Manifest Presence and Pageantry

Last night as I was sitting at church (Catholic Feast Day of Mary's Immaculate Conception) I was thinking about the rich liturgical expression that has developed over the centuries, and how much of it is to honor God and His greatness.  I was thinking about how much of that can now be empty ritual that can tend to get in the way of our understanding God's desire for relationship with each of us.  The rich and extravagant ceremony can cause us to think that God is far off and unapprochable, when the opposite is true - when we gather we are in His presence and all are welcome.

There is a rightful place for ceremony and honoring God's glory - in fact nothing we could ever do here with music and song, or anything extravagant could ever come close to giving God the glory He deserves. God is majestic and Glorious and His very presence is overwhelming.  We try to create masterpieces of liturgy to inject some awe into our church experiences.  I would much rather experience the awe of God's manifest presence than be wowed by beautiful music and pageantry, the problem is that I think much of the Church has no idea what that really feels like, nor have they ever experienced it.

We don't want to give up on worship, song and pageantry, for they are meant to draw our minds and hearts towards the Lord, but they are no  substitute for His real presence!  The problem for us all is that God is God and while He is always present when we gather, He is not always manifestly present and thus we try to work up an approximation of that, or something that reminds us of that.  However, if it has been long enough, or enough generations have passed, we forget what God's presence really feels like and settle for the man-made version.   My prayer for the whole of the church is that we would not settle for anything less than the real manifest presence of God, and that we would all experience His manifest presence in our lifetime, that there would be a fresh awakening of hearts and souls to the greatness of God.

Here is an excerpt describing one example of what the manifest presence of God can look like - a revival that took place on Azusa Street in LA, California as described by Dr. Reve' M. Pete ( http://www.revempete.us/research/holiness/azusa.html)

"Services were not prearranged. No subjects were announced in advance. The Holy Ghost ordered the service in meekness and humility. Most of the time, Seymour sat with his head in the makeshift box pulpit – praying. The message of the meeting was love.

After Seymour began preaching at the “Azusa Stable”, “a monumental revival began”. People fell under the power of God and rose speaking in tongues. Worshippers, both men and women, shouted, wept, danced, fell into trances, spoke and sang in tongues and interpreted [what had been said in tongues] into English. The Holy Ghost was so powerful at “Azusa Stable”, men would come under conviction within two or three blocks of the mission. Persons were baptized in the Holy Ghost on their seats in the assembly room as well as in the “tarrying room” upstairs. When the Holy Ghost would make an altar call, men all over the building would be slain in the Spirit.

Service attendance grew from approximately a dozen persons – African-American and Caucasian-American – to hundreds and thousands from the Los Angeles area. People of every race and nationality were found in the crowds that converged on the mission. No respect of persons was found among the worshippers. The rich and educated were the same as the poor and uneducated. Pride, self-assertion and self-importance could not survive there. Races were completely integrated. There was no racial prejudice in the service.African-Americans, Caucasian-Americans, Chinese and Jews attended the services. Because of this, Frank Bartleman believed and exclaimed, “The color line is washed away in the blood!”

Eventually, the services ran day and night. The building was never closed or locked. Each night service was packed out. Holiness meetings, tents and missions closed for lack of attendance. Special prayer meetings broke out everywhere. People would meet early in the morning and start singing. S. Henry McGowan, son of Seymour’s friend, W. H. McGowan, recalled of the singing, “…oh what singing!”

People were excited about what God was doing in their midst. Those who had been filled with the Holy Ghost testified about it. They said how wonderful it was. After the testimonies, someone would preach and tell what God had promised. The meetings would go on almost all night. If people were hungry, they would leave and get something to eat and return as soon as possible. W. H. McGowan hauled bricks as an occupation. Often he would stop and listen to the service while working. Sometimes, he would get so caught up in what was going on, he would forget to go back to work! McGowan characterized the meetings as the “love of God”.

Oh, that we would once again experience the indwelling and infilling of the Holy Spirit in all of our churches and gatherings.  We pray for a great outpouring, that once again the church would understand experientially what God's manifest presence really feels like.

Amen!