:: in.a.mirror.dimly ::

Soldiers ask the hard questions civilians can avoid if they so choose.

They have to face a fellow human being and decide whether or not that person represents a threat that is worth killing.

They have to leave their families behind and live in the unreal world where death could be waiting behind every corner.

They have to believe in their mission each day, even if they have their doubts.

They return home with the memories of the war alive in their minds.

Soldiers Who Doubt

I read a lot of history, and I’m always struck by how many veterans from the Second World War returned home with a strong commitment to peace.

I also read and listen to the accounts of veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, and if you read enough of them, you’ll find that many soldiers over there are wondering what the heck they’re doing over there. While some are quite certain about these wars, there are many who are afraid to voice their doubts.

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Worship: From Slaughtering Lambs to Shirts and Ties

In college I used to dress up for church with a shirt and tie. Every Sunday I pulled out my tie rack and matched a tie with a shirt. I never had to match my pants to anything since eighty percent of my pants were khakis. That’s a long story.

Actually, it isn’t. I didn’t want to match my tie with my shirt AND my pants.

Somewhere in my conservative Christian brain, I knew I needed to dress up for church. However, I became a little wrapped up in my church dress code. I was dressing up to project a certain image of myself.

One time God convicted me to give my favorite tie away. It was a little awkward to explain over breakfast with my friend on Sunday morning as I handed the tie over, but I’ll bet you anything that he’s still wearing that tie to this day.

Dressing up for church is fine, especially if you feel that you’re honoring God in some way by it. As for me, I’ve “graduated” to sandals, cargo shorts, and a polo shirt. As I read the Bible, I’m convinced that worshipping God has a lot more to do with actually loving God at a heart level and the forms we use are interchangeable depending on our cultures.

God is really flexible. No tie? No problem! No ox to slaughter? How about a dove? No dove? Well, he’s just glad you came to offer your love to him.

When God began to shape the Israelites into his chosen people who would act as a light to the nations, he first addressed the particulars of how they should worship their Lord. I’ve been reading Deuteronomy lately, and it’s striking to see God basically starting over again with Israel after the first generation died off in the wilderness.

While Moses is walking the Israelites through the particulars of how to worship God and God alone, he regularly hammers home the same theme, “Love the Lord your God.” The word love comes up over and over again.

If we fast-forward to the prophets, we may recall that they often criticized the Israelites for honoring God with their lips, while their hearts remained far from God. They delighted in the forms of worship, but failed to actually love God.

On one occasion, God said through the prophet Isaiah that their burnt offerings were useless because they failed to love and obey the Lord (see Isaiah 1). He wanted their whole-hearted devotion.

It’s particularly telling that even though God made his requirements for worship known in Leviticus and Deuteronomy, the Psalmist picked up on the central goal of our worship when he wrote in Psalm 40:6-8:

Sacrifice and offering you did not desire—
   but my ears you have opened—
   burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not require.
Then I said, “Here I am, I have come—
   it is written about me in the scroll.
I desire to do your will, my God;
   your law is within my heart.”

It strikes me that God chose animal sacrifices and a temple because they were culturally significant at the time of the Israelites. They were vehicles or tools they could use to show their devotion to him.

They sacrificed animals because they were agrarian people who relied on animals to survive. They worshipped in a temple because that’s how people connected with deities then. God mercifully met them where they were and used familiar forms to teach them the importance of worshipping them with everything they had.

The basics of worshipping God remain the same—love the Lord your God. However, the particulars tend to be more flexible than we would imagine.

Tomorrow’s Post: Is the New Testament the Last Word on Worship?

Continuing my meditations on the book of Romans…

With a clear picture of salvation and God’s historic plan of redemption into the present in place, this letter moves into more practical matters, namely how to live holy lives as God’s people. It is good for the Romans to know they should count themselves dead to sin, alive to Christ, and empowered in the Holy Spirit, but what does this look like on a day to day basis?

The answer is a daily offering of themselves to God, becoming living sacrifices that are surrendered to God but still able to live obedient, holy lives. This is a difficult matter, as it’s easy to make pleasing one’s self the primary goal of each day. However, Paul reminds his readers that Christ has done as much for them and that such a commitment will allow God to renew their minds. This will lead to the kind of holy lives that he says they should be living. In addition, God will make his will known to them.

The result of this will be holy living where the believers can use their gifts in service to others. Even with these gifts in use, the Romans are reminded not to judge themselves according to their usefulness or magnificence of their gifts. Their measure for themselves is directly tied to their faith.

This strikes me as a good check on whether believers are seeking first God’s Kingdom and offering themselves to God daily for direction. Faith is the means by which such steps are taken, believing that God can direct and empower his people to live in holiness and obedience.

With these things in mind, Paul adds on a series of commands and pleas for right living among the believers in Rome. They are called to a counterintuitive and countercultural lifestyle of self-sacrifice and love that is simply not possible for those who have failed to offer themselves to God as helpless, God-dependent sacrifices. The power of self interest must be laid down before God in order to love neighbors, provide for them, and to meet enemies with prayers and blessings.