Family Worship brings your family up-close to the savior who surprises
This Sunday morning in church, the kid in the pew in front of me wore a pair of binoculars slung around his neck. No kid wears binoculars to church who doesn’t intend to use them. Slyly he would sneak the lenses to his eyes, slink down in the pew so as not to draw attention, and he’d scan the chancel, or the choir loft, or the back of the sanctuary. A couple of times he dialed the pastor into closer focus mid-sermon. When the congregation bowed in prayer, it was the perfect opportunity for him to survey the room. No, I wasn’t bowing as I should have been - I was watching binocular-boy. (If we don’t come to worship a little mischievous, we probably aren’t being honest.)
The whole thing made me think of family worship. The kid with the binoculars wasn’t trying to make a theological statement. We rarely ever mean to make theological statements, we just manage to do it accidentally…all the time. So, here’s what the kid was ‘saying’ by wearing binoculars to church, and here’s how family worship answers.
Binocular-kid wasn’t turning up to church this morning as a critic or crank. He wasn’t an objector, or a disruptor, and we know that because he slid down in his pew in an effort NOT to distract. He was just a kid, with a new toy, or an old toy re-discovered. BUT he does present us with a truth - binoculars make far-away things appear close up. The GOOD NEWS of the gospel is, our redeeming GOD isn’t far away. Everything he does is a move nearer to those he loves! We don’t have to search for him. We don’t have to flush him out. He is the GOD who moves near by being present in the Old Testament, and nearer in the New Testament through the incarnation of the SON, and nearer still in the gospel age through the indwelling of the HOLY SPIRIT. Family worship reminds us daily that GOD isn’t distant. He isn’t far off. He isn’t avoiding us. He meets us in family worship through bible reading and conversation, and prayer, and singing, just as he meets us in Sunday morning worship.
Think of binocular-kid one last time, hunched down in his pew, peering through his lenses while worship is going on all around him. He was saying very visibly, “there is really nothing for me here. I’ll have to entertain myself, because this isn’t intended for me.” And that’s the heartbreaking mistake replayed throughout the ages. Even where Sunday morning worship forgets, family worship teaches and trains our kids that worship is for them, every bit as much as it is for adults! In family worship, every part is for them - the bible reading is for them, the conversation is for them, the prayer is for them, the singing is for them. It’s a common error though, and even the disciples made it (Mt. 19:13-15; Mk. 10:13-16; Lk. 18:15-17). Parents were bringing their children to Jesus for him to bless them, and the disciples shooed them away. The master was busy, they said, and his KINGDOM wasn’t child’s play, they said. Overhearing this, Jesus informed them all that the KINGDOM he was bringing had more room in it for needy children than it had for pompous, self-impressed lieutenants. By the time Jesus was done with them, the disciples were red-faced and staring at the tops of their sandals. Family worship is a celebration of the gospel truth that we can gather in the presence of Jesus because Jesus wants to meet us and bless us!
Family worship reminds us binoculars are of no use in finding our GOD - our savior moves near to us, and we should expect to meet him up close. Regularly.
Comments