What?

 "For where two or three gather together as my followers, I am there among them.” Matthew 18:20

I've heard this verse used in seemingly endless ways, usually to make ourselves feel better about a poorly attended gathering. "There may not be many others here, but He is," we say or think, and this serves as some kind of balm to mask our disappointment. I'm not putting anyone down who's thought this way. I have myself, but like so many other Scriptures, I think we completely miss Christ's meaning in His words. A song I heard this morning got me thinking on a deeper level about it all, and I'll try to share some of my thoughts with you. I hope they come across with some clarity.

The lyric of the song, sund by Elevation Church's worship team, asked, "What would you do if He walked in the room?" Praise? Dance? Leap for joy? All of these? Before any of that, I wonder, in most of what we call worship in the church today, do we have any expectation of His actually appearing among us? Yes, I know He's there.He said He was. But as someone said, we too often sing and speak about Him as if He wasn't really there Not really very much with and among us. If Jesus actually did literally walk into our sanctuary this coming Sunday morning, how would we respond? Would we even recognize Him if He did? Singing and preaching about Him doesn't mean we actually know and are experiencing Him. Would we recognize Him, and if we did, would He really be welcome? More, if He did come, would we actually be there to behold Him? Or would be like the disciple Thomas, who was occupied with other things and missed the first appearance of Jesus to all His disciples after the resurrection. How many of us would just be pulling into the parking lot? I'm only half joking with that question.

My foremost thought in all of this is that our first response should not be singing, shouting, dancing, or praising. It should be that we are struck silent in awesome wonder at His glory in our midst. Throughout His Word, when He appeared in the Old Testament and New, those who saw Him simply fell on their face before Him. Unable to speak. Unable to do anything but worship Him. How many of us would be unable to do this because we simply have so little experience with true worship? 

What would we do if He walked into the room.....right now? One day, in one way or another, He will be before each of us. What will we do? It certainly is very unlikely it will be what we've been doing.......Just some of my thoughts for each of us to meditate upon.

Blessings,
Pastor O