Beware of worshiping the past for if you do you will repeat the sins of your ancestors.
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"There is none righteous, no, not one."
Romans 3:10
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Scripture
warns us about worshipping the way our ancestors did in the past. Through
the prophets, again and again,God tells the people he hates their worship
activities and practices – even when they were faithfully following his
prescribed forms for worship. How can this be?
Zechariah Chapter 7 gives us God’s major complaint:
“The Lord of Heaven’s
Armies sent me this message…’Say to all your people and your priests, “… when
you fasted and mourned…was it really for me that you were fasting?
And even now in your holy
festivals, aren’t you eating and drinking just to please yourselves? Isn’t
this the same message the Lord proclaimed through the prophets
in years past when Jerusalem and the towns of Judah were bustling with people,
and the Negev and the foothills of Judah were well populated?”’”
The core message:
“You do what your ancestors did – your
worship practices are just to please yourselves.”
God’s prophetic question, then and now:
“Was it really for me that you are doing your
acts of worship?”
Beware
of worshiping the past for if you do you will repeat the sins of your
ancestors. Even when their churches were bustling with people and their deserts
were blessed and productive, their worship practices were not for God, but to
please themselves.
Not
only that, but God says:
“Isn’t this the
same message the Lord proclaimed
through the prophets in years past?”
This is the inherent problem with pride in our
past and pride in maintaining the ways of our church founders and ancestors.
Even if the practice was once “for God” and God alone, our pride in the past
demonstrates that now we are doing it to please ourselves.
Truth is, at least in my own religious
background among Friends, except for perhaps the first 50 years, the first
generation of Quakers, the worship practices among Friends have been adopted
and perpetuated because they please us. It feels good to once a week (or more) slip into our religious comfort zone.
Even when many of our meetings adopted the
worship forms of revival, they were not about God, but about pleasing ourselves
adopting forms which our other brothers and sisters in Christ used and found
helpful and we found attractive.
Whether you are Quaker, Wesleyan,
Baptist, or Charismatic it was not the worship forms which demonstrated revival
among God’s people. It was the fruit of worship, the fruit of having a
heart after God’s own heart:
“Then this message came to Zechariah from the Lord: “This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: Judge
fairly, and show mercy and kindness to one another. Do not oppress widows, orphans, foreigners, and the poor.
And do not scheme against each other. Your ancestors refused to listen to this
message.”
I have been in too many congregations where,
despite wonderful inspiring worship, the church and people from the church did
not judge fairly and were not merciful and kind to one another. Because of
this few congregations are places were individuals can truly be open
and share and find rest for their souls. Instead they find lopsided judgment, often
harsh, even punitive. The members extend demands or shunning, gossip and
berating, in place of mercy. Among the congregants acts of kindness
beyond their own click are rare, not the norm. No wonder the best way to
survive in many churches is hiding from other people.
Beware of worshiping the past for if
you do you will repeat the sins of your ancestors. As God says:
“They stubbornly
turned away and put their fingers in their ears to keep from hearing. They made
their hearts as hard as stone, so they could not hear the instructions or the
messages that the Lord of Heaven’s
Armies had sent them by his Spirit through the earlier prophets. That is why
the Lord of Heaven’s Armies was so
angry with them.”
“Since
they refused to listen when I called to them, I would not listen when they
called to me.”
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PHOTO:
Quaker Meeting House in Randolph, New Jersey by © dbeards3 @webshots.com
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