Not the where but the how

I work for a church that has one space for a traditional service and one space for a more contemporary service. It's a great thing in many ways, it allows us to do multiple services at once, it's another space for events. But at the same time one of the challenges we have is that one space will always be considered by some people "not church", and that's why they choose to worship at the venue and service that they choose.

Someone asked Jesus about where they should worship:
“Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.” (John 4:19-20 NIV)
The notable thing about this exchange is that the Woman is a Samaritan, not only that but even if she were Jewish she'd be an outsider in that community. For the Jews the Samaritans are the worst of the worst. The Samaritans are the Northern tribes who broke away from Israel and came up with this hybrid religion that meshed Judaism and paganism together. They were despised by the Jews in Judea for they were breaking away from God's will, unlike them. Of course the Judean's had too low a view of the Samaritans while simultaneously holding a much too high view of themselves, which are the key ingredients for blending religious zeal and nationalism.

And so Jesus replies:
“Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” (John 4:21-24 NIV)
In this brief statement Jesus challenges the whole religious set up of the Middle-East at the time. He basically says 'you're both wrong' because for Jesus, and thus for God, it is not the where of worship that is important but the how. And by 'how' I'm not talking about traditional, "bells and smells" v contemporary Hillsong sort of thing but rather an internal heart sort of thing. Jesus doesn't want the worshipers to just do religious ceremonies but rather to mean everything they do, if that means not always doing it the traditional way than so be it!

That still stands for us! We may not be sacrificing Bulls and goats anymore but we do still get caught in this whole idea of following religious ceremony, we have to say things a certain way or do things a certain way or else God won't hear us. That's just not true, God is more concerned with what is going on in our hearts than following some set formula. Let us not get stuck in to following our formula to the point where we forget that it is all about worshiping in spirit & truth.