Baaa

Micah 2:12, Matthew 9:36, Mark 6:34, 1 Peter 2:25. All these verses (and many besides) depict the followers of Christ as sheep. Sometimes that's a good thing, sometimes it's bad. Some characteristics of sheep are: they're intellectually stupid (I think their i.q. is somewhere in the single digits); they get lost easily; they're helpless, totally dependent on the Shepherd; they're often unaware of danger in their midst; they're submissive and non-resistant.

Now, as is the case with most church services, there's a lot of standing and sitting and standing again at different times during worship. We stand for a hymn, sit for the Pastoral Welcome, stand again for two more songs, sit for the offering. It can get confusing if you're not paying attention. Case in point (and this ties into us being sheep). In my church, to indicate that the congregation should stand for a song, the worship leader makes a kind of upward sweeping motion with his hands. It's been done this way as far back as I can remember. Well I don't know if it was all the snow we got this past Sat that threw people off a bit, but when the piano started (for what we soon realized was the offering song) the worship leader made a half-motion with one hand and half the congregation stood. There was an awkward moment, then some of them sat while more people stood or leaned forward preparing to stand. Then the ushers came forward and everyone figured out where in the program we were, so they all sat down.

Whew, big sigh of relief, glad that's over.

The next time we all had to stand for a song, the worship leader went over the top with the gesture, bending a little at the waist and lifting his hands up over his head. I guess he wanted to make sure no one misunderstood that time.