Good Enough?

                A young boy was working on a school science project.  With the help of his parents he was constructing a giant volcano that, when certain chemicals were mixed, would simulate fake lava running down the sides covering the makeshift Lego town he had built at its base.  As he was finishing up the final touches of this project stopped and looked at it, eyes full of pride in all he had accomplished and said, “I hope this is good enough!”  The boy’s father stopped for a minute and asked, “why do you say that?”  Rifling through his book bag, the boy pulled out the assignment sheet which read very simply: SCIENCE PROJECT; with a simple explanation: It doesn’t matter what you do as long as it is science related.  The father continued to read, taken aback by what he saw next:  Grading Scale: to receive a passing grade the project must be good enough.

                The very next day, in front of his whole class, the boy presented his project.  Explaining well how he created the miniature volcano and what he was going to do to make the pretend lava flow, he wowed his classmates.  With gasps of amazement and aw they excitedly watched as the boy mixed the chemicals to the best of his ability and volcano bubbled over and washed over the tiny Lego town.  Suddenly the teacher stood and the class was instantly silent, waiting anxiously for the grading verdict.   Without even hesitating the teacher said, “I’m sorry, its good, but this is not good enough.”

                The boy, somewhat taken aback by the teacher’s sweeping indictment, asked the teacher, “Excuse me sir, but I tried my best.  What more can I do?  What would make this good enough?”

                “This is not a real volcano son,” the teacher replied.  “You’ll need to build a real volcano for it to be good enough.  Dismissed.”

                While this is not a true story, some of the themes held within it tend to ring true for us in our lives, and especially in our worship.  We tend to think that, on any given Sunday morning, we've decide to get up, we've dragged ourselves out of bed, we've gotten the family ready, and we've driven ourselves to church so that we can try really hard to worship and give God our best hoping that it is good enough for God.  All of it was our decision and it is therefore up to us to make it all happen.  We tend to do this in our lives as well.  Whether at work, school, home, or away, we think that we just need to try a little harder to do our best and perhaps that will be good enough for God.  Maybe then, we reason, God will bless me and my family.

                Sadly, this reality often gets mixed with a level of confusion about what goes on in a worship service on Sunday.  We look at the bulletin as see phrases like “Call to Worship” and “sending” and think, what does this mean, a call to worship?  I decided to come here to worship.

                When we think like this, we often end up like the young boy in this story, doing everything we can do ourselves, or even with the help of others, trying to just be “good enough” for God.  It isn’t long before we are confronted with the reality that we simply aren’t good enough.  Whether by the realization of our sinfulness or the greatness of God’s holiness, we find out quick that we can never be “good enough.”

                These questions of Liturgy, the call to worship and the sending as well as many of the other parts of Christian worship are not simply old traditions that we just use because they have always been there.  Rather, they point us to a greater reality about worship that is so much broader than what we often think.  The Biblical view of worship is not one in which we try our best and hope that it is good enough for God, but rather that in worship, the God of Grace is the primary mover.

                Friends, we have a call to worship because we believe that it is indeed God who has called us to worship Him.  We believe that God the Father, the God of all Grace and Mercy, has, through His Son Jesus, by the power of the Holy Spirit reached down into our lives and called us and has even drawn us into worship and communion with Him.  God has initiated this calling and it is in God that we respond as well!  Through the prompting, leading, and guiding of the Holy Spirit, through the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ, we are able to bring our worship before God the Father, in full communion with Him because we have been washed clean and our worship has been perfected! God knows that our best could never be good enough for Him, but through His mercy and grace we are able to come before Him, offering our best, knowing God has shown us a way to Him in Christ.