I grew up in the South. The deep South. Any deeper South, I would have been in the Gulf of Mexico. I love my Southern roots. I love everything in the South; our accents, our food (I’m from Louisiana, inarguably the best food in the South), our obsession with sports in general and football in particular. I love the blue-collar work ethic, the relative simplicity of life, hunting, fishing, and, at times, everybody in the community knowing your business. Those same nosey neighbors will be there for you when you need them.
An indispensable aspect of this Southern culture is “going to church.” Country songs have repeatedly memorialized the place of going to church in the South. Those songs both reflect and drive the culture (as does all art). Sadly, many of them quite accurately reflect the southern culture. Going to church is just what we do along with getting drunk on Friday and Saturday and having sex with multiple people. Going to church is a relatively unexamined ritual. Again, it’s just what we do.
Don’t get me wrong. “Going to church” is a good feature of any culture. It ought to be a central activity for the entire community. But unexamined, thoughtless rituals of worship that are divorced from righteous living throughout the week are an abomination to God.
The American South is not the only guilty culture. Perfunctory rituals that somehow are thought to be magic spells that will make everything okay with God are problems that have existed for as long as there have been humans. God tells his people in Isaiah 1.10-20 that he hates all of their worship rituals … the rituals that God himself told them were the correct ways to approach him in worship … he hates all of their rituals because of their lack of righteous living outside of the liturgy.
Solomon, the builder of the Temple and the one who brought back the full-orbed worship that God prescribes in the Law and was revised by his father David, warns his son in Proverbs about empty rituals.
“To do righteousness and justice is choicer to Yahweh than peace offering” (21.3).
“The peace offering of the wicked is an abomination to Yahweh, but the prayer of the straight is his delight. An abomination to Yahweh is the way of the wicked, but he who pursues righteousness he loves” (15.8-9).
The peace offering (many times translated as “sacrifice”) is emphasized by Solomon because it was the apex of worship, the place where everything was declared to be whole and healthy in relationship with God and with all those who were at peace with God. There was nothing between you and God, and there was nothing wicked that anyone in the community could justly accuse you. The peace offering was the only offering that the worshiper himself could eat. But he didn’t eat it by himself. The amount of food prescribed in Leviticus 3 and 7 tells us that this was a feast for God, the worshiper, the priests, family, and friends. It was a blow-out meal to declare the completion of a vow, thanksgiving for some special act of God, or just because he wanted to. The peace offering had the potential for being a mighty display of piety.
Sometimes it was used to display piety that didn’t exist. There were people who focused solely on the ritual and divorced it from righteousness lived out daily. God hated it then, and he still hates it.
It doesn’t matter how much we speak about the unnamed God in our folk songs, invoke the name of Jesus, or talk about going to church. It doesn’t matter how beautiful our worship is. It doesn’t matter how well and heartily we sing or the glorious instrumentation that we have. It doesn’t matter how sound we are theologically in our songs or teaching. It doesn’t matter how well-constructed our prayers are. Rituals divorced from everyday, on-the-ground righteousness in our daily living are a stench in God’s nostrils.
It may be that you are going through these rituals ignorantly; this is the way you were taught, and you haven’t taken the time to ask and answer, “Why?” You have been led to believe that “going to church” covers a multitude of sins. So, you merrily go along. You are still guilty of sin, but you have been led astray.
However, others use worship or going to church for evil purposes. “The peace offering of the wicked is an abomination, how much more when he comes with wicked intent” (21.27). You are a pastor or church leader who uses your position to seduce members of the congregation. You are a single who is using the church instead of the bar to hook up. You are a politician using the church for a photo op. You are a businessman using the church for the sole purpose of making connections without any intention of living righteously. You are the church’s culture warrior who makes big splashes with your verbal hand grenades online and in the congregation, but you are not taking care of your basic responsibilities as a husband, wife, father, mother, child, employer, or employee. All of these are abominations on steroids. Your acts of worship become acts of evil.
Yes, go to church. But you must not merely perform the liturgy. You must live it.
