Dec
22
Undignified
Filed Under Devotional
Our church has a tradition of holding a New Year’s Eve service. It’s something of a big party, really. We worship, listen to a short message, and then break up to eat, fellowship, and baptize. The baptisms go on while the rest of us eat and mingle. It’s fun to watch and cheer when each person comes back up out of the water. A few years ago, our son was baptized on a New Year’s Eve. We videotaped it so we could remember it and share it with family.
I still remember one family member watching the video and noticing that while I was praying with my son in the water, the crowd was talking, eating, and looking on. This person’s reaction was, “Well, that doesn’t seem very dignified.” It’s certainly the case that we should respect and fear the Lord and we should take seriously anything we do in His name. However, wearing the right clothes and using big words, does not make one more Holy. Making sure that each ceremony is somber and rigid does not make it more pleasing to God.
King David certainly understood this when He danced in the street as the Ark of the Covenant was brought to Jerusalem.
“When David returned home to bless his household, Michal daughter of Saul came out to meet him and said, ‘How the king of Israel has distinguished himself today, disrobing in the sight of the slave girls of his servants as any vulgar fellow would!’
David said to Michal, ‘It was before the Lord, who chose me rather than your father or anyone from his house when he appointed me ruler over the Lord’s people Israel—I will celebrate before the Lord. I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes. But by these slave girls you spoke of, I will be held in honor’ ” 2 Samuel 6:20-22
I know folks who won’t attend a church because it doesn’t have a nice building or because it doesn’t have a cross in the right place or because the pastor wears jeans or shorts. It’s not about the outward appearance. It’s about the heart.
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.” Matthew 23:27-28
Don’t be concerned with being dignified when you serve God. Just make sure you’re doing it all for Him.