| “FIVE REASONS TO GO TO CHURCH” Hebrews 10:19-25; Acts 20:7-12 Olivet Covenant Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia, PA © Rev. Linda Jaymes, 1/31/2010 |
It’s always interesting to hear about the various reasons people have for not going to church. Someone was clever enough
to take those reasons and apply them to other important areas of life, just to demonstrate how inconsistent and illogical people
can be. If we took those reasons and used them to explain why we don’t go to football games, for instance, they might sound
something like this:
1) Every time I went, they asked for money.
2) The people I sat next to didn’t seem friendly.
3) The seats were too hard and not comfortable at all.
4) Even though I went to many games, the coach never visited me at home.
5) The referees made decisions that I couldn’t agree with.
6) The game went into overtime and I was late getting home.
7) The band played songs I’d never heard and it wasn’t my style of music.
8) The games are always scheduled when I want to do other things.
9) I suspect that I was sitting next to some hypocrites. They only came to see their friends and they talked
during the whole game.
10) My parents took me to too many games when I was growing up.
11) I hate to wait in the traffic jam in the parking lot after the game.
And for those of you who aren’t into sports, if we took similar reasons and applied them to taking a bath or a shower we
would end up with these top ten reasons not to bathe:
1) I was forced to as a child.
2) People who make soap are only after your money.
3) People who wash are hypocrites—they think they are cleaner than everyone else.
4) There are so many different kinds of soap, I can’t decide which one is best.
5) I used to wash, but it got boring so I stopped.
6) None of my friends wash.
7) I’ll start washing when I get older and dirtier.
8) The bathroom is never warm enough in the winter or cool enough in the summer. (Or vice versa!)
9) I’m too busy; I just can’t spare the time.
10) I wash on special occasions, like Christmas and Easter.
Whether we apply those reasons to sports or to bathing, it’s those excuses that don’t wash! And if we are honest, we’ll
admit that they aren’t very good reasons for not going to church, either. We could probably come up with much better reasons
simply by looking at the story we just read in the book of Acts. Scripture tells us about the night the Apostle Paul’s sermon
went on for so long that a young man named Eutychus not only fell asleep but also fell out a third story window to his death.
We would probably agree that risking one’s life is a more acceptable reason for not going to church than those other reasons
we heard. However, in this country, going to church doesn’t exactly qualify for taking your life in your hands. Granted,
sermons may be long and boring. I heard about one man who got up and left worship in the middle of the sermon and returned
just before the service was over. Afterward, the pastor asked the man where he went, only to be told that he had gone out for
a haircut. As you might imagine, the pastor was rather peeved and asked why he didn’t get one before the service. The pastor
must have been embarrassed when the man replied, “I didn’t need one then!” In any case, although some sermons seem to go
on forever and may even put us to sleep, they’re not likely to cause physical harm. Certainly at Olivet, I never preach too long
and we don’t have any windows you could fall out of—at least here in the sanctuary. You’ll have to come up with better
reasons than that for not going to church!
But let’s not spend any more time thinking about reasons not to go to church; let’s think about reasons why we should go
to church. William Barclay, 20th century Scottish pastor and theologian, suggests 5 good reasons to go to church. Not that
these are the only reasons or even new reasons. Most of this will be review. But sometimes we need to review and remind
ourselves why we should go to church, even if it is sometimes boring, even if we were forced to go as a child, even if none of
our friends do and especially if our lives are so out of balance that we think we can’t spare the time.
These are not necessarily in any order of importance, and in fact, depending on our personality, age and circumstances in
life, we may find some to be more important or more challenging than others. In any case, the first reason for going to church
is simply that it is an act of discipline, and discipline is something we need to be faithful Christians. It is not healthy to fall into
a way of life in which we only do what we want to do when we want to do it, something that is all to commonplace in our
culture. We live in a time when children are less disciplined than ever before, rebelling at an earlier age and carrying out acts of
violence that were unconscionable in previous generations. We also have access to modern technology that has made life
easier, which means we can get by with being less disciplined than our grandparents were.
For example, fewer and fewer of us have to get up at 4:30 a.m. to milk the cow and build a fire in the cook stove so that
we can have breakfast; we can get up a lot later and simply open the refrigerator and turn on the stove or better yet, the
microwave. We no longer need the discipline it once took to feed our heating systems with wood or coal every few hours;
now, we just set the thermostat and the system runs itself. We don’t have to spend hours writing letters by hand or even
typewriter when we can do business over the phone or on line. In fact, many people don’t even have to leave the house to go
to work anymore. With telecommuting, they can stay home, stay in their pajamas, order carry-out and never see the light of
day! If they only bathed on Christmas and Easter, no one would even know—much less care.
The point is that in many ways, we are lazier than ever before. Discipline is slipping. And so will our spiritual life if we
don’t practice discipline, if we don’t make the effort to go to church. Even if worship seems boring or dry, and our hearts feel
like they are getting cold and unresponsive, it is good discipline for us to go to church every week. Besides, we never know
when the Spirit may unexpectedly break through and turn a routine worship service into something very special and significant.
As an example, put yourself into the story of those folks in our lesson from the book of Acts. Without the discipline required to
gather for worship on the first day of the week, they might have stayed at home and avoided Paul’s visit and his lengthy
sermon. But they also would have missed witnessing a miracle when Paul raised that dead boy to life, an opportunity for God
to break through and encourage their faith.
A second reason for going to church is to share in the fellowship of Christian people, an encouragement not only to
our faith but also to our human spirit. We are lifted up by the love and friendship we experience here, and strengthened by the
support we know is ours whenever we need it. But these things can only happen when we faithfully come to church and spend
time building up relationships with each other. It’s amazing how quickly we can feel distanced from one another even when we
miss a single week. That’s why it’s so important to remember that scripture from the book of Hebrews that reminds us not to
give up meeting together, but in fact to be more serious about it as time goes on, as the return of Jesus gets inevitably closer.
And as we fellowship with one another and build relationships of trust in the bond of Christ’s Spirit, we also discover our need
to be accountable to one another. Sound Christian relationships deserve not only loving affirmation, but sometimes, loving
confrontation and correction. If we are not in fellowship with others in the Body of Christ, who will care enough to tell us
when we are going astray? Who will help discern God’s will for us, if not our brothers and sisters in the Lord? Can the world
guide us in the path of the Savior? Unlikely. Scripture tells us to spur one another on, or in some translations, to “stir one
another up” toward love and good deeds. Heaven knows that we will stir one another up in one way or another! But only as
we commit ourselves to each other in the bond of Christian fellowship and love, will we keep growing in faith and love for each
other and stay on the straight and narrow path that leads to eternal life.
Another reason for going to church, in Barclay’s terms, is to uphold the hands of the preacher. You may not realize it,
but you are far more responsible for the “feel” of the service than I am. You are the ones who bring with you each Sunday an
attitude of eager expectancy—or apathetic indifference. You are the ones whose presence or absence makes a difference in
MY life and ministry. You bring your own personal, human spirit into this sanctuary week by week and as it meets with God’s
Spirit, I can actually sense a certain electricity in the air. I don’t know if this is true of every pastor or if it has something to do
with the strong intuitive side of my personality, but there are weeks when because you are not here, I sense a flatness about the
service. You really are the salt of the earth. When you are not here, there is a hole where you should be. This may not seem
like a big deal to you, but it is mighty important to me!
A fourth reason for going to church is to witness, to let others see where our hearts are and where our loyalties lie. Every
time we go to church we tell the world that God is important—in fact, a priority—and having a faith to build our lives on really
means something to us. Perhaps in this day and age, as the Sabbath loses its importance for more and more people, the witness
of caring enough to take time out of our too-busy lives and come to church is greater than we imagine. Some people may
consider us weak or foolish for believing in a God other than ourselves, but others will respect us for having the courage of our
convictions and honoring God with our time and our devotion. Besides, when we consider how brief and fleeting life is in the
context of eternity, and if we recognize that our life here on earth is just preparation or training for being with God in eternity,
then we really ought to be spending more time on the things of God than on the things of the world. Since there are 168 hours
in every week, it hardly seems like God is asking too much of us to spend one or two of those hours in church!
Last but certainly not least and probably the most obvious and important reason for going to church is to worship, wait
upon and listen to God. In spite of the fact that our Reformed tradition tends to emphasize the sermon above everything else,
worship is not only about the sermon. And even though Reformed Christians believe that the Word of God preached is the
Word of God, there are other elements in the service through which we both worship and listen to God. We can speak to God
and God can speak to us in our prayers, our hymns and special music, our offerings and even in silence, something there is
precious little of in our world today.
In corporate worship we also have the opportunity to participate in a spiritual exchange in which we honor God with our
love and devotion, even as we bring our failures and concerns to lay at his feet. And as we worship, the Holy Spirit nourishes
us and gives us the strength and the courage to go out into the world and live for the Lord all week long. If we don’t go to
church, we never get the opportunity for that critical exchange. Our faith grows weaker when we are left on our own. Away
from corporate worship, our spiritual fervor tends to burn out and dry up, like a single coal removed from the fire. Or as one
Bible scholar describes it, (Moffatt) we become nothing more than “pious particles,” spinning off into space, invisible and
powerless. Christians in isolation find it much harder to grow in faith and serve God meaningfully in the world. In fact, it’s
hard to be a Christian at all in isolation from other believers and apart from the corporate worship of God. Being a Christian
means being a part of the Body of Christ, and loose body parts spinning in space aren’t very helpful or healthy when
disconnected from the body!
You may have more reasons than these for going to church, and quite frankly, since you’re already in church, I guess I’m
preaching to the choir. But maybe there are some here today who need encouragement to keep coming or to come more
regularly, and certainly all of us know someone outside these doors who needs to hear good reasons for going to church. If
nothing else, the next time someone gives you an excuse for not going to church, you can ask him or her if they would stay
away from sports events for that reason, or use that excuse for not bathing or eating on a regular basis. And speaking of
washing and eating, let’s not forget that we are only here today because we have been washed in the blood of the Lamb, and
lunch is waiting for us downstairs as we come together for fellowship with each other and also to do the business of the
church at our annual meeting.
Let us pray.
to take those reasons and apply them to other important areas of life, just to demonstrate how inconsistent and illogical people
can be. If we took those reasons and used them to explain why we don’t go to football games, for instance, they might sound
something like this:
1) Every time I went, they asked for money.
2) The people I sat next to didn’t seem friendly.
3) The seats were too hard and not comfortable at all.
4) Even though I went to many games, the coach never visited me at home.
5) The referees made decisions that I couldn’t agree with.
6) The game went into overtime and I was late getting home.
7) The band played songs I’d never heard and it wasn’t my style of music.
8) The games are always scheduled when I want to do other things.
9) I suspect that I was sitting next to some hypocrites. They only came to see their friends and they talked
during the whole game.
10) My parents took me to too many games when I was growing up.
11) I hate to wait in the traffic jam in the parking lot after the game.
And for those of you who aren’t into sports, if we took similar reasons and applied them to taking a bath or a shower we
would end up with these top ten reasons not to bathe:
1) I was forced to as a child.
2) People who make soap are only after your money.
3) People who wash are hypocrites—they think they are cleaner than everyone else.
4) There are so many different kinds of soap, I can’t decide which one is best.
5) I used to wash, but it got boring so I stopped.
6) None of my friends wash.
7) I’ll start washing when I get older and dirtier.
8) The bathroom is never warm enough in the winter or cool enough in the summer. (Or vice versa!)
9) I’m too busy; I just can’t spare the time.
10) I wash on special occasions, like Christmas and Easter.
Whether we apply those reasons to sports or to bathing, it’s those excuses that don’t wash! And if we are honest, we’ll
admit that they aren’t very good reasons for not going to church, either. We could probably come up with much better reasons
simply by looking at the story we just read in the book of Acts. Scripture tells us about the night the Apostle Paul’s sermon
went on for so long that a young man named Eutychus not only fell asleep but also fell out a third story window to his death.
We would probably agree that risking one’s life is a more acceptable reason for not going to church than those other reasons
we heard. However, in this country, going to church doesn’t exactly qualify for taking your life in your hands. Granted,
sermons may be long and boring. I heard about one man who got up and left worship in the middle of the sermon and returned
just before the service was over. Afterward, the pastor asked the man where he went, only to be told that he had gone out for
a haircut. As you might imagine, the pastor was rather peeved and asked why he didn’t get one before the service. The pastor
must have been embarrassed when the man replied, “I didn’t need one then!” In any case, although some sermons seem to go
on forever and may even put us to sleep, they’re not likely to cause physical harm. Certainly at Olivet, I never preach too long
and we don’t have any windows you could fall out of—at least here in the sanctuary. You’ll have to come up with better
reasons than that for not going to church!
But let’s not spend any more time thinking about reasons not to go to church; let’s think about reasons why we should go
to church. William Barclay, 20th century Scottish pastor and theologian, suggests 5 good reasons to go to church. Not that
these are the only reasons or even new reasons. Most of this will be review. But sometimes we need to review and remind
ourselves why we should go to church, even if it is sometimes boring, even if we were forced to go as a child, even if none of
our friends do and especially if our lives are so out of balance that we think we can’t spare the time.
These are not necessarily in any order of importance, and in fact, depending on our personality, age and circumstances in
life, we may find some to be more important or more challenging than others. In any case, the first reason for going to church
is simply that it is an act of discipline, and discipline is something we need to be faithful Christians. It is not healthy to fall into
a way of life in which we only do what we want to do when we want to do it, something that is all to commonplace in our
culture. We live in a time when children are less disciplined than ever before, rebelling at an earlier age and carrying out acts of
violence that were unconscionable in previous generations. We also have access to modern technology that has made life
easier, which means we can get by with being less disciplined than our grandparents were.
For example, fewer and fewer of us have to get up at 4:30 a.m. to milk the cow and build a fire in the cook stove so that
we can have breakfast; we can get up a lot later and simply open the refrigerator and turn on the stove or better yet, the
microwave. We no longer need the discipline it once took to feed our heating systems with wood or coal every few hours;
now, we just set the thermostat and the system runs itself. We don’t have to spend hours writing letters by hand or even
typewriter when we can do business over the phone or on line. In fact, many people don’t even have to leave the house to go
to work anymore. With telecommuting, they can stay home, stay in their pajamas, order carry-out and never see the light of
day! If they only bathed on Christmas and Easter, no one would even know—much less care.
The point is that in many ways, we are lazier than ever before. Discipline is slipping. And so will our spiritual life if we
don’t practice discipline, if we don’t make the effort to go to church. Even if worship seems boring or dry, and our hearts feel
like they are getting cold and unresponsive, it is good discipline for us to go to church every week. Besides, we never know
when the Spirit may unexpectedly break through and turn a routine worship service into something very special and significant.
As an example, put yourself into the story of those folks in our lesson from the book of Acts. Without the discipline required to
gather for worship on the first day of the week, they might have stayed at home and avoided Paul’s visit and his lengthy
sermon. But they also would have missed witnessing a miracle when Paul raised that dead boy to life, an opportunity for God
to break through and encourage their faith.
A second reason for going to church is to share in the fellowship of Christian people, an encouragement not only to
our faith but also to our human spirit. We are lifted up by the love and friendship we experience here, and strengthened by the
support we know is ours whenever we need it. But these things can only happen when we faithfully come to church and spend
time building up relationships with each other. It’s amazing how quickly we can feel distanced from one another even when we
miss a single week. That’s why it’s so important to remember that scripture from the book of Hebrews that reminds us not to
give up meeting together, but in fact to be more serious about it as time goes on, as the return of Jesus gets inevitably closer.
And as we fellowship with one another and build relationships of trust in the bond of Christ’s Spirit, we also discover our need
to be accountable to one another. Sound Christian relationships deserve not only loving affirmation, but sometimes, loving
confrontation and correction. If we are not in fellowship with others in the Body of Christ, who will care enough to tell us
when we are going astray? Who will help discern God’s will for us, if not our brothers and sisters in the Lord? Can the world
guide us in the path of the Savior? Unlikely. Scripture tells us to spur one another on, or in some translations, to “stir one
another up” toward love and good deeds. Heaven knows that we will stir one another up in one way or another! But only as
we commit ourselves to each other in the bond of Christian fellowship and love, will we keep growing in faith and love for each
other and stay on the straight and narrow path that leads to eternal life.
Another reason for going to church, in Barclay’s terms, is to uphold the hands of the preacher. You may not realize it,
but you are far more responsible for the “feel” of the service than I am. You are the ones who bring with you each Sunday an
attitude of eager expectancy—or apathetic indifference. You are the ones whose presence or absence makes a difference in
MY life and ministry. You bring your own personal, human spirit into this sanctuary week by week and as it meets with God’s
Spirit, I can actually sense a certain electricity in the air. I don’t know if this is true of every pastor or if it has something to do
with the strong intuitive side of my personality, but there are weeks when because you are not here, I sense a flatness about the
service. You really are the salt of the earth. When you are not here, there is a hole where you should be. This may not seem
like a big deal to you, but it is mighty important to me!
A fourth reason for going to church is to witness, to let others see where our hearts are and where our loyalties lie. Every
time we go to church we tell the world that God is important—in fact, a priority—and having a faith to build our lives on really
means something to us. Perhaps in this day and age, as the Sabbath loses its importance for more and more people, the witness
of caring enough to take time out of our too-busy lives and come to church is greater than we imagine. Some people may
consider us weak or foolish for believing in a God other than ourselves, but others will respect us for having the courage of our
convictions and honoring God with our time and our devotion. Besides, when we consider how brief and fleeting life is in the
context of eternity, and if we recognize that our life here on earth is just preparation or training for being with God in eternity,
then we really ought to be spending more time on the things of God than on the things of the world. Since there are 168 hours
in every week, it hardly seems like God is asking too much of us to spend one or two of those hours in church!
Last but certainly not least and probably the most obvious and important reason for going to church is to worship, wait
upon and listen to God. In spite of the fact that our Reformed tradition tends to emphasize the sermon above everything else,
worship is not only about the sermon. And even though Reformed Christians believe that the Word of God preached is the
Word of God, there are other elements in the service through which we both worship and listen to God. We can speak to God
and God can speak to us in our prayers, our hymns and special music, our offerings and even in silence, something there is
precious little of in our world today.
In corporate worship we also have the opportunity to participate in a spiritual exchange in which we honor God with our
love and devotion, even as we bring our failures and concerns to lay at his feet. And as we worship, the Holy Spirit nourishes
us and gives us the strength and the courage to go out into the world and live for the Lord all week long. If we don’t go to
church, we never get the opportunity for that critical exchange. Our faith grows weaker when we are left on our own. Away
from corporate worship, our spiritual fervor tends to burn out and dry up, like a single coal removed from the fire. Or as one
Bible scholar describes it, (Moffatt) we become nothing more than “pious particles,” spinning off into space, invisible and
powerless. Christians in isolation find it much harder to grow in faith and serve God meaningfully in the world. In fact, it’s
hard to be a Christian at all in isolation from other believers and apart from the corporate worship of God. Being a Christian
means being a part of the Body of Christ, and loose body parts spinning in space aren’t very helpful or healthy when
disconnected from the body!
You may have more reasons than these for going to church, and quite frankly, since you’re already in church, I guess I’m
preaching to the choir. But maybe there are some here today who need encouragement to keep coming or to come more
regularly, and certainly all of us know someone outside these doors who needs to hear good reasons for going to church. If
nothing else, the next time someone gives you an excuse for not going to church, you can ask him or her if they would stay
away from sports events for that reason, or use that excuse for not bathing or eating on a regular basis. And speaking of
washing and eating, let’s not forget that we are only here today because we have been washed in the blood of the Lamb, and
lunch is waiting for us downstairs as we come together for fellowship with each other and also to do the business of the
church at our annual meeting.
Let us pray.
