In the past the complaint by folks about Christianity was that it was too austere. No card playing, no dancing, no anything on Sunday except worship and quiet conversation. Then in the ’60s the folk mass movement began and has blossomed after fifty years into the praise and worship movement. Now the complaint is that Christianity is mindlessly happy. Songs that have no real depth of meaning are sung over and over again. Nothing but 7/11 music is the comment: songs that only have seven words and are sung eleven times over. Where is the depth? Where is the meaning? And it is not just the outsiders complaining. Many of us in the church have participated in the famous worship wars in numerous congregations.

In the gospel reading for today we have Jesus responding to the criticism of the relig…