Which is more likely to be the life of true worship? The guy who wanders the slum praying for insight, and is led to open a school and feeding station for children in a dis-used local pub, or the person who attends the prim & proper organised worship week by week?
To put it mildly, God is offensive in His discourse with the Israelite worshipper in Isaiah 1:11 - 17. He doesn't need the offerings, he finds the incense detestable (same word as used against immoral practices in places like Lev 18), and hates their festivals. Stuff political correctness ...
It's not that they weren't sincere, it is that they allowed their lives to disconnect from their gathered worship. True worship is how we respond to the poor, the oppressed (see v15-17). Separate worship from life and instead of the gatherings illuminating a God orientated life, they end up becoming some kind of attempt to placate God, ticking the box.
In this way they become a pill we take which we think does us some good - the ultimate placebo.
In our culture, we are dominated by individualism and consumerism. So the danger is worship is about me and my requirements (hence the 'shopping around'). Worst case, we end up consuming worship. Since we are now used to being fed media, we sit back and receive worship-stuff that is delivered to us - preferably by the professional who can give a quality product.
This can lead to us becoming isolated, in-animate, static clients of worship - reducing it to a kind of drive-through MacDonalds.
More in another post, but it raises the key question:
[OUT] How is your worship worked out through your life week by week?
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