I do not, cannot (and at times, will not) suffer fools gladly
I know you’ll find this terribly difficult to believe, I am equally impressed with how you’ve collectively been so successful in restraining yourselves from a rowdy, raucous denial. Nevertheless, I have found from time to time that I just don’t seem to have it in me to entertain those that are, well, not worth entertaining! I’m speaking particularly from a perspective of my professional life. Especially since I began software testing, I’ve discovered that I cannot be doing with someone that can’t do their job.
Of course, there are those that can’t, and those that won’t, and they’re even more frustrating. Initially, they all appear to be those that can’t but those who, with a little guidance, pick things up and take things on board, they I have patience and some empathy for. The others, who are shown things again and again, I have no time for whatsoever. In the last month, I’ve had one such situation. A girl came to work on our project – supposedly an experienced test-analyst… except it seems as though she hadn’t the first idea about IT development, let alone testing. When someone is more interested in asking about your wife’s pregnancy than the project, when their first reaction to a test failing is to ask you what’s going on rather than try to work it out for themselves and when they leave at 4pm on the button everyday even when the rest of the team is in until 7pm or later… I’ve a very short fuse in those circumstances.
In spite of others?! Yeah, right!
I’m finding I’m similarly quick-tempered in the car. Not so much when I’m on my bike because the first line of defence is me. But if you’re not away from the lights fairly promptly, or if you’re a pedestrian that crosses in front of me without looking, or you just dilly-dally and take your time…
On Friday night, the phone rang during The Bourne Supremacy. It was a guy – again – telling me that he’d spoken with me a while back about a conservatory… except no-one has ever asked me about a conservatory. I tried to persuade him that this was so by saying ‘No’ to as many of his questions as possible, but it still took at least half-a-dozen of them – which Brooke found amusing. And my latest is shouting at the TV. I don’t know if it’s because the people on it are, more often than not, now lifesize, that fools me into thinking that they’ll listen now. But I can only watch Channel 4 News and Question Time can be a lively programme in our house…
In spite of others? Not really.
Which is why this morning’s topic, and its pairing with me, is rather apt: in spite of others? Not quite – worship in spite of others.
Now, I apologise in advance if I run roughshod over ground already covered, and ground yet to be covered – I tried my best…!
I dare say that this week’s worship angle, in spite of others, was purposefully vague. Who are the others that we’re to worship in spite of?
For me, there are two broad groups. You might feel I’m wrong or ill-advised to draw such distinctions, but these best-suited my purpose, so there you have it:
“Others” can be divided into two subsets:
people in the world at large
in the Church (specifically, although not necessarily restricted to, your congregation)
And equally, as John touched on last week, worship can similarly be partitioned, into:
formal/corporate
offering our bodies as living and acceptable sacrifices (life)
Now, although this is very likely to get very messy, we can see that although we’ve just broken-down both worship and ‘others’, we can now re-link each facet separately, thus each element interacts with the other.
Therefore, while ‘worship in spite of others’ sounds like a fairly narrow, specific topic, actually it’s fairly pervasive and pretty much all-encompassing.
WORSHIP IN SPITE OF PEOPLE IN THE WORLD
Having separated the two strands of worship, in regard to the people round about us that don’t share our faith and belief, I’m going to reunite them.
There isn’t any specific scripture reference I can point to (that I can think of) which says, worship in spite of the lost and the unrepentant, but when we put our minds to it, there’s plenty of examples.
Sometimes I’m reluctant to refer to Christ – obviously, because He was Christ. He was always going to be the perfect poster-child for worshipping in spite of others. That’s true, but for entirely the wrong reasons. So I decided to talk about two fairly similar situations – Daniel, and Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. And I like the apparent irony in these examples, because you remember of course that they are championed because by their refusal to worship, they maintained their worship.
A fiery furnace and a den of lions – we might be forgiven for thinking these are sufficient barriers to worship, but it would seem they weren’t. Oddly enough, they weren’t as grave a set of circumstances as 3 questions by 3 different people, before the cock crowed.
The difference between the men in the Old Testament and the apostle Peter was that Peter lost sight of God for a moment – or at least, his focus was drawn temporarily away from God while he worried more about what? About his own skin! Which is something that Daniel, and Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego didn’t do. Worship in spite of others then, I think, can be fairly summed-up, defined or described as keeping God first, irrespective. And we don’t always do that, do we?
In this regard then, ‘worship in spite of others’ is a rallying-cry to challenge us not to conform to the pseudo-morality of the world: lying, cheating, stealing should be alien to us. Of course. What’s more important – making a good impression in our job, or making the right impression? Fitting in, or standing out? Remember too, most of us will never be faced with the ‘dilemma’ that Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were faced with, nor that of Daniel… although when you read Daniel chapters 3 and 6, you don’t get any indication that they faced a dilemma – indeed, the only person frantic to find a way out of the situation was Darius, when he discovered that Daniel was still worshipping, in spite of others! There’s the lesson right there!
Nevertheless, the type of situation we’ll more likely find ourselves in is that of Peter’s. A situation which doesn’t prevent us from meeting and worshipping together, and one that doesn’t even affect our day-to-day lifestyle either – all Peter did was say ‘No’, ‘No’, ‘No’ instead of ‘Yes’, ‘Yes’, ‘Yes’ – but look at the ramifications and consequences! Three times the Christ asked him if he was with Him! Clearly something fairly insignificant to Peter severely affected his ability to offer his body as a living and acceptable sacrifice!
How often do others attempt to thwart your worship in the way Nebuchadnezzar and Darius tried to, and how often do others subvert your worship by asking you a seemingly innocuous question? Which do you think is more dangerous? Which do you think has a better chance of just pulling your focus off God ever-so-slightly, ever-so-slowly?
WORSHIP IN SPITE OF OTHERS IN THE CHURCH
So we’ve looked at one side of the coin, now we need to address the flip side: worship in spite of others in the church, or to make it less theoretical, worship in spite of you – worship in spite of me.
At once, two points should become immediately clear. This situation should be less common than that which we’ve discussed already, but when it does occur, we should understand that it is altogether more sinister (at least potentially) with more risk and danger than before – these both being held by the same principle – that you and I are supposed to be singing from the same hymn-sheet, we’re supposed to share the same desires, the same goals, the same priorities. So you and I should therefore be constructive and positive influences on each other’s worship – if either of us feel we’re worshipping in spite of the other, then it points to an illness, or at the very least, a significant problem in one or other or both of us.
This is true, I think, in either sphere of worship – whether you feel your corporate worship or your life as worship is obstructed or affected by me, surely that’s a grave issue? Although in my experience, it again seems to always come back to the observation I made earlier: my worship is affected by you when I begin thinking of myself more, and about God less.
Thankfully I don’t hear this very often, but often when there are warring factions, or disagreements, no-one knows about them! Or more accurately, only one of the parties involved knows about the disagreements! I remember years back we took it in turns to give the announcements, and one Sunday morning I mentioned everyone that wasn’t there… except one person that I simply overlooked. And what I’d actually done was that someone had told me Person A wasn’t here because of whatever reason, and I ad-libbed that Margaret and Janet were on holiday, because I knew that. Person B just wasn’t here, and no-one had brought it to my attention… but it was brought to one of the other guys’ attention, who let me know that I’d offended Person B! And when I approached them to apologise and offer this explanation, they wouldn’t let me off the hook! Now fair enough, if you’re upset then you’re upset – but keeping hold of something that’s an honest mistake?
Similarly, I’ve had occasion to discuss a situation between two other members with one of those members, who rather than speak to the other party, would appear to prefer to hold a grudge until the other party realised, presumably by divine revelation, that there was a problem.
This isn’t the way God wants his Church to operate, Church! This – and by this I mean this collection of people, not this location or this building – this is supposed to be our sanctuary, a safe haven. A gathering and a group of people from whom we can draw strength and encouragement. Hebrews 10:24-25 says of worship:
“let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another”
Initially I typed that Hebrews 10 referred to corporate worship, but when I looked at the quote again, it seemed v24 could easily be an exhortation to us in general – “let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.” It’s a fuller statement if we don’t clip its wings by making it only refer to v25, and meeting together.
So here’s my take on general worship in spite of other Christians – you owe it to God and to yourself, and to those that affect you, not to let it affect your worship. Although really, again, there’s our self-importance cropping up again. It should have been enough, it should always be enough, for me to say you owe it to God. There shouldn’t be anything which is so grave that it affects your worship. If there is, you need to resolve it. And if it isn’t grave enough to force you into resolving it, then let it go, and worship in spite of others.
This brings me to the final element of my lesson, and I think I’m almost done – corporate worship in spite of other Christians. If I peer into the dim and distant past, I can still recall a time when a congregation I worshipped with had quite a bust-up. The Sunday after it all came to a head, I was due to preside over the Lord’s Supper. It’s sad the way we use the Bible, and scripture references, as weapons rather than as soothing ointment or bandages. I know, I know, sometimes maybe it’s needed as a weapon… but too often our first response is to reach for the shotgun, rather than the first-aid kid.
I know then, from a lifetime in the Church, that 1 Corinthians 11 is the default go-to passage when you want to make a statement – verses 26-29 say this:
“whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself. ”
Say I’ve had a falling-out with John which by the next Sunday hasn’t been resolved. I’m still mad with him. This passage says I can’t break bread because I’m not in fellowship with John, so I come to the worship service except I don’t break bread. I pass the plate along, and the same with the wine. And this is what I was afraid would happen all those years ago. So in my comments before the communion, I pointed out what is overlooked from this passage – the part that says whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. But wouldn’t the opposite mean that if you don’t eat this bread and drink this cup, you don’t proclaim his death? That’s not a nice thought, is it?
Is Paul’s point in 1 Corinthians 11 that if you’re not in fellowship with your brother or sister, that you shouldn’t take communion? Isn’t his point actually that you should be in fellowship with your brother or sister? Because – and here’s the point we all need to get this morning – what should take preference? That I have an issue that I don’t/can’t/won’t resolve, or that I’ve been called to honour Christ in remembrance? Who do we think we are that we, and our petty squabbles and differences, take precedence over commemorating our Saviour, and worshipping our Lord? It’s a truly preposterous notion.
I said words to that effect that Sunday, and for the most part it fell on deaf ears. People passed the bread and wine without partaking, and I was the closest to tears I’ve ever been in a “worship” service. I remember an anecdote about a similar situation in the States although I think it may have been in an eldership or leadership – the point anyhow, is that the warring factions were brought together in the church building and the meeting commenced with communion… with everyone standing around the table in a circle. The story goes that before communion even began, because they were looking at each other over the emblems, their hearts softened and they set aside their differences.
Maybe it’s over-working the story, but we cannot let ourselves interfere with our view of God. Perhaps what they needed, perhaps what we all need from time to time, is to see others through Christ.
CONCLUSION
This isn’t rocket-science, is it? Perhaps it could have been in someone else’s hands, but I don’t think it is. I don’t think it needs to be either – but sometimes we need a bit of a shake to see what’s staring us in the face.
The conclusion could probably always be the same: there are enough examples in the Bible, and enough teaching, for you to know the conclusion, the point I made at the very outset – there’s simply no other way about it – worship should come first. God demands nothing less and deserves nothing less. But as usual, we need to read our Bibles, we need to study, we need to want to attain that commitment to worship otherwise all the examples and teaching in the Bible, this past 20 minutes or so, the preparation, what God deserves and God demands – they’re neither here nor there if we’re not interested.
And yet that’s always our downfall, isn’t it? Because it’s actually neither here nor there if we’re not interested – yet we manage to persuade ourselves that we are the catalyst, that we’re the main man, the most important part of the equation.
But if we really understood, I mean really understood, then we’d understand worship because we’d understand that our focus should always be on God, rather than ourselves. And then ‘in spite of others’ wouldn’t define our worship any more.
All of which I need to pay more attention to when you’ve offended or annoyed me, or when I’m working with someone that doesn’t get it, or when I’m answering the phone, or driving my car, or when I’m
We need to work on diminishing the ‘in spite of others’ so that the ‘worship’ grows – and/or we need to work on the ‘worship’ and we’ll see the ‘in spite of others’ shrinking.
Thank you for your time.