Worship? What and How?
There's alott of talk these days about worship and what it means and how we practice it. No doubt about it - if you have been in the church for any length of time you have had people engage you in positive and negative ways with reference to worship and what it means and how it is to be practiced.
Would someone please take a few minutes to tell me what you believe worship is? Would you also tell me how it should be practiced? Would you be willing to go a step further and share the priorities that flow out of your worship experience?
This should be good, I cannot wait for your response.
:)
posted by Bob Carder @ 9:32 PM
10 comments
10 Comments:
I think quite simply that "worship" is the total submission of our heart, mind, will, emotions, body, talents, possessions, dreams, hopes, ambitions, agendas, marriage, family, our past, our present, and our future to the Lordship of Christ.
It is expressed in as many different ways as their are people who are living this total submission.
To Bill's statement I would add the word "daily" in there somewhere.
Bill...I love it! That's offering your body as a living sacrifice...and that's an act of worship to the God that is worthy of our all.
Since God is in need of nothing He does not call us to worship for His own good. He calls us to worship because it is our eschatological end and supreme joy.
Worship from the beginning of salvation history to the end takes the form of sacrifice. From Cain and Abel, to Noah, to Abraham, Moses, David, from Eden (which the temple was built to resemble) to the tabernacle to the temple, the sacrificial worhsip of God's people was always called for.
There is no temple now. The only acceptable sacrifice of worhsip offered now is Christ's body, the new temple. His resurrected body is the "lamb standing as though slain" that is perpetually offered by the high-priest in Heaven. He is both priest and victim and the sacrifice is "once for all" not in the sense of "over and done" but in the sense of perpetuity, continually offered to the Father in Heaven. No longer offered in crucified pain, but in resurrected glory.
Our sacrifices of our bodies, our passions, and all the rest are only acceptable if they are united to that one and only sacrifice of worship; united with the Lamb slain "once for all". Only if we are His body can our worship be "in Spirit and truth".
The Jews worhsiped in imitation of the angels, but Christians are taken into the Heavenly worship of the angels and saints, because Christ is now with the Father - so then is His body.
Perhaps that in non-controversial, but the liturgy of the ancient Christians certainly would be, for they believed that the Eucharist (or Lord's Supper), celebrated by the bishop anointed by the Apostles (and later bishops), was literally Christ's body, through which they could do works of virtue and by which their works were united to Christ's sacrificial worship.
Justin Martyr, writing to the Roman emperor Antoninus Pius in 155 describes the worhsip of Christians in the hopes to convince him that Christians were not atheists, cannibals, and that their worships were not orgies. He related to the emperor, "After the prayers, we greet one another with a kiss. Then bread and a cup of wine mixed with water are brought to the president of the brethren. Taking them, he gives praise and glory to the Father of the universe, through the name of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and he offers thanks at considerable length that we have been counted worthy to receive these things from His hands.
"When he has concluded the prayers and thanksgivings, all the people present express their assent by saying 'Amen.' This word is Hebrew for 'so be it.' And when the president has given thanks, and all the people expressed their assent, those whom we call deacons distribute to each of those present a portion of the bread and the wine mixed with water, over which the thanksgiving was pronounced. To those absent, they carry away a portion.
"This food we call Eucharist, and no one is allowed to partake but the man who believes that our doctrines are true, who has been washed with the bath of remission of sins and rebirth, and who is living as Christ commanded.
"We do not receive these as common bread and drink. For Jesus Christ our Savior, made flesh by the Word of God, had both flesh and blood for our salvation. Likewise, we have been taught that the food blessed by the prayer of his word - and from which our flesh and blood are nourished and changed - is the flesh and blood of Jesus who was made flesh." -First Apology 65-66
The Christian tradition of worship was seen as a litugical participation in the Heavenly liturgy that is offered by Jesus to his Father eternally. The gift of Christ is his body, of which He calls us to be members. So once united and strengthened in the vine of Christ through the participation in his body and blood, they then are called to go out and bear fruit.
Slatts...can I ask one question? You have my mind turning.
Let's say a brother in the Lord finds himself unable to participate in the eucharist with other believers for a while because of a certain road that Christ has ordained him to walk...is his life lived as a sacrifice of humble obedience any less of an act of worship because of his non-connection with the eucharist for a time?
It is difficult to conceive of a call that would make the liturgical worship of the Church unavailable. It is easier to conceive of a situation in which one finds himself unable to do so.
either way there is no real difficulty. There are men who have been prisoners of war by men who have no concern for the religious dignity of their prisoners. It is not the case that since they are prevented from full participation in the Eucharistic liturgy that their sacrifice in prison becomes meaningless to God.
Inasmuch as one is in the body of Christ, his sufferings and joys are united to Christ's.
There are two relevant ideas in this regard. The first is called "Spiritual Communion". If one is wholly incapable of receiving the Eucharist, and if he is well-disposed and seeks the grace, it is wholly within God's capability to grant an extraordinary favor of grace that is equal to that of the Eucharist. As I said however, it is extraordinary and depends wholly on God's volition. He has not bound Himself to act this way, though it is not unreasonable to suppose He can and does on occasion.
The second idea is that of communio. So long as we are in Christ, we also are connected with one another and their worship impacts us. We are never without, even when we are.
When it comes to ritual and liturgy a very important thing to remember is that God is not a legalist, but a loving Father who sees all the angles. He ordains things to work in normative ways, but he is not then prevented from working in extraordinary circumstances, else we should suppose all unbaptized babies and good pre-Christ pagans (like Socrates) to be hell-bound.
Slatts...I admire your view of God, your respect for His Catholic Church (of which we both are a part), and your high view of the eucharist/communion/Lord's Supper. What a joy it will be to join with all who have come before us in saying:
You are worthy, O Lord,
To receive glory and honor and power;
For You created all things,
And by Your will they exist and were created.
To echo Bill's comments, worship is simply a lifestyle where the evidence of our daily devotion to God is evident.
It has little to nothing to do with song or with singing but rather to what degree we live our lives in, through and to Him.
For example, when a wife/mother fulfills her role as such as unto the Lord, she is being worshipful because all that she is and does is accomplished with the Lord in mind.
This is what I believe Paul meant in Romans 12:1-2.
Unfortunately, we have dumbed worship down to being an alotted time where we come together with other believers to sing. Instead, when believers come together to edify, encouragement and love each other as evidenced in our service to each other, we are then worshipping.
Worship is not a gathering. It is not essentially a song service or sitting under preaching. Worship is not essentially any form of outward act. Worship is essentially an inner stirring of the heart to treasure God above all the treasures of the world -
* a valuing of God above all else that is valuable
* a loving of God above all else that is lovely
* a savoring of God above all else that is sweet
* an admiring of God above all else that is admirable
* a fearing of God above all else that is fearful
* a respecting of God above all else that is respectful
* a prizing of God above all else that is precious
In other words, worship is right affections in the heart toward God, rooted in right thoughts in the head about God, becoming visible in right actions of the body reflecting God.
- John Piper, Let The Nations Be Glad
(pp. 206-207)
I can't add to this!
Obedience flows out of our Love "Worship" relationship with God!
When people view worship as an event the event is often the extent of obedience and the love expression to Jesus is lessened and the mission of Christ is hindered!
Worship is a love relationship with Jesus that results in our taking on His passions and mission on the earth.
We become more and more incarnational which creates missional movements around the world. We love and as we do Jesus flows through our obedience to change the world.
Thisis not as polished as Piper -but then again I don't always agree with Piper!
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