It’s a Continual Sacrifice!

slow motion eastward
the world whirls
turning constantly
towards its sun 
then welcoming
the dark embrace of night

and swirling all around
smokey mist rises
incense in all colors
contrasting textures
braiding together
with purpose in flight

first day of the week
it intensifies
as praises are sung
and the worship expressed
in the Family of God
covers the rotating earth

one longitude
gives way to another
but in each space
there are hearts in prayer
or two or three
or a crowd together

a fourth dimension 
of reverence and joy
mixed with pain
and shades of yearning
a constant sacrifice
reaching toward Love

the incense keeps rising
from every nation
and in each language
that knows the Truth
the aroma twirls
into magnets of light

Where were you last Sunday? Was your heart overflowing with praise? If so, I picture incense rising up to heaven, a part of the worldwide flow that intensifies the first day of the week as believers gather together. What a chorus that must be!

Last Sunday we were back in the Tiepogovogo church that began about 40 years ago when a few young men asked us to begin teaching them about Jesus. At first we met at night around a fire in a courtyard. When more people joined the group, they built an open thatch shelter where we could gather Sunday mornings. After that a tiny church was built, a cement building the size of a living room, then finally the current church where believers from multiple villages come to worship together.

Over the years we learned a lot from these Nyarafolo believers. One of the dynamics that I miss when we are in our other home country, the U.S., is group worship through dance. I had not realized just how much I am missing it until this past Sunday when I joined Minata in the circle dance—she is my longtime friend who was playing the metal scraper for percussion and leading out into the space in front of the pulpit. Other women joined us, each of us listening to the song and trying to respond verbally with the chorus after each of the singer’s calls (like verses). At first I was just glad that the steps were coming back to me naturally. Then I lifted my heart to the Father above and thanked him that I could be with these dear sisters leading in the dance. I began to worship, not just following the song’s lyrics but praising the Father for his creativity and love for all peoples. And suddenly I was choked up, trying not to let my tears began to fall. The joy was overflowing!

It isn’t every time I am at a church meeting that I experience that, although sometimes it happens. Every time I am truly worshiping the Lord with others in his Family, I know that it pleases him deeply. He has recently been prompting me to pay increasing attention to him when singing, in the congregation or the choir—wherever I am. It is so easy to focus on the quality of the music, or even to just sing the words without really processing them and lifting them up to him as a “sacrifice:”

Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise– the fruit of lips that openly profess his name. (Heb. 13:15 NIV)

At Tiepogovogo this week, the songs they were singing were new to me. That is fantastic! It means the singers are still creating songs in their style and teaching each other through them, or inciting worship. The call/response style means they don’t need hymnbooks or words on a screen; once you listen to the chorus, you know what to say when the singer pauses, what to repeat in song with the congregation. I watched the children joining the movements, enthralled by the dance. May they be absorbing the words as well as yearning to be part of the balaphone band or the ring of worshiping dancers!

And I’m sure that the Lord was deeply pleased by the joy rising here as well as in the next town, the neighboring countries on this continent, then as the world kept turning and others gathered to the west, all the different languages and musical styles that were rising high and into his heart. He loves variety (just look at the amazing assortment of plants and their flowers, trees and their leaves and fruit, birds, animals, and ethnic groups around the world). He loves the richness of world music!

Followers of Jesus no longer offer actual incense offerings, but their prayers, the words of their heart, and their body movements can have that same fragrance as they lift them up to their beloved God. The Word does liken our heart’s worship to an offering:

May you accept my prayer like incense, my uplifted hands like the evening offering! (Ps. 141:2 NET)

The culture we’ve been raised in, or where we’ve been worshiping, can affect what we are comfortable doing. I realize not everyone is inspired by the dance the way that I am (my husband is different from me in that regard). But the Word commands us to sing our worship, so let’s do it with sincerity and joy in the way that speaks to us in our culture, in whatever mode we find brings us together! He is calling all nations to participate, and someday they will, we all will:

For from the east to the west my name will be great among the nations. Incense and pure offerings will be offered in my name everywhere, for my name will be great among the nations,”  says the LORD who rules over all. (Mal. 1:11 NET)

Let all the people of the earth acknowledge the LORD and turn to him!  Let all the nations  worship you! (Ps. 22:27 NET)

All the nations, whom you created, will come and worship you,  O Lord. They will honor your name. (Ps. 86:9 NET)

Let them praise his name with dancing! Let them sing praises to him to the accompaniment of the tambourine and harp! (Ps. 149:3 NET)

Praise him with the tambourine and with dancing! Praise him with stringed instruments and the flute! (Ps. 150:4 NET)

Wherever we are, let’s contemplate how to put his command into practice next time we gather with others to worship him!

Worship  the LORD with joy! Enter his presence with joyful singing! (Ps. 100:2 NET)