The Formality of Worship
Meditation…
The Formality of Worship¹
God, my brother, does not want your worship, but rather He wants your heart. Let worship be merely an expression of the feelings of this heart. Therefore God reproached His people, saying: “This people draws near to Me with their mouth and honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me” (Matt. 15:8). This external worship God rejects, for He continually addresses us, saying: “My son, give Me your heart” (Prov. 23:26).
The children of Israel multiplied sacrifices and burnt offerings, and performed the external rites of worship—fasts, feasts, and seasons—and raised incense and offered prayers, while their heart was far from God, walking in evils and worship at the same time.
Therefore God rebuked them, saying: “To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me?! I am full of the burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts… Bring no more futile sacrifices; incense is an abomination to Me! I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting. Your New Moons and your appointed feasts My soul hates; they are a trouble to Me, I am weary of bearing them! When you spread out your hands, I will hide My eyes from you. Even though you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood…” (Isa. 1:11–15).
And He said to them through Jeremiah the prophet: “Your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices sweet to Me” (Jer. 6:20). The prophet knew the reason for this, so he said to the Lord: “You are near in their mouth but far from their reins” (Jer. 12:2). For this reason God rejected their worship, and said in His anger: “When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and grain offering, I will not accept them. But by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence I will consume them.”
And you, my beloved brother, beware lest you become like whitewashed tombs from the outside…
You care for worship, ritual, sacrifice, and incense, while neglecting the weightier matters of the Law: justice and mercy! (Matt. 23:23).
Do not measure your prayer by its length, but by its depth and purity. The prayer of the Pharisee was much longer than that of the tax collector, but God did not accept him because of the impurity of his heart. Do not focus your attention on external incense, but rather on the purity of the heart, so that your prayer may ascend as the smell of incense (Ps. 141:2).
¹ An article by His Grace Bishop Shenouda, Bishop of Education – Al-Keraza Magazine, Year Two – Issue Five – July 1966
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