Enough To Make Your Knees Tremble

There is an old aphorism which says:
“Some people go to Church to see who didn’t.”

There is another that goes something like this:

“Attend your Church,” the pastor cries;
to Church each fair one goes.
The old go there to close their eyes,
The young to eye the clothes.

In terms of understanding what God is doing in the Church — and in the home, and in the city, and in the world — we are in need always of reexamining our role as Church-goers. Are we spectators, or are we participants? Are we watchers, or are we doers? Are we detached, or are we involved? Are we giving lip service to the Good News of New Life in Christ, or are we experiencing it?

There are several Gospel episodes in which Jesus comes down hard on the “spectators” and “watchers” of His time. Jesus labelled their strict observance of the Sabbath laws “hypocrisy.” You hypocrites,”…