When life shows us to be “out of control” we can sure get frightened. A number of years ago when I lived in Southern California (note the capitalization). We had a pretty good sized earthquake that we simply called the Northridge Quake (for a bit of history try: THIS LINK ). What I found fascinating was the number of calls to a local radio station “shrink.” The callers admitted their fear with the description that they felt “so out of control.” Of course you were out of control. What you are really saying is that you have the illusion that you are otherwise in control. That is the fallacy!
I suppose it may seem fair to think that we have control, because frankly we have a greater control than we ever did. You don’t like the weather? Condition your air. You don’t like your body? Get some surgery? You don’t like your spouse? Get a divorce.
One of the ways we worship God is precisely out of our control. Open Worship. For those who do not know, we have a period of time in our worship service where we try our best to hear from God and share that with one another. Under the best of circumstances we have thought and prayed long and hard about what we could share, and then responded as God directs us. But of course, we can’t control that, and instead sometimes we have some really uncomfortable things happen.
One time we had a guy ask for prayer for the sinful behaviors of his ex-girlfriend who was sitting in the congregation at the time.
Another instance we had a person accuse the local police department of corruption and encouraged us all to act.
Once we had a man share about the inappropriate physical relationship he had with his fiancé, which would have been bad enough. However, he then proceeded to let us all know her mental health issues. And the whole thing went on for a good five minutes.
Of course, as much as these stories stick in my mind, the more common discomfort is simply from someone who speaks for too long. And when it happens we begin to wonder when someone is going to intervene and shut them up. A difficult task let me tell you. What are you going to do, stand up and say “You are speaking for far too long, will you please sit down now?” Try it.
Wouldn’t it be better to just not have open worship? It is so hard to control. So many difficult things happen because of it.
Let me tell you why we keep it: precisely because it isn’t controlled. We believe that God is not a God who easily fits into my preconceived notions of what He does and how He does it. We believe that God is sufficient for us. We agree with Jeremiah when he says:
As for me, I am helpless and in your power—do with me as you think best. – Jeremiah 26:14 (TLB)
Sure it messy. Sure it has the potential for problems. But where else in our worship together do we create space for God to speak through any of us and all of us?
Thanks
Bill, as a new quaker I liked the open worship at the beginning. I felt freedom and a nice feeling that anybody could express what God had put in their hearts. Then I started to see these "anomalies" and felt discomfort. Still I don't like when we have a nice worship experience and then somebody at the end ruins my Sunday with inappropriate comments. I thought then, why if we don't do open worship anymore? As you said, God should have the control. We always wants to control everything and that is not a bad thing but we have to let God do as He pleases. Anyway, we should continue practicing it. We just have to remember our people that it is not a platform for anything else. It is just worship.
Thanks Bill! I liked your posting!
Hernan