Does God Care How We Worship?

About this sermon

With where I’m at in my faith, I’ve been focusing a lot more on the topic of beauty and how it is expressed in things like art, architecture, music, and liturgy in the Church and if you follow my channel, you will have noticed that this is reflected in the topics that I chose to discuss. And a not too uncommon reply that I’ve seen in the comments on some of my videos as well as in conversations I’ve had with people goes something like this: there’s nothing wrong with taking an interest in liturgy and music and those kinds of things, but don’t lose sight of the fact that God doesn’t care about the kind of music that is played at mass or the types of buildings that we worship in. God isn’t so focused on the externals, he cares about your heart and your intention. Where I get hung up with this line of reasoning, you know when we say that God isn’t preoccupied with the externals as much as he is with our internal disposition or the heart, it forces me to ask this question: If these external things don’t matter so much in the life of the Church, why did we bother changing them in the last century? Why did we spend so much energy hosting a major council, debating reforms, drafting new documents, and then rewriting Church disciplines? And not just a little, we changed them a lot and it was no small task. Now, a reply to my question that I would expect would go something like this: The old liturgy was too closed in and unwelcoming. Your average Catholic couldn’t participate because it was in Latin. Adopting a common vernacular meant that people could understand what was going on and feel more connected with the meaning of the mass. The rigidity in music and style meant that it was only appealing to a very limited cultural palette so by opening up our liturgy to other styles and influences, we could capture more interest from people who frequent different walks of life. I think that’s a reasonable answer and there are some compelling points to reflect on there. But here’s the problem: you cannot hold to those points while simultaneously claiming that God does not care about the externals without harboring a massive contradiction. Because the only reason I can see for justifying that course of action is if all of those considerations produce an increased ability among Church going Catholics, to know and love God. If these reforms don’t help us grow in faith, then they aren’t worth doing. But we decided they are worth doing so we must assume that they do help us grow in intimacy with God and if that’s true, then surely God cares about these things because he desperately cares about our relationship with him. So, we must concede, that God DOES care about the externals because of how they affect our ability to pray, to know him, and to encounter him. So the only other question for us at that point should be. Who’s right. Does a more modern and relatable liturgical experience help us grow in faith and love or does the former traditional approach? Twitter: https://twitter.com/briankeepsworth Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brianholdsworthmedia Business: https://www.holdsworthdesign.com

Topics

• Worship