Thoughts on Worship

The Worship of the Triune God is the single most important recurring event in a Christian’s life. It is in the Worship of God that the Christian learns who he is, what he is, where he is going, why he should go, and how to get there. At the center of this worship we find that the One who sustains all of life, our every breath, and ordains our every step, providing for and protecting us in every way, reveals Himself to us. He reveals Himself in His Word, in the Sacraments He gave us as signs and symbols, pointing to solid Truth, and in His Body, with whom we fellowship. Here is the font of all hope, all healing, all comfort, all peace…and we arrive five minutes late.
There is an apathy-like attitude that we modern Christians have when we gather together on Sunday’s. I am hesitant to go all the way and call it apathy, for most of us are at least well intentioned when it comes to worship. But, well intentioned though we may be, we are prone to taking a lackadaisical view when it comes to our preparation for and participation in the Worship of God. We are content to do things that are comfortable, come naturally, seem easy, or that contain songs and ceremonies that a watching world would find interesting and inviting. But what about coming before God Almighty is comfortable? Is there anything about coming before a Thrice Holy God that comes naturally to sons of Adam, redeemed though we may be? Should worship be easy? What does that say about the importance we place on it? And why should the cares and sensibilities of a pagan, God-hating culture form the tastes and desires that dictate the manner of our Worship? These are important questions, and questions we are sadly slow in answering. But they are necessary to work through if we desire to be faithful to what God has called us to be, and that is homo adorans, worshipping man.

First, Should worship be comfortable? What is there that is comfortable in coming before the throne of the Creator of the universe, especially as we come on the merits of another? We cannot approach on the basis of anything we have accomplished. We can only come on the basis of Christ and His gift to us. How dare we presume on grace and come before the Father on Christ’s back, and then demand our own rights and our own way. But we do in worship. We find many things in Scripture that make us uncomfortable, and rather than trust God with them and embrace them, we shy away and refuse to deal with them. Certain portions of Scripture offend our modern sensibilities (Psalm 139, Song of Solomon, parts of Ezekiel), and so we gloss over them, and do not allow the living and active Word of God to transform our sensibilities, conforming us to the image of Christ. We are afraid of trusting God with the hard things, and therefore neglect being faithful to His Word. Instead, we need to obey and pursue faithfulness in all things, and trust God with the outcome. Worship is not social hour. Worship is not a tea party. Worship is not “Weekend at the folks.” The Worship of the Triune God is an event of cosmic proportions. Think about it soberly for one minute. We are approaching the omnipotent and sovereign God of all times, of all places, of all peoples, on someone else’s good name no less. Where do we get off that there is anything comfortable about this? Just the thought of it should put the fear of God into our hearts, and it is with fear and trembling that we ought to approach the Throne.

Second, Should worship come naturally? Our first assumption here is that God is honored by anything, regardless of what is presented to Him, so long as our intentions are right. But where in Scripture do we see this? Ask Nadab and Abihu if they would agree with that. They were fried by heavenly fire the very minute they offered strange fire on the altar. Strange fire meant anything God did not prescribe in His holy Word. In the Old Covenant, God was very exact with how He was to be worshipped, and gave a very detailed account of how things needed to be. One degree to the left or the right meant death. Do we believe this God has changed any since the Old Covenant? Is He not the same God yesterday, today, and tomorrow? Does not Christ Himself display this zeal, twice, as He purges the temple of those who were misusing it? With a whip? And we approach this God expecting that the demands His Worship makes will come naturally to us, sinners whose thoughts are far, far below His thoughts. It seems pretty risky, knowing that God was extremely demanding in how He was to be approached, and that those demands are very narrow in nature. Am I to assume that what comes naturally to me will “fortunately” align perfectly with His will? That would sure be nice. It seems more likely, however, that the worship of God does not come naturally to me, and that I need to learn what He has prescribed. Learn who He is, and how he requires us to approach Him. This means study, this means hard work, this means practice, and above all this means humility. I do not have unilateral freedom to decide how I approach the Throne of God, especially, again, on the good name of another. Our second assumption is this: what we learned as a child is the purest and most honest form of worship and therefore is suitable for the rest of our lives. But this flatly denies Scripture. When I was a child, I thought like a child, I spoke like a child. But when I became a man, I put off those childish things. Children grow up. This is the natural order of things. We move on from milk to meat. We cannot remain at our mother’s breast our entire life. We are called to growth and maturity. This again means hard work. It means patience and striving after a goal. It means letting go of blankets and teddy bears, and moving on to cars and houses. We grow up. This should not be a bleak picture either. Our society has placed a great deal of importance and primacy on childishness. This is apparent by the rampant immaturity that surrounds us. Teddy bears and blankets are not a higher form. They are not the peak with life just going downhill from there. With maturity comes deeper enjoyment, richer fellowship, more solid relationships, and a joy that is more real than any childhood experience can offer. This depth is only available to those who dig. You can’t have a diamond without an extreme amount of pressure. You can’t have a mine without a lot of mining. You can’t reach a mature age without living. Growing up is a good thing, contrary to what this country believes. We are built by God to move from milk to meat. And the meat is good.

Thirdly, Should worship be easy? It is a similar question as the one above, but from a different angle. Our economy and our culture thrives on everything that we have created to make our lives easy. Dishwashers, sprinklers, hot water heaters, cars, computers, credit cards, etc. The list is endless of the things we surround ourselves with to make our lives easier. This has trained our thinking to shy away from honest to goodness effort. Instead of doing something ourselves and be rewarded with the satisfaction of accomplishment, we are quick to go online and buy it. We say, “I don’t know how to do that. Shouldn’t I just let someone who knows how to do it, do it for me?” This is our attitude. Rather than learning how to do something, we settle for the work of others. This is not in and of itself a bad thing. I’m glad there are trained police officers roaming the streets. I’m in favor of car manufacturers being highly skilled and trained in what they do, so that I can drive in peace, not afraid of falling apart. But we cannot let this be our automatic response. We are called to be fruitful and take dominion over the earth. The Creation Mandate still applies today. This does not mean that every time I am in a position where something is required of me, I can bow out because someone else does a better job. That is called abdication of responsibility. And it runs wild in our culture. This is something that many Christians would see and lament with me about. But the truth is, a lot of times we approach worship with this same attitude. Learning to sing well is too hard, so we leave it to the choir. Studying the Word takes too much time, so we leave it to the Pastor. Reaching out and fellowshipping with others, sharing the love of Christ with the unlovely, is simply too awkward, so we leave it to the gregarious ones. But we are all called to sing, all called to study, all called to love the unlovely. It is not a responsibility we can push on someone else. We are called to do it. And if it means learning how to do it, that’s what it means. We go and learn. But not knowing how is no excuse for not doing it. What I am saying should not imply that we do not know how to work hard. We do and will work hard when we find something worthwhile. We put the most effort and the most hard work into what we find most rewarding, and most important. How much effort you put into something, how much time, money, or thought, reveals the level of importance that something holds in your life. How do we approach the worship of God? Willing to learn to do things God’s way, even though it may (and will) mean hard work? Or do we come ready to allow others to fulfill our responsibility.

Lastly, Why do we think the tastes and opinions of the world matter when it comes to the worship of God? Why do God-hating pagans get a seat at the table when we decide what Scripture dictates we do on Sunday Morning? Why do we find it necessary to be hip, cool, trendy, “with-it” when it comes to serving our Creator? Is Truth not eternal? Does Beauty change over time? We are called to worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. Is that just a cutesy phrase we put on our magnets with a picture of a sunset? Or does “the beauty of holiness” mean something? Beauty is defined by who God is. If it is otherwise defined, God would not be entirely beautiful. God is entirely beautiful and therefore the definition of beauty. This means our worship, first of all, is to be consistent with who He is. This should be obvious. We do not worship the God of life, with manners and rituals found in a Wiccan handbook. “The beauty of holiness.” If we are to worship in the beauty of holiness, it follows that we are to worship in holiness as well. Holiness first and foremost means separate, other, set apart. It also means moral perfection, but even that at the root means above and other than what is normal. Moral perfection is not achievable as children of Adam. Therefore He who can, namely God, is different, or other, than the rest of us. Our worship is to be holy. Our worship is to be set apart, different, other, above what is normal to us and our culture. This is why we do not (should not) sing Beatles’ songs in Worship. This is why worship does not consist of reading portions of Moby Dick. Worship is to be holy, it is to be different than what we do elsewhere. It is also to be in the Beauty of holiness, meaning as God defines it, not as we do. So why do we care about what the world says? This temptation to be sensitive to the world’s opinions stems from the idea that Sunday Worship is prime time for evangelism. The primary purpose of worship is to proclaim the gospel to the nations. But that is not the primary purpose of worship. That is what we do Monday through Saturday. On Sunday we come and are fed as the people of God. It is family time. Thus we should not be concerned with gearing the service toward unbelievers. Besides, the essence of worship is going to be foreign to them, no matter how much we dumb it down, unless the Spirit gives them a new set of eyes. The standards the world holds are consistent with their worldview, consistent with their foundation of life, namely, suppressing the truth in unrighteousness. As Christians we have been given new hearts and new eyes to see the truth of Christ presented in the Scriptures. Here is where we discover God for who He is. In this discovery we begin to recognize His attributes throughout nature, and realize that Creation reflects its Creator. Here, through the natural and special revelation of the Spirit, we discover who God is, what He is like, how He thinks, as much as He has revealed to us. Here are our standards for life and worship. If God is Beauty, and our worship is to be beautiful, defined by who God is, then our worship needs to rest on the foundation of what is revealed to us about who He is, not in the latest issue of Rolling Stone Magazine.

We were created in the Garden to be a priesthood, to minister to all creation, and in turn serve God in obedience and thanksgiving. We were recreated in the Garden City of the New Jerusalem, the Church, to be a royal priesthood, ministering to all creation, proclaiming the Gospel of our Lord, to all nations, and in turn serve (worship) God in obedience and thanksgiving. We were created in the image of God. We are recreated in the image of Christ. We are given the Spirit to grow us, mature us, give strength and ability to obey, and comfort us at all times. It is the Spirit who is at work in us, focusing our eyes on Christ, teaching us that through Him we can approach the Father. But it is through Him, and therefore on His terms. We do not approach with strange fire, or with any sense of entitlement, expecting a comfortable experience, one perfectly suited to our needs. We come on holy ground, removing our sandals, and bowing our heads, for the one we approach is Holy. We come in fear and trembling, for we come before the One who is seated in the temple, high and lifted up. And His train fills the temple.

“Is He dangerous?” I asked. My pursed lips quivered, but not from the pain of fire.
“O yes, quite dangerous,” said the Seraph, still holding the burning coal plucked from the alter. “But He is good.”