In a television program I watch there is an episode in which the minister stood up before the congregation. It was a vast sanctuary -- but it was almost empty. The minister looked out upon all of the empty seats and surveyed the 4 lonely people in the congregation -- one young man, and three elderly women.
The minister begins to speak.
"I give thanks to God that there are at least a handful of us who have made the effort to come to worship, who have come to feed on the Word of God, and who don’t believe that God is less important than the football game on television."
Suddenly, the young man in the back pew jumps up. "Oh no, I forgot about the football game." And with that he runs out of the sanctuary.
I look around and wonder; don’t we have anything better to do right now than to come to worship service?
There are chores to be done at home, books to read, movies to see, games to watch, and web sites to surf. What motivates us to abandon the television and postpone a visit to the mall in order to worship?
I suspect that for some, the answer is "habit." And to tell the truth, not all habits are bad -- although we tend to speak in terms of good habits as discipline. Study habits, proper exercise routines, and good financial management and budgeting are all good habits -- good self discipline. And attending worship is a good spiritual habit. Some of us are here because it is our habit.
But there is something lacking in that answer, because some time earlier in our lives, we didn’t come to worship out of habit. We had to make the decision that this was a discipline we wanted to follow. Why did we make that decision?
Others of us may come to worship because we are struggling with God. We are grieving or we are hurting. We are lost, or we are lonely. And our attendance at worship is part of our search for answers.
Still others may be here against our will. You come here because your parents make you and they are bigger than you are. Or your wife made you come - maybe she’s bigger than you are. Or maybe your wife made you come here and if you want your life to go smoothly over the next day or two, giving into her about coming to worship is the thing to do.
The story is told of a man who was enjoying a pleasant sleep in bed when his wife suddenly yanked the covers off the bed and announced, "Time to get up and get ready to go to church."
Meekly, the man told his wife, "I don’t wanna go to church today. Just let me stay here and sleep in this one day."
Without any compassion, his wife looked at him and said, "Look Bozo, you have to go to church today. You’re the pastor."
By the way, that is NOT an autobiographical story.
The first Christian believers met in homes. Any assembly of the Church was an intimate, informal and joyful gathering. It usually featured a meal and was designed for total inclusion and participation. Every member was a vital and cherished part of the whole experience of worship. Paul described it well:
When you assemble, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification. (1 Cor. 14:26)
The environment in which the Church flourished was not an easy one. It was very hostile. "The testimony" was the primary mission of the Church. If the members weren’t telling others than the Church was going to die.
Looking at today many believe that we are in a birthing period of the Church. Births are messy. A baby’s arrival is anything but elegant; his or her advent is well lubricated with primordial slime and the air is filled with screams.
Future poets, priests and prime ministers all come sliding into life in the most unglorified posture and ways. Be glad that your future worth was not given at that moment.
And the Church is going through that same process. There are new ideas, attitudes, technologies, and structures. Some of them don’t look or feel like they will ever amount to anything.
Radical change is shaking our cultural, financial, political, scientific, communications, and moral pillars upon which civilization rests. Consider the following changes that have occurred in the last 10 years:
· Collapse of the Berlin wall.
· Collapse of the World Trade Center
· Disintegration of the Soviet Union
· Free elections in South Africa and the dismantling of apartheid
· Global increase of terrorism (Lockerbie, Oklahoma City, World Trade Center)
· Pro-democracy occupations of Tiananmen Square; government killings
· Pope John Paul II visits Cuba
· Public disgrace of high-profit ministries
· DNA "fingerprinting" becomes admissible as evidence in criminal case
· Development and expansion of the Internet
· Currency crashes
· Fear of Y2K
· Cloning of animals
Jerry Lee Lewis: "Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ on!"
The culture of our society is up for grabs. The main forces leading the way are humanism, New Age, Islam and Christianity. The Judeo-Christian foundation cannot be recaptured, because it does not even exist anymore.
As we enter this new stage of life lets look at some possibilities that are occurring around us.
1. Movement from Romance to Reality.
Maybe we as Christian need to let go of the past and be assured that God really is in control, even when life doesn’t appear that way.
We need to realize that even though everyone believes in any and everything, we can, with radical faith in the Creator and Owner of it all, march forward. The apostle Paul offers insight on how to do that…
And Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, "Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects. For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, ’TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ What therefore you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you."
(Acts. 17:22, 23)
Paul finds himself in the Areopagus of Athens. Areopagus is Greek for "hill of Ares" and was an actual location where the god stood trial for murder. Ares was acquitted, but the proceedings were said to be the first judicial gathering ever to take place.
The Areopagus itself is a rocky hill, 370 ft (113 m) high, northwest of the Acropolis in Athens It is famous as the sacred meeting place of the city’s prime council. This council, also called the Areopagus, represented the ancient council of elders, which usually combined judicial and legislative functions from the beginning.
Here we have Paul addressing a pagan society. He did not react to, nor attack, their paganism; he simply served them by revealing a new perspective toward something they already honored. He made their picture of the unknown clearer. He did not react to, tear down, their belief system; he expanded it.
If we were there, would we have reacted the same? Would we have tried to use our romanticized version of Christianity? Or would we have seen the splendor of Athens and realized the loneliness of the people and reach out to them in love?
Do we sometimes feel that we are charting into new or unknown territory with old maps?
2. The Need for New Maps of Reality.
Many businesses, government agencies, and yes, churches have old maps of the new world. The world has changed, but because their maps have not changed, they do not see it.
David cries out…
Hear my prayer, O LORD; listen to my cry for mercy. In the day of my trouble I will call to you, for You will answer me.
(Psalm 86:6-7)
Sometimes we feel that we don’t need to know what is going on around us, that things haven’t changed. If you remember that is how we lived before we became Christians.
If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our faults, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from unrighteousness. (1 John 1:8-9)
It reminds me of the story of Christopher Columbus. He was thoroughly convinced that the world was round, but nobody believed him. Galileo and his belief on the earth revolving around the sun.
When maps are outdated, they are worthless in new terrain.
3. The Issacharian Challenge.
Does the world have a better grip on reality than the Church does?
Have we become so full of tradition and crystallized viewpoints that we are like those trying to explore new territory with outdated maps? You would think that God would shake up the church and tell us to get a grip on things. But he doesn’t.
He just slowly changes everything around us and watches to see what we will do. Throughout history, those who considered themselves "God’s children" have often failed the test.
I heard it before, "But the Lord doesn’t change!" Well, of course He doesn’t. But, that isn’t (and never was) the issue.
All of the will wear out like a garment; Like clothing Thou wilt change them… But Thou art the same, and Thy years will not come to an end. (Psalm 102:26, 27)
When God folds up an age like a worn-out garment and puts it away, there is always that force those who want nothing to do with change to dig their heels in. But we need to understand the times that we live in… people like Winston Churchill, Abraham Lincoln, Bill Gates are admired because they seem to have an intuitive sense of the times.
… men of Issachar, who understood the times and knew what Israel should do… (1 Chron. 12:32 NIV)
If we really want to understand the times in which we live, probably the best source (unfortunately) would be in the business section of the local bookstore.
Business is often a better source for wisdom and truth about the times than the Church is. WHY??
Well one of the reasons is this: The world is hungry for truth and reality. People will read and ingest truth even if it doesn’t fit with their ideals.
Another reason is that the almighty dollar forces businesses to be current with trends and realities. When you have some standard for measurement (like a financial bottom line), it is easier to hear the truth since they want to stay current and make money.
Something is missing though, however, in the business world’s approach to truth. They lack the spiritual depth of eternal truth.
That is why we as the church to serve society in the same way Paul served the Athenians. Paul recognized that no one had captured truth for his audience better than some of the famous philosophers, like Plato.
The very fact that they had erected a statue to an "unknown God" is important, because they were searching for truth.
So Paul uses that as a springboard into helping the to understand the truth of God. Maybe we need to admit that we don’t understand the times that we live in. That we don’t have the same grasp on wisdom as the marketplace does. After all, wisdom belongs to God; He can do whatever He chooses with it. If Bill Cosby captures truth and wisdom better than the Church, let’s recognize it, honor it, and then find how we can support the truth in our time.
4. Glimpses of the New Era.
"A new civilization is emerging….We face the deepest creative restructuring of all time." Alvin Toffler in Creating a New Civilization: The Politics of the Third Wave.
Futurist scholar Rex Millar sees a new medium… a new means… that will redefine society and change the way we worship.
So what do we see happening? I believe that we are shifting from a society that has an intellectual religion to one that is more personal, from the God of philosophy to a God of prophecy.
Historian William Irwin Thompson calls our time "a spiritual evolution." He says it is actually creating the new technologies of a digital age…it is actually midwifing the birth of a new humanity. In other words, maybe technology is not birthing a new spirit; perhaps the Spirit is birthing a new technology!
According to marketing legend, when Pepsi introduced its soft drink into Taiwan, the world famous "Come alive with Pepsi" actually translated into Taiwanese: "Pepsi will bring your ancestors back from the dead." As we enter the new territory of the future, do we understand the words and images, do we perceive the light and sound waves of that new era?
Numerous times the Bible reveals God asking His servants, "What do you see?"
And the word the Lord came to me saying, "What do you see, Jeremiah?" (Jeremiah 1:11 NIV)
"Go to the great city of Nineveh… But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?"
(Jonah 1:2; 4:11 NIV)
Jonah failed in his mission because he saw a messy, undignified, vulgar, even barbaric city. But God saw a "great city"! Just because we have perception does not mean we see accurately.
I want you to look at an optical illusion. There are 2 women in the picture. Which one do you see? The relationship of an individual, a church, or any other organism or even sovereign move of God faces the same dilemma. Does it see an old and decrepit creature or a young and radiant beauty?
I need to remind you that in any age of life that our chief purpose in life is to offer worship of our Designer, Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer. Depending on our society and times will depend on how that is manifested.
· Development of Davidic worship in 2000 BC
· The Incarnation of the Word
· The death and resurrection of Christ
· The coming of the Holy Spirit (Upper Room)
· Persecution of AD 250-261 (martyrs and confessors)
· Constantinian worship reform
· Martin Luther’s reform (AD 1512)
· Translation of the Bible from Greek to German
· Great Awakenings (1802-1867)
· The Pentecostal revival of 1901 in Los Angeles, CA and Topeka, KA.
· Latter rain visitation in Saskatchewan and in the US (1940s)
· Charismatic movement (1960-70s)
· Convergence movement (1990)
· Toronto and Pensacola Revivals (1995)
· British Revival Generation (mid to late 1990s)
Each of these events and movements represented a huge shift in culture, which created a whole new culture of worship. Many people-worshipers-missed the hour of visitation.
In case you have been living in a cave for a couple of decades, let me be the first to welcome you to the future! Once again, we are facing a new world.
Some look at the future through the eyes of hope. They seem to be in denial that the future could bring anything other than the fulfillment of their personal desires and comfort zones. They fail to recognize that change is God’s broom. It sweeps worn-out ideas, attitudes and objectives away. No corner is spared.
Others view the future through fear. To them the status quo is sacred and is to be guarded and maintained at all cost. Because they are threatened, they think that God is threatened. So they believe that God is asking them to make "holy war" on change.
But there is a third view, that is beyond hope and fear.
We are witnessing this convergence of crises that seems unmatched in history-a harsher culture, the devaluation of character, family deconstruction, health care inadequacy, imploding morality, urban decay, uncertainties of our global economy, and greater terrorism are just a few of the system crisis. All of our most promising solutions seem to only make conditions worse.
Can we still look at the future through the eyes of faith? I know we do not see the future accurately. But there is One who has never been afraid of the future. He is already there. He invites us to join Him.
