Coffee and Worship, Part I (Introduction)

Now I am not much of an ‘artist’ by the world’s standard. Sometimes I’ll write a bit, maybe even a little very rough poetry, I can pluck about 3 songs on my guitar, I can doodle some recognizable cartoon characters, and I can carry a tune provided that tune is kept within an octave. I know what you’re thinking… ‘How can I get in touch with his booking agent?’ I must apologize for I have retired from public performances. Despite all of this there is one craft that I would categorize as my art, and that is the craft of coffee.

Most people would not think of coffee as a whole a craft but it is. From consuming, to drinking, to brewing, to grinding, to roasting and to creating, all of these are within the craft of coffee. The reason I mention this is that due to my overall lack of talent, it has become my standard for comparison when people talk about various talents and arts. I think there is much to learn in understanding a good ‘craft’ and seeing our worship of God as that (although it also much more that). I think many comparisons can be made but the comparison of coffee rests most closely to my soul and beckons better personal perspective of my worship. As I have become impassioned for coffee, so I am impassioned for God. As I have grown into a ‘coffee snob’ desiring only a high qualityand an ever-increasing knowledge of coffee, I am becoming a ‘worship snob’ desiring only the highest attainable depth of worship and an ever-increasing knowledge of each Person of God.

I use the term snob, only because that is the term that our society has labeled what is properly defined as a purist. They have expanded the word ‘snob’ out of the boundaries of its definition. Society has labeled purists, such as myself, as snobs as an effort to shame us into submission in the name of equality. Society strives for equality by attempting to devalue anything until everything that is within it is virtually worthless. However, I argue that the term ‘purist’, instead of being blanketed as a snob, is in actuality a praise-worthy title, especially when it comes how you view an utterly perfect and beautiful Lord and Savior.

Jesus was a purist (and much more that) when He drove the money changers from His Father’s temple. He was a purist when he told the rich young ruler that there was a cost to being a disciple and inheriting eternal life. Although Jesus was a seeker and healer of the lowly, he was a purist in regards to matters of His Father and His Father’s kingdom. The Word of God has a different term for the word ‘purist’ and that term is ‘holy’. Jesus drove out the money changers because he had to, he could not allow something as sacred as His Father’s house to be contaminated, he turned away the rich young ruler because there was no choice, and he couldn’t allow self-love and love of treasure into His Father’s kingdom. No matter how hard we try to bring our crass worldliness into His presence, He was, is and always will be holy.

There is a common thread between the agony of purity of a coffee-lover, and the sacred holiness of true worship that I strive to attain. I make this comparison with fear and trembling, in the hope of giving depth to our vision of the Kingdom, while recognizing that the analogies drawn will prove a shallow insight to truth.