Thought for a Sunday
People-watching statisticians are telling us that more people are choosing to do other things on Sunday morning besides go to church. There are lots of choices from a trip to the beach to the ever-expanding Sunday sports schedule. But even among those who still prioritize a worship experience on the weekend, many are choosing online options for worship. Recently I attended a local church that listed the attendance for the previous week both in-person and online. Online attendance was a full third of in-person attendance. Of course, the availability of online worship is a huge help to many who could not otherwise attend for a variety of reasons. Yet I found when I was on vacation myself that tuning in could also be a choice of ease rather than necessity. Hmm.
All this requires us to ask ourselves again why we attend service at church in the first place. This morning before church, I was reading in the book of Haggai, a short Old Testament book recording the words of a prophet who spoke to people who were trying to get along without rebuilding their Jewish Temple. The folks in his audience had returned to Israel from exile and were building their own houses with great success (Haggai 1:4). Yet they had put forth no effort to rebuild the house of God. However, rebuilding the temple was the very reason they had been allowed to return from exile (2 Chron. 36:23). During his conversation, Haggai gives us some great reasons to worship God in-person at the local house of God whenever we can. The verse that instructed me was this one.
Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build my house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored,” says the Lord.
Haggai 1:8
I was reminded that we are always thinking from our perspective, how we like it, how the service impresses us. But God takes pleasure in his house and by implication in the worship that happens there. God reminded the people that one purpose for them being in the temple was to honor Him. I remember a friend in Kirkville who was playing golf one Sunday morning. He later testified at church that it was as if God spoke to him saying that God would be honored best by my friend’s presence in worship at church. From then on he determined to be at church on Sunday morning to honor God. It’s not about our pleasure in the singing though we do enjoy it. It’s not primarily about us feeling inspired though we do. Rather, it is about giving honor to God by our presence and participation in worship.
That is a perspective we need to meditate upon and take to heart!