“Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends! We’re so glad you could attend...step inside! step inside!” Emerson, Lake and Palmer

My years in Baptist Babylon taught me some very important lessons concerning the simple act of going to Church. Synergistic religions focus on the congregations interaction with the Preacher, song leader and the invitation and the response to those things and calls it “worship”. Confessional religions, especially the Lutheran Church believe that the congregation are to be “receptors” of the blessing and interaction of God with His Church...this is called the Divine Service; two different attitudes and two different outcomes.

If you will take notice, Jesus spent considerable time reducing His following to the point that after the crucifixion, in the upper room there were gathered only 120 followers of Jesus the Christ compared to almost a city crying hossana as He entered Jerusalem on a donkey. Today though is a different story altogether. Churches today seemed to be caught up in the idea that growth is equal or at the very least, an indicator of God’s blessing on a ministry. Like an infection in a warm, damp climate; the flesh becomes most resourceful to pump up attendance as a means to get more people under the sound of the a biblical message.

For instance: I received two notices from local churches (they were addressed to “resident”); one a Baptist church and the other a non-denominational Bible church. The Baptist church, on April 12 is featuring the Easter Bunny, a carnival of sorts, free food. The Bible church is featuring a series of messages on what the bible says about stress, marriage, and various other topics of emotional conflicts with, I am certain, a blurb at the end about Jesus dying so that you could have good emotional health.

What does God say? God expects obedience rather than sacrifice, worship in spirit and in truth. How is this accomplished within Lutheran Divine Service? Hearing the Law and Gospel, properly preparing ones self for the Lord’s Supper in order to receive what God has designed for us to receive: grace through the True Presence of the Body and Blood of Jesus the Christ. Obedience is our response to the Law; spirit and truth is God’s response to us in return.