Does liturgy matter? - 29 September 2011 |
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I think liturgy (i.e. what we do in church) is very important. Whether we stand, sit or kneel (yes, all three); whether we begin the service with a formal call to worship or with “Hey, how y’all doing today?” (the former); whether or not we observe the Lord’s Supper (we do, every week); whether baptised, believing children get to eat it (they do); whether we sing Psalms, or hymns, or both (both) – all these and a hundred other questions about the order and content of our service matter to God, and therefore should matter to us.
But it’s important to keep such issues in perspective.
In 2 Chronicles 30, during the renewal of Judah under King Hezekiah, lots of people came to the Passover without having cleansed themselves appropriately (v. 18). They were believers, and were earnestly seeking God (v. 19), but they’d got the liturgy wrong. Hezekiah prayed for them, “and the LORD heard Hezekiah and healed the people” (v. 20). In this instance, at least, the liturgy apparently didn’t matter as much as the state of their hearts.
The LORD apparently tolerates all manner of liturgical immaturity, folly, failure and inadequacy when committed by believing men and women who earnestly seek him. It’s much harder to find biblical evidence that God shows patience towards hard-hearted people just because they happen to get the liturgy right.
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Posted by Steve Jeffery · Topics: Minister's Blog