Disorder in The Church

I have meat to eat that ye know not of

I've often thought that our Bible Churches could benefit by incorporating elements of "that old-time religion" into the order of service. In fact, pace Paul, a very little seeming disorder might be of great advantage to the order of service. I know that most of us DTS folk are of Engineering and other highly schooled background, while the clappers and swayers on the other side of town have bluer collars; and all of this without mention of those ethnic worship modes a thousand miles removed from Eton and Harrow good form, or from those tamed Vikings planted in Minnesota, painted by Grant Wood, and retailed by Garrison Keillor.

For disorder, let me humbly suggest that noon is nowhere ordained as pumpkin-time for the church, like midnight for Cinderella. What if...the holiness of God, through the presence of His Spirit, were so mighty upon the congregation, or so manifest through the tongue of the preacher (sorry... teacher), or so weighty upon the heart of a congregant, that that congregant, heedless of appearances, like Isaiah, or Daniel, was on his face bowed down upon the floor. There is precedent, you know.

Jesus depicts for us, in a parable, a sinner doing exactly that, in the Temple, amongst a people, and in an era, as concerned with decorum as our own Christian sub-culture. Granted, the Jews (including the Pharisees) of Jesus' time behaved a great deal like the Palestinians of today. Arafat's funeral week is in no way decorous; and history tells us that riots were no more rare in Jerusalem during the Roman occupation than they are today on the West Bank, or literally today (November 14, 2004) at the mourning tent of the late troubler of Israel. But the same elements of reputation and church decorum were certainly present. Otherwise, the glossolaliac enthusiasts at Pentecost would not have been accused of being drunk; nor, for that matter, would Samuel's mother, at prayer, a millennium previous.

Suppose, furthermore, that conviction of sin, or worshipful fear of Almighty Jehovah, spread through the entire flock. Suppose that a hymn broke out. Suppose that men and women were receiving Salvation. Suppose that the words from the pulpit were living words, and that folk desired to hear them, more than they desired bread. Can't go on. It's noon. Time management.

What if...we wound up staying at church the whole blessed day?!

And were glad to have done so.