God Comes to Visit
In the 1980’s, Burger King had a promotion where a fellow named Herb would appear at random Burger King restaurants across the country. The first patron to spot him would win a prize. One of the goals of the promotion was to increase visits to Burger King restaurants.
With that in mind, let’s detour a bit, and use our imagination. Let’s propose a scenario where a prophet or an angel has come from God with this message – over the next year, on each Sunday, God will come to a church. They will see his presence, similar to what Israel saw during their wilderness wandering, or when the temple was inaugurated and the presence of God filled the temple with so much smoke, no one could enter to perform their duties.
Everyone’s first thought would be skepticism. But suddenly, that first Sunday, reports are coming out of Serbia, that indeed, God did visit. In this day and age of cell phones and videos – the church God visited is shown with the cloud of God’s presence hovering over it. The worshippers describe being blessed by God, and they have much to say.
Surely that was a one-off, right? But then the next Sunday, a church in Australia has the same thing happen to them. The same presence, the congregants gush about the blessings they’ve received. The next Sunday, a church in Argentina has the same thing happen. By now, don’t you suspect that anyone who is interested in witnessing this presence of God and receiving the blessings that come with it are making sure they attend church the following Sunday?
This isn’t an article to pump up church attendance, or that’s not the main thrust of it. This is the main thrust. That presence that those churches around the world were experiencing. Jesus tells us that this happens EVERY Sunday in EVERY church where people have gathered together to enter into his name. That’s what he says in Matthew 18:20.
What this means is this – there doesn’t need to be a special announcement of God’s presence coming in order to gin up excitement to meet or experience God. It’s already happening Sundays in churches everywhere. Sometimes though, we don’t use our eyes of faith, and we don’t notice. And when we don’t notice, we become blind to the blessings of the presence of God.
Just as Herb showing up at a Burger King was a special occasion, just as God’s presence coming to the random churches in our made-up scenario was a special occasion, every Sunday, when God’s people assemble to enter into Jesus’ name, it is a similar special occasion. If we use our eyes of faith to see this, we too can experience God in our assemblies, just as Israel did in their wilderness wanderings. And we too can and will be blessed by the experience.
-Mike Hendricks