Friday, November 30, 2007

For Sunday December 2 - The Final Word

Last Sunday's sharing time in worship is still swimming around in my head. There were so many big, heavy, important needs that were shared as people requested prayer. Several cancers, surgeries, grieving parents, and worn out people. I felt at a loss to know how to pray, how to talk to God about these desperate needs.
Sometimes, in my more pessimistic moments, I wonder if worship is just a big facade. A pep rally for God.
"Pray, pray, sing a song....yaaaaaayyyyyy GOD!"
But what is real? Is it that all the other stuff of life really has the last word? That, yes, we can make ourselves feel a bit better with our singing and praying and hugs . . . but in the end is there nothing we can do to impact the way things turn out?
The Hebrews 1:1-3 passage (to the right here) puts a big "stop sign" in my pessimistic thinking. It reminds me that Christ has (is) a different Final Word to the ills of the world. Looking to Jesus, studying how he lived, praying how he prayed, worshipping him, is not just a psychological pep rally. It's more because he triumphed over the heavy important things and accomplished exactly what God sent him to accomplish - in a human form just like yours and mine. He lived with the same strength and Spirit that God extends to us. He holds out for us the "radiance of God's glory" and says, "This is for you. Live with this in you." And yet I fail to take up that glorious power most of the time. How about you?
- Curtis