worship – goodchristianfiction

I have to write some hard things. I have to ask some questions that have no clear-cut answers. I have to begin with the assurance that despite what I have to write today, the end of any thoughts on the cup of wrath is the promise of the mercy of God that gave us Christ to save us.

Before the New Testament, people who sinned had to “get right” with God through the offering of different sacrifices. The Book of Leviticus spells out what sins call for different animal or grain offerings and just how those offerings were to be carried out. Then, Leviticus starts to spell out what makes a person unclean. Touching dead animals, being a woman in her cycle, even having a boil can make a person unclean, requiring yet another set of procedures–different procedures for each different circumstance. In one instance, the poor, afflicted person had to go around with a shaved head outside of the camp for a week or more, covering his/her mouth and saying out loud, over and over, “unclean, unclean.”

Maybe 4000 years ago, people didn’t get acne like we do today. Maybe words didn’t carry the same power so that a person having to call out their uncleanness all the time would really believe their own cleanness when the priest finally declared it. These are questions God knows the answers to, and my faith has to leave at that.

But, what I realized as I read through Leviticus this morning was that once the book covers the sin offerings, it very clearly delineates that the cleanliness procedures have to do with ceremonial cleanness. When God saved the Jews from Egypt, He was beginning to establish the practice of worshipping one God, HIM.

Part of establishing monotheism among a people who had always believed in Him but also still worshipped other gods was making those people understand just how perfect, pure, powerful and different the God of the Jews really was. Remember how there were several of the plagues in Egypt that even the Egyptian magicians could imitate? As slaves, the Jews had been surrounded for more than 400 years with masters who worshipped a pantheon of gods.

To set Himself apart, God rightfully wanted His people to understand the Holiness of His temple. Only Moses spoke with Him directly, and afterward Moses’ face glowed so that he had to cover it because the glow scared the Jews. To enter even the outer sections of the temple that was dedicated to the one and only LORD, therefore, God needed to make very clear-cut delineations between what was clean and unclean. Those who did not take God’s commands seriously, literally died.

Fast-forward to a New Testament world, and I come to the tough questions. These are the kind of questions that can keep Christians apart, even though they really shouldn’t be “deal breakers.” I only ask them because they came to me as I contemplated the importance placed on ceremonial cleanliness in Leviticus.

First, the only reason we have the right to enter the Holy of Holies is through the sacrifice that Christ made for us. With the indwelling of the Holy Spirit that comes from our acceptance of Christ as our Savior, we have full access to the one and only God. But, in a modern world where we have tried so hard to make our churches “welcoming,” have we gone too far away from the symbolic importance of the Holiness of the worship sanctuary?

In the church I attend, some people wear jeans, others wear dresses and suits. The church has a coffee bar in the Atrium, and people bring their coffee into the worship service. It is a friendly, comfortable environment, but is it Holy? In other words, I’d like to think that we humans have advanced in the last 4000 years, but I also know that in the 2000 years since Christ declared His kingdom, we haven’t put forth the greatest track record. We are all stubborn and stiff-necked people.

Would wearing our best (or the equivalent of the Sunday best that the least affluent member of the church is able to wear so that church doesn’t become a glamour contest) and entering the sanctuary with only our Bibles in our hands make us more cognizant of the honor we have in being able to worship God in this way? Have we lost a bit in translation by making our worship centers more comfortable than sanctified?

I’m not making any judgments or trying to start any arguments here. I think this is a practice each person can decide for him/herself. I, for one, am going to stop the habit I had begun of taking a drink into the sanctuary just because others were also doing it. I didn’t feel right about it for myself from the get-go. After being reminded about the importance of ceremonial cleanliness to God in the time of the Old Testament, I feel that I need to uphold the sanctity of the sanctuary in this way even though I am already sanctified by Christ.

As I heard a preacher once remark, if God wanted this much from us before He sacrificed His one and only Son, what makes us think He would want less of us now that that sacrifice has been made?

It seems like foregoing a beverage and dressing with care before entering the sanctuary on Sunday are some simple steps I can take to remind myself of the holiness of the worship in which I am about to partake. Leviticus serves as an awesome reminder of the depth of God’s love for His people and the extent of His wrath when His very, very long patience finally wears out.

History buffs know that even after the Reformation, the importance of the Sabbath was so felt that it was legislated well into the early days of the Colonies, punishing those who failed to show up on a Sunday morning as if they had stolen a loaf of bread.
But what were the slackers really stealing? What do we get, and give, from our Sabbath “rest?”
I find myself contemplating these questions at the beginning of this new year, in part because I feel a bit more drained than usual from the year that has passed. I have to ask myself, was the energy output worth it? What exactly did I spend my time on? More importantly, what mistakes will I correct and winning strategies will I repeat in the coming year?
So, all the first of the year resolution business is what brought me around to thinking about the form and function of the Sabbath. Of course, we all know that God Himself chose the seventh day to rest and consider the good work He had done. But have you ever contemplated how often the Jewish religious calendar also called for even the land to rest? At the end of 2 Chronicles, when the Jews have been driven out of their own land by the Babylonians, the chronicler describes the land as having its sabbath rest.
In a world that is not dominated by physical labor for survival, we have inched further and further from the concept of a resting Sabbath. Long gone are those Sundays of our youth when nothing was open except for maybe a gas station. How many of us do our Sunday duty at church, and then drive straight to a restaurant, thereby depriving the waiter, hostess, busboy, and chef of their Sabbath rests? Do we even know how to rest in a world blitzed with electronics we can carry in our pockets and to-do lists much too long to fit into the waking hours of a seven-day week, much less a six-day one if we were to take our resting truly to heart?
Still, as with all of God’s instructions, there is more than just the arbitrary to the Sabbath commandment. Our bodies do need rest, especially in a world where too many of us have fallen victim to what the experts call “chronic stress,” where the body stays in flight or fight mode all the time, the adrenals pumping hormones that are preparing a body for a fight that is actually spending the day in front of a computer screen. Without enough time in a day for our bodies to “stand down,” turning off the fight or flight response and allowing what is known as our parasympathetic system to kick in for the gearing down of the adrenals and hormones, we eventually burn out, mentally and physically. Anxiety, depression, excess weight, and many autoimmune disorders have been linked to this modern-day curse of chronic stress.
So, taking a Sabbath to really embrace the idea of rest is a good idea on many levels, not the least of which is the ability this day of rest can give us to praise God and contemplate our blessings. Have you ever noticed that it is hard to be in a bad mood if you make yourself smile? That’s because the smile action actually triggers feel-good endorphins to be released into our systems.
Throughout the biblical texts, we see God’s joy in being praised and recognized by His people. He created in us a desire to seek Him, in part I think, because He longs to be sought. Remember when Jesus said that the stones would cry out if we would not?
Those who know me realize the irony of me discussing Sabbath observance. As a high-anxiety introvert, my efforts at church attendance are truly acts of discipline on my part. Still, God’s Sabbath can be observed anywhere you are, where two or three are gathered. It may be best observed according to His will in a church, but worship, praise and rest can also occur wherever the faithful are.
Could I truly do it? Could I truly spend an entire Sabbath with no distractions? No television, or computer, or books, no cooking, or laundry, or work projects unfinished, but only the word of God, still moments to hear Him, and my own, clumsy prayers?
Am I willing to risk it for the rewards it offers–gratefulness, compassion, and pleasing my Creator?
Are you?
Here’s hoping our 2012 time management includes some down time with the One above us.