Save Us

“Save us from worship that is untouched by the misery, ignorance, and injustice of life.”

So this year is the 175th anniversary of the congregation I serve as Senior Pastor, St. Peter’s United Church of Christ in Ferguson, Missouri – a small, but amazing and vital congregation.  In honor of this milestone, we are doing much to celebrate and remember our heritage, as well as look ahead to our future, including monthly spiritual challenges, a church-wide retreat, and a celebration banquet in October.

Another way we are expressing our gratitude for 175 years is in worship – through a sermon series based on the various stained glass windows that depict the life and ministry of the Apostle Peter, our church’s namesake. In our sanctuary there are eight windows, four along each side, so every month, we are taking a Sunday to preach the text that inspired each window. As an added twist, I thought it would be fun to also explore the ways in which this 175 year old German congregation, born from the Evangelical and Reformed (primarily Evangelical) tradition has evolved in its worship. On the Sundays we are focusing on a window, we also model our worship from past services. The great thing about Germans is that they throw nothing away, so through the hard work of a wonderful group of church historians over the years, in our archives we have original bulletins dating back well over 100 years.

The first Sunday of the series, our worship consisted of the exact order, the exact liturgy, and the same hymns from our 75^th anniversary celebration in 1918. The next time, we jumped ahead to 1938, and this coming Sunday (June 24, 2018) our service reflects the tradition of St. Peter’s worship during our Centennial Celebration in 1943.

Today, I was preparing the liturgy and bulletin for the coming Sunday when I came across a line in a unison prayer used in response to the offering in 1943:

“Save us from worship that is untouched by the misery, ignorance, and injustice of life.”

When I first read that line, I could not help but chuckle, because somehow the words “worship,” “misery,” and “German” all seemed to fit nicely together. But then I read the words again.

Then again.

Then again.

And then it hit me – those words, as a part of a response to receiving the tithes and offerings of a faith community, were very radical … very bold … very prophetic … very justice driven … very different than the attitudes brought to many places of worship across our country today.

“Save us from worship that is untouched by the misery, ignorance, and injustice of life.”

I cannot count the number of times I have heard lament (ok, that is too Biblical) COMPLAINING from people that worship is too much of a downer. “People want to be entertained.” They come to worship as a form of escapism – to leave behind the mess we have made of the world and to hear only the good things. I once had a woman come to me and say she wanted to hear more about “the happy Jesus” stories and not the stuff I preached on (I preach from the RCL, by the way). This is why Joel Osteen is so popular. He demands nothing of us, rather filing people with cotton candy for their spirits, which feels good at first, but before long, they all crash from the sugar high it caused and are left with a hollow feeling in their gut.

I do not want worship to be depressing or bland, rather I want it to have substance. I think most people want the same, and I know God wants and expects substance from us in return as a faithful response to who and what God is and for what God does within the world.

“Save us from worship that is untouched by the misery, ignorance, and injustice of life.”

This means our worship of God, must include recognition of the misery and the ignorance and the injustice within the world. It must name and claim, rather than ignore or push to the side the suffering of God’s people and the systems which cause and enable suffering.  Beyond “naming and claiming,” we must also confess and repent of our own role and privilege within these systems. In our current climate, our worship must include conversation, prayers, reflections, and sermons on the topics of racism, poverty, immigration, economy, and idolatry, for within those topics we find the misery of God’s people; within those topics we come to grips with the ignorance of God’s people; within those topics we discover and confess our privilege and our roles in perpetuating the injustices of life. In our worship, we must talk about access to health care; we must talk about gun violence; we must talk about 2500 children being separated from their families and placed in internment camps. If we don’t, then we are simply trying to fill ourselves on cotton candy.

Worship is a form of protest, therefore our worship should protest the causes of misery, ignorance, and injustices plaguing God’s people, in large part because Scripture is the account of God’s protesting of those very things.

Some might find that hard to handle – become dismissive or frustrated by claiming the church as no place discussing “political issues.”  I challenge that frustration and dismissiveness because every day, Jesus spoke politically – he spoke to the very issues the people were facing, and he spoke of a NEW Kingdom, one not led by Caesar or Pilate, rather one spoke to the heart, mind, Spirit, and politics of God.

Our worship of God must look for and recognize the very presence of God.  In those who have suffered misery, who have been harmed by ignorance, who have succumbed to the many great injustices thrust upon them … we shall see God … we shall see the Christ.

“Save us from worship that is untouched by the misery, ignorance, and injustice of life.”

 Our German Evangelical and Reformed elders knew what they were talking about. They were blessed with a deep and rich and sincere piety that was reflected in their prayer life.

May we all be saved from worship that is untouched by the misery, ignorance, and injustice of life. May we all be saved from a life that is immune, indifferent, untouched by those around us who are suffering and hurting. And may we respond to the call of God to “do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly.”

Today, I give thanks to my German predecessors who, 75 years later, have reminded me of the difficult, uneasy, and sometimes scandalous nature found within our worship of God.