Scripture Introduction
If you hang around churches for awhile, you will likely find that our emotions do not always match our profession. Creeds containing truths which thrilled a previous generation are mumbled like a 9-year old boy explaining why he was playing baseball inside the house. Songs promising eternal happiness are mouthed by faces which appear to be sucking a lemon drop. Songs describing everlasting joy overwhelming all sorrow are carried by tunes appropriate for a funeral. We seem to fear emotions, especially happiness.
The Bible suggests a different way of worship, one in which emotions form a central aspect. For example, the word “glad” appears 43 times in the Psalms, the songbook of Old Testament Israel. Additionally, “joy” is used 50 times, and “delight” another 35. And Acts 2 describes the New Testament church as having glad hearts as they praised God.
When Jesus was here, he warned us about speaking truth which does not inflame the heart. Since the early church, full of the Holy Spirit, was both fervent and joyful in worship, I thought we should consider Jesus’ teaching in Mark 7 for this series on the Dynamic Church. [Read Mark 7.1-8. Pray.]
Introduction
The preface to this radically contemporary version of the Bible included this plea from the translators for patience and acceptance: a new translation, “deserveth much respect and esteem, but yet findeth cold entertainment in the world. It is welcomed with suspicion instead of love…. For, was there ever any-projected, that savoured any way of newness or renewing, but the same endured many a storm of gainsaying, or opposition?” (Those words are from the “Preface to the Reader” of the 1611 King James Bible.)
One example of opposition was the distinguished scholar and Puritan, Dr. Hugh Broughton. He said (about the King James Bible): “[It] bred in me a sadness that will grieve me while I breathe, it is so ill done. Tell His Majesty that I had rather be rent in pieces with wild horses, than any such translation by my consent should be urged upon poor churches…. The new edition crosseth me, I require it to be burnt” (Quoted in F. F. Bruce, History of the English Bible, 2002 reprint, 107). Broughton’s censure was surely affected by his disappointment in not being invited to join the translation committee, but he does remind us that church traditions die hard.
The same is true of music as translations. Listen to these complaints about a new musical form:
1) It is an unknown tongue.
2) It is not as melodious as the usual way.
3) There are so many tunes that we shall never learn them.
4) The practice creates disturbances and causes people to behave indecently and disorderly.
5) The names given the notes are bawdy, blasphemous.
6) It is needless since our fathers got to heaven without it.
7) It is a contrivance to get money.
8) They are a group of young upstarts that fall in with this way, and some of them are lewd and loose.
This list was compiled by Thomas Symmes in 1723 over the signing of psalms and hymns to four-part music rather than lining them out as had been done.
In his book, I Don’t Like That Music (great title, is it not?), Robert Mitchell observes that musical forms are often the “primary, familiar liturgical structure [for the service]. This element of worship must be recognized, protected, nurtured and maintained. However, an opposite dynamic is also present: ‘I know what I like!’ is often a way of saying, ‘I like what I know!’ Such a stance represents a commitment to the status quo and an attendant resistance to anything new that might disturb it…. We need to ask, ‘How did we get this way?’ and, ‘What might we do to expand appreciation and permit a richer, fresher experience of worship?’”
It seems to me that a forms in worship become important to us precisely because of what Jesus speaks about in Mark 7. For any variety of reasons, a particular reality expressed comes very close to matching the emotions we feel. When that happens, we want both to preserve and expand it. Preserve it, because both critical aspects of God-honoring worship are present: truth and affections. Expand it, because we want more of it and we want more people to experience it. Then, over time, we continue doing it the same way, even if we cannot remember why, even if the only emotion we feel is nostalgia. Thus a tradition is born, one which may not die until that church closes its doors.
I am convinced (and I hope you will consider the possibility) that God is dishonored by worship in which the emotions we feel are disjointed from the doctrines we profess. The duty to worship is more than the duty to express truth in a Biblical way; it is also the duty to feel the truth in a consistent way. Or, as Dr. John Piper explains (Desiring God, 85-86): “An act of worship is vain and futile when it does not come from the heart…. Worship is more than an act of mere willpower. All the outward acts of worship are performed by acts of will. But that does not make them authentic. The will can be present (for all kinds of reasons) while the heart is not truly engaged (or, as Jesus says, is ‘far away’). The engagement of the heart in worship is the coming alive of the feelings and emotions and affections of the heart. Where feelings for God are dead, worship is dead.”
God, who made you body and soul, also fixed laws uniting the body and soul (compare, Jonathan Edwards, Religious Affections, in The Works, 96). When you are overcome with fear, you tremble. (Illustrate with story from Mythbusters Shark Week.) When you are happy at the depth of your being, you cannot help but cry. (The scene from Mary Lou Retton’s 1984 Olympics Medals brings tears to my eyes.) The emotions match the facts. Similarly, God-honoring worship must enable and promote emotions matching the truths we express.
I am not suggesting that we are to contrive feelings. A pastor once described to me the Father’s Day service at their church. For Sunday School, all the children made cards for their dads. Then during church they turned down the lights and showed the video of Bob Carlyle singing:
She’ll change her name today. She’ll make a promise and I’ll give her away. Standing in the bride-room just staring at her. She asked me what I’m thinking and I said ‘I’m not sure—I just feel like I’m losing my baby girl.’ She leaned over…gave me butterfly kisses, sticking little white flowers all up in her hair. ‘Walk me down the aisle, Daddy—it’s just about time…. Does my wedding gown look pretty, Daddy? Daddy, don’t cry!’ Oh, with all that I’ve done wrong I must have done something right. To deserve your love every morning and butterfly kisses….
Then the pastor said: “The Spirit fell; there was not a dry eye in the place.” Contrived emotions are not what Jesus describes.
But it seems to me that we must be just as careful to not suppress emotions. Christians lacking feelings matching the truths they proclaim, may convince themselves that spiritual worship must not be to pleasurable: “Since charismatic churches enjoy singing Darlene Zschech’s Shout To the Lord, it must be bad. Since young people like upbeat music with guitars and tambourines, we should never sing like that.”
This is especially interesting since the Hebrews word translated “harp” was “Probably a lyre rather than a true harp.” (Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament; other Hebrew dictionaries agree.) In other words, the Biblical “harp” is closer to a guitar than a piano. Additionally, the tambourine (would we ever allow it?) is specifically listed as an instrument for worship. And even more shocking, the Bible says that the harp and tambourine are the musical instruments used by prostitutes and the wicked during their celebrations. Apparently, God takes the music of the culture and sanctifies it for his glory.
Last week I showed you many verses in which Jesus motivates us to crazy generosity with the promise of personal gain. Hebrews 11.6 promises similar benefits from worship: “Without faith it is impossible to please God, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” Is worship rewarding for you? Do our services promote the pleasure of praising God? “In his presence there is fullness of joy; at his right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16.11). Does this service thrill you, do the forms and music and style help your emotions match the truth? Do you enjoy our worship, or has it become an effort in stoic, impassive, cold, dead orthodoxy?
As you think about these questions, please note 3 points from Jesus’ words in Mark 7.
1. True Faith Matches Emotions with Truth
Jesus quotes from Isaiah 29 and condemns worship which honors God with the lips while our hearts are far from him. I take Jesus’ criticism this way: “You Pharisees say the right things (you honor God with your lips); however, you refuse to use the instrument of faith to wrestle truth down into their souls so that it ignites your passions. Your worship, therefore, is hollow. True faith matches emotions with truth.
In other words, it does not honor God for us to sing great words while remaining unaffected by them. We sang, earlier: “O worship the King, all glorious above, O gratefully sing, his power and his love; our shield and defender, the ancient of days, pavilioned in splendor and girded with praise.” It seems to me that mumbling or whispering such magnificent truth actually insults the one spoken of. Refusing to be happy and to exuberantly express that happiness, while singing about gratefully singing affronts the King.
Jonathan Edwards, Religious Affections: “The things of religion are so great, that there can be no suitableness in the exercises of our hearts, to their nature and importance, unless they be lively and powerful. In nothing is vigor in the actings of our inclinations so requisite, as in religion; and in nothing is lukewarmness so odious.”
John Piper, Desiring God, 104: “Strong affections for God, rooted in and shaped by the truth of Scripture—this is the bone and marrow of biblical worship.”
God condemns (as hypocrisy) saying the “right words” while keeping the heart away from the consuming fire of God’s holy presence. True faith matches emotions with truth.
2. True Faith Strives to Match Emotions with Truth
Wednesday is Helen’s and my twentieth anniversary. Edward Carnell, in his book Christian Commitment, explains not only that I must remember the day but how to honor it: “Suppose a husband asks his wife if he must kiss her good night. Her answer is, ‘You must, but not that kind of must.’ What she means is: ‘Unless a spontaneous affection for my person motivates you, your overtures are stripped of all moral value.’”
Helen and I are going downtown to enjoy a museum and a fancy restaurant. But saying, “Happy Anniversary” is not enough; I must bring my emotions in line with the words. Duty is not delight; delight honors my wife. When I am thrilled to spend the day with Helen, she is honored.
The same is true for God. But what happens when we do not feel it? That is when we “fight the good fight of the faith.” Because we are sinners living in a fallen world, things are not the way they’re supposed to be. There will be times when we do not feel gratitude, even while the words of the song or creed or prayer claim that we do.
God’s solution is not to grit your teeth and persist in duty without regard for your feelings. We are not automatons, with God as the harsh taskmaster demanding our service. We are children growing in the wonder and pleasure of knowing our Father. True faith, then, responds to a lack of desire to delight in God in the same way it does to every other failure of the fallen heart: confession, calling for mercy and a new obedience, and committing to a new life of conformity to the commands.
John Piper offers 15 Biblical things we must do to fight for joy. (I can only list them today, and commend to you his book, When I Don’t Desire God.) This list reminds me that faith does not produce inactivity, but God-centered activity:
1) Realize that authentic joy in God is a gift
2) Realize that joy must be fought for relentlessly
3) Resolve to attack all known sin in your life
4) Learn how to fight like a justified sinner
5) Realize that the battle is primarily a fight to see God for who he is
6) Meditate on the word of God day and night
7) Pray earnestly and continually for an inclination
8) Learn to preach to yourself rather than listen to yourself
9) Spend time with God-saturated people who help you see God and fight the fight
10) Be patient in the night of God’s seeming absence
11) Get the rest, exercise, and diet your body needs
12) Make a proper use of God’s revelation in nature
13) Read great books about God and biographies of great saints
14) Do the hard and loving thing for the sake of others—witness and mercy
15) Get a global vision for the cause of Christ and pour yourself out for the unreached
So far I have contended:
1) Worship is in vain which says the right words while the heart is unaffected.
2) True faith unites proper emotions to the truths proclaimed.
3) Fallen people struggle to maintain proper emotions.
4) True faith fights for the affections to truly delight in God.
3. True Faith Resists Hindrances to Both Emotions and Truth
When Jonathan Edwards was accused of promoting emotionalism in God’s people, he wrote (Some Thoughts Concerning the Revival in the Great Awakening): “I should think myself in the way of my duty, to raise the affections of my hearers as high as I possibly can, provided they are affected with nothing but truth, and with affections that are not disagreeable to the nature of what they are affected with.”
I agree; it is my duty to raise your affections as high as I possibly can, provided it is through truth, and the emotions agree with the truth.
At our church, we strive hard to promote truth. That is good; we do not want to be found liars about the nature and character of God or of our duty to God and man. At the same time, I believe we have work to do in raising right affections. I do not agree that churches which enjoy worship are necessarily wrong. I believe that happy music has a place in the worship of God’s people. I think there are steps to emotional health that we need to consider. When we hold tenaciously to our traditions, even when we no longer remember why, even when the forms we use no longer thrill our souls, we might be rightly accused of teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.
4. Conclusion
If you want to find cause for disagreement with me today, it would be easy to assume that I am promoting a contemporary worship service we a drum set in the middle of the stage. That is not true.
What am I after? Simply, God-honoring worship. I want us, as a church body, to strategize, labor, and pray, to enable every person who worships with us to sense in their hearts the same reality that is professed in the words we sing, pray, and say: in God’s presence is the fullness of joy; at his right hand are pleasures forevermore. If worship is truly the uniting of the human soul with the divine presence (which is promised in the Bible) then should we not feel his pleasure?
C. S. Lewis told his friend Sheldon Vanauken: “It is a Christian duty, as you know, for everyone to be as happy as he can.” You think about that. Amen.
