NextSunday Contemplations

PRVIOUS CONTEMPLATIONS - from MAY - 2022
artwerx: "Holy Spirit" by Lance Brown,
a Christian Artist from Arlington, Texas.
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WORSHIP PLEASES GOD
-01 May - Together and in Private
Mark 1.32-39; Hebrews 10.19-25

-08 May - Penitence, Not Pride
Luke 18:9-14

-15 May - Others Not Self
1 Corinthians 14.15-17, 21-33a

-22 May - God, Not Us
Ephesians 1.3-14

29 May - Lavish, Not Stingy
Revelation 5
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artwerx: https://society6.com/product/holy-spirit-painting1703329_framed-print?sku=s6-10062907p21a12v52a13v54

29 May - Lavish, Not Stingy Worship
Revelation 5
Does my worship do justice to God’s majesty?
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https://flypaper.soundfly.com/discover/the-lasting-legacy-of-the-slave-trade-on-american-music/
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The centerpiece of this vision of worship is the song of praise to God and to the Lamb sung by the worshipers around the throne and by all of God’s vast creation. Music is one of life's greater inspirations and it has the power to drawn out some of our deepest emotional and spiritual responses.

The original purpose of John's Revelation was to provide pastoral encouragement and hope for churches struggling to remain true to the gospel in difficult circumstances. Today this portion of the Christian Scriptures has often been highjacked as a key to understanding the “end times.” And it may be tempting to treat this highly apocalyptic text in a way that defies it's author's intent. Therefore, we need a more responsible approach to this book that reflects how those who first received its messages were likely to understand it before rushing headlong into a kind of popular occultic speculation.

Revelation calls people to choose between the worship of God or the empire. In the deep valley of pain and struggle, Revelation calls upon its readers and interpreters to sing a new song — a song that transcends the present pain and reaches into the divine future. The song of a worshipping congregation overturns the present reality of pain and transforms that reality into a prophetic reality — where worship penetrates the present darkness and we transform it together into a world where God’s vision is realized.

The taking of the Scroll by the Lamb results in him receiving full praise, signaling the end of the reign of Caesar. Theologically, worshipping God and singing songs of joy frightens the devil and the oppressor and worship is such a noise in the ears of the evil one (see Luke 10:18). Just as in the southern tradition, freedom songs were frightening to slave owners, they were songs of defiance, faith, and hope for a better future.

Similarly, worship songs bring hope in what may seem to be a hopeless world of terrorism, anxieties, depression, cancer, wars, hunger, and poverty. The song of these 24 elders is the song of Israel revived and it resounds with the same vitality as in 1 Chronicles 29:11.
Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power
and the glory and the majesty and the splendor,
for everything in heaven and earth is yours.
Yours, Lord, is the kingdom;
you are exalted as head over all.

Jesus' disciples encounter the problem of natural evil. Darrell Pursiful, editor of our Formations curriculum series expands the question by asking, "why are things in this world less than perfect? Why do people suffer? Why are some people born blind?" Can God do anything about it?

Our instinct is to think of this as an intellectual problem. Like the disciples, we want to know why. And if we’re not careful, we’ll settle for simplistic answers that usually involve pointing our fingers at someone.

I WONDER if the problem of evil Isn’t something we need to figure out but something God calls us to confront: not a puzzle to be solved but an opportunity to do good?

An alternate translation of Jesus’ words in John 9:3 is “Let God’s works be revealed!” But that is not so much an answer to the disciples’ question at all; it’s a call to action and a call for compassion.

If only we can see it.
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art by Flannery Wilson