AUDIO
I'm hearing a lot of people saying that they just can't wait for the COVID rules to change so that we can all go back to church once again.
It would make me a little bit nervy if the concern was more to go to church more than to be it, or to be going for the place or the people not for God.
I mean, really, that wouldn't make sense!
Who likes going into a cold barn to sit on hard benches next to people you don't really know to comply with instructions ('stand up', 'sit down', 'sing', 'now be quiet') from the officiating officer, then listen to someone else tell you what to do with your life?
Chapel doesn't sound so great when you put it like that, does it?!
Oh, the number of times I've had to ask one church leadership team or another 'What do we really think we are DOING here?!' (And what a difference thinking through that question has actually made).
When you look at what seems to be going on, it's really no wonder the famous '80s DJ Noel Edmonds famously said he couldn't think of anything worse to do on Sunday mornings than go to church: "The church is the dullest experience that we have in this country".
You can read about that and much else that might need changing about what happens in church and chapel HERE.
But what concerns me most is not embracing trendiness but turning away people who are going through tragedy.
If church puts itself where it can't be turned to, that is incredibly SAD.
The tragedy of unattractive 'church'
The seriousness of the unattractiveness of 'Church' is arguably highlighted in Noel Edmonds' own experience, although his experience is by no means unique.
Things could have been so different for so many if only they'd known a God-loving church.
All credit to him, Noel himself is quoted as very honestly saying:
""I seek no sympathy and feel no shame in admitting that on the evening of January 18th 2005 I attempted to end the overwhelming mental pain which had consumed my whole being.
The fact that I did not become another suicide statistic is solely due to the swift response of a Devon ambulance crew and the compassionate support of the Priory in Bristol."
The financiers whose actions are blamed for driving him to this were jailed in 2017 for their £245 million loans scam which saw profits spent on sex parties and luxury holidays.
But having go through this crisis, Noel has since relocated to New Zealand with his third wife, Liz Davies, and now gives his professional abilities to running a radio station for plants. 'Church' can stop people in trouble from turning to God
The tragedy is that people switched off by church, because their church expectations or experience aren't appropriate simply won't turn to 'the Church' in their trouble and won't get help from there in their times of greatest need.
The opposite was true of the Psalmist in the Verse for the Day we're looking at today.
"One thing I ask from the Lord,
this only do I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
all the days of my life,
to gaze on the beauty of the Lord
and to seek him in his temple."
Psalm 27:4
The first thing to notice about this psalm then is this:
It's not 'belonging' but 'going' that matters
The psalmist wasn't thinking about 'belonging' - having some ages-old family link and formal membership ... an ancestral worship site and a place to be buried.
The psalmist here is all about 'GOING'!
Not only for going, but for staying. He wouldn't be turned away easily ... he was going to be a permanent resident, and NOT in the graveyard, but in the pew!
But the key thing is the reason he was going ...
The REASON to be going is crucial
He wanted to be 'going' to gaze at the beauty of the Lord.
It's easy to be put off the chapel not just by the pews but by the people.
A lot of people think they're going to chapel for the people, but that's a very shaky reason to be going there and it isn't going to do much lasting good for your 'inner man'.
People in general are a funny old lot, and we don't (any of us) live up to the mark.
The people are a secondary consideration, says the psalmist ... he 'goes' to gaze on the beauty of the Lord, and to worship Him in His own Temple.
The experience when you go is fundamental
We fill church with all sorts of (sometimes entertaining) distractions.
The temple at Jerusalem had 'lots going on'.
But the Psalmist knew what he needed to do up there.
It was gazing on the beauty and the glory of the Lord that was going to inspire him to keep him faithful and resilient through hard times.
Now that's the thing.
Why was he so KEEN on going?
Life wasn't going so well for him, and he knew he needed the presence of God.
Make no mistake, the psalmist wasn't falling from faith, as the verses just before this make clear:
"When the wicked advance against me
to devour me,
it is my enemies and my foes
who will stumble and fall.
3 Though an army besiege me,
my heart will not fear;
though war break out against me,
even then I will be confident."
Psalm 27:2-3
He wants to lean on the Lord!
But to stay in that resilient position, the psalmist knows he MUST be going to public worship to practice the real presence of God.
More than that, he must be going to fill his mind with the beauty of the Glory of His faithful God.
He knows that if he takes his eyes off the Lord, however firmly resolved he is to stick with God, human strength, decision and determination can't resource faith and the outcome would be that he would sink .
The Point
If we seek to know God and have His help we will 'go' to chapel or church ... it really doesn't matter what you call it.
But it's important to be clear what we're going for ... and this is what makes all the difference.
Neither the people nor the process there are what matters.
To be going must be to be looking for the opportunity to gaze on the beauty of God and to worship Him in His special presence.
It's to feed the relationship that is the safeguard and salvation of our psychology, and the safeguard and salvation of our souls.
The Takeaway
We've really got to be up front about this, and show that understanding to our world.
Things that hinder people from doing that are obstructions to the knowledge and the salvation of God ...
How are we distracting and locking people out ... and what do we need to do to sort this out?
Let us know what YOU think in the contact form below.
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