I’ve come to believe that there is nothing that people are more opinionated about or have such deep feelings about than worship. I recently saw a T-shirt that simply said, ”Your favorite band sucks.” It was quite the blanket insult. The only thing that I could think of that could make the T-shirt more insulting would be to add “And how you understand God is stupid…”
People have very deep and pronounced opinions about musical tastes and religion so when you mix them together you have a subject that can be very volatile. Please don’t think that I am equating music to worship because worship is much more than music. It’s just that music is a part of worship, and maybe the part we all are most opinionated about. That song was too fast, too slow, too loud, not loud enough, too old, too new, too repetitive, and so on and so on.
This week at the Journey we are going to look at what scripture says about worship, why it’s important and what our response is.
I spent a good amount of time this week reading and scouring YouTube for videos on faith healing. I saw people like Benny Hinn and others on stage claiming to be able to heal those with afflictions. I saw a faith healer named Peter Popov scamming people by making them believe he had prophetic powers. I read about a little boy who died because his parents prayed and asked God to heal their son’s diabetes rather than controlling it medically.
All these stories made me sad, and it made me ask about what I really believe. I say I believe in an all powerful God. I claim to believe the Bible that says “And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.” (John 14:13-14) I believe that Jesus did miracles yet I am skeptical of those who claim to be healers.
This week at the Journey we are going to discuss miracles and healing and faith. There will be stories from our own people about healing and time for questions and reflection. My hope is that together we can see ourselves for what we are, God for who He is, and our lives for what their purposes are. Please come and join us at 4:15.
I’m a victim of my circumstances. I grew up in a great home with great parents who loved me and loved each other. They gave me all the tools I needed to succeed and I ran with that. I was affirmed, built up, disciplined, taught right and wrong, and shown Jesus. You may wonder how that makes me a victim. Webster defines victim as “one that is acted on and usually adversely affected by a force or agent.” So even in this definition we have the negative meaning by being “adversely affected.”
But what sticks out to me is that we are all acted on by outside forces that are mostly out of our control. None of us choose who our parents are, what family we grew up in, what country we are born in, what race, culture, gender or society we were raised in, all of which shape us. I didn’t choose my home or life but I am grateful for it. We are all victims in a way of our circumstances.
Now this isn’t to say that people have no choices in who they become. I’m also not saying that good people are raised in good homes and bad people are raised in bad home. That simply isn’t true. Kids rebel in good situations and people triumph out of bad circumstances. But what I am saying is that we all have a story, and it is so easy to stereotype and judge others when you don’t take the time to know their story. This is why sharing our stories is so important. It helps us see people not as categories but as people. And when we begin to see people as people then we can begin to love.
Our first week at the Journey we discussed the difference between “journey” oriented people and “destination” oriented people. I am a journey person. I’m not a goal setter, a map maker, or a worrier. I tend to live in the moment, take things as they come, and I can be a procrastinator. We talked about how in our lives we need both a sense of journey and destination.
So I ask myself, where’s my journey going? What is that thing on the horizon that I want to see myself closer to in ten years than I am right now. Materialism might say that I work hard and one day I can get myself a big screen TV with surround sound in a complete integrated home theater package. I could work hard at trying to become famous or wealthy or stable or comfortable or many other things. But since I am a follower of Jesus where should I set my course?
Certainly everyone is different and has their own journey that will take them different places, but if we are followers of Jesus then we should follow his example. And what is his example? Giving himself away. While the world tells us to work hard so we can get the things that we want, Jesus says that only by losing your life can you save it. I’m looking forward to another great discussion at the Journey this week as we dive into “giving ourselves away.”
We have all heard the phrase, “you are what you eat.” It’s been used by doctors, news reports, and health food marketing teams as motivation or guilt to make people eat healthier. To a degree this idea is preposterous and maybe even counterintuitive since I’d much rather be a cow than a patch of broccoli, but I think we all know what this idea is getting at. You get out what you put in. Yet there is an even deeper connection to what we consume and who we are. Amino acids are the building blocks that our body uses from the food we eat to make new cells and muscles. What we ingest is what our bodies use to create the new us. Or maybe you could say, “what we eat determines what we become.”
Jesus said a lot of things that seem pretty out there if you try and take it literally. ”You must be born again,” “If your right hand causes you to sin cut it off,” “Eat my flesh and drink my blood.” Now cannibalism is generally looked down on in our society and so when we read these words of Jesus we wonder how we do this. How do I ingest the very essence on Jesus? It’s as if Jesus is saying that it’s not enough to listen to my words, to hear my teachings, to quote me to other people, or even wear your WWJD bracelets, you have to take me in. Consume me so that my very essence becomes who you are.
Christians have practiced a ritual for thousands of years that is a way for us to physically perform this very spiritual act. It has been called the Eucharist, Mass, the Lord’s Supper, and Communion. We eat a piece of bread representing Jesus’ body and drink wine or juice representing Jesus’ blood. We remember what Jesus did, we have communion with him in the present, and look forward to what he will do to fulfill what he started. For us this is a symbol of what Jesus said when he commanded us to eat his flesh and drink his blood. And we hope that more of his essence becomes who we are.
I heard a story today about a woman who would banish God to the garage. ”God, I’m angry with you right now, I want you out in the garage!” I don’t know the woman who said this, but it sounds like something one of my crazier relatives might do. But after a little while, the anger or frustration would subside enough that she would go out to the garage and talk to God. Eventually she would invite God back into the house when she was comfortable with where they stood.
The thought of God in the garage at first made me laugh. The cover of Dr. Seuss’s book There’s a Wocket in my Pocket came to mind. Then I was a little appalled at the thought of some lady banishing the God of the universe into the garage. This isn’t her husband who forgot their anniversary. Doesn’t she know who she’s talking to?
In Hebrews 10 it talks about us having the confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus. Here confidence is talking about freedom of speech or being able to speak freely in the presence of God. So even though God is above us, we have the ability and privilege to come before him with questions and frustrations as well as our joys. Often there’s this perception that you can’t pray if you have doubts or you can’t question God, but if you look at the Psalms we see numerous times where the author is either crying out asking, “Where are you God?” or “Why do you let my enemies abuse me?” It’s OK to yell at God or even banish him to the garage. Just don’t leave him out there forever 
Fellow traveler,
Andy
In my 26 years of being a part of various evangelical churches I have heard probably a half dozen or more sermons on what the church is. And every time I have heard some version of the phrase, “Church is not a building, it is the people.” I feel like most people agree, especially when you look at what the Bible says about church, that church isn’t a building but a group of people. Yet our language is filled with phrases like “Where do you go to church? Do you want to go to church with me? Trinity is building a new church. I attend the Lutheran church…” These all seem to focus on church being a place you go or something you do.
Since the Journey is just starting off as a new worship service, I think it would be good for us to dive into what the church is and what that means for us. There is another phrase that I have heard often at Trinity referring to the church, “Let us be the church.”
Depending on who you talk to and what experience you’ve had at church (there’s another phrase that seems to use church as a place or event), you can have either a very positive or negative attitude toward church. Some may have been helped in a time of need by a church and think of church very positively. Others may have been hurt or judged by a church. Still other may feel simply indifferent. What’s the point?
This week at the Journey we will dive into not only what the church is, but what it is supposed to be. Our hope is that the Journey and Trinity are the church, and that they fulfill everything that the church is supposed to be.
Fellow traveler,
Andy