A PRELUDE TO WORSHIP

You go to the usual Sunday assembly. The usual speaker arises to give the usual welcome. But what he says this rime is very unusual. He begins: "We welcome you into this gathering of disciples to uplift each other and offer formal worship to God. There is one qualification, however, to this welcome. If you can think of anyone, whether it be your neighbor, business associate, wife, child, parent, or anyone else, who holds any just grievance against you which you have not resolved, you are urged to leave this assembly immediately and make right the wrong you have done. Then please return to participate with us." You cannot believe what you just heard!

How would you react to that? Would you be embarrassed, or even infuriated, or would you humbly examine yourself in penitence which demands corrective action?

Jesus was talking to people who worshipped God through Mosaic rituals when he issued this startling announcement: "So if you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift" (Matt. 5:23ff. That is awesome!  It should get our attention. It bears repeating regularly as a prelude to worship.

In our efforts to make our assemblies God-centered, we have emphasized the keeping of rituals with hairsplitting correctness. Such scrupulous detail might be observed, however, by a worshipper in the same assembly with someone whom he has treated unjustly. He might try to bind the strictest of scruples concerning performance of details while offending others in the process. He may attack and reject brothers in Christ who disagree with him. Do you have the audacity to worship our Father while denying that others of his children are your brothers! A judgmental, sectarian spirit is a sin against our fellow disciples. The rejected brother has aught against you! Is God so pleased with your rituals of worship that he will overlook your divisive spirit?

Jesus said our religion must first be man-centered! John would shame us who think we can love God whom we have not seen while failing to love our present brother.

Just who are those brothers who have something against you? It may be your wife or husband who is suffering from your abusive language or mistreatment, or whom you have lied to, deceived, or betrayed. What of the child who has been scolded, abused, or left without child support? It includes the person whom you scorned, reviled, cursed, stole from, lied to, defrauded, or slandered.

Looming high as a barricade to your acceptable worship is the lack of forgiveness of the person whose pleas for pardon you have disdained. "If you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will jour Father forgive your trespasses" (Matt. 6:1215). "First go and be reconciled!" Jesus demands.

Worship is not a musical rendition; it is a clearing of conscience.

God dealt with Israel's similar misdirection. The impressive God-centered, God-ordained rituals of worship in Micah's time could not mask their lack of love for one another. Micah cried out, '"With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has showed you, 0 man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?" (Micah 6:68). What a farce it is for unloving, unjust, proud people to perform religious rituals as a claim to righteousness!

Jesus was talking about just grievances, not groundless complaints. Some persons will not be reconciled, and some wrongs cannot be corrected, but we just do what we can to bring about peace. "If possible, so far as it depends upon you, live peaceably with all" (Rom.12:18). But efforts of reconciliation must come before worship. Heeding Jesus' exhortation to be peacemakers would erase the shame of hypocrisy in worship, eliminate the sin of division. and create a true sense of fellowship with man and God.

We have been referring to the prelude to ritualistic worship as prevailed under the Law of Moses. Our worship is not limited to formal exercises. Since we are called upon to give ourselves as living sacrifices, your entire life is s worship, a service, an offering. So, each day and at all times, you must be right with your fellowman.

Our justice, mercy, and humility are not only a required prelude to forma' worship but also to a righteous life. God sees our righteousness of heart in our loving behavior rather than through our repetition of meticulous ritualistic details of formal worship.

Formal expression of worship is an outgrowth of the righteous heart rather than the means of gaining it. The cleansing of the heart is a necessary- prelude to worship.

Please come worship with us again soon!