Give the Best

When I was going through a dark and difficult time, I ceased attending worship at the church I normally attended and went instead to the local Episcopal Church.  What I needed was to be immersed in a service of worship that was more liturgical than what I could find in my Methodist community.  The liturgy included such things such as prayers of confession, words that spoke of a faith as ancient as Abraham,  acts of worship that had served the church and its people for centuries, and the Sacrament.   

I felt a need to be connected to the community of faith and immersion in a liturgy that was not trendy, but one rooted in an ancient spiritual heritage.  I have often lamented the lack of liturgical worship in my own denomination.  Some folks think any prayer read from a book of worship lacks the power of a spontaneous prayer.  A prayer which used to be prayed often in Communion services enables the gathered people to pray, "Almighty God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, maker of all things, judge of all people: We acknowledge and bewail our manifold sins and wickedness, which we from time to time most grievously have committed, by thought, word, and deed, against thy divine majesty..."  

I continue to believe that many our contemporary worshipers would find meaning and spiritual power in such words. Unfortunately, the opportunity is seldom afforded them.  The church has become too conscious of the twelve o'clock hour to risk running past it with the benediction still not pronounced.  Worship is not something to be choreographed as it is in many places.  When such happens, our hurrying society may seem pleased, but so much is being missed.  Worship is about offering our best to God which is something many worship leaders seem to overlook in favor of entertainment.