Don’t Worship in Their Way

“You must not worship the Lord your God in their way.”

This little phrase is a warning from God to his people repeated several times in Deuteronomy 12 as they are about to take possession of the promised land.

I was struck that the warning isn’t about the object of worship but the way of worship. It’s important to worship Yahweh, but if you attempt to worship Yahweh in their way, you’ll end up resisting and rebelling against Yahweh (all while imagining you’re worshiping Yahweh!).

I wonder if this is basically where we’ve arrived in the North American church (in general). We’re trying to worship the Lord our God in the way of the world. We are trying to slap a Jesus sticker on “all kinds of detestable things the Lord hates.”

Like what? Well,

• The way of the world is to worship celebrities. We’ve tried to leverage celebrity on behalf of God.
• The way of the world is to fear and exclude and dehumanize those who are different. We’ve rallied our congregations around the fear of the other.
• The way of the world is to seek domination over others. We’ve tried to curry favor with those in political power, hoping to leverage that power on behalf of securing our privilege.

In doing so, we’ve abandoned true worship of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and instead have begun to worship idols painted to look like Jesus.

We call ourselves Christians but fear and hate immigrants and refugees who come to us in need. We fawn over the rich and beautiful and seek their favor. We scheme for control and domination. We crucify Christ all over again.

“You must not worship the Lord your God in their way.”

So what is God’s way? Jesus Christ. We worship God by following Jesus and learning from him as his disciples. By allowing our praise to extend not just to our lips but into our lives. By allowing the Spirit to shape us into a people that are recognizably the Body of Christ. By learning to receive and embody the very life of God in all its fullness.

Then we will be those worshipers whom the Father seeks: those who worship in spirit and truth. Those who worship the Lord our God in the Lord our God’s way.