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A God of the Pew
A battle ends in defeat. The Arameans flee before the Israelites. Trying to rationalize the defeat, the king’s servants say, “Their gods are gods of the hill country. That why they were stronger than we were. Instead, we should fight with them on the plain; then we will certainly be stronger than they are” (1 Kings 20:23).
God’s response is typical of the Sovereign of the Universe. To “Perryphrase” it, “Oh yea? Watch this!” To quote God, “Because the Arameans have said: The LORD is a god of the mountains and not a god of the valleys I will hand over all this whole huge army to you. Then you will know that I am the LORD” (1 Kings 20:28). God accepted the challenge!
This got me thinking along a different line. Obviously, we acknowledge that God is everywhere. Intellectually we don’t limit God’s omnipresence. Practically, is this true? Do we make God “a god of the pew”? We punch our attendance ticket because we misuse “where two or three are gathered, there I am also” (Matthew 18:20). God is in the building.
Could it be even worse than that. I wonder if for some they are making attendance the atonement, offered to God to pacify His wrath. Have we made God even less than “a god of the pew”? Have we substituted our pew-sitting for the crucifixion? Obviously, we acknowledge that can’t be done. Practically, is it true? If we attend to satisfy God, if we attend out of fear of going to hell, if we attend to make it into heaven by the skin of our teeth, we have turned our pew-sitting into a pagan atonement, to pacify an angry God.
The battle is still raging. God already defeated the enemy when, “He disarmed the rulers and authorities and disgraced them publicly; he triumphed over them in him” (Colossians 2:15). The battle that is still raging is in me. Do I “come to church” because that is where God is? Do I “come to church” to get God off my back? Or do I assemble with God’s people, before God in humility, in thankfulness, and empty of my own salvific good works? God is not a god of the pew. God is the God of me!
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