A Church Afraid...

This week I ran into an interesting text. 1 Kings 12:25-33 tells the record of Jeroboam's sin. His story is interesting. He was a "mighty man of valor and industrious" [1 Kings 11:28], which grants him a leading position in Solomon's kingdom. One day he encounters prophet Ahijah of Shiloh, and the story states that Ahijah tore the new garment he had and gave 10 pieces to Jeroboam, assuring him that he was now God's man for leading the house of Israel, due to Solomon's apostasy.  There was something in him that God saw of value to actually make him the solution to the problem that Solomon had submerged Israel into.Thus, Jeroboam has the promise of God (1 Kings 11:37-38), to establish his house over Israel as long as he kept the command of the Lord. Irony, Jeroboam is now to Solomon what David (Solomon's father) was to Saul.   Solomon sees that the divine warning becomes a reality (1 Kings 11:11 - 13) and in an satiric twist of fate, he pulls a "Saul" seeking the live of the man that was to "replace" him and his household. Things came to pass according to Yahweh's will. Rehoboam is a fool and follows the idiot counsel of the young advisers (as Yahweh designed it; 1 Kings 12:15), as a result, Jeroboam leads the people in a secession move and is crowned by the seceding 10 tribes. The Promise of Yahweh is a reality in Jeroboam's life, the 10 pieces of new cloth are not a pictograph, but rather palpable fulfillment.   

However, instead of relying on the Word of God and being aware of the gift and responsibility bestowed upon him; Jeroboam forgets the promise and turns to fear, and doubt. "If these people go up to offer sacrifices in the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, then the heart of this people will turn back to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah, and they will kill me and go back to Rehoboam king of Judah." (1Ki 12:27 NKJ).  Fascinating! He is afraid. His spiritual amnesia of the promise, the gift given, and the power of the Giver of the gift; allow for personal panic and insecurity.

So in his fear he devices a brilliant "fear stopping" plan. "Therefore the king asked advice, made two calves of gold, and said to the people, 'It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, O Israel, which brought you up from the land of Egypt!'" (1Ki 12:28 NKJ). Fear and convenience are terrible elements to base worship upon.  Notice the echo from Exodus 32:4 "These are the gods that brought you out of the land of Egypt"(similar reason behind it: "Moses has been gone"... Fear).  He places both idols in strategic places: one in Beth-el (place of significance: Gen 28:16-19, Jacob encountered God there) and also southern point of the new kingdom; and in Dan, northern point of Israel.  Add to this: sacrifices in high places, an open cast call for priesthood (1 Kings 13:33 anyone wanting priest positions was ordained-no GPA or "calling" for THIS Seminary), and the king offering sacrifices to the golden calf in Beth-el; and you got yourself a brand new worship, convenient, easy, and born out of the insecurities and fears of Jeroboam's heart (1 Kings 12:33).

It sounds to me that sometimes, the Seventh-day Adventist Church has a tendency of following Jeroboam's example.  We are a church afraid. You name it, chances are we are scared of it.  Music, drums, jazz, rock, blues, Catholics, Protestants, Democrats, Republicans, Atheists, Muslims, New Agers, the Pope, the European Union and its Sunday Laws.  Meat, coffee, sugar, milk, emotions, rhythm, Spiritual Formation (our most recent fear); Pentecostals, EGW, revival, why, dare I say we are even afraid of the Holy Spirit itself?  So out of fear and insecurity we conjure these warped notions of what worship is and especially what its not.  We black list certain musical instruments, we label certain genres of music as satanic, and we turn pews into barricades, dig up trenches, and  convert churches into "holy" battle grounds. Let the fireworks begin... one side spews spiritual quips, the other launches pseudo EGW grenades, followed by a barrage of biblical gunfire... in the middle some of us sit upon barbwired fences, and when we ask where the positions come from, the inevitable answer we get is: "HERETIC" or "LEGALIST"   

We seem to drive most of our conversations from FEAR and INSECURITY.   We fear that if we mingle with Pentecostals, we'll end up like "the incidents in Indiana before the close of probation" (Famous EGW quote used to "warn" about worship). We fear that if we talk to Catholics and befriend them, they will make us worship the Pope. We fear that if we don't entertain and dazzle our youth they'll go away (they are already gone inside our walls). We are scared of Protestants because they'll blot out "our identity" if we sing "their" songs. We fear that if we dont "let our hair down" then we wont be relevant to the world, we'll be too weird (I guess standards are not important, huh). We are scared of mentioning that we read EGW (we'll be seen as cult, even weirder, right?). We fear our prophetic interpretation of Daniel and Revelation because its too "beastly". We fear that if we bring drums into the Chruch, then worship will turn automatically into a rock concert, and yet we seem to forget similar discussions happened a hundred plus years ago regarding the Piano (an instrument played only in saloons and bars). However today after due canonization and beatification of the aforementioned instrument, we deem it capable of no evil, and actually preferred by God himself... it says so in one of the Testimonies... just cant remember which one [insert sarcasm here]. 

Its fear, convenience, and insecurity that spurs our "conversations".  Its convenient to pull out a list, be it long or short, that conveniently states what goes and what does not. "Both sides are legalistic; the only difference is the length of their lists" (Dr. Ben Maxon).  A list is easy, it takes away thinking and work.  It takes away the wrestling with the texts, it takes away the effort and prayer that must be put into our conclusions.  It just simple to be spoon fed opinions that are guised in either the defense of "truth" or the defense of "spirit", but at the end nothing more than opinion of the party that states them. 

It is just so convenient to say who we should not have dealings with (can you say Catholic with me?) what we should not play at church (old boring hymns) what instruments are Satanic (drums and saxophone anyone?) and what genres of music are not for church (Jazz, Blues and Rock, Satan's unholy musical trinity). Once the list is checked, then we are good.  Be it long (conservative) or be it short (liberal) the list is what dictates our behavior and conversation, and meanwhile the WORD of GOD plays a distant holy second fiddle in the discussion; making our worship either dry and stale with no Spirit (the "corpse" of Christ) or it is so full of clutter, noise and showmanship that Christ has truly left the building.  And so the fight rages on. We spread videos on Facebook, ignore conservatives, continue to dress our cultural preference and chauvinism with "truth", call for "reformation of the music"; which 8 out of 10 times is, a mindless sweeping of whatever is evangelical or has a hint of "worldly" music; (ever notice how bluegrass and country are never attacked? I guess God has a Garth Brooks on his iPod) but never an honest call to actually put aside our insecurities and fears, presuppositions and pick up the Bible, and for once have a living experience with the Book, that actually might bring us together in our worship and theology. 

Our problem seems to be this insecurity of "who we are" as individuals, and as a church.  We dont know who we are because dare I say we don't know WHO HE IS? Hence we conjure these lopsided, uni-dimensional images of God out of our shallow experiences with HIS WORD and we shove them down peoples throats and never really get to an honest Spirit guided, prayer drenched exegetical reading of whatever text you use to defend whatever position you defend out of whatever preference you have, thus our worship is warped... like Jeroboam's.  “Proper worship in any age is critically predicated upon adequate and accurate knowledge of the God worshiped… NO matter how ceremonially elaborate, emotionally rousing, or sermonically eloquent, worship that is not offered from a proper understanding of who God is falls short” … “the nature of proper worship must take precedence over discussion of secondary paraphernalia or liturgical trappings of worship.” [Andreas Kostemberger, John BECNT, 156.] Imagine that, a non-Adventist actually saying something worth listening to.

Adventists are a Church Afraid and I am getting tired of our church not remembering the gifts and trusting the Giver.  It is cumbersome, when the church forgets that "you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, "Abba, Father." (Rom 8:15 NKJ)... and again "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. (2Ti 1:7 NKJ) also... "Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. (2Co 3:17 NKJ).
  
Fear impedes us to move.  Fear impedes us to search, it stagnates us.  Fear does not allow for "Spirit and Truth" to merge and marry in our worship, hence our worships and our worship discussions are a hobbled mess, of either too much law and no spirit (the case Jesus condemns in John 3) or too much "spirit" with no knowledge (Case addressed by Jesus in John 4).  

Perhaps its time we let the Spirit act, and guide our worships and our conversations, leading us to truth (Isn't that its job?), and finally merge the two elements that are the makeup of God's TRUE worshipers, "SPIRIT AND TRUTH" (John 4:34).  As we allow the Spirit to guide us into all truth, we'll stop rowing with one oar. Both sides have the missing oar, or parts of it. Only by getting together, can we row in a forward direction and not just in frustrating circles.  Rowing a row boat down the stream is not a merrily experience when its done with your hands, or one oar... hence Spirit and Truth. Quit the fear and fear mongering will ya?