Reverence?

The scene is a courtroom.  When we go into court, it is fairly relaxed.  We are talking with each other, settling into our chairs.  Then the judge comes in.  When he does, everything changes.  The bailiff announces that court is now in session and everyone will come to order—and they do.  No one speaks without permission.  No one gets up or moves around without permission.  If they do speak, they do it with respect—almost reverence.

And why?  Out of respect for the judge—or at least for his office.

The respect comes from two perspectives.  One is pretty simple and obvious.  Say or do the wrong thing and you can be in contempt of court.  That means you can be fined or even put in a cage until the judge decides you are no longer contemptible.  No one wants to risk this, so everyone acts with respect.

But there is another reason for the respect.  That guy in the black robe represents something.  He represents me and you and everyone else.  He represents all our attempts to give each other freedom and at the same time keep any one person from harming another.  In fact, according to Paul in Romans 13:4, he represents God himself—given the task (as are all governments) of dealing with those who would harm others.

Switch scenes to North Orange Christian Church.  A gathering of people to worship our Lord together.  A group of people expressing worship to the creator of the universe—the only one who exists in and of himself—the source of all power and authority and love and life.  The reverence we offer him must make the courtroom look chaotic, right?

Not really.  Our congregation is informal, and I ‘m a pretty informal person.  I commute on a motorcycle and preach in jeans (clean of course!) and motorcycle boots.  That’s not a problem, but it can deceive us.  It can trick us into thinking any behavior, any attitude, anything we want to say or do is ok.  It puts the focus on us and makes us forget (hard to believe we can, but there it is) that we are worshipping the God of the universe.  So as we look around during a worship service we might see people laughing, talking, reading (not the Bible), or just standing with their minds wandering—doing anything BUT focusing on God.

God is so much bigger than the judge in the courtroom, yet we don’t act with reverence toward him because we have forgotten him.  There is no bailiff to remind us, no gavel to condemn us, no jail to put us in until we act less contemptibly.

Reverence toward God, oddly enough, has been made voluntary.  The only way it will happen is when each of us, individually, is so convinced of God’s sovereignty, so focused on who He is, that simply can’t forget.