Reasonable Worship…part 1

by Arron Bergeron

How often do we take what we're taught and carefully think it through, patiently meditating upon those lessons, digesting them through the week?  One practical expression of Christianity which separates it from many other world views is the use of reason. By this I simply mean that in Christianity the use of reason is a requirement in proper daily worship. I don't intend to mean that we alone use our rational faculties in our day to day religious activity; I mean to say that the Christian is set apart in the peculiarity of his mandatory use of reason as an expression of worship. In simpler terms, we absolutely can't be sufficient in our worship of God if we aren't taking time to think, and this should be done in equal measure to the ability God has given us.

Read Mark’s (12:28-35) account of an exchange between Jesus and a Jewish expert of Moses’ law;

Then one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, perceiving that He [Jesus] had answered them well, asked Him, “Which is the first commandment of all?” Jesus answered him, “The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one. And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with your entire mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”  So the scribe said to Him, “Well said, Teacher. You have spoken the truth, for there is one God, and there is no other but He. And to love Him with all the heart, with all the understanding, with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is more than all the whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” Now when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, He said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”¹

It’s clear from the mouth of Jesus Himself; we need to use our rational faculties to love God. It ought never to be divorced from social action or religious affection. If you are helping the poor, caring for the sick or orphaned, attending to the widows, good! If you gather with other Christians to pray, good! Do not stop! But to that we must add time to quietly think about what we believe, or more importantly in Whom we believe, and why.

This should never be taken to mean that the Christian faith is rationalistic, only that we ought to have a rationale as an inherent component of our faith. Let me explain this. Our faith is not founded upon the fallen faulty reasoning of some man or men. Our faith is based upon the existence and revelation of God, of who He is, and that reasonably so. That God would condescend and invite us to reason with Him…”Come now, and let us reason together,” says the Lord (Is 1:18)… should be a dead giveaway, noting that if we honestly engage Him in this invitation, it should lead us to the place He prescribes that we may be forgiven and cleansed from our sins…“Though your sins are like scarlet,
They shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool.”

Jesus is called the Logos in scripture…In the beginning was the Word [Logos] (John 1:1). He is right thinking. This name denotes logic, and I would assert His logical necessity. From Him, from His very nature, flow the rules of logic. If we are truly Christian, meaning to be like Christ, than in our faith and beliefs we also ought to strive for coherence and logical consistency. This is best done by resisting the temptation to compromise on what God has clearly revealed to us in scripture.

This brings me back to my opening question. As part of our regular worship as Christians, we ought to gather with other Christians in part to celebrate and learn the word of God. If the use of our rational faculties is a compulsory act of worship if we are truly submitted to God, how often do we honestly take the week between Sunday sermons to weigh out what it is we've been taught? I dare say, sadly,  that if the entirety of the church today were doing this then the face of the church would look considerably more like Jesus Christ, and less like His fallen and rebellious creation. As always, I am not exempted from this charge.

To be continued...

1. All Scripture quoted from the New King James Version.