"Worship demands sacrifice and the sacrifice He demands will be the sacrifice of our hearts and minds."

What gods do we truly worship?

What would we give up everything for? Wealth? Fame? Possessions?

What would we not give up regardless of what is offered to us? Prestige? Pleasure? Position?

When we answer these questions we discover the most important thing in our lives. Whatever answer we give, that is our god.

It has been said that the devil doesn't care who or what man worships as long as it is not God. And the devil works very hard at exploiting our weaknesses.

We are coming dangerously close to eliminating God from our everyday lives.

Scratching the Surface

Donald Barnhouse was the pastor of the Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia from 1927 until his death in 1960. One evening he was counseling a young woman outside the church after services. She said she was a Christian and wanted to follow Christ but she also wanted to be a famous actress. She wanted a stage career in New York, and she told the pastor that as soon as she had “made it,” she would follow Christ completely.

Pastor Barnhouse fished around in his pocket for a key. He took the key over to a nearby mailbox and made a scratch in the painted surface.

“That is what God will let you do,” said the pastor. “He will let you scratch the surface of success. He will let you get close enough to the top to know what it is, but He will never let you have it, because He will never let one of His children have anything other than Himself.”

Years later he met the young woman again and she confessed that this indeed had been the pattern of her life. She had made it onto the stage, she even had her picture in a national magazine, but she had never quite achieved the success and fame she longed for. “I can't tell you how many times in my discouragement I have closed my eyes and seen you scratching that mailbox with your key. God let me scratch the edges, but He gave me nothing in place of himself.”

What Do We Worship?

There are many crises that face the Church today, but perhaps the crisis that informs all the others is a crisis of faith. We have lost the sense of the sacred. The secularization of the world denies that anything is truly sacred, truly holy. And so our popular culture is littered with twisted representations of the transcendent Truth.

The holy angels have become fodder for our entertainment. No longer are they messengers who convey to us the Truth. Instead we have an endless parade of the angels presented to us with with human failings. They have been characterized as lazy drunkards, violent revolutionaries, and enemies of the human race.

Sacred scripture has been used as a weapon against those with whom we disagree. The poor catechesis of the 60's and 70's has resulted in a generation that is content to take a biblical verse out of context in order to make a point without any knowledge or concern over what the passage actually means.

To misuse, profane, or desecrate holy things is called Sacrilege. To speak against God or His teachings is blasphemy. Like heresy, although we no longer commonly use the words, sacrilege and blasphemy are so common we do not even recognize them.

In Robert Bolt's play, “A Man For All Seasons” there is a scene in which Thomas More and Eustace Chapuys, the Imperial ambassador, are debating More's views on the king's “great matter.” Chapuys begins to quote the Holy Gospel according to Mark, but More interrupts him, “Stop,” he says “Holy writ is holy, excellency.” More does not believe the Word of God should be used as an aid in a debate. Do we truly believe that sacred scripture is sacred? How do we treat the books that contain these words? Do we treat them as just another book on our shelves or do we hold them in special regard containing as they do the inspired Word of God?

Do we bend the knee at the sacred name of Jesus, as St. Paul advises, even if it is with a nod of the head, bending the knees of the heart as it were? When we recite the Creed do we bow at the words “and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man ,” as we are instructed to do?

Following a popular saying, how we pray, what we believe, and how we live, are all connected. There was a time when we would make the sign of the cross when passing in front of the tabernacle, passing a church or even a crucifix. When we pray we would bow at the mention of the most Holy Trinity. There was a time when it would be unthinkable to begin a meal without thanking God for His manifold gifts.

All of these small gestures are outward examples of our inward belief. They help to remind us of what is truly important. They make the day sacred by recalling God to our hearts and minds throughout the day. When we abandon these small traditions, these small prayers, can we still say we truly live our faith?

The Nature of Worship

In the middle of Lent, God calls us to meditate on the true nature of worship.

God reveals Himself in the giving of the 10 commandments. He introduces Himself as the sole God and any form of idol worship is therefore worthy of punishment. All worship is reserved to Him alone. Moses receives the laws under which the people must live in order to maintain a covenant relationship with God. God is making His people a part of His family and that means they must devote themselves entirely to Him. This includes one day a week that is held back from man and given solely to God.

We can understand, then, the zeal showed by Jesus as he cleansed the temple from that which was unclean. Until the death and resurrection of the Messiah, the temple must be reserved solely and exclusively for prayer. Jesus’ cleansing of the temple foreshadows the new covenant. No longer will men sacrifice sheep and oxen in a house of stone and wood. The new temple is Christ Himself. Worship demands sacrifice and the sacrifice He demands will be the sacrifice of our hearts and minds.

Do our actions show our willingness to make such a sacrifice?

Pax Vobiscum
Third Sunday of Lent

Pontifex University is an online university offering a Master’s Degree in Sacred Arts. For more information visit the website at www.pontifex.university

Lawrence Klimecki, MSA, is a deacon in the Diocese of Sacramento. He is a public speaker, writer, and artist, reflecting on the intersection of art and faith and the spiritual “hero’s journey” that is part of every person’s life. He maintains a blog at www.DeaconLawrence.org and can be reached at Lawrence@deaconlawrence.com

Lawrence draws on ancient Christian tradition to create new contemporary visions of sacred art. For more information on original art, prints and commissions, Please visit www.DeaconLawrence.org 

Purchase fine art prints of Deacon Lawrence’s work here.