Romanticising worship

Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter— when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I. “If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. (Isaiah 58:7-10 NIV)

Today is my final day of lectures at ABTS, in Lebanon. It has been a privilege to be here, meeting and teaching Christian leaders and pastors from across the Middle East. However, I am keenly aware of the need not to romanticise.

Whether we live in a free land or a land of oppression, our needs are the same. Care for family. Hopes and ambitions. The desire for security and safety. These are no less important for followers of Jesus here, in a difficult and sometimes dangerous place.

This morning, I woke thinking of both the pain that brothers and sisters here face, in making choices; and also the words of God in Isaiah 58. Too often we think of worship as songs that please. But it is something far more than that. We are saved in order that we will worship. And, conversely, the sign that we are saved is that we go on worshipping. That we hold to the call of caring for the poor and the marginalised and looking to help the impoverished and destitute. To show mercy, pursue justice and walk humbly with our God.

Here is an integral part of our worship - a demonstration that we have been saved into the life of God in Christ - to be taken up in the mission of God. It is when we live and seek to have integrity in these things that we have a credibility to bring to our Evangelism. Evangelism without these things is hollow mockery, a taunt aimed as an arrow at the heart of Christ.

Mercy missions are not simply preparations for evangelism. They are a demonstration, both by congregations and people, of integrity in and ownership of the life that Jesus Christ calls us into.