An excerpt from a letter I wrote to a friend... what are your thoughts? or your questions?
First my thoughts on worship. If i was to accuse the mainline protestant denominaions of some transgression it would be on the hows and whys of worship. Dave stanley (and Im sure youve heard it before) says that worship is a life style not an event. However hearing that, and even saying that with heartfelt sentiments doesnt make it true. The truth is that sunday mornings is an event and aside from praying for meals, God is rarley thought about much less talked about and even much less worshiped in the space between sunday morning services. (I just relized that I may rant here, being a supposed "worship leader" so please season my words with grace if I fail to do so.) I say supposed beccause for the most part, the "worship leader" in a church is the guy who can hold a guitar and carry a tune. Do not get me wrong. I love music. It stirs the soul. It helps me worship God. It takes a peice of me that is so inwardly personal and puts it out there for the world to see. But it is not worship.
So what is worship? I know most of the christian answers and I bet you do too. Its hard to put my finger on an answer. The word is used more in the old testament than the new, but it is interesting that most of the time worship= blood. "They took and cow, slaughtered it, and worshiped the Lord." You know, stuff like that. Im not sure about you...but I havent seen a cow slaughtered in a church service. (I have this image of Dave Stanley rolling up his sleeves right now... I'll stop there...). So what is the church todo? What is appropriate and what is right for worship? Ive got two avenues that I want you to think about, one that seems pretty wierd to me but has come to me as Ive been writing and the other one that you are probably more familier with but might need some re-examining (I feel like Im writing a paper for school...I just hit my theological mode)
The first train of thought is acctually more a train of questions, questions that you may come up with diffrent (read Better) ideas than my own. What was the physical act of worship in the OT? Animal sacrifice and prayer. What were the reasons for sacrificing animals? A sheding of blood to cover sins, either against God, or others or both. Any other reasons? For a remeberance and celebration for what God has done, like the feast of passover or weeks or booths. How come we don't sacrifice animals today? Read Hebrews 9 first. Christ became that sacrifice for our sins and his death on a cross completed the sytem of sacrifices. They were no longer nesisary. We'll thats good for the sin sacrifice but what about the times of celebration where animals were sacrificed, wine was drunk, music was sung and God was remembered? (Read with Robin Willams voice from dead poets society "spirts soared, women swooned, and gods were created...") Is there any christian event in the new testiment that kinda sounds like that? Jesus' passover feast with his diciples. There was bread and wine and fellowship. There was prayer and command to remember. And ultimately this again leads that event, a human sacrifice to top off the evenings events. Im not saying this to be flippant, though as I read back it sounds that way. Im saying this as a reminder that ultimately it is the sacrificial act that is worship, and namley the sacrificial act of Jesus on a cross for believers today. So back to music. What place should music hold in the worship act? I've heard worship leaders talk about mood and setting the tone, getting people to engage, and the like. I even heard a guy say that his goal for one particular set of music was to get people to cry. Bile and rubish, if you ask me (which you did...) I sing because of an overflow. Im amazed and happy so I sing. Im sad so I sing. Im longful so I sing. Feelings or emotions that produce music are probably good (I know that Monty would have something to say about feelings at this point, I may come back to it but dont hold your breath) Music that envokes emotion is bad.
This is where talking to somebody and seeing the expression of understand, or the lack there of, would come in handy. Im not saying that music that creates an emotion is bad music. Dashboard makes me sort of sad and wistful, Miles Davis makes me feel sort of relaxed and peaceful and the Supertones makes me feel like I can take on the world with God at my side. These are not bad things but they have created some thing that was not there before. Maybe. If its true that music has the ability to create a sort of false feeling, a created feeling that wasnt there before, then could it also create a feeling that we were close to God, that all the euphoria and emotional high are simply created by combining a few chordal progressions with some lyrics and a good rythem. I would say that is probably entirly posible. But... but what if (and I almost want to speak in a wisper, like this is some sort of secret) but what if those feelings were already there and all the music was doing was awakening something that was asleep, releasing something that was imprisoned. Im not sure how much emotion was involved in the Hebrews acts of worship. I dont know; I cant tell you. But I do know that emotions are empowering. Im not sure how all of this ties back into Jesus as the worship sacrifice; maybe its the pushing away of everything else or the focus that comes from singing a set of words, but the music comes from the Joy of knowing I have a savior and from the sorrow of knowing there is a depth to my sins. But is music the only way to accent our worship? No.
But our solutions are to call strange things worship. We call fellowship worship. Its good for us, I will admit, even nessisary, but Im not sure its worship (give me your thoughts...). Same with tithing. Its required by God, it reminds us of the provider and ultimatly that all is His. (I wonder if the whole "worship through tithing" suffers in our churches today because it doesnt normally envoke the same sorts of feelings and elations that the music service does...hmm a thought for another day perhaps. But there are other things which I think are worship, which brings me to my next (and much shorter) train of thought.
We are to be living sacrifices. Offering up our sacrifices, a drink offering poured apon the offering of Christ is to be our act of worship. You've heard it Im sure. Message after message. But the question I want to know is what does that practically look like. If we all become the sort of sacrifices that I hear about in messages then it is our biblical imparitive to worship God with our lives by going on a missions trip, becoming a pastor, or at least hanging out at bible college untill they kick me out. A two tiered christianity is out of the question, where the lay person subsists on the "worship" of the priests. There will be no room with God for those who dont know how to worship. (I say that off the cuff, who am I to decide who will get into heaven and for what reason) The key thing I take to heart from the book of revelation is that when all is said and done, theres going to be lots of worship going on.
So if a building that some guy built to worship God evokes feelings of worship in you, i would say examine where those feelings come from. Were they created by the inlaid Gold and silver, by the paintings and the statues, or were they already there, waiting to be opened like presents on a Christmas morn. Ive been in orthodox churches and know the sorts of feelings you are talking about. Its the same feeling I feel looking at the night sky in Joshua Tree, or sitting by the ocean at sun rise, or watching ants scurry to and fro.They awaken something in me that the church often allows to slumber... an awareness of Imanuel... an awareness of God with Us.
