Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12.2)
Paul tells us not to be conformed to the world; literally “age.” We are not to overtaken with the zeitgeist or the spirit of the age. To alter the worship of God by fads and trends is to fail to worship God aright. Our worship should be as 1 Cor. 14 reminds us, an unknown tongue to non-believers; we should not expect what we do to make sense, nor should we alter the Scriptural worship of God to be sensitive to so-called seekers. We must remember that is God who is seeking worshippers; if he desires to save them, he will. 1 Cor. 14 also tells us that it is in prophesying or preaching that sinners are convicted of their sin and are drawn to Christ; The purpose for our gathering is to adore the Trinity, not to save the lost; this time is not for evangelism— we are sent out every week and commissioned to evangelize those that do not know Christ.
Historic Christian worship can be seen in historic Christian denominations; is it any wonder that non-denominational churches do not resemble anything that looks like a church, much less what they do resemble historic Christian worship and why their numbers rise and fall with the tides of trendiness and fads? The more we compete with the fads of this age, the more we will lose to the god of this age; you can bet, if they do not like the big mac at one church, they will leave for the whopper at another. If we become people pleasers as a church Body and fail to be God pleasers, he will discipline us as a people as he has promised.
Ironically, when we Protestants have all but disappeared due to our worship wars and all else that divides us, we will have lost our children to fads and trends. Deut. 6 and Ps. 78 command us to pass our faith to our children and grandchildren. Roman Catholics and the Greek Orthodox will be worshipping the same way when we are dead and gone. While we Protestants may have real disagreements with them, they more than we seek to do right because it is right regardless of public opinion or a person’s felt needs.
Rome has found a secret we too often forget that God wants grandchildren and great grandchildren, indeed as Moses writes that he is faithful to the 1000th generation; an old Jesuit saying is Give us your children for ten years and they will be catholic for the rest of their lives. Where and what are our children doing and becoming? Is their fire insurance all that is important? What about the other elements to our faith?? What about our grandchildren?
We come here to renew our covenant with God; this is precisely why the Lord’s Supper, which corresponds to the peace offering of the Temple, happens at the end of the service—we meet God there, where he has ordained us to meet him; non-believers or wayward Christians are warned to not participate lest they meet God’s justice. The Table naturally divides sheep and goats regardless of how we feel about it. It is often God’s means of blessing or disciplining us. He knows whether we have real peace with him or whether we are putting on a show for others and our meal with him is a lie. The Table forces us to deal with our sin and rebellion; evangelicals can hide in altar calls of 100 or 10000 people but this is not an altar; this is the sacrament of His Table, where God is really present; he did not ordain altar calls, where he is really absent, but he did command the right use of the sacrament, where he promised to meet us either in peace or in discipline, as he said, “whenever we are gathered together.” The living Word is as Augustine said, invisible in preaching, but quite visible in the sacrament of his body and blood.
Where does all this lead us as a worshiping community? In our weekly assembling for worship on the Lord’s Day, receiving from Him by faith grace upon grace, we should be growing in grace as our outlook changes from doubt to trust; from fear to faith and timidity to boldly living out our faith in a fallen world.
When we come to worship, we are called by God, healed and forgiven by God, consecrated and instructed by God in the preaching of the Word, we offer in response our tithes and offerings, we confess our faith anew in the Creed, gather at his table to receive spiritual nourishment and are sent out– but we are sent to serve and gather lost sheep
Our primary place to serve is the church to which he has called us and secondarily to the world in which we live. The Body, gathered by Christ the Lord at Rock Presbyterian Church needs each other and the gifts that God has blessed us with, to be built up and encouraged in our own spiritual formation and development as the Body of Christ.
While you can go to heaven without local church membership, your baptismal vows require it. You were baptized into the Body of Christ—there are no lone ranger Christians.
As we come to understand what God expects of us on the Sabbath; as we come to understand how he wants to be worshipped according to Scripture, not our felt needs or preferences like hitting lunch time at the restaurant, we can grow together as a covenant community, not sitting idly by as spectators—checking the box on Sunday; coming to be entertained by either the music or the pastor, but seeking to please God from obedient hearts, we will experience an outpouring of God’s favor and providential blessing never known before.
Again, Calvin writes in his Commentary on Romans, “ . . . until men really apprehend how much they owe to the mercy of God, they will never with a right feeling worship him, nor be effectually stimulated to fear and obey him.”
