How Would Your Worship Of God Measure Up?
Good Morning Friends,
The setting for today’s lectionary reading is the days before the Passover and the final week before Jesus’ Crucifixion. Most likely Jesus was staying in the home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus in Bethany at night and going to the Temple to teach during the days. And on one day he saw something in the Temple that really disturbed him. The behavior of the people in the Temple…the house of God was not right. It was all about revenue and not reverence. Jesus, in a rather courageous act, took the matter into his own hands and ran the Temple merchants off. And whether it occurred at the beginning of his ministry as in the book of John or at the end as in today’s scripture or both, this cleansing would become of messianic relevance as an act not seeking reform as much as replacement of the Temple in our very bodies until his return. The chief priests could not stop him. Jesus could not be cajoled. His purity had become an offense. His demands postured by officials as ridiculous. The will to evil overwhelmed them. They were addicted. So today we analyze the meaning of the cleansing of the Temple and then consider what Jesus would think of the way we gather together to pray collectively. So, if Jesus came for a visit, to your Sunday service, I wonder, How Would Your Worship Of God Measure Up?
Scripture: Then he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple; and when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.
Mark 11:11 (NRSV)
Then he entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling things there; and he said, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer’; but you have made it a den of robbers.” Every day he was teaching in the temple. The chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people kept looking for a way to kill him; but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people were spellbound by what they heard.
Luke 19:45-48 (NRSV)
One day, as we were going to the place of prayer, we met a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners a great deal of money by fortune-telling. While she followed Paul and us, she would cry out, “These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation.” She kept doing this for many days. But Paul, very much annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I order you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And it came out that very hour. But when her owners saw that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the authorities.
Acts 16:16-19 (NRSV)
Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
Philippians 4:8 (NRSV)
Message: Every moment of every minute in every hour of every day, we are thinking. We are even thinking right now. But the information overflow is difficult to manage and sometimes gets a bit messy. So too, we live in a culture where there is massive confusion about how to worship God. In some places, worship has degenerated into entertainment. It reminds me of the story of Paul casting a prophetic spirit out of a slave girl who is being used as a profitable seer by her owners. By casting the less powerful demon out of the girl, Paul witnesses to the power of the God he worships. Because it occasions their economic loss, Paul’s deed enrages the girl’s owners much like how Jesus enraged the Temple officials. Worship has a way of becoming distorted. For centuries, the Church stood solidly against every form of worldly entertainment but not so today. There is a cultural subversion of the Biblical faith often played out in the entertainment industry. Earthly entertainment and profit has a way or crowding out what is good. But it is perhaps not right to view all entertainment as all bad. It is the distortion of entertainment that is the complex problem. You see, Jesus raised a voice against the distortion of worship he found at the temple in Jerusalem because of what possessed the worshipers. And He certainly did something about the unholy worship there that we should take note of. True worshipers do not seek entertainment alone but transformation. True worshipers do not seek profit but to be released from the addictions of the mind. True worshipers want to worship in the power and spirit and truth that prompts in us a conversion of the mind and spirit so we might have a meaningful relationship with God. You see, Jesus’ cleansing of the temple is really a warning to all of us. Each one of us should examine our own worship of God. We really should not think that God will accept us and our worship simply because we go through the act of worship. Going through the motions in a worship service will not bring us forgiveness and fellowship with God. True worship flows out of a relationship with God. It is because we have faith in Jesus Christ and are repenting of our sins. It is because we are thinking in a way that is honorable and pure and worthy of praise. It is because we have learned to worship God in spirit and in truth individually and that the power of this experience be reinforced collectively.
Pray we examine our own worship of God. Pray our worship is never boring. Pray we are zealous for the pure worship of God but not in its seeking fall prey to a dualistic view of reality. Pray we are passionate for inspired teaching of the word of God. Pray we worship in Spirit and in Truth. Pray we realize that worship begins and ends with the cleansing of our minds. Pray God’s blueprint for our thinking become a blueprint for our worship. Pray we realize that we are to become the Temple for God until Jesus returns. Pray the entertainment we seek strengthens our relationship with God and not just the bank accounts of gate keepers and money changers. Pray we seek what is best for a strong relationship with God.
Blessings,
John Lawson
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