Christian Hedonism--Jeremiah 2:11-13
Day 5
Should I seek my own pleasure in worship?
What about reverence?
And a healthy fear of God?
John Piper writes in Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist:
“I conclude…that the revolt against hedonism has killed the spirit of worship in many churches and many hearts. The widespread notion that high moral acts must be free from self-interest is a great enemy of true worship. Worship is the highest moral act a human can perform, so the only basis and motivation for it that many people can conceive is the notion of morality as the disinterested performance of duty. But when worship is reduced to disinterested duty, it ceases to be worship. For worship is a feast.”
Just yesterday, I was asked to pray for a young man who is suicidal right now from the nasty pile-ups in his personal life.
I pray that he will find his way through the misery he’s subjecting himself too without resorting to self-harm and that he will recognize, somehow, that God is working for his ultimate good.
I don’t think I’m seeking my own pleasure here. I don’t really find pleasure at all when praying like this.
But–then again–when I examine my simple, but serious prayer for the cessation of this young man’s pain, I can see where my words to God are motivated by my ease and comfort and CONFIDENCE with my relationship with Him–and that is pleasurable.
I think maybe what Piper is referring to are canned, rote worship and prayer–like some of the more desultory parts of Mass or being told to say 50 Hail Marys as penance.
I can recite the Nicene Creed and at the same time wonder about my NFL fantasy picks for the afternoon.
Carl Zylstra asks rhetorically:
“The question is whether worship really is supposed to be a time for self-fulfillment and enjoyment or whether it should be first of all, a time of service and honor to God, a sacrifice of praise.”
When I’m at Mass or listening to the message of a Baptist minister–am I serving and honoring God or am I there to drink from the “living water?”
Both?
For the second day in a row, the prophet Jeremiah has a warning:
Jeremiah 2:11-13 Has a nation changed gods, When they were not gods? But My people have exchanged their glory For that which is of no benefit. 12 Be appalled at this, you heavens, And shudder, be very desolate,” declares the Lord. 13 “For My people have committed two evils: They have abandoned Me, The fountain of living waters, To carve out for themselves cisterns, Broken cisterns That do not hold water.
I don’t think Jeremiah has come up much in my reflections over the last 2+ years, but here he is twice in a row and he doesn’t seem like the cheery sort.
More like a prophet of doom.
I find pleasure in reading and writing about my faith, discussing the lessons and precepts with Karen and my other believer friends, and praying, worshiping and just being plain astounded at God’s work in my life.
But I find less pleasure in attending church.
More effort involved? Seeing how other people are responding to the Mass or the message?
I know I don’t like how now, because of Covid protocols that people learned, we don’t even shake hands when the offer of peace comes around at Mass, much less hug.
It’s like that enervating part of Mass is dead now.
The “living water” is inside of me though–not in books about God and not in articles and theses about God.
God is the source of my true satisfaction as I push through each day looking for Christian goodness inside of me but I know I’m prone to forsake Him to seek out “cisterns” for myself–other little places of pleasure that hold no water and can’t ultimately satisfy.
And I tend to look at prayer and worship like Norman Rockwell did:
Lord, help keep us from going to the empty things of this world. Forgive us for our foolishness and guard us from further foolishness.
Lord, help us seek You as the fountain of living waters and help us obey that we might experience Your satisfaction completely and totally.
Amen.