The Narrow Way
Fraught with peril, ripe with adventureArchive for June 20, 2009
Worship… an event or way of life?
I recently had a conversation about current musical preferences, the type of information corporate execs trip over themselves to get, in attempts to reach target audiences and identify trends and bands on the verge of making it big, so they can ride the crest of the wave.
(That’s if they themselves haven’t already set the agenda. A more likely scenario. Don’t they tell us what to like?).
And I felt kind of bad after the dialogue, especially when I disclaimer-ed a passing interest in “worship music” with a rant about how Keith Green would be livid about the current state of affairs of the “Christian” music industry.
Today’s worship music is not to your grandparent’s liking, that’s unless they are among the hip, with-it seniors crowd, or have jumped ship from a traditional Presbyterian, Lutheran or Catholic congregations to something more, ahem, relevant.
It’s not that I particularly don’t like the direction that worship music has gone, with its cultural relevance and catchy, top-40 sing-along ability. It works on some levels, I guess.
But I have reservations about the entire presentation of worship as more of an event than a way of life, perhaps an inadvertent message, but one that could be interpreted this way nonethless, given its emphasis.
Maybe I’m reading too much into it.
We have very specific times of worship in our church services, deliberate blocks of time to let the P&W band do their thing.
Sometimes the crowd is into it, sometimes their not.
Some sing along, some don’t.
Some sets seem too long, others seem terribly rushed.
What bothers me is that worship is, perhaps, primarily seen as an event, something we do before the sermon, and not as a way of life.
We love our worship, and it may be more valued than some of the other less attractive demands of the gospel (especially when it’s presented in the context of cultural familiarity).
Things such as loving the neighbour that sues you, biting your tongue when your boss tells you he needs you to work overtime for the second day in a row, and so on.
But worship isn’t just singing.
Some congregations have broken the mold by blending visual artists and dancers into the worship experience, which I think is good, maybe a bit distracting, but not necessarily off base.
Somehow, though, it always brings me back to the start.
It’s a way of life.
That means that everything I do is offered to God as an act of worship.
The way I treat my wife. The way I discipline my kids. The way I respond when some yahoo cuts me off in traffic. The way I react after church at the Swiss Chalet when the waitress has messed up the order.
The worst thing that can happen in our Christian worship is to think that corporate expressions of our love for God is the be-all, end-all.
Don’t get me wrong.
There is nothing like a throng of like-minded God chasers singing their guts out.
But it’s what happens after the emotional highs and corporate love-ins with the Saviour that ultimately show our true colours, expressed not in poetic melodies, but in the cold, hard facts of actions that, you guessed it, speak louder than words.
And really, this way of worshipping outside the walls of the church, warehouse or rec centre — wherever it is you `do` church — might take some time, since we begin as spiritual infants and slowly grow into toddlers, teens, adults and grey-hair`d God fearers.
We are called to love God with all we’ve got, and the worship event is a part of this calling, a duty, an obligation and a responsibility.
But we can never divorce worship from the basic, un-sexy call to pick up our cross through the day-to-day grind, when outnumbered by those who don’t share our faith in the workplace, and when beaten about by worry, temptation and the lure of wealth and comfortable indifference.
What we can never do is allow our worship experience to solely exist in high-energy, loud-and-proud corporate settings, or even the lovey-dovey acoustic set and its more intimate songs.
As Matt Redman sings, When the Music Fades and all is stripped away….
| I simply come Longing just to bringSomething that’s of worth That will bless your heart
I’ll bring You more than a song |
© 2009. Chuck Kuepfer. All rights reserved.
When it Comes to Taking Lives
I’ve never really been a gun nut.
You know, one of those guys who feels the power of a loaded weapon wash over him when he has one in his hands.
That’s not to say that I haven’t gotten a sore shoulder from firing a shotgun.
(The trick is to hold it tight to your shoulder).
But mostly, I’ve lived a gun-free existence, thankfully born into a country not torn by civil war, government oppression or intense ethnic fractions.
Yet even in the free world, we do, however, like our guns.
And I’ve always been torn about the morality of gun ownership, when the intended use isn’t duck hunting, but rather for self protection.
Popular opinion says that Canadians are a lot different than our American counterparts, who are adamant about the right to bear arms.
What got me thinking about guns and self defence was a recent home invasion in St. Catharines in which four men with guns and machetes smashed in the back door of a house.
Only three of got out alive, the fourth found dead in the basement from a gun shot wound by police.
A 22-year-old who lived at the address, who was in the shower when the intruders barged in, has been charged with manslaughter.
Two younger brothers of the accused and their mother, who was at work, said he saved her sons’ lives.
Did the accused have the right to defend himself with a gun?
The case brought back memories of an incident in Texas last year, in which a 61-year-old witnessed two burglars break into a neighbour’s home and try to make off with a bag of loot.
Joe Horn shot them both before police arrived, taking justice into his own hands despite pleas from a 911 dispatcher.
Dispatcher: “I don’t want you going outside, Mister…”
Horn: “Well, here it goes buddy, you hear the shotgun clicking and I’m going.”
Dispatcher: “Don’t go outside.”
The 911 call continues as Horn confronts the two thieves, followed by the sound of the shotgun firing three times.
Earlier, Horn had told the dispatcher he wasn’t going to “let them get away this” and that he had “a right to protect himself.”
I happened to catch part of the actual 911 call on a radio show, and it’s gritty, compelling stuff.
Not surprisingly, opinion was split on Horn’s actions, some saying he had no right to act as judge, jury and executioner.
Others called him a hero.
A jury cleared him of murder charges in July.
Both cases raise the question of reasonable defense.
I mean, we can’t just let people go around breaking into our homes and hope the cops arrive before it’s too late, can we?
The police always tell us to lock our doors and home security providers tell us we need iron bars, coded entries and maybe even bulletproof glass.
I hate to think that some people are cashing in on our greatest fears, in the off chance that we may be the next victim of the break and enter, or worse.
What about our right not to have to spend $50 a month on home security features?
If somebody breaks into your home in the middle of the night there’s a good chance your life is in danger, not to mention your sleeping children and spouse.
Nobody’s saying that an intruder deserves to die, but hasn’t he forfeited the right to the normal set of rules that govern society’s code of ethics once he enters through a broken window?
I mean, I hope when the cops show up they’ve drawn their guns and won’t think twice about using them if an innocent man, woman or child is about to die.
Now, I can never justify violence without the exhaustion of alternatives, but if you have to err on the side of caution, what side are you going to err on?
And this is difficult subject for my brain, since I was raised in the Mennonite church, an upbringing underlined by a strong stance of non-resistance.
Now I’m all for peace and avoiding military action whenever possible, but I can’t say that taking another person’s life is always wrong.
That might sound terrible, but it’s true.
And this is a 360-degree change in thinking for me, since I always wrestled with Jesus’ statements about letting people walk all over you, as described in Matthew 5.
At least, that’s how I had always interpreted it.
If somebody slaps you on the cheek, let him whack the other one. Or if somebody wants to sue you and take your shirt, give him your coat too. Or if somebody breaks into your home, let him take whatever he wants, no questions asked.
“Do you need a hand with loading that 42′ inch Plasma in your getaway car, Mr. Robber, sir?”I made up that last one, but the other two are right there in red, perhaps giving us the impression that following Jesus means you gotta be a pushover.
And really, who wants to sign up for that?
But with all of scripture, everything hinges on interpretation, and what I think Jesus was talking about was a new way of thinking, a post eye-for-an-eye, tooth-for-a-tooth way of trying to live.
In a perfect world, we wouldn’t be bullied into situations in which we get sued, scammed, ripped off and physically assaulted.
Does that mean we have to take it?
Does that mean we let people take advantage of us?
Does that mean we let some guy named Adolf Hitler take millions of lives and sit back and let evil run its course?
And I throw out that last one because I was somewhat take aback when I found out that Dietrich Bonhoeffer, one of the eminent Christian theologians of our time, was behind plot to assassinate Hitler.
It was a shock to my black and white thou shall not kill beliefs, but if the plot would have been successful, it might have saved millions of lives.
Then I became angry thinking about all those who chose a path of non-resistance during the war, while others fought and died to snuff out the evils of the Nazi regime.
How is it that these people can enjoy their freedoms today with a clear conscience, when they were missing in action?
The truth is, when there’s war and criminal activity in your face, these exceptional circumstances don’t necessarily demand explanation, but reactions that perhaps have the greater good in mind.
And I’m not comfortable telling people they have the right to take another person’s life when there is a direct threat to themselves, their family, neighborhood or nation.
But I do think that, just as Bonhoeffer eventually realized, when there’s a madman driving a car through a crowd, perhaps it’s our responsibility to stop the madman – and not just comfort the victims.
© 2008. Elmira_Independent. All rights reserved
