My church is doing a series on "authentic" Christianity. Genuine, true, and valid are synonyms for "authentic." "Fake" is listed as an antonym; that gets to the point, I think. I'm not a perfect Christian by any means, and I don't claim to be the Judge of the world, but it seems like there are a lot of people "faking" Christianity these days. Taking a few Sundays to hear once again what it means to truly follow Christ is a good exercise.
Last Sunday we looked at authentic worship. "Worship" is from an Old English word, "worthship." In essence it means to ascribe worth to something. As "owner-ship" identifies an owner, "worth-ship" identifies what has worth. Genuine, true, valid Christian worship is an attitude that values God above all else; in other words, it explains why heaven always matters most. In practice it means I cannot be authentic if I only worship in church on Sunday, but I must also find ways to worship at home, at work and at play.
It can be difficult to worship at home. When we were raising our three children, there were times when one of them or another seemed less like gifts from God and more like thorns in our flesh. My wife is a wonder (it's a wonder that she has stuck with me these forty-plus years.) I sometimes have to force myself to see past her flaws (which are few) and ignore the ways she bugs me (which are probably my inventions) and remember she too is God's gift to me. My family, like all humans, each carry the image of God and as such deserve all the worth I can ascribe. I do not worship them; I worship the God in whose image they exist.
For many of my working years, worshiping at work was relatively easy: I taught in Christian schools. Reverence for God was part of pretty much every activity connected with my job. Now that I am in a secular setting, I have no less demand to worship, I just have less external impetus driving me to it. Still, I see my boss in light of the Scriptural command to honor and obey whole-heartedly. I see my students as image bearers who, like all humans have indescribable worth. Whether I "like" them or don't, I treat each one with the dignity and hope reserved for the pinnacle of God's creation.
My favorite forms of recreation are sailing, biking (pedal and motor) and hunting. It is easy for me to worship when I am sailing. I feel especially close to nature and the Creator when I am forced to pay such close attention to the wind and the waves to make the boat move. The serenity of being on the water (or the majesty when it storms) draws me into a state that must be called worship. I get a similar sense when on a bike. The open air, the immediacy of sight, sound and scent can be a religious experience. It is the same when I take to the woods. Since I so seldom actually shoot anything, I should probably drop the hunting ruse and just take hikes, but there is something visceral about carrying a powerful weapon around. (That part probably is less in the nature of worship, I realize.)
Brother Lawrence (Practice the Presence of God) liked to imagine that even the insignificant piece of straw in his path was placed there by God. In The Root of the Righteous, A.W. Tozer said, "The whole life must pray." I often say, "Nothing is without significance." When that significance is rooted in my understanding that God has orchestrated every detail and detour of my existence, then I can begin to authentically worship. At that point, even though I am stuck on earth for a while yet, it is heaven that matters most.
What church are you attending Clair?
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