Return to Reverence

On the Lord's Day I attended a United Reformed Church in the Grand Rapids area, and the pastor preached on the second commandment articulated in the Heidelberg Catechism. For those unfamiliar with Reformed confessions, the Heidelberg Catechism is confessed by churches of the Dutch Reformed family---Reformed Church in America, Christian Reformed Church, and the United Reformed Church among others. The biblical passage used by the pastor was Hebrews 12:25-29. Verse 28 has struck me since I became Reformed. It reads: "Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear."

I know I've commented on this issue before, but I feel the need to re-iterate one thing. First, when discussion of worship in an African American context takes place there lacks discussion of what pleases God in our worship and what God requires. This verse clearly teaches the how of our worship, and this regardless of what ethnicity we are. Reverence and godly fear must pervade every aspect of our worship. Reverence refers to a sense of awe---an awe that results in a type of humility before God. Our praying should have this quality, our singing, our reading of the Scriptures, and our preaching. The music should be reverent, not upbeat but not sorrowful. We can rejoice while remaining reverent. We should do as the psalmist sings in Psalm 2 "rejoice with trembling."

I'm sorry to say that worhip in African American churches have little reverence. Often what I see is that man is the audience, not God. The emotionalism, the histrionics, the performances, etc. Are these reverent? Oh, God; give thy people a fresh sense of thy holiness when they gather to worship thee.