Abominable Worship and Service

This is the one I esteem:

he who is humble and contrite in spirit,

and trembles at my word.

But whoever sacrifices a bull

is like one who kills a man,

and whoever offers a lamb,

like one who breaks a dog's neck;

whoever makes a grain offering

is like one who presents pig's blood,

and whoever burns memorial incense,

like one who worships an idol.

They have chosen their own ways,

and their souls delight in their abominations;

so I also will choose harsh treatment for them,

and will bring upon them what they dread.

For when I called, no one answered,

when I spoke, no one listened.

They did evil in my sight

and chose what displeases me. (Is. 66:2-4)

So the picture Isaiah is painting is a normal worship service with singing, praying, offerings, and preaching. Yet what seems like songs of worship are like everyone vomiting on the floor, what seems to be praying is cussing and making obscene gestures at God, what seems like offering is like beating and stealing from the poorest members, and what seems like preaching is really like pornography practiced at the front of the church. What Isaiah portrays is truly frightening: people who think they are praising, worshiping, and honoring God, but who are, in reality, committing the worst of sins by their very worship and practice.

What was the problem? They lacked humility and a contrite spirit. They chose their own ways and delighted in them above listening to God and answering his call. Such practices are abominations to God, evil in his sight, and displeasing to him. They did not tremble at his word.

I nearly cried at the phrase, "When I called, no one answered, when I spoke, no one listened." Often, I think I am trying to hear God. I have various practices in my life to attune my heart to what God wants. At the heart of it all is obedience, however. So often I find I am listening hard for things that will please me and make me happy, like solutions to my problems and guidance that paves the way to peace. I have selective hearing.

This kind of hearing is what brings abominable worship and service to God. It carefully circumvents the heart of what God wants of me with an obsession on my own happiness, my own accomplishments, my own desires. "God couldn't want that because I would be so miserable!" I think when faced with some of his words to me. I try to pad them, soften them, or even change them, but then I just end up deaf. Rather than seeking for ways to obey what seems hard or impossible, I look for ways I can get out of really doing what he asks of me. So I fill my life up with "sacrifices" that will somehow excuse me from obedience.

Ironically, when I seek to skirt God's words to me, I end up with harsh treatment from God - I can't hear him or receive his comfort - because I ignore his efforts to help and heal me. I also end up having the very things I dread come true. Away from God, I am vulnerable to deception and oppression. God wants to save me from fear and dread, but it requires obedience.

Lord, I want to listen and obey. When I listen, I treat your word as just a bit of information. I use it to make up my own mind. I do not seek to use my mind to make up obedience in my life. My attitude is all wrong. I see that without listening to you, I cannot hope to obey. I see that listening without obeying is no better than ignoring you. I also know that obedience without trusting you wholeheartedly and without eager anticipation for what you will bring will quickly fade and fail. At the heart of it all is that faith, that trust, that confidence that you are good and will do good. Increase my faith so that my worship and service might please you and not make you sick, Father! Thank you for your patience. Don't let me presume upon you, though. Let me seek to obey out of love for you. Amen.

Guidance as the Righteousness of God

Like a horse in open country,

they did not stumble;

like cattle that go down to the plain,

they were given rest by the Spirit of the Lord.

This is how you guided your people

to make for yourself a glorious name. (Is. 63:13)

I love this image of guidance. When God guides, we are like a horse galloping across the prairie and like a contented cow grazing in a green field of grace. God's guidance leads to freedom and rest. The freedom is a freedom from stumbling and falling. The rest is provision and peace. The result shows how good and amazing God is.

Interestingly, this passage in Isaiah refers to the Israelites looking back to their wilderness wanderings with longing. The passage refers to them as they followed God. It could be said that Isaiah is merely being nostalgic, forgetting the complaining and doubting that happened during those days. I think, however, he is pointing not to the "good ole days," but rather to our good God.

The problem with God's guidance was not with his guidance, but with the reception of it from the people. Even with their gripes and slips, they found their way. The main point being that the first step to following God's guidance is understanding that God is not trying to be obscure and cryptic as he guides us, but plain and clear. What gets in my way is my worry and doubt.

Faith is what opens up God's guidance to me. Simple trust in his desire to guide and care for me. This simple trust led Abraham into the "right way" with God (Rom. 4:3). Perhaps righteousness is mostly a matter of guidance. By trust and confidence in God, maybe I can, like Abraham, walk in the right ways because God will guide me. The opposite would be trusting more in something other than my relationship with God as my guiding light.

I find it easy to depart from following God because sometimes he doesn't seem to be going where I want or maybe he is going too slow. I whip out the map of my reason or my feeling or my common sense, pass God, and try to find the right way on my own. Everyone knows what that's like, but everyone still tries it.

Walking alongside the Lord is like galloping over an open field. He shows me things that I would never be able to figure out on my own. Also, walking with God is like being that contented cow. He provides what I need and more as I journey with him. Keeping in step with him also brings me to worship and praise him as he performs amazing deeds in, around, and through me. By contrast, passing God up only yields personal accomplishments that dry up and blow away, frantic busyness that drains me, and recognition for myself that does not help other people (or myself really) on bit.

So righteousness can be seen as being guided rightly. What am I guided by today? What is my source of righteousness, right living, right guidance?

A Statement of Faith

I have been thinking about creeds, statements of faith and such. I mainly understand them to be like gates that allow certain people in and keep certain people out. Well and good. We are to be like-minded and remember that there are wolves in sheep's clothing out there.

However, I began wondering if I might use such as a title page rather than a gate - something that invites people into the faith and inspires them, rather than something to try to keep certain people out. Could a statement of faith be used to help myself and others understand and explain what is most important to ourselves rather than as a way to keep unwanted ideas out of our group? I wanted to ask the question, "What do I want to have first and foremost in my mind as far as my faith is concerned?" And as a necessary derivative question, "What do I want people to know about my faith above all else?"

The main question that followers of Jesus have to wrestle with is, "What is a disciple? What does a disciple know, do, and hope to become?" I like the basic answer to this question in The Connecting Church by Frazee. I would phrase it this way:

As a disciple of Jesus, I obey his commands: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself."

I like this because above all else, a believer is one who follows Jesus. One who follows Jesus obeys his commands. Jesus himself identifies these commands as the most important and covering the whole of scripture.

Although such a statement leaves a lot unanswered, it supplies those who do follow Christ with a working definition of what it means to be a disciple. It lays a groundwork on which the ideas, practices, and virtues of being a follower of Jesus can be laid. In this sense, I see it as complete.

Statements that don't work well are ones that are too long to use effectively in everyday living or are ones that focus too closely on a particular "soap box" so that a properly filled-out faith cannot be built on top of them. Ancient creeds are helpful for capturing many of these basics, but often they are written to address heresies in a particular language that people were using at that time for discussion and argument.

Again, I wanted to avoid getting drawn into the idea of a statement of faith as a gate. I hoped to use it as a step-stool so I can reach some of the highest ideals of my faith without trying to climb the shelves of arguments and discussions present in all such endeavors.

Such a statement of faith may not be what everyone would choose, but it is certainly not heretical. The main problem would be that it is simplistic. I would say it is simplistic if I regard it as complete in and of itself. Instead I hoped it would be merely simple, but profound enough to touch on most if not all aspects of faith at least indirectly, and direct enough to use as a constant reminder of what a life of discipleship is all about.