And like all of Martin's films from the 80s and 90s, L.A. Story is chock full of quotable one-liners. One of my favorites is very near the end when Martin's character, Harris K. Telemacher, has won the girl's heart (The female lead, Sarah McDowel, is played by Victoria Tennant, who was married to Martin at the time.) and is kissing her in the rain. Telemacher also narrates the story, so as he kisses McDowel on screen, we hear him say: "A kiss may not be the truth. But it is what we wish were true."
Wow. For a hormonal 17-year-old who fancied himself to be quite the charmer, lines like that were like 24-karat gold bullets, baby, let me tell you.
But this is not a movie-review blog, it's a worship blog. So to the point. For me, the meaning of this line is this: in that moment of sharing a particularly good kiss with someone you love, there exists this little island of relational perfection. It's pure, it's passionate, it's somehow tender and urgent all at once, and all of the other imperfect "stuff" that comes with relationships -- the harsh words, the failures, the short-comings, the unmet expectations, the jealousy, the resentment, the fear and anxiety -- is forgotten. And there is only the kiss and all it encapsulates. The sort of pure, perfect relationship that exists in the moments of that kiss may not be the truth of your relationship as a whole. But it is what we all wish were true. And it can be truth for as long as that kiss lasts.
Worship is like this, I think, especially praise worship, whether as part of a group or alone with God. These are the moments when we kiss God.
Now don't get all weirded out on me. The metaphor may make you uncomfortable, but it shouldn't. It's completely appropriate. The Church at large, after all, is the Bride of Christ (See Hosea 2:14-16, Ephesians 5 and Revelation 21). And what could be more appropriate than a bride sharing a kiss with her bridegroom? In fact, I believe that most Christians fail to experience the deepest, most intimate aspects of a relationship with Jesus Christ because they never explore -- or perhaps refuse to explore -- the romantic element of that relationship. For a woman who has been hurt my a husband or boyfriend, experiencing Christ as the perfect bridegroom may be an easier step. But for others, especially men, this can be a challenge. It requires that we separate the idea of romantic love from physical sexuality, and that is tough.
The Shane and Shane song, "Acres of Hope" (written by Shane Barnard and Robbie Seay), is based on the Hosea passage that relates God's intense longing for His Church -- His bride -- and the lengths to which He will go to woo her to Himself:
He will allure her
He will pursue her
And call her out
To wilderness with flowers in His hand
She is responding
Beat up and hurting
Deserving death
But offerings of life are found instead
She will sing
She will sing
Oh, to You
She will sing as in the days of youth
As You lead her away
To valleys low
To acres of hope
Acres of hope
Here in the valley
Walk close beside me
Don’t look back
For love is growing vineyards up ahead
You have called me master
And though you’re in the dark here
Call me friend
And call me lover and marry me for good
She will sing
She will sing
Oh, to You
She will sing as in the days of youth
As You lead her away
To valleys low
To acres of hope
Acres of hope
How the story ends is
Love and tenderness in Him
Not safe, but worth it
So the valley’s up ahead
Or the ones we live
We’ll sing together
We’ll sing together
And in one of today's most popular worship songs, David Crowder's version of "How He Loves," we see the Church (really all of creation) sharing a kiss with God in the lyric, "...and heaven meets earth like an unforeseen kiss..." What's kinda funny is that Crowder actually rewrote this lyric for his version. The original lyric by John Mark McMillan expressed the whole romantic love metaphor perhaps a little too literally for Crowder's taste: "So heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss..." ;) Appropriate change, David! But with either lyric, the point is the same: God loves us. And not just with the love of a father, brother, friend, or creator. He loves us as a husband loves his bride. Christianity is supposed to be a divine romance.
And those moments of intimate worship are the kisses we share with God, our Bridegroom.
Because when we come before the Throne of God in worship, we enter in to a communion with Him that for those moments can be pure and perfect. It is uncluttered by our shortcomings, our fears, our anxieties, our imperfections. We leave the world and its vulgarities outside the doors to the Holy of Holies, along with the mundane trappings of the day-to-day, and we enter into a time and place where all we do is offer to God the purest, simplest expressions of our love for Him, and receive the same in return.
The Christian walk is not an easy one. There are struggles, trials, fears, anxieties. There are moments when we feel defeated or unworthy. There are moments of spiritual oppression, or when the day-to-day events in a fallen world weigh down upon us. There are seasons of silence or even discipline from God when He can seem distant, and doubt can take root. But in the sanctuary of praise and worship, these things can be set aside. They may still be out there waiting for us, but they are completely obscured by the radiance of God's face. Not unlike when we share a kiss with someone.
If you are like me, then there are probably times when you struggle with singing some of the lines in worship songs. Times when those statements are not true in your life, and you wonder if singing them before God and your fellow believers is somehow a lie, or hypocritical. Lyrics like "Every blessing you pour out I'll/turn back to praise," or "Your grace is enough for me" may be tough to sing when your are not pouring out every blessing in your life as praise, or you don't feel like God's grace truly is enough for your circumstance. But I want to encourage you to keep on singing during these times! In fact, sing all the more, but instead of laying these phrases at the feet of God as offerings, lift them up to Him as cries for help or prayers for Him to move in your life and make them a reality! Or prayers for forgiveness. He will respond in faith, and there will come a time when these words will be like incense poured on the fires of the work He has done in you, and the they will rise up to heaven as a sweet perfume!
God is not after perfect worship from perfect people. God wants us to come before him honestly, without pretense, and just fall at his feet. Be transparent and vulnerable with God in worship. It's okay if the words you sing are not a reality in your daily walk yet. Sing them as prayers to God. Sing them as the ideal into which you are inviting Him to shape and mold you. Even sing them as confessions: "Lord, I am not like this. This has not been true in my life. Please forgive me, and renew a right spirit in me. Make these words true for me!"
Don't avoid worship. Be intimate with your God, with your Bridegroom, who pursues you, His bride, and longs to draw you to Himself. Enter in to His embrace, and lift your face to kiss the face of God, knowing that worship -- like Martins L.A. Story kiss -- may not always represent the truth of our walk. But it is what we wish were true. And God can and will make it truth, if we ask Him and then get out of His way so He can do the work in us.
Through open, honest, intimate worship of Jesus Christ our Lord, you can discover (to paraphrase another L.A. Story line) that romance does exist deep in the heart of your relationship with God, even if sometimes it feels like you need a compass, pick-axe, and night goggles to find it!
Keep the faith,
Lee
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