Pete and Repeat

Repetition (noun)

1. The act or process or an instance of repeating or being repeated.

2. A recitation or recital, especially of prepared or memorized material.

                                                                                    http://www.thefreedictionary.com/repetition

            In the past several months I've been approached several times with questions about the music that we sing.  While this isn't unusual, the comments that have come from these encounters have been quite similar.  “Why do we sing these songs that have all of the same words again and again?”  This question has sparked a great, on-going conversation within some people in our community.  I've been told that people would rather sing hymns, or certain praise songs because of their many words, or rather, because of their lack of repetition.

            I've discovered that people hate doing things over and over without purpose.  Personally, I say that I would rather do something right once rather than do it mediocre multiple times in a row.  We define repetition as something that a child should be doing to memorize multiplication tables or the spelling of words.  This probably conjures up all sorts of not so wonderful memories in your head of long hours of homework; lots of repetition.  For me, it brings back the fateful days of practicing piano.  My mom and I fought for long hours about my practicing.  I HATED IT.  She knew it was good for me.  I threatened to quit.  She wouldn't let me (much as she probably wanted to).

            It strikes me also that, when looking at the definition of this word, the synonyms for it are words like continuity and dullness.  Apart from the fighting with my mother, I could relate my piano practicing to a rather dull experience I suppose.  We've related the idea of repetition with this notion of being worthless, wasteful, and dull.  However, if you look into Scriptures, you’ll notice that there is repetition everywhere.  Does this mean that a vast amount of the Bible is just repetitive dullness?  BY NO MEANS!

            The Hebrew notion of repetition doesn't have anything to do with being bored or trying to fill space.  There is no feeling of angst or thoughts of “why this again” for the Hebrews in Scripture.  Repetition in Scripture happens because those things they were repeating are important!  Jewish writers in the Old Testament didn't use punctuation (or vowels); they could place emphasis on a sentence simply by placing an exclamation point after it!  So, to make sure people knew that a certain thing was important, they would repeat it.  Sometimes this would happen in a sequence:  God is “Holy Holy Holy.”  Other times, like in the creation account or the story of Jonah, things were repeated throughout the narrative to draw the reader’s (or hearer’s) attention to specific details.

            Our culture today is vastly different from the Hebrew culture.  Words and word usage have changed with it as well.  However, the meanings behind the way the words were used have not changed and this can be true for us in the music that we sing as well.  God does not deem worship acceptable simply because the words were or were not repeated.  Jesus Himself said that prayers are not heard because of their many words (Matthew 6:7).  What is important is the heart from which they are sung (Psalm 51:17). 

            Repetition, in the definition, points towards memorization.  I wouldn't be the piano player that I am today without that practice my mom forced me into.  Whether my heart was in it or not, the things I played stuck with me.  The next time you hear something repeated, instead of asking why, think about what God is trying to teach you through it… or what is so important in the repetition that it bears repeating.

Confessional

Recently, I was asked why it is that we take time in our worship service to confess our sins.  "If we have accepted Christ we know that our sins are forgiven," my friend stated.  "Why is it, then, that we take time in the service each week to remember that we are sinners again?  Isn't that focusing on the wrong thing?"

These are great questions and this can often be a confusing part of the service.  Indeed, if you have accepted Christ as your Lord and Savior and believe in Him, your sins have been forgiven and you are washed clean in the sight of God.  This is a once for all action, but it doesn't mean that we are instantly sinless in our lives.  You and I (and probably everyone else) knows and understands that no matter what amount of belief, faith, work, or whatever else in our lives will make us perfect.  But God is perfect and He calls His people to Be Holy as I am Holy.  (1 Peter 1:16).

So we are imperfect, and God calls us to be Holy.  As believers in Christ, we are given the gift of the Holy Spirit that works in our lives on many levels.  One of these is the process of "sanctification," a big word that points to the process of a Christian becoming more like Christ.  This is an ongoing life process, a transformation that will be completed only in the consummation of all things when Christ comes back.  In the meantime, as faithful followers of Christ, we are to be open to this work of the Spirit.  This is where the time of confession comes in during a worship service.

As we come into the presence of Holy God, we see ourselves reflected there and we see ourselves for who we really are.  Imperfect.  We could sit in the despair that this brings, knowing that there is nothing that we can do to save ourselves, to make ourselves right before God.  Our Heavenly Father knows this too and He did something about this!!  He gave us His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.  If you believe in Jesus, you have claimed this gift of grace.  And so the time of confession calls us to remembrance of this.

Not only that, through the prompting of the Holy Spirit, God calls us again to a posture of repentance knowing that we are redeemed in the blood of Jesus, for those things in our lives that still draw us away from God.  In this, we are called to confess those things to God both privately and corporately.  For some, this could be where it ends.  We say we are sorry and then move on.  But truly this is only half of this moment in our liturgy.

Ephesians 2 says, And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.

Rejoice friends, we who believe are not those that are dead in our sins, but we have been made alive in Christ!  In this posture of repentance we are able to lay our sins before God and through this repentance we open our hearts to the work of the Spirit to help us in our weaknesses, those things that we have confessed, that we may be strengthened in our walk and continually transformed into the likeness of Christ.

The time of confession is not a time to focus solely on our brokenness or to put us down again as sinful.  This special time is to bring us through our sins, to lay them at the foot of the cross, and then to remind us once again of the truth in which we are to live our lives.  WE ARE FORGIVEN!  And it is in that reality that we continue to worship the Lord on Sunday morning, and every day of our lives.

World Communion Sunday

Yesterday was World Communion Sunday.  Though we should always be thinking of our brothers and sisters around the world, this Sunday in particular we recognize that when we gather, we are not alone, but celebrate and worship God with the whole Church!

At my Church this Sunday we encouraged our congregation to walk to church as a reminder of our brothers and sisters around the world that walk to church each and every week.  We also were blessed to hear about the experiences that some of our congregation have had, worshiping with other cultures.  Both were wonderful experiences.

Did you do anything special for this Sunday?  How did your church body remember the Church Worldwide this week?

One other thing that we did was sing a beautiful song by Keith & Kristyn Getty and Stuart Townend called Behold the Lamb.  The words are printed below.  I pray that it blesses you this week.  May we always remember in thankfulness the sacrifice of Christ for the forgiveness of our sins!

Behold the Lamb who bears our sins away

Slain for us and we remember

The promise made that all who come in faith

Find forgiveness at the cross

So we share in this Bread of Life

And we drink of His sacrifice

As a sign of our bonds of peace

Around the table of the King

The body of our Saviour Jesus Christ

Torn for you eat and remember

The wounds that heal the death that brings us life

Paid the price to make us one

So we share in this Bread of Life

And we drink of His sacrifice

As a sign of our bonds of love

Around the table of the King

The blood that cleanses every stain of sin

Shed for you drink and remember

He drained death's cup that all may enter in

To receive the life of God

So we share in this Bread of Life

And we drink of His sacrifice

As a sign of our bonds of grace

Around the table of the King

And so with thankfulness and faith we rise

To respond and to remember

Our call to follow in the steps of Christ

As His body here on earth

As we share in His suffering

We proclaim Christ will come again

And we'll join in the feast of heaven

Around the table of the King

What its all about?

The other day I saw a sign that simply read "What if the Hokey-Pokey is really what its all about?"  Instantly I was transported in my mind back to the days of skating parties and school/church social gatherings at the local skating rink.  Round and round we would go, sometimes racing, sometimes avoiding, sometimes even flirting?  Most memorable of these times were the ridiculous dances they made us do to music, the Hokey-Pokey being one of the most infamous.

I'm pretty sure that I have never done the Hokey-Pokey outside of the skating rink.  Whether this is by design, or simply due to the fact that the dance would be too easy without wheels attached to one's feet, I'll never know. What I do know is this: no matter what skill level you are at skating (or Hokey-Pokeying), almost everyone enjoyed it because we all looked ridiculous together.  How many times did you look around  and see the judgmental eyes of someone else looking down on you because you didn't but your right foot in good enough?

Sometimes I wonder if this is the case in our churches today.  I mean not to imply that worship is just a bunch of people getting together an looking ridiculous, but I am more drawn to the idea that we're all having fun because we're all in it together.  Too often I find worship on Sunday to be an awkward time for many people who are worried about how they look when they worship, perhaps worried that they look like they are dancing with skates on.  The problem here is that they are often right in their worries.  Sunday Morning worship can be one of the most judgmental times we will encounter week in and week out.

But why is this?  We are taught in Scripture that it is not our place to judge.  Christians will even jokingly remind other Christians of this fact.  However, when we get to worship on Sunday we find ourselves worried about what others will think while looking at what others are doing wondering how they could be so foolish.

I wonder what worship would be like if we could get past this.  What if we could come before the Lord truly unconcerned about the thoughts of the brothers and sisters that we worship with?  What if, instead of judging our brothers and sisters in worship, we prayed for them, and instead of wondering what people thought of us, we thought more about God and what He means to us?

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.

In The Beginning

The concept of nothing, absolutely nothing, is not something that we can comprehend.  No land, no water.  No light, no air.  No time?  Complete nothing, except God.  Only God.

"In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters." - Genesis 1:1-2

Here is where the conversation of liturgy begins, in the beginning.  Before all things were, God was.  But things didn't stay that way:

"And God said..."

...and so progressed the wholeness of the world; every living thing brought into existence by the very words of God.  Genesis describes the creation account in full, and from that time all of creation has been declaring the glory of God.

When we come to worship, we acknowledge this as well.  Before anything happens in worship, or even in life, we acknowledge that it is first and foremost God that speaks; it is God that initiates worship.  None of it would even be possible without Him.

As we come into worship this week, what would it look like if we recognized God as the beginning of it.  How would our hearts and minds change if we acknowledged that church isn't just something that we are doing on Sunday morning because its what we've always done, but rather something that we do because God Himself has called us to it?

Ezekiel Saw the Wheel

For church on Sunday, the choir is singing the song Ezekiel Saw the Wheel. I was asked to give a brief introduction to the song and the vision of Ezekiel... this is what the Lord has laid on my heart tonight:

From the Visions of Ezekiel in chapters 1-3 and 10-11.

 Prophetic visions come to us as completely disconnected from anything that we have ever known and experienced in our lives. Descriptions of beasts with multiple faces and multiple wings, crazy looking wheels with eyes and even an attempt at describing the Glory of the Lord may and often does frighten or even confuse us. Too often we who are so far removed from anything that even resembles this type of picture of vision dismiss these baffling images as something completely irrelevant to us. I do not, however, believe that this is the case. I think that there can be some truth for us here!

 Clearly the people of Israel were not taken back or surprised by something like this for if they were the Hebrew elders would have dismissed Ezekiel with a Hebraic “what have you been smoking” statement (that I’m sure I’ll learn in next year’s Hebrew class). No, this vision meant something to them, and it is recorded in the Bible, God’s revelation to us, which means that it means something for us today as well.

 This vision comes to Ezekiel on the banks of the Khabur River which is located in Babylon. Ezekiel also says here that he was among the exiles, meaning the people of Israel that were forcibly taken from their homeland. He is a prophet, likely a priest, dwelling amongst a dislocated people. To say that in today’s context means very little as we are able to move great distances without batting an eye, but to be an Israelite not living in Israel means that you have lost everything. Their homes were destroyed. Their cities plundered and demolished. Their fields burned and animals either killed or taken. But none of this compares to the ultimate dislocation they were experiencing, their disconnect from God. You see the Hebrew people saw the presence of God as being based on a location. For hundreds of years they met God at a place, whether the tabernacle or the temple, and that place was the place of their worship; and that place was now gone. They could not go to it, and they would see that as being removed from God.

 Sound familiar? Do you ever find yourself dislocated from God? Do you think you that you are in a place where you cannot worship God, or a place that God cannot be present with you?

 This song, Ezekiel Saw the Wheel, is an African American Spiritual. Why? Because there have been many people throughout history that have identified with the exiled Hebrews, taken from all they know. African slaves were one of these people. Lost, alone, separated, and enslaved, full of hopelessness.

 But God is a God of hope, faithful and true to His people across all ages. In the midst of hopelessness God speaks powerfully and brings this vision to Ezekiel, a vision with powerful images that the Hebrews would have picked up on. So let see what they see…

 -->The Throne of God resting on fierce storming clouds, flanked by the cherubim on each side, and all placed on four wheels. These are your everyday Goodyear tires either, these wheels are unique: they are a wheel within a wheel. You see, most cars and just go forward, and to turn takes time. You cannot go just anywhere at any time, you need space to make the appropriate moves. But God’s visionary vehicle can go anywhere and everywhere and is anywhere and everywhere. With wheels that can drive both north/south and east/west at the same time, God can be anywhere and is everywhere! More than that, these wheels are covered in eyes… so not only can Yahweh be anywhere and everywhere, but He also sees all. Nothing happens by blind chance or fortune, there is no change that God did not see or foresee.

 This is what the slaves began to discover as they were introduced to Christianity. They identified with these dislocated Hebrews, taken from all they have known. But they found a God of hope that was with them in their suffering and they believed that just as God promised the people of Israel that He would save them and return them to their land, so God would act on behalf of them as slaves and free them from their suffering. They encountered a God is the all-powerful, ever-present, all-knowing God that He has always been and he is there with the Israelites in their exile in Babylon and was with the slaves in the fields of America and He is with you now no matter where you are in your life. Because we know in this Easter season that God has not abandoned us to our sin and suffering but He sent his son who died and rose again, breaking the bonds of sin and death and hell and through Him we have life forever more AMEN!

 Perhaps you are suffering in your life right now… perhaps you feel distant from God… you may not encounter a vision experience like Ezekiel, but my friends, we have a vision like that… our vision is Jesus!! Our Savior and our Lord. He is our all-powerful, ever-present, all-knowing Lord and He is there with you in your exile as well. Turn to him… He is there… no matter where you are!