A Blank Stare Can Be Cold
by Graham N. West, pastor, St. Paul's United Methodist Church, Stevens Point, WI

I have been in too many worship services where I have felt the freeze of a blank stare. There are those who reach a point when their eyes glaze over, their stare becomes fixed, and they seem unmoved. On some occasions, I feel inclined to go over and shake them up.

It saddens me to discover later that some have fallen foul to moral struggles, relationship challenges, or spiritual battles. I've had a note left behind asking for prayer because "my daughter is dying of cancer." A teen who sat sedately in the back pew took an overdose that week. Unannounced, a married couple that once sat alongside each other sit on opposite sides of the sanctuary. An oldtimer is bent over with loneliness, but declines an invitation to lunch.

Worship is intended to bring us into God's presence where we may open ourselves to divine grace and be transformed as God's people.

But all too often we seem to go as we came; and in between, we worshiped God. I mean we sat in the presence of the Holy One. We celebrated and offered joyful praise. The biblical narrative radiated with God's enduring love. We were urged by the preaching to give heart and life to Christ. There was even prayer for God's Spirit to move sensitively among us. And the response? A blank stare.

Are our hearts not moved? Is there not even a quiver of response? Why don't our faces indicate a visitation of the divine? Just a blank stare . . .

Love can be warm, prayer can be spontaneous, and joy can be infectious . . . but a blank stare can be so cold that it freezes over.

If our worship is to offer Christ and be a witness to our faith, then we need to show it with hearts that are open, faces that are turned upward and lives ready to respond.

The gospel is, after all, good news; so there should be some surprise and spontaneity in worship. It should be laced with awe and wonder that beckons us into the presence of the divine. At its heart is a loving engagement with our God that should at least lighten up our faces. The Spirit's whisper must be heard with megaphone clarity.

Worship that offers Christ and amplifies his teaching must rise from the heart to illuminate the face with the blessedness felt by those who walked Galilee with Jesus.

Of course, it's presumptuous to suggest that a stare is an indicator of a bland experience within. The Spirit can be stirring regardless of the outward expression. But for worship to offer Christ, especially to the seeker, we do need to translate what's happening within so there is some indication that we are being stirred by the divine. Seekers may then come to share the blessedness of Christ.

Posted 3-15-04.