The Heart of Worship

I just attended a so-called worship service that completely missed the point.

It began with a formal flag ceremony and the Pledge of Allegiance. Certainly that is an honorable thing in most circumstances, but do we go to worship in order to pledge our allegiance to an earthly kingdom? The fact that it ended with a hymn to the tune of the Nazi Germany national anthem was just salt in that wound.

This became truly glaring, not by what was done, but by what was left undone. The Gospel was never preached. There was not even a reading from Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John. The sermon was six truths about sin and four ways to avoid sin. It did not include more than a passing mention of the true remedy for sin... Jesus. And after all that talk about sin, there was no confession or acknowledgment of sin, no words of mercy, no absolution, no Creed, not even the Lord's Prayer or attempt at the sacrament. An entire hour focused on sin and leaving out the Gospel...

The preacher needs to return to the heart of worship and feed those people on the bread of life and not Christian self-help books. Shame on him!

Ultimately, those on a steady diet of self help will starve for want of the bread of life. Choose your spiritual food carefully. Ensure it is full of the nutrients of the Gospel and not the slow-acting poison of Gospel-less Law.