In the spirit of love, I would like to remind all of us of things that we already know but from time-to-time need reminding of.
What is reverence? It is the feeling, or attitude, of deep respect tinged with awe and veneration. It is the spirit which should permeate our coming together each first day of the week. If we think of that definition and think of that attitude which we should express, letting our minds wander on the scriptures, we find many examples who, in a very reverent way, approach their God. Think first of all of Moses and turn up, Ex. 3:1-6.
Another example is Neh. 8:3, The 7th month had come, And he read from it facing the square before the Water Gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of the men and the women and those who could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law.”
There, was an example of an assembly listening to the Word of God with an attitude of reverence and respect to the things being said.
When Ezra Opened the Book. . . the People Stood
“And Ezra the scribe stood on a wooden pulpit which they had made for the purpose; and beside him stood Mattithiah, Shema, Anaiah, Uriah, Hilkiah, and Masejah on his right hand; and Pedaiah, Misha-el, Malchijah, Hashum, Hash-baddanar, Zechariah, and Meshullam on his left hand. And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was above all the people; and when he opened it all the people stood. And Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God; and all the people answered, ‘Amen, Amen,’ lifting up their hands; and they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground.”
So this special time, this special assembly in Israel, was characterized by reverence for the things of God. The supreme example of reverence, as in all things, is the Lord Jesus Christ, and we can picture Him in our minds’ eye in prayer to His Heavenly Father; we can see Him on that Mt. of Transfiguration; we can see Him at Gethsemane; we can listen to Him as He shares with His disciples those final words at the last supper; and we can sense in Him that reverence which should be a part of our behavior before God. His was a lifetime of reverently waiting upon His God.
As we travel with him, we see His reactions to the lack of reverence in His ministry. Turn now to John 2:13 where we see that Jesus comes upon a scene where there should have been reverence for the things of God. “The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers and overturned their tables.”
How Did Jesus React?
We can imagine that scene quite easily. The noise of animals in the temple of God; the noise of money being changed in the temple of God. It must have been a circus! How did Jesus react to circuses where there should have been a temple? “And making a whip of cords, he drove them all, with the sheep and oxen, out of the temple; and he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. And he told those who sold the pigeons, ‘Take these things away; you shall not make my Father’s house a house of trade.’ His disciples remembered that it was written, ‘Zeal for thy house will consume me.’ The Jews then said to him, “What sign have you to show us for doing this?’
We have a right to be loud and noisy and have our animals and change money in the temple of God! We have a right to do that! What sign do you show us? And Jesus speaks to them of the destruction of this temple, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up,” and the Jews take Him literally. “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days ?” And John tells us, But he spoke of the temple of his body.”
Jesus was attempting to teach them respect for the temple of God, and He is attempting to teach the same thing to us. Those who honor the temple of God, whether it is the literal temple in Jerusalem or the Lord Jesus Christ, will live and behave in that temple in a reverential way. If there is no respect for the physical temple of God, there can be no respect either for the symbolic temple of God. Those Jews, barely three years after this incident, would go about to destroy the Lord Jesus Christ. Later on in His ministry, that same scene is repeated. Matt. 21:12,13, after His triumphal entrance into Jerusalem, Jesus, enters the temple of God and again needs to drive out all who bought and sold in the temple and overturns the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. And he said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer’; but you make it a den of robbers.”
There is a time and a Place to do Business
So Jesus’ reaction to a lack of reverence is very clear. There is an appropriate place to change money; there is an appropriate place to do business, but it is not in the temple of God. As we show respect to the physical temple of God, we need to show our respect as well to that symbolic temple of God, Jesus Christ. What is the proper attitude that we should express as we enter into our meeting together? Habakkuk has given us a hint. “The Lord is in His holy temple, let all the earth keep silence before him.” Solomon in Eccl. 5:12 has some very similar words: “Guard your steps when you go to the house of God; to draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools; for they do not know that they are doing evil. Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven, and you upon earth; therefore let your words be few.”
What about us as individuals: what about us as an ecclesia? Are we as reverent as we could be? What specific areas in our worship together do we need work on, and what areas can we, as individuals and as a community, improve upon. Perhaps we can exhort ourselves and examine our behavior with this question: is what I am doing during the meeting time helping or hindering my attitude of reverence before God ? A related question and one equally as important—what effect does my behavior have on the brothers and sisters around me and on the young people and the children who are watching? We would like to consider a number of things that could be distractions to us and then suggest some practical steps that might help us improve.
The three areas we would like to think about as possible distractions are: our children; our own behavior as brothers and sisters; and our community behavior. First of all, our children. When we think of our children, we should think of ourselves because they look to us for patterns.
Three Areas to Consider
What would be their reaction if they saw every single brother and sister in the meeting seated five minutes before eleven o’clock quietly meditating upon the things of God ? How would they react? Perhaps they might begin to quiet down a little sooner than they do. Those with little ones do have some special problems, which require special handling. What about eating during the meeting time? We need to be thinking about those two questions posed to you as we make arrangements for our little ones to eat. Is what I am doing helping my own reverence before God; is what I do with my child affecting the brothers and sisters around me. Perhaps we can illustrate the point by sharing an experience.
It was one of those beautifully warm spring days. Ahead of us was a young one who brought a great big peanut butter sandwich to meeting that day and, as children do, the peanut butter sandwich was opened up. On that nice warm day, the smell of peanut butter wafted through the hall. All of us who were sitting any where near the little one were smelling peanut butter. It’s very difficult, when one is a bit hungry and a little bit uncomfortable, to concentrate on the service with the smell of peanut buter in the air. Is there a better way to deal with the needs of our little ones ?
What about reading material for our little ones during meeting? From the age of at least 12 years old onwards, our young people have the capacity to benefit from following along during the meeting. Comic books and popular magazines are not appropriate reading material during Sunday meetings. Those materials arc not allowed at public schools. Should they be at this more important “school” ?
Is Your Stomach a Distraction?
So much for the children; now to those of us who are adults. The time for our activities on a Sunday morning is between 11 and 12:30 and so, by the very nature of our schedule, we come together to think of God’s Word, to remember His Son, at a time when most of us are used to eating. Does your mind ever wander to what is cooking in the oven at home during the Sunday morning meeting? Perhaps we can benefit from the practice of a brother I know. Because he did have that problem, he ate a piece of fruit between Sunday school and meeting and so his stomach was not a distraction. Sometimes, if we’ve forgotten to take that snack, we become so hungry that we have to have something in our mouth. Some of us carry little mints and candies. That’s fine so long as that mint or candy doesn’t distract others around us. The noise of opening a purse and getting to the bottom of it, where they always are, or opening a wrapper of crackling paper so that those all over the hall can hear, again takes us back to our questions: is what I am doing helping or hindering my own attitude of reverence toward God; and is what I am doing affecting the reverence of my brothers and sisters around me?
What about talking during meeting? Certainly our children are instructed not to talk during meeting; maybe we, as adults, need to show them the example. From time to time some talking is necessary. If talk is necessary, it needs to be done quietly and without attracting attention.
What about shows of affection? Perhaps an example will illustrate the point. There was a young, engaged couple who were sitting two or three rows ahead of us. Their show of affection, from the beginning of the memorial service to the end, was extremely distracting for everyone who sat behind them. There is a time, there is an appropriate place, for affection: it is not during Sunday morning meeting.
What about those of us who are responsible for disciplining our young ones. There are times when, for whatever reason (it’s windy, they haven’t had enough sleep, we haven’t had enough sleep) discipline is required for our young ones. What is the appropriate way to do that? Again, an example will illustrate the point. The young boy in the family was acting up that particular day and the mother decided she had had enough. Without a word being spoken, she turned and administered a healthy spank and then involved herself in the worship service. A more appropriate way to discipline our children, is outside the hall and with an attempt to teach our little ones in a loving way what is the proper behavior we should have before our God.
Is What I am Doing Helping?
What of our community? We have some community habits that can be very distracting. If you were blind and happened to walk into any Christadelphian memorial service, you would know when Bible readings were done by the sound of Bibles closing and being zipped into their covers. We do that without thinking; and again, we ask the questions: is what I am doing helping or hindering the attitude of reverence of those around me; is it affecting my own reverence before God ? Another problem we seem to have as a community is talking before meeting. Sometimes it is barely one minute prior to meeting before all of us are sitting on our seats quietly waiting the beginning of the most important hour and a half that we spend all week long. Bible school is almost worse. How many times have you seen the presiding brother, 10 minutes before the class, get up to speak and you can’t even hear him! Then he speaks again, and they must have turned the microphone up because you begin to hear him. Finally, the third time, we get the idea that we are supposed to sit down and be quiet and prepare our minds to listen to the class. Why does the pianist, each first day of the week, begin to play the piano 5 to 10 minutes before meeting? Is that the signal for each of us to talk a little bit louder so we can hear ourself over the noise of the piano ? Of course not. That is the signal for us to sit down and quietly begin to prepare our hearts and our minds for the exercise before us. What about the hymn afterwards ? Is it played so that we might continue that sweet meditation on the things of God or is it a warm up time for getaway? The hymn afterwards is designed to continue our meditation.
What practical things might we do to help ourselves to have that proper feeling of reverence before God ? Following are some simple but practical suggestions to help us toward this goal.
Proper rest
It sounds almost too simple, doesn’t it? Sunday begins at bedtime Saturday night. If we or our children are up late Saturday night, we are going to have a very distracting Sunday, an uncomfortable Sunday, and perhaps even a very boring Sunday. Why ? Quite simply, we are too tired to pay attention. Sunday begins at bedtime Saturday night.
Proper food.
We mention the example of the brother who ate a small snack between Sunday school and meeting, and if we can’t discipline our minds against what our stomach is telling us, perhaps our stomach needs some help. So let’s give it some help between Sunday school and meeting.
Let’s have that little snack; let’s have that cup of coffee or whatever it takes to allow us to concentrate fully on the things of God.
Proper clothing
If your shoes are too tight, even if your stomach may be full, you will be thinking about your feet all the way through the memorial service.
Proper seating
A rule in one ecclesia is to have all the families with small children sit in the back two or three rows in the meeting hall so that those who are struggling to teach their young ones to sit quietly and be attentive during meeting do not distract those who are sitting further up.
Proper thinking
But really, when you think about it, all these are external. The most important thing we need to remember, the most important preparation that we need to undergo, is proper thinking. Our meditation prior to memorial service, our involvement and our concentration on our readings, the hymns, the prayers, are all things that we need to work on. All of these things have been designed to lead us up to the breaking of bread. Our presiding brother spends time choosing the hymns; our pianist spends time practicing those hymns; there has been a great deal of preparation by all those involved in the meeting so that they, in service to us, will help all of us to worship our Heavenly Father. As we involve ourselves in the hymns, the readings, and prayers, we help ourselves to form that spirit of reverence that is pleasing to God. At every single meeting, unnoticed by the natural eye, stands Jesus. He still walks in the midst of His ecclesia; He still listens to our thoughts; He still observes us even when we do things no one else seems to notice. May we, by our reverence, honour Him and the Father who so lovingly sent Him to us, and may our Sunday meeting together be the expression of all we have thought and done the week before. “The Lord is in His Holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him.”
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One