12/11/2024

Many of you met my friends from Texas this past weekend, Boyce and Melodie. When Boyce walked into Christ Church he said, “Well, this is obviously a sanctuary!” 

Yes, it is. 

The move over the last 30 years or so has been away from the idea of a “sanctuary” (literally, a “holy place”) to an auditorium. An agnostic friend of mine was asked to design an “auditorium” for a church in Athens. He told me when he got there, the first question he asked was, “Where do you want the cross?” And when they told him they didn’t want any religious symbols (!) in the auditorium, he told them he wouldn’t take the job. 

“They were Christians, but they wanted to be secular,” he told me. 

The notion of meeting in an “auditorium” is a symptom of a greater problem. Speaking with some friends recently, they kept referring to the front of their “auditorium” as the “stage” and kept calling the congregation the “audience.” 

The “greater problem” is their not understanding who the “audience” is. 

If your notion of worship is a group of people up front, making music (and it’s typically music) before an audience of onlookers, then you don’t have worship. You have a show.

As worshipers, we are NOT the audience. Jesus addresses this in Matthew 6, when he speaks about giving and praying in public. Jesus says, 

And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

There’s a lot to say about this scripture; I’ll leave it there for you to interpret . . . but I do want to point out who the “audience” is in the passage: God. “Your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” It has sort of become a cliche, but it is true just the same:

We have an Audience of One. 

When we come together to worship, we all — every one of us gathered together — are working together (which is the meaning of “liturgy” by the way, the “work of the people”) to present a sacrifice of praise to God. God is the recipient of our worship, our praise, our thanksgiving. We worship together. 

Dorene, Kim and I were talking about this recently. When someone is absent for a worship service, it’s as if a choir member wasn’t there. Don’t think, “Oh, they won’t miss me.” 

Yes, we will. 

I may lead you in worship, Dorene may make sure you start and stop singing at the same time, but we all are working together when we worship. When the choir sings on Sunday, it’s not for your enjoyment — that would be a show. Instead, the songs have been carefully chosen (and you have no idea how much time Dorene puts into choosing music) to help convey the message of the text and to help you reflect on the message of the Season. Yes, the music is beautiful, but the music is the carriage for the words. Yes, we work hard to make sure the notes are correct. One reason is so that nothing happens to distract from hearing that message. 

The main reason, though, is because of our Audience. 

But that doesn’t just apply to worship. Every area of our life should be performed for our Audience of One. As Paul writes in Colossians 3:23-24, “Whatever your task, put yourselves into it, as done for the Lord and not for your masters, since you know that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward; you serve the Lord Christ.” 

That perspective really changes everything! We do whatever we do the best we can do because we do it for the Lord. That applies to everything from washing dishes to building rockets. We don’t do our best for audience approval or to boost our own ego. We do our best for the Lord. 
British author and theologian, Os Guinness, writes, “A life lived listening to the decisive call of God is a life lived before one audience that trumps all others—the Audience of One.”  Blogger Tim Knight, quoting Guinness, continues, “To live and work in response to the call of God is to live before his eyes and his heart, and it transforms what we do and why we do it.”
This Sunday we are having a special Advent service with lots of music! Please come and be part of it, knowing that you’re as much a part of the service as any of the rest of us. True, you may not be sitting up front, but you have your part to play that is just as important as any musician, scripture reader or speaker in our congregation.

Because you, too, are worshipping before an Audience of One. 

Blessings! 
Pastor Terry