Brerah

When I was a pledge...(as it relates to public worship)

So I was having a flashback today to my freshman year at OU when I was pledging in a fraternity and I was laughing to myself at some of the ridiculous stuff that we did, and that we had done to us. I remember about two weeks into it, I was blindfolded (very common) and put in the back of this guy named Mark's car. He had some crazy stereo system, with like eight 12"s, 17 tweeters, and 2 strobe lights or something like that, and all I remember is that it was UNBELIEVABLY LOUD. He was playing some really pleasing rap melody that was laced with profanity that would shame most construction sites. I had a fellow pledge sitting about 4 inches from me and there was positively no way we could hear each other say anything, much less our pleas for them to turn down the music a few notches. We were led on some crazy drive with about 30 minutes of them trying to disorient us so that we couldn't figure out where we were going, and then we would arrive at our destination, which was usually Wildwood Community Church in Norman (whoever gave the fraternity this privelege should've been more hesitant). We went through some meaningless ritual, that was supposed to teach us about something, and then for some reason, at the end of the night, all the guys started hugging each other and acting like their lives had been changed. Hmmmm....i think i missed something during the ritual. The most exciting thing for me was trying to figure out where we were driving to while blindfolded. I dropped out.

I was thinking about the fraternal days in relation to something in my post yesterday saying "(kind of reminds me of the way that many people do at church services with their eyes closed, you know, just them&God....)" In saying this, I am not condemning people who care to close their eyes while singing, but I do think that it is noteworthy that when God's people gather together for worship on the Lord's day, there is something different than all the other days. Namely, that we are together. Believers, hopefully, spend some time during the week in personal devotional and/or prayer, family worship, or something else. But on this day, we-His body are together worshipping Him, we are one. Whenever all 40 of us or so would gather for pledge meetings, they would ask how many of us there were. Our uniform answer would be "One". Ah hah, maybe our fraternity was Christian!!!!! probably not.

But Paul talks extensively in 1 Corinthians 12 about this very thing. We are one body, with many members and we have all been given gifts to help serve and love one another so that God would be glorified. So why, when we come together on that special Lord's day would we want to come in seclusion, and block out everything else around me, and just have it be God and I. The overwhelming theme of the Bible is the story of the redemption of an entire people (the church) and an entire world at that. It is not just about Jesus saving individuals, it is bigger than that.
When we gather together, we need to love the fact that the old guy singing next to us is completely tone deaf and can't sing a lick. We need to love that sometimes the message is good, and sometimes its, eh, okay. We don't just walk into church with our arms crossed and say "Well, this better be good" and expect some life changing sermon or song line-up that really pushes us into spiritual happiness. We need to repent of the fact that we want church to be about us as individuals. We need to repent of our lack of love for the people around us and appreciate that God has necessarily called us into community with other believers and that we are His body, His temple, He dwells in us, and He is glorified when we gather together. And whether or not we always feel like it, we are ONE. And so for that one day a week, let's take joy that we can come as one and sing and confess and partake of the means of grace, and be the beautiful bride that we are, together!

I promise to share more fraternity stories as they come to mind.

posted by corbs @ 10:52 PM