Misreading Romans 12:1

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. 

Romans 12:1 (KJV)

      One rationale some use to downplay the importance of going to church (gathering to sing praise, hear scripture, share Eucharist, etc) is the insistence that the NT never associates the Christian assembly with worship.  A parallel argument, then, is that worship is actually what we do outside of church.  This post is the first of two that will address the question: Is Sunday morning worship actually worship?

The Incredible Shrinking Ministry

The sermon is ultimately a message from outside the known universe to the listening church.  The faces of those who are listening must be less noticeable than the hot breath of God the Almighty over our shoulder along with the whispered question, “What in the world are you telling my people this morning?”

The God-directed foundation of preaching can easily erode.  But, it must be preserved not because it is what the church wants, when, in fact, it may want nothing of the kind.  It must be preserved not because it is always the most effective things to preach, when it may not be.  It must be preserved because the Senior Pastor has not given us His church to inspire and grow as we see fit.  He has temporarily handed us the microphone, all the while listening carefully to every word we say to His congregation.

We must acknowledge, like Isaiah before the thundering praises of the Seraphim, that we are a compromised ministry living and serving in the midst of a compromised people.

Nicodemis and the Communion of the Unexpected Jesus

            “Send us the promised Messiah.”

            Doubtless the old man had prayed the same pray hundreds of times since his youth.  Doubtless he had said the words in fervent and genuine hope. 

            And yet, now, on a brisk winter night in the back streets of Jerusalem, he stood in front of the controversial young preacher from Nazareth, looking intensely at him in the torch light, and did not recognize the very answer to his lifelong prayer.

Worshipping on Patmos

     I must acknowledge at the outset, this post will not unlock some new interpretative key to John’s visions on Patmos that will once and for all consign the Left Behind series to literary oblivion.  As admirable as that outcome might be, alas, this article will not contribute anything to its demise.
     Often, so-called Evangelical approaches to scripture are like a man who wants to study flowers and so glues a microscope to his face in order see better.  And, without a doubt, he can see better.  Details appear that invite increasing the magnification even more.  Now more detail appears.  So look even closer.  Amazing.
     But increased detail may obscure more than it reveals.

Baptism: The Elephant in the Room

      Baptism.  It is the elephant in the room – something everyone thinks about and no one talks about.  In major works on Christian worship, however, baptism is one of the topics covered.  So, I guess I need to talk about the elephant.

      Let’s be honest.  For many people, it is the first thing they search out to read in a church's "What We Believe" statement. 

Great Sermon on the Beatitudes

No apologies in linking you to to Stephen's (yes, one of sons) excellent blog.  I'm doing you a favor, if you don't already read it.  Specifically, you need to check out his sermon, "Practice Resurrection."  Here is proof that preaching can be both deep and dynamic.  There is an audio version or you can read the text version.

http://stephenlawson.wordpress.com/2012/06/08/sermon-practice-resurrection-with-audio/

Sermon: Practice Resurrection (with audio)

08FridayJun 2012

Posted by stephen in Homilies, Scripture

≈ Leave a Comment

Here is a sermon I preached at my church back in November. You can download and listen to the audio file here.

Practice Resurrection
Sermon for Hopwood Christian Church, November 6th 2011 All Saint’s (observed)
Revelation 7:9-17
Psalm 34:1-10, 22
1 John 3:1-3
Matthew 5:1-12

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake...

http://stephenlawson.wordpress.com/2012/06/08/sermon-practice-resurrection-with-audio/  

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The Christian Leader's Secret Fear

We know what it means to be servant-leaders.  We must be willing to serve.  We demonstrate this week after week in our churches.  We will do whatever needs to be done.  This is not what we fear.

We will, and in fact we sometimes do, wash other people's feet.  Washing feet is not our real fear.  Washing feet is kinda cool.  It's a Jesus-thing.  Serving others, even when not easy, is what we always expected the ministry to be about.

Having someone else wash our feet is a bigger challenge.  It is awkward.  We feel self-conscious.  But, we know we need to be an example.  People will watch us and learn.  This is not what we truly fear.

Ballad of the Geezers' Revenge

It was a typical Sunday.  So typical no one suspected it would mark the beginning of the last great battle of the worship wars.  Then, out of nowhere, the Loyal Daughters class struck.  

Oops: Singing the Wrong Lyrics

Praise God from whom all blessings flow.  Praise Him all creatures here me low.

Okay, technically that’s not exactly how the lyrics go.  But, hearing it as a child, that’s what I thought it said.  In fact, since I thought I knew the words, I kept singing it that way.  No one around me noticed.  It wasn’t until some point in college that I happened to actually look down and read “all creatures here below.”  

Oops.

But, when we learn something first by hearing it instead of reading it, of course we hear whatever we think we hear.  This is especially true if you grow up in church.

The results can be interesting...

Pavlov's Smiling Dog

Walk into a church on Sunday morning and what do you see?  A whole lot of smiling people.  Pretty exciting, huh?  All those smiles and no one high on drugs (OK, might be safer to say as far as we know there's no one high on drugs).  Smiling is good.  The act of smiling has been shown, in some circumstances, to actually lift people's spirits.  I would just like to point out that smiling is not our normal look.

Do We Worship One God?

Second post in the series: Binitarian Worship

In the first post (posted on May 28) on this multi-post topic, Binitarian Worship, I related the fact that neither the Bible nor the early church provides an example of believers addressing (praying to, speaking to, singing to) the Holy Spirit.  In this second post, I want to explore and emphasize the implications of Trinitarian monotheism.  As we will see, the question of praying to the Spirit is intertwined with how we are thinking about the nature of God.         

        It is one God and only one God we gather to worship.

        “Here, O Israel, the Lord our God: the Lord is One God.” (Dt 6:4)

        “I am the Lord and there is no other.  Besides me there is no God. (Is 45:5)

        “For there is one God.” (1 Tm 2:5)

        However we ultimately define what we mean by Father, Son, and Spirit we must begin with this essential and unchangeable affirmation:  It is one God we worship.  The one God who is God.  It is to this God and no other that we direct our praise and prayer.  Get this wrong, or even get is just partly wrong, and we have utterly lost our way.

Musical Communion

Many years ago, I was involved in my doctoral studies at Abilene (Texas) Christianity University.  ACU is associated with the churches of the Stone-Campbell Movement that do not use musical instruments in worship.

Most of Sunday worship was familiar.  The order was typical.  The music was generally well known.  Since the churches of Christ had a great emphasis on vocal harmony, it would not be remotely accurate to describe the services as unmusical.  Some outsiders have labeled them as the people who don't use music in worship.  That is so untrue.  They are only the group that do not use instruments to accompany their music in worship.

The most obvious change that struck me as unexpected and awkward was the Lord's Supper.

The Truth about Seeker Worship

     In worship we are not the seekers. 

     The first question ever asked by Yahweh God was a question about seeking.  When the Man and the Woman heard, along with the soft rustling of the evening breeze, the sound of God, they cowered in fear and fled to hide themselves.  One might question the wisdom of this.  The guilty do not think why they hide. They just hide.

     “Where are you?”

     Maybe this means God did not know where they were hiding.  Maybe they could just out last Him, after all.  I mean, how long would God really look for them? 

Of the Clean and Unclean Instruments...

Behold, these are the laws of the clean and unclean instruments.

Write them on thy cue cards and post them on the tops of thy instruments.  Talk about them in the sound check and in the time thou dost tear down thy stuff and depart unto thy dwellings.