(…continued) We could talk about the purpose of the church and the Biblical theology of worship and how there is something in all humans that reaches out for something beyond themselves, and all that. But worship is, at its center, simply a weekly remembrance of God. Is church the only place to pay attention to God? No, it is not. But as you probably know, when attention is not paid in Sunday morning worship, worship usually doesn’t happen at any other time either. It is like the little girl whose father never went to church with the rest of the family. One Sunday morning the father said, “Hey, let’s all go to the beach.” And the little girl said, “But Daddy, we always go to church on Sunday morning.” “Oh honey,” said the father, “we can worship God just as well at the beach as in the church.” “Yes,” said the girl, “but we won’t, will we?” Yes, of course, God can be worshipped in the beauty of nature, or on the golf course, or on the lake, instead of in church. But do you think that happens very often?
I’ve been around the church for a long time, and I am thinking about the many people I have talked to about this very thing. And I could name for you some incredible exceptions to this rule, some wonderful people of deep faith who did not go to church, but paid attention to God in other ways. Frank was raised a Lutheran and lived right next door to my church. But as long as I knew him, he never once attended a service at my church or anywhere else. During the week he would walk across the lawn and visit me at my office. And Frank told me many times that the first thing he did every morning was read his Bible and say his prayers; a habit he started in the foxholes of World War II, and never stopped. But most people I talked to about this, and who did not go to church, were not like that; and in them I have seen the gradual, or sometimes sudden loss of faith, if not in one generation in the next. Now of course, even when a family does worship, parents and children can, in time, drift away. It happens all the time. But we do need to give faith every opportunity to grow.
A branch that is cut off from the grapevine will not survive, to use Jesus’ illustration. Faith can also wither and die, just like that cut branch. There is a warning there. Faith needs feeding, or, as Paul says, ‘faith comes by hearing;’ and if no attention is paid, and if there is no connection, and if no word is ever heard, faith will die, and then there is nothing left.
So, stay connected to the vine, if not in weekly worship, then make sure it is in some other way. But always, in some way, stay connected to that greater vine, Jesus Christ. Remain in him, as it says in John 15, and we do that best by gathering in his name. That is how we keep the faith, and that is how we testify to others of our faith in him. In so doing, others can continue to ‘hear it through the grapevine,’ continuing what has been going on for 2,ooo years.
One might say they do not get anything out of church. And I can sympathize with that. Now that I am retired, I visit many churches, and I must say there have been many times where I have received very little from the service. But where in the Bible does it say you have to get something out of going to church? Worship by definition is something you offer to God, not something you go to get. You are getting something out of God all week. Every breath you take is from God. You go to church to give thanks to God. If along with doing that, you get something out of it, that’s wonderful. But you are there primarily to worship Someone else, not to get something for yourself.
Actually, you do receive the basic benefits of worship, even when it is poorly done (as it so often is) and you are not ‘into it’ (as is so often the case). First of all, just by being there you have obeyed the third commandment. And as in all of the commandments, every act of obedience draws us a little closer to God, and every act of disobedience moves us a little farther away from God.
Second, by making the decision to go to God’s house, and even by just sitting there for an hour, you have received, if nothing else, a weekly reminder of God’s presence, of your obligation to that God, and of those eternal concerns of your soul beyond the here and now. Anything else you get out of church is an added benefit.
Jesus said, “I am the vine… Remain in my love.”
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John 15:5, 6, 9, 10a — Jesus said, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned… As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love.”
Lamentations 3:25, 26 — The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.
I Chronicles 28:9 — (David to Solomon) “And you, my son Solomon, acknowledge the God of your father, and serve him with wholehearted devotion and with a willing mind, for the Lord searches every heart and understands every motive behind the thoughts. If you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, he will reject you forever.”
Hebrews 11:6 — Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
Hebrews 2:1-3a — We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. For since the message spoken through angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, how shall we escape if we ignore so great a salvation?
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PRAYER BEFORE WORSHIP:
Almighty God, you pour out your grace upon all who desire it. Deliver us, we pray, as we come into your presence, from cold hearts and wandering thoughts, that with steady minds and burning zeal we may worship you in spirit and in truth; through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
—Lutheran Book of Worship (#205)
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