TOGETHER IN HIS PRESENCE: HUMBLY
Dear Friends,
We live in an age that loves “the positive”. We want to be positive people, have positive friends, and join positive groups. Christians in Canada breathe Canadian air, so we quite effortlessly embrace this call to being positive. We want to be positive Christians who are part of positive churches with positive worship - known by what we are for, not by what we are against. Now, we probably want to nuance all of this when it is put so bluntly, but it is hard to deny the power of the positive in Canadian Christian life. Funnily enough, the idea of “the positive” is elusive and vague. It is more felt than articulated. But we recognize it: be uplifting; be encouraging; help the “can-do spirit”; leave people feeling good; leave people feeling good about themselves; leave people feeling good about the future; be encouraged; be pumped; help people have feelings they enjoy; laugh, clap, and cheer lots. So it is that many churches design positive worship, and from the opening moments begin to get people “pumped”.
We know all of this, but rarely think about it. This situation shows why reading very old writers can sometimes be so helpful. Old Christian writers do not breathe Canadian air in 2020. That means they can sometimes, by the grace and mercy of God, help us to look at our situation differently. They can help remove our blinders, so that we can hear the Bible more clearly, no longer lulled to a sleepy and inattentive reading of the Bible. This is the second of a series of blogs entitled “Together in His Presence”. Our guide to this topic is a Call to Worship written in 1549 by Thomas Cranmer, one of the principal figures in the English Reformation. The shocking thing about this very old Call to Worship is that it calls us to approach God humbly, not pumped.
Before I give you the Call to Worship, think about this for a moment. It is always possible to provide proof texts to support “positive” worship and getting people pumped - and we should not seek to be drab and life-sucking - but seriously, can we really read the Bible and think that the Bible primarily wants us to get “pumped” in worship? Can we really read the Bible without hearing its call to an ever deepening, Gospel-shaped, joy-filled, grateful humility before God? Wouldn't praise without humility be sin? Shouldn’t God’s word humble us? Can we truly be in the presence of the Almighty God without humility? Was Adam and Eve’s problem that they were not “pumped up” and positive, or was it that they forsook humility for pride? Do we need to “curate a positive reality”, or do we need to learn to live in the real world, as a redeemed sinner, a fallen creature created good by God, but fallen and now redeemed by the grace and mercy of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, three Persons, One God, creator and preserver of all things, eternal, sovereign, unchanging, omnipotent, omniscient, transcendent, and immanent? Isn’t it a common Canadian Christian problem with Bible reading that we do not like reading the Bible because it does not pump us up? Doesn’t this show us that we have a problem? Remember, Idols pump you up to devour you. The Triune God humbles you to redeem you and prepare you to be free in His presence in the New Heaven and Earth - whole, free, exultant, humble, forever.
Here is the call to worship:
“Dearly beloved brethren, the Scripture moveth us in sundry places to acknowledge and confess our manifold sins and wickedness; and that we should not dissemble nor cloak them before the face of almighty God our heavenly Father; but confess them with an humble, lowly, penitent and obedient heart; to the end that we may obtain forgiveness of the same by His infinite goodness and mercy. And although we ought humbly acknowledge our sins before God; yet ought we most chiefly so to do, when we assemble and meet together to render thanks for the great benefits that we have received at His hands, to set forth His most worthy praise, to hear His most holy word, and to ask those things which are requisite and necessary, as well for the body as the soul. Wherefore I pray and beseech you, as many as are here present, to accompany me with a pure heart, and humble voice, unto the throne of the heavenly grace, saying…..”
Once again, the tone and the content is very good. Note some of the phrases. We come, “before the Face of almighty God our heavenly Father”; “confess your sin with a humble, lowly, penitent and obedient heart”; “accompany me with a pure heart, and humble voice unto the throne of the Heavenly grace”.
So please pray for the Church of the Messiah and all people who call this their church home. We are three congregations (8am, 10am, online), but one church. We need to pray for “our own” service and for the others as well. Pray that the Lord will make us humble as people in a humble church. Pray that we enter and leave the times of worship humbly and gladly. Pray for yourself and for all who are members of Messiah that we have a deep and deepening sense that we come together before the Face of Almighty God our heavenly Father. Please pray that we will journey together with humble voice unto the throne of the heavenly grace. Please pray that the Gospel will become more real to us and by the power of the Holy Spirit, we will walk each day humbly before almighty God.
George+