“Yes, the day of the Lord will be dark and hopeless, without a ray of joy or hope. ‘I hate all your show and pretense— the hypocrisy of your religious festivals and solemn assemblies. I will not accept your burnt offerings and grain offerings. I won’t even notice all your choice peace offerings. Away with your noisy hymns of praise! I will not listen to the music of your harps. Instead, I want to see a mighty flood of justice, an endless river of righteous living.’”
Amos 5:20-24 NLT
This section of Scripture should make all of us stop in our tracks. What does it take for God to say, “Away with your noisy hymns of praise?” Jesus has a similar reaction to the money changers in the temple when he drives them out with a dramatic flourish and declares, “My house will be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves”(Matthew 21:13)!
Jesus also says to the Pharisees in Matthew 23:23 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.”
I don’t think it can be denied that historically, Christians have often decided that we would rather do religious things than religiously practice what we preach.
In James 1:27, we read:
“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”
I am a sucker for a really good musical worship experience. I have a vivid imagination and I have deeply connected to the divine through song. I used to play in a worship band at a church in New Jersey and Sunday morning was sacred time for me. I met with Jesus on that stage almost every single week.
At New York City Relief we almost always have a time of musical worship on our way to the outreach locations. We play songs of praise to glorify our Savior and we leverage the power of music to empower our spirits and our bodies as we make our way to serve our homeless neighbors.
It is not uncommon for volunteers to express that our designated “worship” time is one of the most powerful and spirit-filled experiences that they have ever had. I would agree. In spite of all my memories of meeting Jesus at church, at conferences, or at concerts, there is something dynamic about crying out to God as one is literally hurtling through traffic and tunnels to engage and love those who are hurting and hungry.
So what is it? Why is it so special? I’m convinced that the answer is found in the words of the prophet Amos. Worship is only as powerful as the God being exalted. And there’s no getting around the fact that our God has a soft spot for those who experiencing poverty and homelessness.
I believe with all my heart that musical worship that is combined with physical compassion, always carries more weight.
I think there are lots of communities of faith that offer talented musicians and brilliant song writing.
But the truth is that writing the name of Jesus into a chorus or a cleverly constructed bridge will never impress the one for whom all music was intended like a life of humility and service.
So should we just skip the singing and just worry about serving the poor? That would completely miss the point. A life that is exclusively focused on serving those with less financial stability will ultimately lose its capacity to live a life of generosity, unless there is an ongoing and overt declaration of dependency to the one through whom all things are given.
Singing about who God is helps us remember who we are, and the fact remains that our service to the poor will always be more effective and empowered in combination with musical worship than it is without.
So once again, we are left with words of Amos. We need to remember that worship without justice is unacceptable to God. But justice without worship is unsustainable for us.
We are called to more than concerts and conferences. If we are going to be the Church that Jesus dreamed of, we have to make sure that we line up our lifestyle with our lip service.
