Several years ago I officiated at a wedding at National Cathedral. At the rehearsal an official of the Cathedral explained why the service would be held in just the Great Choir of the Cathedral, and not out on the main floor, and why we would have to be exactly on-time, no exceptions. He said that they had to fit in, very carefully, everything that happened at the Cathedral, because, by the time you add up daily services, weddings, funerals, baptisms, christenings, services by special groups, and all the rest, they averaged seven thousand services a year in that one building. Wow! Seven thousand services a year!
Just thinking about it made me feel tired. Just imagining the task of coordinating all of that praying and preaching and singing and shouting, that made me more than tired. It made me feel weary. What a lot of church!
And then I thought back to the day a few years ago when Margaret and I stood in Winchester Cathedral in England, and, looking around at all that magnificence, we heard the our guide say, "Ladies and gentlemen, the worship of God has been conducted in this building every day, without a single interruption, for one thousand years." Wow again. 365 days a year, a thousand years, that’s at least 365,000 worship services, and you know there were many days when more than one event was held. Wow for the third time! That’s a lot of church. You might even wonder if that’s somehow too much church. It makes me weary to the bone to think of having to plan, conduct, organize, or attend even a small fraction of that. Too much church.
Do you ever get tired of too much church? If you’ve found yourself coming over here night after night, two and three and four nights in one week, did you notice that you were getting tired of too much church? If, on rare occasions, now really, rare occasions, the service goes past that sacred hour of noon, did you feel you were about to get tired of too much church? (Or was it that you wanted to get to the cafeteria ahead of the Methodists?). I hear stories from people all the time about the churches they used to go to, when you wouldn’t finish until two or three o’clock in the afternoon, and then you were expected back for an evening service, not to mention Baptist Training Union, and you have told me, many of you, that in those days you certainly became tired of too much church.
In fact, one person told me this week that when she was growing up, she would wait and get to worship about 12:30 on Sunday afternoon, and that when her pastor asked her why she did that, she said it was because he didn’t get around to saying anything worth listening to until about that time! Wow! Too much church!
Now if you and I can get tired of too much church, have you ever thought about God also being tired? Has it ever occurred to you that the Lord in heaven, having had to listen to all this praying and preaching, singing and shouting, from thousands of churches for uncounted years, may also be tired of too much church? Well, the prophet Isaiah says that God is indeed weary about some of it:
Your new moons and your appointed festivals my soul hates; they have become a burden to me, I am weary of bearing them.
Both God and we are tired of too much church. Part of the spiritual weariness you and I feel has comes from this. Part of the emotional exhaustion that is going on for many of us comes from church wearying us instead of refreshing us. We need to look at the kinds of things that weary us and weary God where too much church is concerned. At least three items are lifted up by Isaiah.
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First, we’ll become tired of too much church if church is not connected with integrity. We’ll become tired of too much church if everything is directed toward doing church and not toward making lives. God too is tired of that:
Trample my courts no more; bringing offerings is futile; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and calling of convocation-- I cannot endure solemn assemblies with iniquity.
"I cannot endure solemn assemblies with iniquity." God says that worship blended with wrongdoing won’t work. Church mingled with sin is not acceptable. Church that doesn’t make a difference in our lives isn’t any good. In fact, it will wear us out. It will weary us and exhaust us.
If church is not connected with personal integrity, it will drain us emotionally. It’ll be all smoke and no substance, all emotion and no energy. Have you found out that the most tiring thing in all the world is trying to hide your own failure? It will exhaust you if you try to cover over your flews. You tell a lie, and pretty soon you have to make up another one to cover getting caught, and pretty soon you have to do another one to cover your cover, and then you have to cover the covering of your cover, and so on, and so on. It’s exhausting to live without integrity. Going to church and pretending to be holy while there are unresolved conflicts in your life will make you weary. You will soon get tired of too much church, and so will God, if church is not connected with integrity, if church does not help you with your life.
I know I’ve come to the place in life where I want to see my church involvement make a difference. I want it to instruct and to lead people into genuine righteousness. I want to use my skills, whatever they may be, to teach God’s ways and to follow them myself. I cannot be troubled any longer with trimming candles in the Temple while outside the souls of people are being lost. I am tired of too much church mechanics, where church does not connect with integrity. Tired of too much church.
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Second, we’ll become tired of too much church if church is not connected with compassion. We’ll become tired of too much church if everything is connected with doing church just so and nothing is focused on caring for people. And God too is weary of such a church:
seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.
Church needs to connect with compassion. In 1917, the old Russian Empire was failing apart. The Communists were leading a revolution to overthrow the old order. As riots swirled in the streets, the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church was meeting, and they were engaged in a serious debate. Anger was flaring and words were being spoken with vehemence. Serious matters were being dealt with! Life and death issues! Do you know what they were arguing about? Can you imagine what engaged the attention of Russian churchmen, when the world was changing all around them? They were debating how long the tassels on their vestments should be and whether the sign of the cross was to be made with two fingers or three! Now isn’t that earth-shattering?! Small wonder that a large segment of the Russian people decided that they were
tired of too much church!
I’ve come to the place, personally, where church work that does not lead to compassion is tiresome. I find I just don’t want to play church any more. I want to be church, I want to be church in a way that serves others. I’m not willing for my life to be frittered away in things that are peripheral. I’m tired of that. I want real church. I want church that connects with human need. For I know that church that does not connect with compassion is too much church. It will wear you out and will weary God Himself. Tired of too much church if it doesn’t connect with compassion.
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And third, we’ll become tired of too much church if church does not deal with our fundamental human need, with our need to be made new, our need to be forgiven, our need to be refreshed. Church that fails to address this central need, this heart-cry, will only make us tired of too much church, and it will weary even the Lord Himself.
Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes .... Come now, let us argue it out, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be like snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.
Church needs to connect with the basic human need for refreshment. Somebody has said that human beings are incurably religious. We are incurably religious. We will make up a religion if we don’t have one given to us. We will do something to deal with the empty space in our hearts that God put there for Himself. But instead of God, we put in that space, religion. We create religion. We make up rites and rituals that we think will make up for everything wrong in our lives. We deal with our weariness and our emptiness by creating religious routines. What Isaiah calls new moon and Sabbath and calling of convocations. But the trouble is that we invest in rituals without repentance. We put all of our energies on religion, and none of it on a relationship. And that will wear you out, spiritually and emotionally. It will also weary God Himself.
Some folks think that baptism will do that for them. Just go to the waters and get saved. Do this churchly thing and get your one-way ticket to heaven. But, no, if there has been no repentance, if there is no opening of the heart to God, then all that baptism yields is wet sinners!
Other folks look for emotions to cleanse them. If the choir is winding up and the preacher is going at the top of his voice; if the saints are swaying and the rafters rolling, then isn’t that the real thing? Isn’t that what religion is about? But if it’s all sound and fury, if there is no struggle with the essential sin in our lives, then at the end of the day we are going to end up weary, we are going to feel cheated, we are going to decide that we are tired of too much church. God is going to be tired of too much church because God wants fellowship not frivolity. God wants to love us and be close to us, and is not interested in having His heavenly eardrums assaulted by our efforts at religion. God wants to honor His promise that though our sins be as deep as scarlet, they shall be cleansed as white as snow. But that isn’t going to happen as long as church does not connect with our fundamental human need.
Again, I know I’ve come to the point in my life where I want heartfelt faith. I want something that touches me deep down. I told my wife last night, when I came home after helping Nouvelle Alliance do their rehearsal – I told her that I guessed I was becoming a sentimental old soul, because when I first heard a dozen beautiful young people singing in their native language, I teared up. I am not ashamed to say it. I find I weep more now than I used to. I weep in the presence of heartfelt faith. I cry when I sit, as I did this past Thursday, at the bedside of a dying sister. I let the tears flow, without apology, when we bring a newborn baby here for dedication. I may be tired of too much religion, and I could get tired of too much church, but not when church deals with the fundamental human reality. I am not tired at all when we focus on our relationship with a loving God. Not tired at all.
Tired of too much church? It certainly can happen. But let me show you the other side. Let me point to the refreshing side. Let me show you that what our Christ came to do is the key to refreshment.
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Paul says to the Christians of Galatia:
If you saw to your own flesh, you will reap corruption from the flesh; but if you sow to the Spirit, you will reap eternal life from the Spirit. So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up. So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us work for the good of all, and especially for those of the family of faith.
"Sow to the Spirit and do not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up. ... Let us work for the good of all."
You will not become tired of too much church if you invest in working for the good of all. You will not grow weary if you do what Christ came to do. And just as Jesus announced His agenda as bringing good news to the poor, proclaiming release to the captives, letting the oppressed go free, and preaching the love of the Lord, and He did not grow weary, you and 1, if we will focus on these things, will find that we won’t get tired of too much church.
Let me illustrate.
I know a church member who is like the Energizer bunny, she just keeps going and going. In the interest of senior citizens, because of children, interested in missions, the whole business. She gets more volunteer work done in a week than most of us do in a year. I keep thinking that at her age she is going to have to slow down, but she doesn’t seem to get tired of too much church. The secret is she does not get weary in doing what is right, working for the good of all. She is never going to be tired of too much church.
I know a church member who trots the globe in the interest of Christian causes. Spending his own money, using his knowledge and skills, taking on sometimes unpopular causes, he has logged more miles in the cause of Christ than most of us do for all purposes combined. I keep thinking that at his age and with his other responsibilities, this is going to give out. But he doesn’t seem to get tired
of too much church. The secret is he does not get weary in doing what is right, working for the good of all. He is never going to be tired of too much church.
I know a church member who takes his faith into the professional arena. He cares about people. He gives of his knowledge, his time, his attention, his resources. He has arranged for generous corporate gifts from the organization he works for. I keep thinking that with a family to raise and a very demanding job, he can’t do this much more. But he doesn’t seem to get tired of too much church. The secret is that he does not get weary in doing what is right, working for the good of all. He is never going to be tired of too much church.
I know a teenager who expresses his faith by helping his school friends wherever he can. He looks after them. He plays with them, of course, but in his play he looks for ways to tell them about Christ. I keep thinking that at his tender age this may burn itself out. But he doesn’t seem to get tired of too much church. The secret is that he does not get weary in doing what is right, working for the good of all. I expect he is never going to be tired of too much church.
I know an entire family that is under a lot of stress. They have suffered a severe disappointment. It is costing them dearly.. I keep thinking that they may just drop out for a while and lick their wounds; but no, I see them at worship and in prayer, I see what they do for others and for the Kingdom. They don’t seem to get tired of too much church. The secret is that they do not get weary in doing what is right, working for the good of all. It looks like they are never going to be tired of too much church!
I know a church that is facing lots of challenges. Challenges about staff and finances and building and missions and ministries and music and youth and children and on and on. This church has had some battles over those challenges. They probably will have some more. That’s natural and healthy. I keep thinking that maybe this church may fail. I keep thinking that maybe this church will give up. I keep thinking that these folks are tired of too much church.
But the secret is we must not get weary in doing what is right; the secret is to keep church connected with integrity; the secret is to keep church connected with compassion; the secret is to keep church focused on that fundamental relationship with the Lord. To work for the good of all. Then maybe, just maybe, they, we will not become tired of too much church!
And then we’ll have a message for a world that thinks it is, tired of too much church: "All ye, beneath life’s crushing load, whose forms are bending low, who toil along the climbing way with painful steps and slow, Look now! For glad and golden hours come swiftly on the wing: O rest beside the weary road, and hear the angels sing."
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