June 10, 2014
Return on Investment
Last Sunday’s worship
service lacked any resemblance of decorum. Granted, we had a few visitors, but
they were not responsible for all the distractions. The same people made
multiple trips to the bathrooms, a fussy baby, one family of three adults
leaving the building for no apparent reason and returning a short time later, a
child getting a doughnut and people arriving late. One woman walked past me on
her way out the front door and, as though I were a school monitor said,
“I’ll be back.” I know that God’s Word does not return void, but with all the
distractions I’m not even sure how much of the Word I actually
heard. “… so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me
empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I
sent it” (Is 55:11 NIV).
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Gail;
-----Paul actually told the Corinthians to lower the distractions in their worship services. He must have shared some of your sentiments. Don’t take me wrong; when you speak of these distractions I think of using a little more concentration. But when Paul speaks of distractions, I wonder what Merrill-Lynch has that he didn’t. Nobody seems to have listened.
-----Things happen in the bustle of this world. Everybody has his own agendas, one short term and more long term. If you wanted to analyze them down to the gnat’s little toe, you’d notice more agendas in the world than people. Wherever you go, then, even in church, you meet people busy doing their agendas.
-----God’s word certainly has for Him much return on investment. If you look carefully you can see it amidst the world’s bustle. So, focusing on those who’s lives are straightening forth and waxing salty in response to God’s word, you see a different return on investment. This is not a replacement return, like “instead of”. It is an additional return congruent with the Lord’s return.
-----For not only has the Lord invested. Everyone invests a little when they go to church. Those who bustle back and forth to the bathroom and in and out of the building and to and from the donut platter have, anyway, invested that tiny bit of being at church. They will leave with a tiny return, too. Others invest their back pockets firmly into their chairs for the duration, and they leave with more return. Yet a few invest concentrated focus into the worship and leave with the greatest return. The life we have with God is a partnership. Partners participate. Both invest.
-----Paul was the first Merrill-Lynch. In his day people listened. Today, we feign listening. I must get over my vexation about this. It can be no other way, for in it (the church, though it feigns listening) He makes known His manifold wisdom to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places. Even in His own people's making more Merrill-Lynch response for their pocket book than for their soul is an important message to His heavenly host.
-----Peter said, “As each has received a gift, employ it for one another…whoever speaks, as one who utters oracles of God.” (I Pet 4:10-11) Somehow we’ve come to think preaching is the Word of God. This can at best be metaphorical. If it were actual, then God’s a charlatan. There‘s diametrically opposed propositions issuing from many pulpits, and often from the same preacher. We greatly overrate preachers and preaching. That’s why we suffer so many denominations. The distraction vexing Paul was disorderliness in the way speakers - plural - participated in the meeting - singular. Every excuse in the book is given for having only one dude in the pulpit. But ours is not the pattern Paul taught, and his education included some credits earned in heaven. I agree with one excuse: few people are trained and knowledgeable in the Word enough to present in the service. This reason rises from the lack of His people’s continuous investment. Few have received enough return to share.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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