Psalm 84 is one of those beautiful passages of scripture that captures our deep longing for God. While I know that my view might not be shared by all, I am one of those people who believes that there is a “God-shaped void” in each of us. We were created to live in a sustaining and nurturing relationship with our Divine Lover and–as Augustine suggested long ago–”our hearts are restless” until they find their rest in God. This has profound implications for the ministry of a local church, since churches should be environments in which people are able to encounter God, to receive ‘living water’ that quenches their deepest thirst, and to be changed in the process.
Too often, I think, these realizations lead to an overly-narrow focus on the church’s worship gathering. Since worship is a natural setting for meeting God, we begin to debate the best ‘techniques’ for fostering the encounter: Should we sing hymns or praise songs? Should we be casual or liturgical? While these are valid and important questions, they obscure the fact that “encountering God” is much broader than what happens during the short period of time that the church is gathered for corporate worship (especially when worshipers are there to be spectators of worship rather than participants in worship–a trap into which it is far too easy to fall).
In the end, our encounter with God is based not so much on our longing for Him but on His longing for us. If we hope not to “miss” God, therefore, we need to seek Him the places that He has told us we can expect to find Him: in our hearts as we seek to make them fit habitations for the Spirit; in our daily interactions with people (especially those in the family of faith); and in our ministry and service to the world (where Jesus said he could be found among the least of these).
These are some of the thoughts that inspired this week’s message: The Church…Encounters the Living God. Enjoy!
