I realize its yet again been awhile since I have written a blog entry, so instead of writing an entire blog I thought I would post on here a message I used for our weekly English Service. I gave the message two weeks ago and spoke about traditions in the church because it is something that is held onto a little too strongly in the Japanese culture. So although this entry might not be completely applicable to your church or your life style, it speaks to the people who the message was intended for. I hope you enjoy it!
This past week has got me thinking about traditions and rituals we practice in our lives. Last week there were several national holidays. One of these holidays was the fall equinox, and ohigan days here in Japan. Many people visited their family graves and held memorial services in honor of their loved ones. I found this tradition to be really interested so I asked one of my students, why do you do this? And that student answered “Because we are Japanese, it is tradition”. Which is great, but why this day? Why hold a memorial service? No one in the class could answer me. It’s a Buddhist tradition and everyone followed the practice, but no one could explain to me why.
Later on that day I was talking to another missionary friend and I explained how this bothered me that no one understood their culture enough to be able to answer why they did what they did. As if there was no meaning and no thought process involved, it was simply done because it’s always been done, and somewhere along the line people forgot why they do it. And she pointed out to me, that as Christians we often do things for the sake of “Christian tradition”…this thought bothered me even more. That Christians get caught up in the routine and the rituals of our worship services that we forget the purpose behind the actions.
Anyone who has attended a Lutheran church service can tell you there is a strict order of worship that we follow. For those of you who regularly come to this worship service you’ll notice we usually do the same things, the same pattern. The same song pattern, the same order of worship…but why? What exactly is worship and why do we do this? What’s the reasoning?
Worship is the “thank you” that refuses to be silenced. We have tried to make a science out of worship. We can’t do that. We can’t do that anymore than we can “sell love” or ‘negotiate peace”. Worship is a voluntary act of gratitude offered by the saved to the Savior, by the healed to the Healer, and by the delivered to the Deliverer.
Worship is the act of thanking God for all the wonderful things he has done in our lives. There isn’t a correct way to thank god, and there isn’t a wrong way to thank God either. I remember one time during a service here in Tokyo, when something was done in a slightly different tradition. The candles are usually lit from right to left, and on this particular Sunday the candles were lit from left to right. A church member noticed the difference and was very upset that the candles were not lit in the correct way. God does not care which way the candles are lit, or even if we have candles during a worship service. The only important thing is that we come to God with honest hearts filled with gratitude and thanks for the work he has done.
We all too often get caught in tradition and are afraid to break out form it, we feel if we do something wrong the service is void and God will no longer love us. That is not the case. Traditions are a good thing, but when the tradition of service is more important than the worshiping it self…that is when it becomes a problem. Most liturgy used in Japanese churches comes from Martin Luther himself and the traditions are from the German missionaries that came years and years ago. The integrity of that service has been held onto for so long because the Japanese were afraid that if they didn’t do it right, the service wouldn’t be good enough, they wanted it to be perfect. But I say let there be mistakes, put some Japanese songs into it. Change the tradition.
Psalams 66:3-4 reads “Say to God, “How awesome are your deeds! Because of your great power, your enemies cringe before you. All the earth worships you; they sing praises to you, sing praises to your name” All we are asked to do is to sing our praises to God, in no particular order, no particular language…if we are not the best singer…God doesn’t mind.
I was reading a book last night that a supporting church member sent me for my birthday this year, and it talks about worrying about how to do things.
So I want to leave you tonight with this thought, God calls us to WORSHIP him, he doesn’t tell us how, he doesn’t say for how long…he just wants us to worship him. So if come to him with our praise in different ways, it will always be acceptable to him. So whenever you get down and think I don’t know how to pray, or I don’t know how to preach, just remember God isn’t looking for a certain method or order…he just wants you to DO, just do it. Amen
