Does God find any of our church practices ‘silly’?

Just after Christmas the Irish Government released state papers from the year 2000. They told how the Queen had expressed her relief to the Irish Ambassador at a Buckingham Palace Garden party that Northern Ireland’s ‘silly marching business’ was quieter than expected.

No doubt the Queen did not intend her comments to become public. The Grand Secretary of the Orange Order responded to the release of the papers by commenting that the Queen thanked the Order ‘for our proclamation of loyalty each year on the 12th July’.

There is something of an irony that the supporters of the Crown in Northern Ireland thought they were expressing their loyalty to the monarch, when she regarded their chosen way of doing so as ‘silly’.

I am not privy to the truth of the story and the comments reported, but it did make me reflect on the ways that we seek to honour and worship God, and whether what we do with utmost seriousness genuinely pleases Him, or whether He might find some of our practices somewhat ‘silly’.

There is very little laid down in Scripture about exactly how we should worship God. Much of what we do in our personal devotions, public witness and church gatherings is a matter of choice. It is neither required by Scripture nor forbidden by Scripture. It is adiaphora, and morally neutral.

However, we can very easily baptise our traditions with the assumption that they are pleasing to God, and judge others who do things differently. Needless to say, my views reflect my low-church non-sacramentalism, but I think there are examples of practice from all strands of churchmanship that might well appear somewhat silly to God, though we think they are expressions of our loyalty to Him.

Take, for example, clerical dress. Is God pleased by our robes and vestments? Is He pleased by bishops in pointy hats or pastors in dark suits? Does He think it is a bit silly that we think we have to have to dress up for church in a way that is different to our normal everyday wear, or that we deliberately choose to be casual to try to fit with the prevailing culture? Does He perhaps think that dark worship spaces designed to provide a pop-concert atmosphere, our obsession with expensive audio-visual equipment, and even in some instances smoke machines, are a bit silly?

The same goes for the vast investment that was made in building cathedrals and churches. Perhaps He thought that was a bit daft. Is it perhaps a bit silly to think that following an ancient or reformation liturgy is more pleasing to Him, or that He is more pleased by avowedly renouncing any kind of liturgy in favour of pure spontaneity? Might He think it a bit silly to think that eating tiny wafers or cubes of bread, and sipping tiny amounts of wine, whether from a chalice or a little plastic cup, is a faithful recreation of the Lord’s Supper? Does He find it a bit silly that we hype up the pressures we face in post-Christian secular society as if they were genuine persecution and a threat to the church? Does He perhaps find some of the things we focus on in our prayer meetings a little introverted and self-centred?

None of these things are necessarily wrong. My point is that we should not assume that they are the manifestations of loyalty that God desires, especially if we give them too much significance. We need to be more selfreflective about what we do and why we do it.

Whilst there are some things that God might regard as merely a bit silly in our worship, there are others that Scripture tells us He detests. He detests it when we go through the motions without heart, as if that is pleasing to Him. He loathes it when we perform the work of worship, but have neglected to practice love, mercy and true justice, especially to the poor, vulnerable and oppressed (Isa.1:10-17; Amos 21-24; Hosea 6:6; Matt.9:13). He rejects our sacrifices when we bring what is substandard, giving Him the minimum that we think we can get away with (Mal.1:6-14). He is offended by false teaching and the tolerance of sin and unrepented immorality.

What God desires above all is that we worship Him in the Spirit and in truth (John 4:23), reflecting the coming of the new covenant in Christ that has rendered the shadows and pictures of the old covenant obsolete. The sacrifices He requires are ‘a broken and contrite heart’ (Ps.51:17). He wants nothing less than our whole selves offered to Him in sacrificial service (Rom. 12:1). This is what is pleasing to Him – a 24/7 use of our bodies in humble obedience and loving service of others.

We ought to make it our aim to please the Lord. This will mean obeying Scripture. It also means that we must be objective and honest enough to recognise that some of what we do might just be a bit silly in His eyes.