The Exchange

Does this happen at your church?
When people arrive on Sunday morning, most are somewhat sleepy and slow moving. Others are stressed out – running late, kids in tow, they’ve spilt coffee, etc. The majority of the church is unfocused due to one reason or another. As the service begins, the announcements feel awkward, no one laughs at any jokes, and the first song of worship feels like a concert where no one knows the band or the words to the songs. After the sermon, people seem ready to respond, but it happens slowly. As each song progresses, people loosen up, sing louder, lift their hands, until the last song, when everyone is singing out, eyes closed, many hands are raised. At that point, when most people start “feeling it”, the service ends.

While singing at 9:00 am in the morning takes some warming up to, there is a heart reason behind this. We, by which I mean the vast majority of Christian culture, compartmentalize worship to the singing of songs on a Sunday morning. Worship is not an event, but it’s who we are – worshipers. We ascribe glory either to God, or something else. We find in Romans 1:18ff, humans do not cease to worship God, but instead they exchange their worship of God to worship created things. This thought was best expressed to me in Harold Best’s Unceasing Worship, and I recommend reading that book to dig deeper into this subject. It’s something I’ve wrestled with and thought about for several years, and this morning it was reinforced while re-reading Created For Worship by Noel Due. Specifically from this quote:

“Worship was never to be an adjunct to Adam’s life. All of his life was to express his devotion to God and the glory of his Name, so that if and when Adam were to lift his heart and voice in praise to God it would be praise fully expressive of a whole life of service.”

Adam, and subsequently all of humanity, was designed to worship continually. If he were to sing a song of praise to God, he would do so wholeheartedly, because he was worshiping God before he began singing, and would continue after the song was over. His heart was designed to be 100% devoted in worship to God, all the time. Adam, as we know, “exchanged the glory of the immortal God”. The reason it takes us the full service to begin “feeling it”, is not because our voices are warming up, or that our minds go through a process of de-cluttering, or because we’ve heard the Gospel for the first time in the sermon. Our hearts literally go through a processs of re-exchanging the worship of ourselves or created things for the worship of God. That is why we feel good, or warm, or humbled at the end of the service – our hearts are more devoted to God in that moment. That is why we feel close to God, or that we know Him most fully – our right relationship through Jesus is more than our status on paper, we’re living it out in that moment. And that is why, at some point after the service, the warmth and closeness fades. For some, it’s right when we say “Amen” and we begin focusing on ourselves again. For others, it’s a gradual process – perhaps Sunday afternoon you feel grumpy or distant from God, and miss feeling the emotions at the end of the church service.

Not to discount the unique gift of corporate worship, but we should feel close to God in our day-to-day lives. It will be expressed differently at work, at home, with our Community Group, with our neighbors, but we are no less close to God. The quote above from Noel Due brought to mind my marriage. Let’s say when I’m away from my wife, my mind is not thinking of her, and my heart is not devoted to her. Meaning, when we’re not together I do what I want; my heart is focused on other women, gadgets, food and drink, music. When I come home, I will feel distant from my wife, because my heart is focused on those other things, and not loving towards her (similar to how we feel distant from God when we enter the church service). Over the course of the evening we talk, share experiences, laugh together, and my heart turns towards her in love. I get to know her again, and am reminded how amazing she is. By the end of the night I’m smitten again, and feel close to my wife. The next morning, however, I go back to work and just as those Paul writes about in Romans 1, exchange my love and devotion for other people and things. As a result, I will feel distant from my wife when coming home that night.

This process is what many go through in their marriage, and an all-too-common scenario on Sunday mornings in the Western church. Sadly, we do not understand what is wrong with us, and ask ourselves “Why do I feel so distant from God during the week?” This is also a reason people seek more church events to attend, and why churches with highly emotive services pack people in. Thankfully, Jesus did not exchange worship of the Father for worship of anything else, ever. That is why we worship through Jesus – the worship of our own hearts is tainted, lukewarm, not fully devoted to God.

I’m encouraged by this, because there is a way out of the cyclical rut we find ourselves in, and there’s a way that our worship on Sundays can get beyond seeking that culmination of closeness. More on this to come…