I have been on a journey over the last few weeks. This time I didn’t have to pack a suitcase and eat strange food. I didn’t need a visa. I have been studying with a group of worship leaders from around the world and it has been exciting and challenging. The first time I had to hit ‘post’ with an essay, I was petrified. It’s one thing to turn your thoughts in to a teacher/lecturer. They will look, grade and give it back to you. This was out for all the world to see and comment upon. Very different. This week’s assignment was unbelievably tough. A theologically sound “Christian Worldview” on worship in 500 words or less. It takes me 500 words to just get started. Here it is. I have lots more to say on the subject but I’ll save that for another day (or night). Happy reading.
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In the beginning, there was worship. As Father, Son and Spirit created and danced together they said “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness,”1 man entered the dance. God and man walked together in the garden, named the animals and enjoyed this beautiful creation. Adam’s worship relationship with God was a simple response to His overwhelming love and abundant provision. Adam and Eve’s sin destroyed that intimate connectedness and we have been longing to find our way back ‘to the Garden’ ever since.
We humans are created to worship and will worship someone or something. Whatever we worship will form us into its likeness. In our ‘civilized society’ it is not always easy to identify what or whom we worship until we look at where we invest our time, energy and money. Is it God and His Kingdom or is it another kingdom and its many subtle gods? Materialism, humanism, feminism, work-a-holism and the hundred other ‘isms’ that seem so culturally relevant or practical in this modern age, form our thoughts and ultimately demand our devotion. Our choice is simple. God has provided for our re-entry into ‘the Garden’ “Walk with me and work with me–watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace”2 and we respond to His overwhelming love and abundant provision with repentance, surrender and worship.
Our worship is much more than singing songs on a Sunday. Our “spiritual act of worship” is, “in view of God’s mercy, offering our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God.”3 It is placing our “everyday ordinary life–our sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life, before God as an offering”4 It is taking the songs we sing and letting them “engage our spirit in the pursuit of truth.”5 Allowing the time that we take together to sing the truth about God to connect us with God. Worship is our offering for God but it is for us as well. We are changed when we engage with God. Our perspective of who we are, our circumstances and how we fit into our world are all challenged and shifted every time we encounter God. A.W. Tozer said “When the eyes of the soul looking out meet the eyes of God looking in, heaven has begun right here on earth.” When we engage our spirits in worship, the spheres of heaven and earth are brought together and interlock. The Kingdom of God pushes in to this present darkness and for a time, we experience a glimpse of heaven on earth. We do this individually but as a community of believers and reflect the multi-faceted, colourful nature of God. We find a common voice and common heart as we sing together. We express our faith, hope, joy, struggles and pain. We are challenged to be stronger, bolder, more faithful, powerful, forgiving and just – all in the songs that we sing. We break down social, cultural and political barriers simply by singing in another language. We join the Creator of the universe, the Saviour of mankind and the Holy Spirit in the dance that has been going since the beginning of time and will carry on for eternity.
1Gen 1:26 NIV 2Matt 11:29 MSG 3Rom 12:1 NIV 4Rom 12:1 MSG 5John 4:23
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