Still Quarrying 116 - Thwarted Praise, Enduring Hope.

In the first months of my ministry in Stevenston: Ardeer I was told by a lady that she had received a postcard from a friend who was on holiday.  Among other things she wrote that she was missing Church and looking forward to getting back.  That was an encouragement to someone still finding his feet in parish ministry.

Later I came to know someone who had been a regular attender but severe emotional problems meant that this was no longer possible.   It was a source of regret and the Lord’s Day always came around with a deep sense of longing.  

It is this appreciation of the gathering for worship that we find in Psalms 42 and 43.  The Psalmist has powerful memories of the worship of God’s people and what a blessing this was:

‘ . . . I used to go with the multitude,

 leading the procession to the house of God,

 with shouts of thanksgiving

 among the festive throng.’  (42: 4)

But circumstances have now prevented this.  He is ‘oppressed by the enemy’, taunted by those who say “Where is your God?”   This results in great inner turmoil which comes through in both psalms as a refrain: 

‘Why are you downcast, O my soul?

 Why so disturbed within me?’  (42: 5; 43: 5)

Light and dark, sweet and sour, up and down jostle for possession of the Psalmist’s inner life.   And in many ways we stand with him in this unique moment in human history.  Circumstances are preventing us from gathering on the Lord’s Day, one of the vital sources of our spiritual health.  Many years ago, in a book about preaching James S. Stewart shared a vision of worship that he longed for all preachers to grasp:

‎'Every Sunday morning when it comes ought to find you awed and thrilled by the reflection - "God is to be in action today, through me, for these people; this day may be crucial, this service decisive, for someone now ripe for the vision of Jesus.”

Well, our gathering for worship may have been affected but I cannot accept that God cannot still work through the resources we have to bring people to faith and strengthen the faith of believers.  It may not be the same but again the Psalmist is our companion when he continues his internal dialogue and looks forward to a day of restoration and renewal:

‘Put your hope in God,

 for I will yet praise him,

 my Saviour and my God.‘   (42: 5)

‘Then I will go to the altar of God, to God, my joy and my delight. I will praise you with the lyre, O God, my God. Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Saviour and my God.’  (43: 4-5)

This time will end and once again we will rejoice to be together as the family of God rejoicing in all that He has done for us in Jesus.  

Still Quarrying 17 - Worship.

I’m in the midst of Eric Metaxas’ biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.  Most of what I know about Bonhoeffer concerns the years when he was bearing a courageous witness against the Nazi regime in Germany so it has been fascinating learning more about his early life and how his faith developed.  Church going did not feature prominently in his upbringing although his mother set a standard of personal piety which he always appreciated.   Even when he began to study theology public worship was not high on his list of priorities.  That changed when he went to Union Theological Seminary in New York.  He was not greatly impressed with the liberal theological emphasis at Union.  Metaxas describes it as theological ‘skim milk’.   He found something more substantial and satisfying in the social work assignment he undertook.  This was in the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem.  

The minister at Abyssinian was Dr Adam Clayton Powell Snr, the son of slaves, who ‘combined the fire of a revivalist preacher with great intellect and social vision’.   Metaxas writes: ‘For the first time Bonhoeffer saw the gospel preached and lived out in obedience to God’s commands.’  He was captivated, never missed Sunday worship and eventually became involved in the young peoples teaching program.  All the evidence would suggest that Bonhoeffer underwent a conversion experience at this time.  

What I find impressive is the role that worship played in this.  By no means an exercise in self-indulgence, a ‘holy huddle’, a retreat from the world, but a witness to the presence of the Living God in the midst of a community and an opportunity to connect with His truth in the reading and preaching of the Scriptures.  Bonhoeffer had no great reason to expect much from Abyssinian but he was led into an experience which was to shape the rest of his life.  A bit like the man who comes in off the streets of Corinth without any understanding of the Gospel but in the worship of God’s people is convinced and falls down and worships God saying: ‘God is really among you.’  (1 Corinthians 14: 24-25)  

Often when public worship is mentioned in the gospels it is a time when things happen.  In the first chapter of Mark Jesus is preaching in the synagogue and people are ‘amazed at his teaching.’  The reason?  He teaches as one who has ‘authority’.  It seems that He is speaking with the very voice of God.  That does not go well, however, with a man present who is ‘possessed by and evil spirit’ who cries out against Jesus.  As a result of this protest

from the pit the man is cleansed by the words of Jesus: ‘Be quiet!  Come out of him!‘   

This is a vision of worship we can take to ourselves.  A time when we can anticipate the voice of God speaking through the reading and preaching of the Scriptures.  A time when  personal issues come to the surface.  A time when the Holy Spirit cleanses and renews.   A time when men and women become convinced that Jesus is Lord.  

I’m praying that on this Lord’s Day this vision of worship will be realised throughout the land as it was for a young German pastor in the 1930s who would later hold nothing back in his commitment to the truth he had found in Christ.