Making Light of Serious Things

There are very few ordinances that the church is instructed to keep in the New Testament.  The two that come to mind are that of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.  Both of these are done in different ways for specific purposes.

The Lord’s Supper is done to remember the Lord’s death and Resurrection until He comes.  Baptism is an outward sign of an inward transaction.  Based on the importance and prominence of these two ordinances you would expect that someone would come to these occasions with soul searching and reverence… and for the most part I believe that you’d be correct.

However, we live in a world turned upside down– a world in which right is wrong and wrong is right.  Slice of Laodicea shows us a YouTube video in which a boy does a cannon ball into the baptistry turning the ordinance of God into a time of amusement.

Now, we have fun in the church services at my church.  Just this evening the Pastor tried to songlead and had trouble getting a song started, and I was at the organ so it was amusing to say the least in that he was having difficulty.  It was more amusing for me because my pastor is actually quite good at leading the music, but not in being everyone at the same time (the sound man was not present yet nor was the regular song leader) and he had just gotten through the first song just fine.

But there is a line to be crossed– a line between reverence and enjoying fellowship.  A line between what’s acceptable and what is not.  The test is whether the thing that is done exalts God, builds each other up, and whether the body is focused Him.  I don’t believe that a cannon ball into a baptistry glorifies God, and you could even question if some jokes said during church brings God glory or man, but we need to make sure that we take seriously those things that God takes seriously.