May 24, 2007
Reversal
Fox News reported that a Bakersfield, CA school district will once again put Christmas break and Easter break on the school calendar. These titles were previously removed in favor of generic terms such as Winter and Spring break. According to a school board representative, “We don’t want to be incorrect in order to be politically correct.” The speaker went on to say that going back to traditional holiday titles represents the view of the [predominately] Christian population in his school district. I think the church too has removed traditional words from its vocabulary for the sake of society’s acceptance. For me, ‘worship’ is not the same as, nor can it be replaced by ‘celebration’.
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Gail;
-----What a great juxtaposition! And how refreshing to hear of intelligence surfacing in places of public administration! The game the liberals have been playing for several decades is kind of a bait and switch with terminology. They bait you with the innocence of the “more understandable” terminology, then they switch the proper substance out for their selected perversion. By such strategy we now have infanticide for “a woman’s right to choose”, anti-Christian bigotry for ”separation of church and state”, intolerant thought control for “tolerance”, and sexual perversion for “gay” (my point will be made when the thought police read that one!)
-----I thought it was brilliant of you to juxtapose the bait and switch happening in the church between celebration and worship beside the “Spring/Winter break” for “Christmas and Easter” ploy. This one is a subtle trick because celebration is a part of our new life. But it is not worship. Nor can it serve any purposes of worship. Of the 65 times the term “celebrate”, “celebrating”, or “celebration” appear in the NIV, never is it used as the contemporary leaders use it: celebrate the Lord. One time it comes close in Psalms 145:7, “…celebrate Your abundant goodness…” Three quarters of the times these words are used in the NIV they are used to refer to celebrating the Passover, a feast, or a festival, not the Lord. The rest of the occurrences regard celebration in general.
-----Of course the Passover, the feast, and the festival are about the Lord. That should mean we are celebrating the Lord when we are celebrating the Passover, right? OK. Then use the same manner of speaking and logic to make correct sense out of “worship the Passover.” Obviously celebration lacks something that worship has. Celebration and worship both acknowledge and admire. But celebration is about what I have received -- from simple emotional joy to substantive food and shelter to eternal life. But worship is about acknowledging authority, rule, and guideline. Worship is about the Lord and the One Who has given, and the heap upon the floor that I am before Him. That expression is absent in celebration. I often wonder if that is precisely why so many are attracted to churches that celebrate only.
-----Of the 177 times the NIV used the words “worship” or “worshiping”, 73 times the words expressly stated worship of God. 11 times they stated worship at a particular place of God’s with worship of Him implied, such as worship at His altar, or at His footstool, or at His holy mountain. 18 times it merely stated worship in which the context supplied God as the object. Twice it referred to an idea such as “worship in spirit.” The other 73 occurrences dealt with worship of idols, false gods, spirits, etc. I really don’t desire to go into some lengthy explanation as to how this equates to a relatively greater importance given worship by the Scriptures. And how much more person to person worship is than celebration should be just as apparent.
-----I do not desire to be difficult with my celebrating brothers and sisters, but I just do not think it is healthy to turn all of our time with Him over to gleefulness. I feel the carefree attitudes of gleeful celebration will fail to achieve the depths of imagination it sometimes takes to sympathize with another human being. Especially if that other person’s circumstances are not quite so gleeful. And this is what we have been called to -- submission to God’s authority, as well as, submission to our brother’s needs. It takes the austerity of worship to recognize both, and the vitality of celebration to bring results to life. The fact that we must not snuff out celebration is not the command to bury worship. And playing the bait and switch game with the idea of a “worship celebration” is just as downright deceitful as those other “progressives” who have been baiting and switching our culture back into barbarianism.
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