Worship and Litany
“We are going up to Jerusalem,” he said, “and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles, who will mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him. Three days later he will rise.” Then James and John … came to him. “Teacher”, they said, “we want you to do for us whatever we ask” (Mark 10:33-35).
Mark records three instances in which Jesus tries to prepare his disciples for his suffering and death. In each of the three, the disciples miss Christ’s message. In the first, Peter declares it to be a blasphemous impossibility; in the second, the disciples just do not understand. The third time Jesus tries to prepare them, they immediately change the subject, and John and James ask to sit at his right and left in the kingdom.
Jesus’ carefully worded warning to help them face the most traumatic event in human history became to them a religious litany. They must have thought to themselves, You know, Jesus always makes that funny little speech about a cross. I don’t know what it means, but he seems to feel obligated to make it.
This is true of worship as well. We do not understand it, but we feel obligated to do it. For years when I took communion, it was about words and action instead of grace. I was baptized. Water was poured on my head and the right words were said over me, but there was no regeneration. We turn the realities of the gospel into a litany that we do not even attempt to comprehend.
Never think for an instant that because you go through the motions of Religion you have a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. It is only by coming to know him in his reality and coming to understand his words because of that relationship that we find salvation. Then the ritual becomes reality and meaning transforms boring traditions into eternal truth.
—Macrina Wiederkehr
A Tree Full of Angels
In the book of Revelation, the Lord dictated a letter to the apostle John for the church at Ephesus. It begins: “I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name and have not grown weary” (Revelation 2:2, 3). That sounds really good, doesn’t it? The Lord is aware of all the good things they’re doing in his name. But Jesus didn’t stop there. He continued: “Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first” (Revelation 2:4). The church at Ephesus was going through the religious motions. But Jesus called on them to return to their first love—that’s what he desires! Today’s reading (and this text in Revelation) calls you and I to consider the warmth of our love for Jesus and our relationship with Him over and above all the religious things we do. Let us press deeper into our relationship with Jesus beyond religious rituals and trappings! —DH
—David Hoskins, Founder & Care Guide, Sanctuary Clinics