"I was glad when they said to me, 'Let us go to the house of the Lord!' And now, here we are, standing inside your gates, O Jerusalem." (Psalm 122:1, New Living Translation)
Among the many things the pandemic has revealed is something God has been trying to get through to us believers for centuries: worship of the living God is not confined to a sometimes closed or quasi-opened building. We are all mobile temples who carry His presence in us and with us wherever we go. We were meant to worship God at any time, anywhere. But at the same time, God also designed the purposeful gathering of His family in a particular location to be something akin to a stick of dynamite. It's "where the tribes go up"— different people from different neighborhoods, backgrounds, and interests with one common purpose, to...
...Worship the Lord who alone gives us life and breath and everything else we need.
Whether spaced apart and with masks on now or shoulder to shoulder once more when the pandemic passes, sparks of goodness and encouragement and faith-building occur when iron sharpens iron, elbows rub elbows, and completely different people who may never hang out with one another on a regular basis are of one mind about the incredible, daily reality of the living God working in their lives. It’s what happens when the dynamite Spirit of the living God swoops in and galvanizes it all, refreshing and re-energizing a bunch of imperfect people to go out the door and be the Church again for another week, wherever that may be.
If we’re not careful, though, doing all of that every Sunday can become routine and begin to feel like you’re going through the motions. Good. Not bad. But mostly feeling like you’re doing your Christian thing. Life gets messy and can preoccupy. And then, “Oh look, here comes another Monday… “And sometimes, you’re reminded that it also means dealing with, well, people, and the idea of avoiding that can sound really appealing.
And so God invented football! And Super Bowl Sunday is a good day to be awakened and even humbled a bit….
Because millions of people really love football. They can't wait for Sunday. They think about "it" all week long, even in the midst of their daily stresses and routine. "It" keeps them going until that hour on Sunday afternoon when they can either enter the building with thousands of others or enter it vicariously through a 48-inch flat screen. The "it" of the game may mean one thing to one fan and another thing to someone else, but whatever "it" is, "it" has captivated their collective attention, stirred their expectancy and anticipation, and they cannot wait.
Whenever the whole idea of gathering in a building or joining the tribe online on any given Sunday feels a bit routine, it is good to think of the expectancy of the football fan. Better than that, unlike football, it is good to know that there is one very definable and powerful "it" that believers can always cling to and that should jolt alive any ho-hum Sunday into a day of worship expectancy and anticipation:
The cross and the empty tomb.
Even though none of us may ever fully understand the mystery of it all in this lifetime, when worship/church routine tries to creep in, all we have to do is look to the cross once more. That's “it!" Because through that cross, and Jesus' final gasping words on behalf of all who would believe — “It is finished! — something more amazing than the best football game ever played took place: the veil of separation between us and God was ripped open once and for all. Not only that, we are no longer destined for an eternity of death because the Savior of the world didn’t stay in the tomb but rose to life again and went back Home to be with His Father. And to this very day, He continues to intercede for us as we go on our daily journey.
This grandest of all “it” means we can regularly and always be in God's presence in every situation, and can approach Him with boldness and confidence. Every single minute of every single day... the God who always says "Yes" to His own promises, the God who has and still does the impossible, for Whom nothing is too difficult, and Who is the God of all comfort and wisdom.
I am reminded of my mom in her golden years, when walking and standing too long were painful and slow. It would take her forever to get from the car to her seat in church each Sunday, but nothing was going to stop her. And when the songs of praise and worship began, she wanted to be helped to her feet so she could grab the chair in front of her with one hand and have the other free for expressing her love for Jesus…
"Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe”…it’s more than a great song to sing, it’s a battle cry to follow the lead of the endlessly passionate football fan (and my mom) and always be eager to worship with our very lives, both together and one-on-one, every single Sunday and especially all the Mondays-through-Saturdays to come.
"Salvation is not mainly the forgiveness of sins, but mainly the fellowship of Jesus. Forgiveness gets everything out of the way so this can happen. If this fellowship is not all-satisfying, there is no great salvation. If Christ is gloomy, or evenly calmly stoical, eternity will be a long, long sigh." —John Piper
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