There was a time not so very long ago when someone’s job was to pump gasoline into the tank of your car. And that same person would wash the windows of the car and check your oil and the air pressure in your tires. I may be forgetting something else they did. These were full-service gas stations. Road maps. Directions if you got lost.

If there was a problem with the car, there was a garage right there with a mechanic to do repairs, change tires, replace belts,etc. The gas station on Main Street across from the Wheaton Meat Market still provides that kind of work I think. But that used to be the norm.

As a kid, I also used to delight in the giveaways at the gas station. My favorite was the little orange ball at the Union 76 station, but there was also a set of glasses, a different one each week, for the duration of the promotion. Scratch-off cards where you could win prizes. There were also trading stamps that you could put into a booklet and use them to buy things. My first visit to Disneyland was funded by in part by my Green Stamp books. There were also Christmas mugs, an appropriately branded toy truck and ashtrays with the logo of the gas company so a person could flick their ashes onto the logo. I didn’t smoke, but there was a time where I used for spare change with easier access than a piggybank.

The average price for a gallon of gas in 1976 was sixty-one cents. Things changed. People had to wait in line just to get gas. Prices rose. “Full service” gave way to “self-serve.” Nowadays it’s rare to find full-service gasoline stations. We all pump our own gas.

The consumer shift from full service to self-service saves us money and time, but I think it also says something about us as a culture and a people.

It would feel odd to me to just sit in my car and have a stranger fill my gas tank, wash the windshield and check to be sure my car was running properly in terms of air pressure, oils and fluids, etc. I could get used to it again, but it would take longer. I would become impatient. Usually, I’m in a rush when I stop to get gas. I try to pick the shortest line at Costco and am not always so patient when someone has a problem with the pump reading a card.

I think the same could be said for us when it comes to worship service. Too often we just want to help ourselves to the riches set before us. If we do that, we miss everything.

When we go to our church “service,” what do we think we’re doing? In what way is Sunday church a “service?” Do we fall into the thinking that we’re just here, in-person, zooming through to serve ourselves to some insights from the pastor, some music to help us feel good, a quick prayer, maybe a donation or not—and then we can get back to a tasty lunch and whatever else we might have planned for the rest of the day?

That would be the self-serve approach to church.

But Full-Service worship is unlike anything else in the world.

This is a time for us to stay seated and let the divinely human stranger do his work. Yes, we serve others, and we should, but in the right spirit of service we find something greater than self-serve—the Holy Spirit is doing a work, using our words and actions and prayers to do something that we cannot do alone. How can this be? We must stay seated in the driver’s seat and not jump out to loosen the gas tank and take a quick swipe at the windshields.

Full service means we give over the soul tasks to the ever-ready attendant, the One who is waiting to address every corner of the heart and soul, the corners of which we may or may not be aware. All of them. He serves us.

If only we just not try to do it ourselves. We must let him. We will pay more. It will take more time out of our day. It will seem strange to not do what we have grown used to doing on our own. But we cannot do for our souls anything close to what happens when we enter into full service and let the true keeper of our souls do his work as only he can.

But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But, as it is written,
“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,
nor the heart of man imagined,
what God has prepared for those who love him”—
these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.
1 Corinthians 2:7-10