Sunday Morning Worship

Five o'clock Sunday morning. I've been waiting for the alarm to go off. Finally, I hear the whir of the CD as it begins to spin and I reach over to shut off the alarm just before Cat Stevens reminds me morning has broken.

I don't need the light to find the bathrobe in the closet in the bathroom, nor lights to descend the fourteen steps to the basement, nor even lights to navigate through the small library, past the overstuffed hunter green recliner we bought at a garage sale last year for twenty dollars. I do need the light above my desk. It chases the last vestiges of sleep from my eyes as I open my computer and prayerfully reduce all my study notes to a single three or four page outline.

But first, check the email. What has happened in the world overnight that might require some adjustment of focus this morning? Check the RSS feed from MSNBC. Check the inbox for local events. Hmm. There's one from the pianist. 4:10 AM. This can't be good. The boys, all of whom were sick this week, are not better, one is worse off than before. She's been up with him all night. There's no way she can be in church today. God bless her. Can I see if the guitarists can shoulder most of the musical responsibilities?

One will be gone. The other probably can as long as he's not suffering from springtime allergies. I won't know that for another three hours. The organist anticipated the pianist providing the service music. There won't be a prelude or an offertory.

But there will be worship and there will be Word, and he will be in the midst of us, Mighty and True. True worship depends not on the music of man-made instruments, but on the melodies of individual hearts in tune with Christ, and, when in corporate worship, in tune with one another. It is Jesus for whom and from whom worship comes, not from musicians. It is He and not they who guarantee a genuine and powerful worship service.

And so, today, I had a plan. Today, that plan will be set aside. We will worship not according to plan, but according to Christ. And I expect it will be awesome.