October 14

On the Journey

                            Worship as witness

    If you haven’t heard, there is a growing number of people in North America who are strangers to the Christian faith and know very little about the great church of Jesus Christ. Many of these folks are young people, under the age of thirty-five. This development in American Christianity has been emerging for some time now. It is not possible to make many generalizations about this group, and there is no single path to finding oneself in this group.

     Several years ago, I was reading a book by Peter Gomes who is Pusey Minister of the Memorial Church at Harvard and Plummer Professor of Christian Morals there. Gomes described an encounter he had at lunch on a Sunday with a young female student, who had been faithfully attending worship services, and her parents, who were visiting her at Harvard. The young woman had spoken with Gomes many times, and she was deeply interested in exploring the Christian faith.

     On that particular Sunday, dad, mom, and daughter had worshipped together at Memorial Church. During the service, the young woman observed that her parents understood the progression of the liturgy and sang the hymns with a rich familiarity. At lunch with Gomes, she expressed her dismay that her parents had not introduced her to the faith they had known. She felt cheated, as if her own parents had denied her of something truly life giving.

     Yes, tragically, some young people in this emerging category arrive as infants in Christian families. Their mothers and fathers know the great life-giving stories of God’s love for humanity revealed in the Bible. Though it may have been a long time since they attended church themselves, they know the contours of worship and the great old hymns of faith. Yet, they have felt no need to introduce their children to the Christian faith or the Christian church.

     This emerging group is also composed of young people whose disappointment with the church arrived when they were young teenagers. A number of them left the church between ages 13 and 16 and never looked back. They rejected a faith they never really had an opportunity to know. As young teenagers, they were hypersensitive to hypocrisy and grew cynical about what they heard and saw in church. The failure of church members to reflect the love of the Christ they studied and worshipped disillusioned them. The churches they experienced seemed to inspire conflict and hatred rather than peace and love. They left the church. They never looked back, and they are most reluctant to return.

     For large number of people in this group, they are aware of the Christian faith and the Christian church only as a social or cultural phenomenon. They have seen church buildings in the communities where they live, but they have never ventured inside. They may know someone who professes to be a Christian, but they are not interested in knowing what that person believes. When religious groups make the news, they have no point of reference to discern if these folks represent the Christian faith or if they are a caricature of it.

     As the body of Christ called Immanuel, we should be aware of this emerging group of young adults. They are around us, and we do encounter them. It is even possible that they attend our church from time to time. It is unlikely that we will recognize them, but they may be with us. While they are with us, what will their experience be like and what kind of impression will we leave upon their souls?

      If you were one of these young adults and you stumbled into Immanuel on Sunday, what do you surmise you would experience? There would be a crowd of people stretched across a large room. Would you experience a gracious hospitality that reaches toward you or a cool indifference? The congregation would be singing songs you may not know at all. Would someone share a hymnal with you and sing alongside you the praises to God? When the congregation is called to prayer, would you experience a deep reverence as we approach God? From our body language, what impressions would you receive—boredom or engagement, anxiousness or peace, indifference or compassion, resentfulness or joyfulness? When we speak about our faith in God and our trust in Jesus Christ, would you find us believable? As our guest departs, what would he or she think about what they just encountered—a slow ritual followed reluctantly by disinterested people or an inspiring encounter with a people who came to stand before a living and loving God?

      In our present age, worship is now part of our witness. As Søren Kierkegarrd attempted to tell the Church in the 19th century, God is our audience each week. We are not here to engage or entertain those present. When we sing the hymns, we are singing our praise to our God who is present. When we pray, we bow in the presence of the one who comes to save and redeem our lives. When the choir or a soloist sings, they should sing as if only God is present to hear. When a prayer is offered or the Word proclaimed, faithfulness to the God who is revealed in Holy Scripture and through the Holy Spirit is our goal.

      Yes, whether we appreciate the truth or not, worship is witness. If we approach worship as witness, two very different groups of worshippers may be changed—the person present who attends every week to worship God and the person who doesn’t know why they find themselves in a strange place with strange people before a God they do not know. When we gather on Sunday, let us remember that God is our audience, so the guests among us will look beyond us to the One whom we worship and adore and serve.jamie