Foolish church goers don’t even know why they are foolish. One of the reasons for that is that we so often measure our church going on what we see in this world. We have been heavily influenced by preferences and in our consumer culture we prepare to go to church through an anticipation of having them met. The fact that preferences are often our measuring tool is easily seen in the way churches seek to advertise distinctive elements that appeal to us. “We are a church for people who don’t like church.” “We are a singing church.” “We are an expository preaching church.” “We are a family church.” “We are a reformed church.” You might look at this list and say that some of the statements listed are right, and even biblical. That’s true. The church is meant to come together and sing and preach and I certainly hope it is welcoming to families and holds good doctrine. The problem is that we can turn every one of these criteria into a preference that drives our attitude as we walk through the front door of the church. I am confident enough to say these are foolish motivations for corporate worship even if some of them are reasonable criteria for choosing a good church.

In Ecclesiastes, the big focus of the book is to show us that life “under the sun” is worthless if “under the sun” is all we know and live for. No human can escape living under the sun, and we all experience the groan of this Genesis 3 world in many ways. Because we are all subject to life under the sun, everything we do happens under the sun. Life is foolish when we live without considering that our greatest hope lies beyond the sun. Church is supposed to be all about this truth. We want people to know the hope of salvation that can only come through knowing Christ who has revealed himself to us from beyond the sun. His Scriptures, inspired from beyond the sun, help us to understand our situation in sinful rebellion against God and how the cross of Christ is our only answer to reconciliation with our maker. In the Scriptures we see the very purpose of our human life to glorify God through redemption in Christ Jesus. To live otherwise is futile and foolish. The awe of God in his glory is our motivation for both individual and corporate worship.

In Ecclesiastes 5, we find that we even do church “under the sun” and it’s very easy for us to approach corporate worship with an under the sun attitude. We allow ourselves to be guided and motivated by preference. When this happens, we come to church for us. We speak this way, we sing this way, and we act this way and when our preferences don’t line up, problems abound. Ecclesiastes tells us that it’s possible to go to church and be foolish in doing so. There is one motivating factor that helps us to put all of our preferences in their rightful place. It helps us not to speak out of turn. It helps us to be sincere in our words. It helps us to be content with some imperfections – (at least as we see them). What is it? The answer is, fearing God.

When our motivation is to fear God, we worship vertically even as we edify each other horizontally. We come together in reverence. Our attitude is God and not me. The fear of God is the beginning of wise corporate worship.

Ecclesiastes 5:1 Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. To draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they are doing evil.