Yesterday, I went to meet with the King. Well, technically I attended an event where King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands was present, but as I did manage to shake the King’s hand and exchange a few brief words with him, I suppose I honestly can say I did meet him.
The occasion was the opening of ‘De Noordkaap’, a new expression of The Salvation Army in the northern part of Amsterdam. As you can imagine, there was quite a lot of excitement around the King coming to do the opening. Mails were sent out beforehand to make sure we all knew where to sit, how to address the King (‘Your Majesty,’ by the way), and what would and would not be appropriate to say. As the invited congregation sat and waited for the King to arrive, you sensed the excitement. It was, however, nothing compared to what one experienced walking behind the King through the crowd gathered outside, as we made our way across the grounds to the front door of the new centre. People were waving, jumping, shouting and the parents of the children that the King stopped to greet could not contain their joy – the King had chosen to talk with their child among all the other present.
It was in every way an extraordinary and memorable occasion.
Tomorrow it is Sunday and many of us will gather for a worship service of some kind. Here we are also invited to meet with the King. We do not gather just to remember King Jesus, we actually believe, because he promised it would be so, that he will be present in our midst. Are we excited about it? Can we contain our joy? And if not, why not?
Could it be we no longer expect Jesus to actually be present? Could it be we give him no room to manifest his presence? Paul had a lot of admonishment for the church in Corinth, but when talking about how it would be if a ‘stranger’ walked into their service, he commended them because the stranger might be a bit confused as to what was going on, but his conclusion would be ‘God is really among you’ (1. Cor. 14:25). Oh, for our services to be like that, confusing, a bit un-ordered, but a clear experience of the presence and power of Jesus.
General John Larsson, in our training college days, used to remind us that when Jesus said to the two blind men that ‘According to your faith let it be done to you’ (Matt. 9:27-29)it could be understood as it will happen as you expect it to. Oh, Lord, fill our hearts with expectations of you and your working among your people gathered in your name.
Yesterday, I not only went to see the King, I also polished my shoes. That is also quite a rare event, but it felt the right thing to do. I wanted to prepare to meet the King.
In the Natural Church Development survey people are asked to react to the statement ‘I prepare myself to participate in the worship service’. Interestingly, even if the church scores reasonable high in ‘Inspiring Worship Service’ often this point scores quite low. Apparently, we don’t prepare, maybe we don’t know how to prepare, or maybe, because we do not expect anything, we see no reason to prepare.
What would happen if we stopped up, spent a few moments in prayer and silence before we left for the service? Stopping up to become aware of the Holy Spirit, asking what we should bring to the worship service? Maybe a word of encouragement for someone, maybe a word from the Lord, maybe specific prayer for someone going through a difficult time, maybe sharing coffee with a visitor, rather than with our friends, maybe placing ourselves at the altar?
May we, as we get ready for meeting the King tomorrow prepare to come into his presence, filled with expectancy, may we prepare to meet the King, may our worship be passionate and vibrant, and may King Jesus be manifestly among us.
Come, Lord Jesus, come!