I find it interesting that we are prone make such definitive statements about subjects which, in the first place, we have no first-hand knowledge of, and in the second place, we simply cannot substantiate from the revelation we find in Sacred Scripture. That said, this tendency is common to most of us. So, as a good, and wise friend of mine often reminds me, when I have one finger pointed out, there are three fingers pointed back at me.
Have you ever heard someone make a statement like... “I know worship in heaven will be rockin’ and rollin’.” When questioned as to the basis for such a statement, the individual might initially intimate that their idea was based on their reading of Scripture...perhaps the book of The Revelation. When pressed a bit further, however, they might realize that they would have to admit, it was just the way they felt.
Of course, the initial statement could just as easily have been... “I know worship in heaven will be filled with the great hymns of the Church, sung by a choir of saints to the music of the greatest pipe organ, in the most magnificent cathedral.” I think you get the idea.
I doubt that there is a true believer anywhere who has not thought at all about what worship in heaven will be like. What we fail to realize, I fear, is that our expectations regarding what worship will be like in heaven are necessarily born out of what moves us...what satisfies us...what overwhelms us...what fills us...now. Too often then, we seek, or at the very least are drawn to, those statements in Scripture which might tend to “prove” our point. Such a process is both flawed and dangerous. It is eisegesis, reading our thoughts into Scripture, rather than exegesis, reading God’s truths out of Scripture. In our current state, we must remember, we are still struggling with sin, and our responses in worship are in no way immune to being influenced by that struggle.
It will not surprise me at all to learn that worship actions and styles in His presence are nothing like the actions and styles we know now. Rather, the sense of satisfaction of soul...the sense of fullness, of completion, of reverence, of joy, of ecstatic pleasure and adoration that overwhelms us and moves us will likely be beyond our current ability to measure or comprehend or appreciate.
Because our current actions and efforts are so limited, influenced and impacted by our sin, as well as by our inability to fully comprehend Him, I doubt that either traditional or contemporary music styles will be recognizable...I doubt that either western European or African or Latin or oriental or third-world practices will be identifiable.
Rather, our responses to the fulness of His self-revelation will likely be characterized by an awe, a wonder, a purity, an honesty, an appropriateness, that's simply not possible in our current state. And, the blessed sense of satiation, satisfaction, ecstasy and completion we experience, resulting from the final, yet everlasting, perfect union in Him will be our joy and delight, completely independent of any "means.” Immediate...
We can, and should, be ever striving to properly engage in the worship of Our Lord in a manner that pleases and glorifies Him, and Him alone. That striving will, of necessity, include an effort to understand from Sacred Scripture what worship was like before the fall, and what worship might look like when we are finally with Him for eternity.
We can not, and should not, however, yield to the temptation to mistakenly equate what moves us now, with what worship in heaven will be like.
No comments:
Post a Comment