Taking a deeper practical look at worship, as seen through the eyes of Leviticus 9, we find a pattern that occurs throughout the Old Testament. It is a pattern of Initiation and Response. God initiates, and we respond. The pattern of worship begins with God Calling us to His presence. We then respond with Confessing our sins, prostrating our broken souls before the Holy One. God again initiates then with Consecrating us by means of His Word. We respond to His Word by Communing with Him. He then Commissions us to go out into the world, making disciples. We respond by doing so, with His blessing. This is the broad outline to the Drama of God, a High Play by means of which He nourishes and completes His bride, perfecting her, and preparing her for the final wedding day. I want to put forward some practical ideas regarding how this actually would look in the context of our modern day service of worship. By no means do I put these forward with the understanding that this is the definitive, and only correct way to plan a service. In no way do I mean to be judgmental of other ways. These are simply personal thoughts and are very much biased by personal tastes. That disclaimer aside, I do think that these suggestions could be helpful, if done in a loving, gracious manner, for the church body desiring a more mature, rich, and meaningful service. Therefore I will argue for them, and seek to show their attentiveness to Scripture, hopefully shedding light on what it means to worship the way God intended.
The Call
It begins with God initiating the interaction. We cannot come to Him on our own merit, our own terms, our own anything. The only means by which we can approach the Father is through the Son (John 14.6). It is only in Christ that we have the ability to stand before the throne of holiness. It is only in Christ that we can know Him at all. Christ is the living Word of God, Spoken for our good, and for our Reconciliation. Therefore when He calls us, it is only through Christ, and because of Christ, that we have life and breath to respond with. This means when we respond to the Call of God, we come not on our terms, not on our timetable. We cannot simply make room for it amidst a schedule of things to do. This act of responding to God represents the single biggest, eternal component of your life: your status as a child of God. How do we then respond? Here are some thoughts.
1. Dress. How we dress speaks to the world and informs them of our priorities. When we wear pajamas, we are telling everyone we are going to bed. When we wear hiking boots and long pants, we are communicating our recreational destination. Not only do we communicate where we are going, we also tell people how important it is to us. If we show up at a funeral in flip flops and shorts, we are telling people how much we honor and respect the deceased. Our attire communicates much about our priorities and what we hold dear. If the worship of God holds any weight in our lives, should it not be reflected in how we dress for it? Obviously there is a major discussion regarding cultural relativity and appropriateness. In every culture however, there are levels of formality when it comes to clothing. It is simply how God made us tick. Understanding where those lines are drawn in our specific context is part of how we prepare ourselves for responding to the Call of God. Were the President of the United States to send us an invitation to come to the Oval Office, we would prepare long and hard with our appearance, before stepping foot inside the White House. But do we do the same when the Creator God of the entire Universe has called us to His presence? Or has our “familiarity” with Sunday Mornings bred contempt?
2. Reverence and Awe. The writer to the Hebrews commands us to come before the Lord, the King of an unshakeable kingdom, and worship in reverence and awe (12:28). The first part of the verse tells us to be grateful that we have received this kingdom. We do this because our God is a consuming fire. A consuming fire is not something that can be understood as trivial, or common. Moses beheld the consuming fire in the bush, and was consumed with fear and wonder. In obedience he removed his sandals, understanding that where the fire was, was now Holy. God Almighty, Creator of the Universe and everything in it, has called us to Himself, has called us to the Burning Bush, and bids us remove our sandals, for we approach Holy Ground. How do we approach the service on Sunday Mornings? With solemnity and understanding of what we are doing? Or does our familiarity perhaps breed a certain nonchalance that robs the worship of the Holy one of its full depth and life. If we come in a cavalier manner, we do not understand the nature of grace, the nature of the call. The only response to grace is gratitude. Anything else is simply presumption. But we have received an unshakeable kingdom. Does that resonate at all with us? What else can one be but grateful? Here we have the rock of Christ, peace and joy in its richest, fullest incarnation, and we take it for granted. This only testifies to the patience of our Father. Reverence and awe do not mean dour and grim, and fear and trembling do not mean panic and wailing. It is an attitude of honor, and respect, and gratitude that is focused on the reality of what is happening. We, according to Hebrews 12 have now ascended into the heavenly realms, and worship in the presence of the Father, who is a consuming fire. And we can only come on the good name of another, by the power of a third. We have no role to play in coming. We have nothing to offer, except that which has already been given to us. And to come, offering our gifts of praise and prayers, in a frivolous and unfocused, unconcerned, and unprepared manner, is to spit in the eye of God. Do we honor Him as God? Do we give Him thanks? In speech? In actions? In thoughts? In motives? We have much to confess.
3. The Call to Worship. The actual call to worship is an important part of the service. It informs the congregation that it is now, at this moment that we are leaving behind our earthly cares and contexts, and coming as one body, one bride, through the Spirit, on the good name of Christ, coming before the Father, coming to worship, and be fed. The worship of God is a serious, life sustaining ritual we perform every week. For those of us who have grown up in the Church, we know how funny it feels to miss church on Sunday morning. We feel weird, and the week doesn’t feel the same. It is because we have gone seven days without participating in the particular service of our God, ascending to His courts. This is what is initiated in the Call to Worship. The pastor calls us together, and declares that we are now ascended in Spirit and truth. Here a couple practical thoughts on this point.
a. Announcements are often a necessity, even though sometimes awkward and unwieldy in the context of communal worship. It is not inappropriate at all to give announcements, but the transition is where it gets sticky. One minute we are thinking about the potluck next Wednesday and what we need to bring, or remembering that baby shower and that you forgot to buy a gift, and then suddenly the pastor is reading a Psalm, having already begun, leaving you in the dust. Perhaps if there were an interlude, a Selah, for meditation and preparation. This could be accomplished by quartet singing one of the hymns that will be sung in the service, while the congregations prepares. Mind you, this is not a performance. It is an aid in worship. If not a quartet, an instrumental interlude is more than adequate. Giving the congregation that has now gathered, and has quieted down, time to refocus on what they are about to do. It is difficult to come in with an attitude of reverence and awe, with the powdered sugar left over from the doughnut that was on the patio, still clinging to your lips, with hands still sticky from the OJ that finished it off. If the congregation comes from pre-service fellowship times (which is another discussion altogether) straight into the worship of God, it will be very hard for them to transition, and come before the Lord with fear. Therefore a simply Selah, giving time between announcements and the Call for people to grasp what they are about to do, together as one body.
b. The call to worship should be distinct and clear. “Let us worship the Triune God.” It is a declarative statement (and imperative, of sorts) calling us to His presence. At this time it is appropriate for the congregation to stand, symbolizing the act of ascension, as well as the communal aspect of ascending together. We are one body, not simply a collection of individuals. We are a corporate body, a plural made into a singular. When God addresses us, He addresses us as His people. He addresses us as a body, the body, the Body and Bride of Christ. Psalm 95 bids us, “Come, let us worship the Lord.” We are commanded in Scripture to come, and the pastor repeats this command, bidding us come. We have been called. Come. Let us worship the Lord. The silence of meditation before this call, make the call more pronounced, communicating in the stark declaration, that what we are about to do is not only serious and meaningful, it carries weight. What we do is grace. Dangerous and consuming grace.
c. Following the call should be a brief description of what we are doing, why we do it, and on what basis we are doing this. Again this is declarative. It is happening. The pastor is leading us, and does so as the mouth piece of God. He leads, and we respond. This is not a casual performance that we sit back and watch. The congregation is an active part of the service, for we all have come to worship, and we are on stage, not in the audience. Using Scripture at this point is most appropriate. Responsively reading a Psalm, like Psalm 95, which again invites to “Come, let us worship the Lord, let us kneel before the Lord our maker,” has the effect of engaging the people, and drawing the congregation into the act and drama of worship. The readings should be quick and snappy, not allowed to drag and mumble. When a group of people try to read something at the same time, at a slow pace, they will all go at different speeds, trying to accommodate for one another, and it will get slower and slower, until the effect of the antiphonal call and response is lost. But when short segments (following the natural parallelism of the Psalms’ poetic structure) are read with confidence and strength, the responsorial nature is kept intact, and the Psalm is read as a whole piece, by caller and congregation, rather than verse by verse which tends to lose the rhythm and flow of the text.
d. After reading together the Word of God, we respond with praise and thanksgiving. A doxological hymn would fit well here. “Praise God from whom all blessings flow” is cried aloud together, reminding us who has spoken. As I have said before, the service we render to our God is filled with the pattern of initiation and response. God initiates, we respond. Do not respond is to show ingratitude. In reading the Word, God speaks to us, and we hear His voice in the Psalm. We in turn respond with words of our own, words that give voice to our utter dependence and gratitude. This completes our ascension, our song joining the song of the seraphim, praising God who indeed is Holy.
Confession
When anyone in Scripture encounters God, is brought into His presence, or has a vision of the Most High, the immediate response is one of complete recognition of sin. Isaiah cries out, “Woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips.” He beholds the holiness of God, and cannot stand in His presence. We too, ascend and stand before the Lord God, and are naked before Him. We have been called, but as we enter the house, we must be washed. We do so in confession of our sins. Psalm 95 again, “Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.” Our immediate posture upon entering the throne room must be one of prostration. We come and lay our hearts and souls bare before Him, acknowledging His hatred of our sins, confessing them, and grabbing hold of the blood of Christ. I am a fan of corporate confessions, because they again draw attention to the fact that we are a body, and come as such. But there is also a place for individual confession, and time should be given for it. Scripture again is used to confirm our status as sinners and teaching us how to repent. Psalm 51 is a perfect example of what a broken and contrite heart looks like, and we would do well to drink deeply of texts like these. As important as it is to confess our sins, corporately and individually, so it is also important to receive a statement of absolution. In this the pastor speaks the words of God, not finding any power to forgive sins in himself, but simply proclaiming the truth of what God has done. After confession, the pastor might say something to the effect of, “As a minister of the Word of God, having confessed yours sin honestly and before God and one another, I declare unto you, that your sins are forgiven in Jesus Christ.” To this the congregation gives their “Amen!” through a hymn/Psalm of thanksgiving, rejoicing in the fact that we have been made clean.
Of course in participating in a confession like this, I am not suggesting our sins were not forgiven before we confessed them, or before the minister says so. There is no magic in the act of our speaking, only in the act of God speaking. And that happened before time began. However, we follow a pattern like this for two reasons. The first is that, to my understanding, Scripture lays out this pattern in Old Testament Sacrificial practices, which we have already discussed. But secondly, God, in worship, is renewing His covenant with us. He is reminding us of who we are, where we came from, who He is, where He is taking us, how we get there, and what we are supposed to be busy with on the way. Worship is not just a time of superficial praise that leaves us with a good feeling. It is participation in God’s nature, it is being brought into the Triune dance, teaching us, shaping us, molding us, preparing us, and equipping us for taking that Triune dance of life into the world, and making disciples. In this way worship becomes a dialogue, constructed to remind us of every stage, lest we become proud in our status as children, chosen though we may be. We must always confess our sins, and we must always be reminded of our forgiveness. Our worship is full of symbols and acts and rituals that point and lead us to life. We participate in the drama, with all its plot developments, and are nourished.
Following a confession of our sins, it is right and fitting that we confess our faith. The use of one of the creeds of Christendom (e.g. the Nicene Creed) is appropriate as it unifies us with a much broader body of believers than simply the ones in our physical and temporal proximity. I am also a fan of using a catechism to help instruct the congregation concerning our faith. Catechisms such as the Heidelberg, for example, lead the believer through the various points of the faith, strengthening their understanding of what they believe. Again, doing this corporately builds unity, and binds the congregation together as a whole, treating them as one family, which they are. Again, a hymn/Psalm of response allows the congregation to say “Amen!” to what they believe and confess.
