality, joyful expression and the like.  Encountering God is one of the Great Indescribables and Undefinables of life.  To limit it in any way, whether as to place, time, season, or event, is to miss out on one of the great blessings of the Faith.