Replacing the Misplaced
How often have you seen a church notice board say on it something like 'Worship service 9am'?How often have you heard church musicians referred to as the 'worship team'?Have you heard a Pastor encourage fathers to lead their families in a daily 'family worship' time?
It seems we have relegated the general use of our term 'worship' to what Christians do once or twice a week when they are together in their building, or at least together somewhere.
Now it is certainly true that these times include worship - or should.
But our whole New Testament covenant life is one where worship of God is supposed to be happening everywhere and anywhere.
All of life is worship, and it should be to Yahweh - The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
In fact no matter who we are we worship something or someone - we are born and created to worship and worship we do not fail to do…..
- we all centre our lives around whatever we think will give us meaning and purpose and significance in life. Our focus and goal might be love, sex, family, success, work, wealth, popularity, fame, pleasure, fitness, education, travel, beauty or fashion. Whatever it is, we will put the achievement of it in a place of value, honour and priority in our lives.
….what we might fail to do however, is give our worship to the One who alone deserves it - the One who made us and redeemed us.
We don't have to go to any 'special place' or a physical temple building to go where God is, to worship and bow down to him, rather it is a heart attitude of honour and submission to Christ as God and King, as we worship in Spirit and in Truth (John 4:24). We don't have to go 'to church' in order to pray, like they do on Downton Abbey…..or even here in Africa where time and again I hear people put special emphasis on 'going to church to pray'.
Right now you are probably saying, 'But I do believe worship is more than at church'.
But does your verbal terminology reflect that view?
Either we need to be talking a lot more - a very lot more - about worship in our interaction outside the once-a-week-gathering, or else we need to stop using the word 'worship' around the concepts of the gathering and its music, and at least change the term on our church signage.
There are so many mis-conceptions about worship
- I had someone recently say to me after going through a difficult time that they just hadn't been able to worship. Yet I was watching this person choose to humbly submit themselves to God's will through tears. Yet because they were finding it hard to sing, they believed they hadn't worshipped! How sad.
- I hear others say they had a good time of 'worship' this morning in their quiet time and they will name the CD and songs they were listening to and singing along with and how it helped them really 'connect' to God, as if that was what constituted 'worship' for them. What are deaf people supposed to do?
- I hear others comment that they noticed someone was really 'worshipping' because they observed hands raised and eyes closed - does that mean those whose eyes are open and hands are not raised are not worshipping?.
- Some think that worship means warm fuzzy feelings and a sense of euphoric happiness - that's probably more mystical than Christian.
- Some people mistake awe for worship - we can be in awe looking out to the stars at night, but it isn't worship of God unless it translates to a desire to submit our lives to the One who created it all and who is so much bigger and more powerful than us!
- I don't hear anyone say that they had a great time of worship as a mother cleaning floors and dishes, or as a policeman catching criminals, or as a receptionist answering telephone calls, or even counseling a depressed unemployed father.
We are apt to relegate 'worship' to a very narrow category that never impacts or intersects with the world and community and life on a daily basis or reflects the truth that worship is about the honour attitude of the heart. It's not about having the emotional energy to sing, or to feel 'connected' or to be in a physical position of hands raised and eyes closed or for that matter even necessarily heads bowed. While each of these may accompany a worshipful heart on occasion, they are actually outward, secondary and even superficial indicators of worship.
Remember God says "man looks on the outward appearance but God looks on the heart" and He also said of people who appeared to be doing all the outward appearances of worship, "You honour me with your lips but your hearts are far from me", and in the book of Amos 'remove from me the noise of your songs" (1 Samuel 16:7, Matthew 15:8, Amos 5:23) A corporate gathering or outward visible action is not the definition of worship.
Worship is about the heart, not just the outward action.
There was certainly no large corporate gathering when Abraham went up the mountain with Isaac for the sacrifice and said they were going to 'worship'. It almost certainly was not accompanied with excited dancing and singing and praise. This was an occasion of rigorous, deliberate trust and obedience. Abraham viewed this as a time when his own heart desires would have to 'bow' to the desires of the One who he knew should be given the highest honour, no matter what the personal cost or whether he understood or not.
Then if we jump to the New Testament, Jesus explained to the woman at the well, that worship is not about coming together at a place, its about a heart attitude toward God rooted in truth and in the power of the Spirit. True worship is about about bowing our will to God's will and allowing the Spirit of God to fill our hearts (the seat of our very being, our will, our desires, our mind, our emotions) in every facet of daily life, firmly rooted in the truth of the Word that the Spirit enables us to understand and live out.
We, as the modern church, have taught the world by our language that 'worship' happens 'at church' or is only related to our private activity in our own home. It is separate from the surrounding community. It is separate from daily life. We have kept our 'worship' separate from the world, and now the world is acting according to the way we have trained them over decades, and they are simply saying that if that's how we are, we should keep it that way.
We have made 'worship' an 'act' or a 'ritual' rather than a heart attitude and all of life reality!
We need to take greater consideration as to how we use words, what we communicate to others with our words and how our words even impact our own perspectives on our faith.
We have taught society by our words and our lives that being a Christian is primarily about 'Sunday worship at church'.
Instead we should be teaching them that being a Christian is about being part of the church of believers who's lives have been transformed and who are living no longer for the honour of themselves, but for the honour of God their Creator and Saviour and the true honour of the people he created, as they worship their Father in Spirit and in Truth in every area of life.
When we do our work well as a cleaner,
or teach algebra to a class of teenagers,
or care for the cancer patient,
or serve at the supermarket checkout with a smile
or help the truth to be heard in a legal case,
or be patient and gentle with your kids in the home,
or deal kindly and firmly as a police officer,
or with integrity as a politician,
or whatever your daily activity involves….and someone notices and asks how you manage to do that?…..answer by saying its because its just part of worshipping God with every area of my life.
This is not to say that people are not genuinely worshipping the Lord when they say they worship 'at church'. We also need to be sensitive to how people have come to use terminology. God sees hearts, and sometimes hearts have only had certain terminology in their teaching by which to state what they want to express. We must be careful not to be merely condemnatory but corrective, bringing people from traditional to biblical frameworks.
Meanwhile, let's consider taking the word 'worship' off our church notice boards where it is the only time the watching world sees it and they are very much getting the wrong idea. And while we are at it, lets consider ceasing from using the term to describe those who lead music when we gather together as a local church group, and speaking of worship as if it belongs exclusively within the domain of music. And lets start using the word in relation to everyday life and allow its meaning of honour to permeate all that we do.
Worship is not about singing on a Sunday, its about bowing our will to God's will as we give Him the highest honour with our whole lives!
To quote Kay Arthur:
"To worship God is to respect and honour Him for who He is."
If we are to get our minds out of a rut, cease giving the watching world the wrong idea, and truly honour God as we bow our hearts and will to His heart and will, we have to begin in this foundational area of our use of the term 'worship'.
ps. it is a good thing to allow the majesty of creation, the truth of God's word in His word and expressed in song to lead and prompt our hearts to a place of honouring God rightly with true worship - take a few moments to read the truth in the words in the picture above set on a background of a starry sky, and be prompted to once again have your hearts bow to the One who is to be honoured and praised.
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