Is This Church?

There's a story in Mark 3, right at the beginning about a time when Jesus is asked to speak at a synagogue on the sabbath. The atmosphere was electric - can you imagine - JESUS delivering the message at your church. But in this case, the atmosphere was electric for all the wrong reasons. You see, the religious folks at the synagogue had taken the opportunity to try to trap Jesus in some kind of mistake so they could rid themselves of him. And they used this guy. They found this guy who had a shriveled up hand and they sat him right down in the front row. Now a guy with a shriveled hand should have been down in the front row - because Jesus is the healer - right? But these folks didn't care about that at all, they didn't care about the man at all, or his hand, or the mocking and abuse, the suffering and outcast life he had lived with this infirmity. They just wanted to make Jesus look bad.

And Jesus asks - is it right to give life or to kill - to heal or to harm? In other words, if I can help this guy and I don't I'm actually harm him. Which is keeping with the spirit of the loving living God who gave the sabbath? And no one answers. And Jesus is troubled - it says that he looked at them in anger deeply distressed at stubborn hearts.

When we gather for our worship services, do we come expecting to be transformed by the living, loving, healing, life changing Jesus? Do we pray bold prayers and expect God to act? Or do we come to pay attention to the music that was chosen and whether we like it or not or to check in on how the budget is going or how the latest fund raising project is going or to catch up on the idiot thing that the pastor is doing now? Do we come to be transformed by Jesus, or do we come with a stubborn heart that is unyielding to change? Does Jesus look around at our worship gatherings in anger, deeply distressed at our stubborn hearts?

The next time you prepare for worship - prepare your heart and mind for what you are going to receive without your preconceived notions of how it should be. Come with an attitude of needing to receive from God and needing to respond with songs of praise and thanksgiving. Come to worship expecting to be met by the living God and expecting to be changed. And just like the man in Mark 3, may you stretch out your hand and be fully restored. Amen.