Quicken the Conscience

DAILY BYTE

Archbishop William Temple’s famous definition of worship begins with this line:

‘To worship is to quicken the conscience by the holiness of God.’

The word ‘quicken’ is used here in the sense of ‘making alive’, awakening, arousing into a state of attentive vigilance.

William Temple suggests that in worship this is what happens to our conscience. It comes alive, enabling us to be more sharply attuned to what is right and wrong within us and our world.

Maybe that’s why many people prefer not to come to church. Because let’s be honest, an active, awakened conscience can be distinctly uncomfortable.

Henry Mencken once said, “Conscience is a mother-in-law whose visit never ends.”

While Ogden Nash put it like this: “There is only one way to achieve happiness on this terrestrial ball, and that is to have either a clear conscience or none at all.”

But if the only consequence of having our conscience quickened is to feel bad about ourselves, honestly what’s the sense in that? That’s not what authentic worship is about. How tragically sad that that’s how so many people see church, as a ticket for one big guilt trip. How tragically sad that that’s often all that church does. But worship, true worship, is so much more than that.

Listen again to William Temple’s definition – it’s very sharp and very astute. To worship is to quicken the conscience by the holiness of God. By the holiness of God. That’s what makes all the difference. That’s what makes the quickening of our conscience good news. Because the holiness of God is such that it always seeks to move our quickened conscience beyond guilt and blame to the broader concerns of this Holy God for us and for our world.

That was precisely Isaiah’s experience in the famous account of his call within the Temple that we read in Isaiah 6.

His story reminds us that as we come face-to-face with the holiness of God in worship that we come to see ourselves as we are, people of unclean lips utterly in need of God’s mercy. But we also come to see that our sin is not God’s greatest concern. Yes, authentic worship takes us to that place of anguished contrition where we are seared with the burning coal of God’s love, but it doesn’t leave us there.

As one of the seraphim said to Isaiah, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.” In other words, “Get over it! God has far greater concerns that your sin. Listen to the aching sighs of a holy and compassionate God.”

And immediately, remarkably, the questions of God’s heart are overheard, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”

In the passage, Isaiah responded, “Here am I. Send me.” And God said, “Go!”

That’s what the quickening of the conscience by the holiness of God ultimately means.

How might this be true of your life today?

PRAY AS YOU GO

Thank you Lord that when you prick our conscience it is never for the purpose of shaming us or just making us feel guilty, but it is always to move us beyond the poverty of sinful living to live holy, God-honouring lives that can make a difference to your concerns for the world. Amen.

SCRIPTURE READING

Isaiah 6:1-9a

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another:

“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty;
the whole earth is full of his glory.”

At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.” Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.” Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I. Send me!” He said, “Go…”