Mt. Zion, specifically the Choir, received a wonderful gift. Today, on Pentecost Sunday, we are blessing and putting into first use new choir robes sponsored by a generous gift. On such an occasion it is worth thinking about the bare facts of worship and presentation.
The prevailing ethos of our day might be summed up as “come as you are.” I’ve heard on more than one occasion in my life some form of “God doesn’t care what you look like, he cares that you are present.” And if I’m ascribing the best construction to such thoughts they come from places like Jesus talking with the Samaritan woman at the well who was very concerned about proper worship. “Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place people ought to worship…(John 4:20)”. And we normally skip to the later part of Jesus’ response, “the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in Spirit and Truth (John 4:23).” The hymn Just As I Am, without one plea, captures something true about worship. God doesn’t need anything from us. He doesn’t “eat” our sacrifices. He doesn’t exist off of our devotion. He doesn’t need fancy vestments. And Jesus on more than one occasion would mock the pharisees for their like of “long robes (Mark 12:38).” The worship that God’s desires – especially on Pentecost – is that in Sprit and Truth.
But the ethos of our day usually takes this much too far. It usually takes it to one of three assertions.
- When something wonderful is done for Jesus – like anointing him with costly myrrh (Matthew 26) – there is a tut tut that “this large sum could have been given to the poor.”
- That God does not really care about the form of worship
- And ultimately “come as you are” ends with a statement like “God accepts you just as you are.”
It should give anyone pause using the first of these arguments that the bible tells us this was Judas’ argument (John 12:4). But Jesus’ response comes in two forms. First, “she has done a beautiful thing to me.” Nothing done for God is truly lost. And beautiful things have ways of reminding us that this is our Father’s world and He cares for it deeply. Deeply enough that he so clothes the lilies of field that are here today and gone tomorrow. We cannot equal the lilies, but copying the Father is never a bad thing. Jesus’ second response is “the poor you will have with you always.” This is not a dismissal of the ethical demands of charity, but a recognition that ethics – how you live – is subservient to belief. That when the God you believe in is present, that takes priority. Mary chose the greater part (Luke 10:42).
The second assertion is what Exodus 28, for that matter Exodus 25 through the end of Leviticus, should give us pause. God in painstaking detail in those chapters and books tells Israel exactly how they are to worship. Right down to the garments of the priests. We cannot say that God does not care. There is even a parable about showing up to the wedding feast without a wedding garment. The problem that the ethos of our day was reacting against was taking such things as a law. If you did not or could not worship in this way your worship was invalid. That would break what Jesus said to the Samaritan woman. But it also went too far in not hearing what Jesus first said to her, “You worship what you do not know, we Jews worship what we do know.” God went into painstaking detail about worship so that we might know him. Vestments and beautiful things in worship are not about us. We come as we are without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me. These things point to the God whose first work post sin was to cover Adam and Eve in better clothes. And who ultimately gave us the robe of Christ’s righteousness.
Those earlier assertions all lead to that last one, which really is the natural religion of the day. The logic is something like God made all things. God is a good guy. Therefore God accepts us as we were made. He accepts us just as we are. There are many problems with this, but I will limit myself. What God made was good, and we broke it with our sin. The “good guy” doesn’t accept us as we are, he offers us absolution in Christ. He invites us into the divine life. Not to stay as we are, but to kill the old Adam and arise in before God is newness of life. Life in the Spirit is one of being conformed to the likeness of Christ. “We shall all be changed (1 Corinthians 15:51).”
We are putting something beautiful into the service of God. The worship of Spirit and Truth acknowledges the gifts God freely gives.