SUNDAY: Bible Study - 9:00 AM | Worship - 10:00 AM | PM Worship - 6:00 PM WEDNESDAY: Bible Class - 7:00 PM ~ 8110 Signal Hill Road Manassas, Virginia | Office Phone: 703.368.2622

        So the other day I was driving and had the windows open.  It was one of those balmy, 80 degree days in early March we are so used to having, and since it was balmy I felt like a little Beach Boys.  After Pet Sounds, and Endless Summer, played through I felt like some Bob Marley.  I was sitting at the red light at the intersection of Liberia and Route 28, which is a long light in the afternoon, when “No Woman No Cry” came on.  It has the greatest, simplest groove – you clap on the third beat for three measures, then the second and third beat for the fourth measure.  I was clapping and that great organ intro was blaring when I heard, from above, others clapping along.  I looked over and saw that I was sitting next to a Prince William County school bus.  They had their windows down too, and the kids next to me (they had to be middle school kids at this time of day) were joining in.  At first I thought they were making fun of the old, fat, bald guy getting all Rasta in the minivan, Mon.  But when Bob Marley wailed the opening chorus, they sang along. When they sang along I did too, and for about 40 seconds we had a great, impromptu choral reggae jam.  It was really cool.

            Singing has that effect – an effect nothing else has.  Symphonies cannot thrill like vocal harmonies do, nor can any instrument surpass the power of a single human voice to evoke, and provoke.  Ephesians 5.18-20 says that when we sing together in worship we are filled w the Spirit, we communicate with each other, and we give thanks to God.  These verses say that when we sing together we establish two way connection with each other, and two way connection with God (the Spirit fills us, we thank Him).  This is not an academic exercise, not a factoring and a figuring out of something.  When we sing together we are filled, we are connected, we express, we receive, we give.

            I had a student once that said she went to concerts instead of going to church.  She claimed that she went to hear live bands or DJs at least twice a week to receive the same connection with other people, and with something transcendent others felt when they went to worship.  She cited a study of the brain activity of Muslim dervishes, and of followers of the Grateful Dead which demonstrated that the brains whirling dervishes and dancing Deadheads lit up in exactly the same places.  She asserted that this basic, human impulse to express wonder collectively produces religion as well as rock-n-roll, and that clubbing was a valid substitute for church.  She was as convincing as you would expect an articulate, intelligent, 21 year old political science major to be.  And she was not altogether wrong, she just had it backwards.  People do try to substitute clubbing for church going, because they are responding to a specific impulse.  Where she was wrong was in believing that this specific impulse can have any variety of satisfying expressions.

            We have an impulse to praise.  Nothing else will satisfy that impulse. God has put eternity in our hearts (Ecclesiastes 3.11).  Therefore David says, “I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord,’” (Psalm 122.1).  This is why Paul says (my paraphrase): “Don’t drink alcohol, Sing!” (Ephesians 5.18-19).  It has always been interesting to me that Paul calls us away from drink in order to embrace praise.  He understands that folks respond to the impulse created by “eternity” being in our hearts in a variety of ways – many of them unproductive.  Some drink anything, some join anything, some meditate, some run marathons – all to excess, because satisfaction remains elusive – for there is no substitute for praise.

            And so – it is important to be in Church on Sunday.  When we worship together we satisfy the specific impulse caused by eternity being in our hearts.  Only in worship do we truly establish two-way connection with God, and with each other.  Deadheads and Dervishes, meditators and marathon runners, clubbers and concertgoers may reach a place together – but it is not THE place.  Our impulse to connect through praise is irresistible – we all find ways to express it – but there is only one way that satisfies.  There is no substitute for worship.  Join us Sunday and find out.

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