Worshipping in Prayer

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE

WORSHIPPING IN PRAYER

Luke 1:8-10

8 Once when Zechariah's division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God, 9 he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense. 10 And when the time for the burning of incense came, all the assembled worshipers were praying outside.

NIV

It does seem strange to consider the scene which is described for us here in light of the custom we observe on our Sabbath. Here we have one man, a member of the tribe of Levi, the tribe of priests who serve in the temple. At one time this tribe set up and took down the tabernacle and were responsible for hauling from one place to another including the Ark of the Covenant. Now with a stone temple which was built by Solomon we have the people going to the temple and most likely standing in the outer courts, or the colonnade while the one man, the priest enters the actual temple itself and burnt incense. There was not leader of worship, no music, no fanfare at all, for the people were simply praying to God. Worshipers were praying. What we see here is that prayer was their form of worship. How times have changed. Our time of worship within the walls of our churches have become more like entertainment then worship. Our worship leader gyrates around a raised platform with all sorts of musical instruments thumping out loud noise that more resembles a half time show at the superbowl  then a time of worship.  Of course all this is done to entice the non-churched folks to come in, although they have no idea we are doing all that for them. The point here is not to criticize, but rather to see that we who sit or stand in the pews are not really worshipping God, or at least in the fashion in which the chosen people of God did, which was in prayer. Perhaps the time we spend in our church in our pew or for that matter wherever we are, should be spent in prayer rather than anything else. Worship has certainly evolved over the years and perhaps in all that evolution we have forsaken true worship. Yes we are to go into the world and preach the gospel, but that is we, not a church service with a pastor telling us what the church is doing in the community so we feel like we are doing something for Christ, but rather we are supposed to go into our community and preach the gospel and when we come together and a chosen one is selected by lot to burn some incense we should be worshipping God in prayer. This may never be, but at least we can decide to be true worshippers of God, in spirit and in true, which may well only be done in prayer.