Worship is Heart Work

“This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.”

—Matthew 15:8, quoting Isaiah 29:13

Jesus quotes himself (as God’s revealer) from Isaiah’s prophecy, indicating that both the people of his own time, and the Israelites of 700 years prior had a shared condition. They each knew how to say the right things about and to God, but they were words devoid of conviction. While speaking of God in ways that sounded like praise and obedience, they actually were not occupied with thoughts of him at all. The next verse in both contexts says that they replaced God’s instruction with the “precepts of men”—rules that were made up for them (and often by them).

It is easy to find illustrations of this in our contemporary setting. I see this every time I watch mainline “Christian” services for special events that take place in the media. The recent funeral for the late former President George H.W. Bush would be one example. Readers of scripture and of some of the historic and orthodox parts of the Episcopal liturgy were done by people who, in some cases, deny the core truths of the Scriptures they are reading or summarizing. The words were great, but neither the speakers nor most of their hearers believed them. 

I cringe when liberal (and sometimes conservative) Christian clergy are being interviewed about major social issues of the day, and try to use Scripture as their proof that Jesus was a social justice warrior/feminist/political revolutionary/traditional values advocate/free market supporter, etc. The fact is, Jesus was all of those things and more, but in ways far different than the speakers I hear quoted understand. But the real travesty is that they trot out their image of Jesus when it suits them but ignore the New Testament witness to all he is and all he says and have no sense of submission to him or his gospel whatsoever. They do the same with the rest of Holy Scripture; use a dollop of the Bible when it fits but ignore its context and other content. This hard-heartedness toward a loving, holy, and speaking God manifests no true worship of him.

But then, I must stop and ask myself, “is my heart focused on God in my worship?” Now, sometimes it clearly is—in fact I think this is the norm. But there are still too many times when I’m singing to or about God and I’m thinking about something else. At other times I’m supposedly listening to what God is saying as I read or hear a sermon, but my mind is wandering to other interests. When I give my offering, do I think about this as truly given to show my love and honor for God, or am I just doing it as duty, or to be seen by others, or to get a greater tax break (which many of us will discover is less than we think due to new tax laws—so our faulty worship in this may even be flawed economic strategy, too)? 

It’s easy to see the flawed worship that comes from those we know are not serious about it, or those we know are devoted to false gods or false understandings of the true one. But we must also be honest about our own struggles to worship. Our hearts may be far from God in outright rebellion, but it may also be distraction, or self-concern, or the pursuit of lesser pleasures (which can be our own personal idols). We wouldn’t want others (or even God!) to think we weren’t interested in worship, but sometimes, we just aren’t. That’s when we need him even more.

Worship springs from the heart, and while we can “fake it” in the sight of others, we know that God sees and searches the heart. This is not a cause for fear, but honesty, sometimes repentance, and always hope. He will strengthen our hearts as we yield them to his Spirit’s work. He seeks worshipers, but he knows that for us to be one, he must also save worshipers and shape worshipers and sanctify worshipers. He’s ready to help and awaits your coming to him with your need of a strengthened heart.

Two actions steps you can take:

1.    Right now, go to God in prayer and ask him to help you worship him better today. Ask for eyes to see his working, a mind to recall his truth and his promises, and a will that is shaped toward his desires for you.

2.    On the next Lord's day, if you can, join others of us here or wherever you are in a time of corporate worship, letting the presence and voices of others be a prod to join in, a reminder that you are not alone, and an encouragement that, all together, you are acknowledging the worthiness of God to be our single greatest focus.

Let’s do the heart work of worship together.

9/11 Memories--Eighteen Years Later

Eighteen years.

Incoming freshmen at the university up the street from my office have no memory of a pre-9/11 world, of a time when our nation was not at war. That day (and those that followed) are etched in my memory, disbelief turning to horror in a few hours after waking up (we lived on the west coast then). Watching and rewatching the footage of planes used as missiles and towers dropping to the ground. Watching the Pentagon in flames. Hearing of the passengers on a doomed plane thwarting their hijackers' plans at the cost of their lives ending in a field in Pennsylvania. Images of people jumping out windows to escape flames.

In the days ahead mourning proceeded next to the barricading of public buildings and airports. Everyone was stunned, no one could fly anywhere and many discovered they knew people who knew people who were either lost or spared by circumstance (a pilot friend was supposed to be on board one of the doomed flights the next day). It was days before some aspects of life began to return to a new "normal."

For a few days, people prayed and asked for prayers, and some thought revival would follow. A national prayer service had good words from many, including Billy Graham. But soon the prayers diminished, with most coming from military families for loved ones who would soon be going into harms' way. Some expressed anger that God would let this happen, others said it was God's judgment on America for whatever sin the speaker especially hated. There was no mass repentance.
The name "Osama bin Laden" became known and hated very quickly. It was just a month later I was boarding a flight (slowly) when the announcement came that we were sending troops to Afghanistan, ostensibly to root out the terrorists in this safe haven provided by the Taliban government. Most of us knew little of the Taliban or al Queda back then--we didn't even know how to spell or pronounce them. We know that now.
Soon our politics took over. The war in Afghanistan became the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, with massive support quickly deteriorating into accusations and argument. Victory has yet to come--we don't seem to be sure what that would even be at this point. We are so ready to be done that we almost were treated to the presence of Taliban leaders at Camp David last week--even as they continue a war against the government we put in place.
9/11 was a day that changed everything, much of the change being in the way Americans conducted their lives and viewed the world. But the day itself needs to be remembered in honor of those who were its victims and as a lesson to us all. Evil threatens us. Danger surrounds us. But God is with us and for us. Surprise attacks don't surprise him. "Senseless" violence and suffering is not outside his control or plan, even when it makes no sense to us. And people used to not acknowledging God are not moved even by great tragedy to change their ways on their own.