All About Me...? Part Deux

The lyrics of the song, “I am the Church” remind us that that “the Church is not a building” (see “Church” under “Measure of Meaning”). However, even though we are the Church, we must not confuse that with the misconception that the Church is all about us. All you have to do is watch and listen (to others and to the words coming from our own mouths) and you will hear the excuses we give for not participating in worship or in ministry.

“It’s too hot.” “It’s too cold.” “It’s too early.” “It’s too late.” “The guitar was too loud.” “The organ played too slow.” “Someone hurt my feelings.” “I have too many other things I’m spending my money on.” “I need to sleep late.” “I am going to the (insert sport here) game.” “I need to study.” “I can worship on the golf course/in the mall.”

I remember John Osteen (the late father of Joel) telling a story about seeing a member of his church one day and how the man began to explain why he was not going to go to church the next Sunday. He said, “I’m not coming to church. There are too many hypocrites there.” John smiled, pat the man gently on the back and said, “Might as well come on. One more won’t hurt anything.” The point made here is that we are all sinners, saved by grace, called to worship and serve God without excuses.

The Church is not about making sure we are comfortable in the building or that we might try to carve out time for “church” in our busy schedules. The Church is about humbly centering ourselves on the One Almighty God who creates, forgives, saves, restores, and calls us to love, to worship, and to serve Him as a unified body of Christ.

Because we live in a consumer era, someone has taken the time to create a church for those who do require specific elements in their church. This video shows us that rare perfect church where people have no reason to complain, or to work out struggles, or to show grace, or to grow in faith, or to . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

(Due to technical difficulties, you'll have to click on this link to view the video.)

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5552251171221986681

All About Me...?

Earlier this month (11/4: “Humble Pie”) I wrote about being humble, and this video was on my mind. When I first saw it, I laughed because my immediate thought was how ridiculous it is to sing our own praises. This video is a take off of those late night commercials for CD’s, but this one zeros in on how we Christians sometimes think that worship is about us. In addition, we can get caught up in thinking that the building, the music, the activities, and even the budget is for us and about us.

So really, this “commercial” is a commercial for getting refocused on God and His will for our lives. When you find yourself thinking that maybe you’ll sleep late on Sunday because maybe you aren’t serving in worship that day, remember that we are to worship the Lord with gladness (Ps 100:2), and not by dragging our heels all the way to the back pew. When you find that the heat or the cold- the organ or the drums- the expectation of ministry or tithing, is the one of the things (or several things) that keeps you from fully participating in worship or in the life of the church, I pray you will consider reassessing your understanding of those things.

We come in to worship God. We come to hear His gospel message for us. We come to show care and compassion for each other, because God first loved us. We go back out into the world to share His gospel message, His compassion, and His love with others. It is not always the easy or the comfortable thing, and that’s okay, because it’s not all about us. It’s about serving the Mighty God who created us, and the music, and the organ, and the gold, and all things which are to be used for His glory. I hope you find time this week to get centered on Christ and sing His praises.

Distractions

I just read a true story about an incident at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s (CSO) Centennial celebration in 1991. Three former conductors were invited to help the current conductor direct four great works of music, and a $500 a plate pre-concert dinner was held to raise funds and to honor all four conductors. Gifts of appreciation were customary, so each of the donors were handed their gift as they moved from the dinner into the concert hall. Inside this wrapped package was a specially inscribed desk alarm clock.

The concert began with a piece from Wagner and was beautiful. Then the next conductor began Beethoven’s Symphony #5, during which people began to hear an occasional beeping noise. Quite a number of people, including the conductor, were rather irritated at whomever was allowing their beeper to go off during a concert. After the intermission, Maestro Solti came out and began conducting Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto #1. The intermittent beeping from the earlier piece now grew into a more frequent sounding off of beeps irregularly placed throughout the audience. Maestro Solti was struggling and doing everything in his power to keep the orchestra together.

In the meantime, the Executive Director of the CSO and a staff member were racking their brains to figure out what all that beeping was about, and suddenly concluded that it was those 400 alarm clocks which were all set at random times and alarm settings, many of which obviously had the alarm function set to “on”. The Executive Director went to the stage entrance, ready to run out and make an announcement about this, and was waiting for a pause in the music. But when the pause came, Solti stopped and turned to ask people to turn off their beepers. Of course no one knew the real reason for the noise until the Executive Director burst onto the stage to clear everything up. His announcement, that the donors each held a randomly set alarm clock hidden in their package, was followed by laughter, and then by an orderly procession of all the packages into the outside lobby. The final piece by Dvorak was performed beautifully… and peacefully.

Even things that are good in our lives can be distracting. The alarm clock was not an evil gift. It was selected, engraved and wrapped up with care and given to show respect and thankfulness. Its purpose was to sit on the donor's desk to remind the them of timely matters (hence the alarm) and that they were appreciated by the CSO. But, this gift became a distraction to everyone there.

What distracts you from your walk of faith? How often do you let distractions get in your way and interrupt the list of priorities you try to set for yourself? In the Christian walk of faith, we easily say that God comes first in our lives, but we often justify our reasons for putting other things in front of God. Worship, Bible study, and prayer are all about God (who we claim comes first), but how often do we allow the distractions of the world to come in and stop us from fully participating in these things? How often do we let the intermittent beeps of the world fill up our lives and become our focus, instead of the beautiful music that our Great Conductor calls the symphony of His children to play? How do you stay in tune with Him?