Excerpt from Exodus 10: 21-29

"Then Pharaoh summoned Moses, and said, 'Go, worship the Lord. Only your flocks and your herds shall remain behind . . . .'  But Moses said, 'You must also let us have sacrifices and burnt offerings to sacrifice to the Lord our God. Our livestock also must go with us . . . for we must choose some of them for the worship of the Lord our God, and we will not know what to use to worship the Lord until we arrive there.'"

Reflection by Christina Villa

In this passage from Exodus, Pharaoh tells Moses the people can go, but they can't take their livestock with them. The problem is they're going to need some of those animals to sacrifice in worship, since that's how they did things. Without them, says Moses, "we will not know what to use to worship the Lord."

Excluding animal sacrifice, there are still certain things many people believe you have to have, or do, in order for worship to feel like worship. Exactly which things those are is a matter of opinion. 

In some circles, it's considered shallow to be overly concerned with worship style, and backward to insist that things be done a certain way. I'm all for being open to new and different ways of doing worship.  But custom and tradition in worship are more than style. They are lessons in faith repeated, week after week.

Some of us need to hear and see the same thing repeatedly to get it through our heads and keep it in our hearts. For this reason, worship traditions and customs develop and stick around—for years, decades, centuries.  Without them, many of us, including me, would not know "what to use to worship the Lord." 

So I can empathize with Moses' worry.  It reminds me of those lists of Houses of Worship that hotels used to post in their lobbies.  Or the signs along local roads coming into town that told you where the churches of various denominations were located.  This information was for travelling people, like the Israelites, assuring them they would be able to worship the Lord wherever they went, and "knowing what to use."

Prayer

Even when I haven't left home, I often feel like a travelling person, unsure of what I'm going to find around the corner. So thank you for the church and its traditions, anchors for the wandering soul.

About the Author Christina Villa is on the staff of the United Church of Christ in Cleveland, Ohio.

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