Introduction<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Desmond Mpilo Tutu, Anglican Archbishop Emeritus of Capetown, is fond of saying, \u201cChristians are a eucharistic people; we must always be giving thanks.\u201d For this short reflection on the topic, \u201cworship that works\u201d that\u2019s an excellent place to begin. For Christian worship is about giving thanks to the Holy God; for calling us to be God\u2019s Holy People; in all the Holy places; where we engage in Holy Play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Christian worship at a genuine, effective and affective level of reality, results from the connection between our knowledge that God is worthy of worship, and our consistently doing something with and about that knowledge. It is the intimate dynamic between our being and our function as God\u2019s chosen ones. When we seek to worship rightly, we are always aware of the warning in Matthew 15: 8:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\u201cThese people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain. Their teachings are but rules taught by men.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
When we seek to worship in \u201cspirit and in truth,\u201d we recall the words of Cicero: \u201cBy example we clarify the nature of our statement. By testimony we establish its truth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For Christians, worship is at the very center of our journey \u201ctoward that city not built with human hands, but whose builder and maker is God.\u201d Indeed, Jesus told the Samaritan women, \u201cHe seeketh such to worship him,\u201d and Karl Barth has written, \u201cChristian worship is the most momentous, the most urgent, the most glorious action that can take place in human life.\u201d Worship is that time when we remember is special ways God\u2019s love, sacrifice, ongoing care, and invitation to us, \u201cto come unto me all ye who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Worship is our faithful \u201cyes\u201d: to the command of Christ \u201cto do this in memory of me.\u201d And it is in the act of worship that we encounter God even as he promised, \u201cwhere two or three are gathered together in my name, I will be there in the midst of them.\u201d In that encounter with Ultimate Reality we are changed \u2014 often in ways that make us more open and loving and faithful to God and the people of God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the power of the spirit when we cannot stifle our \u201cPraise the Lord,\u201d or in the silence of prayer in the midnight hour when we are still and know that I Am God, worship for Christians is a glimpse into that dwelling place eternal prepared for us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How are we to develop \u201cworship that works?\u201d Most, if not all of the time? The Lutheran pastor, Paul Anderson, has written, \u201corder and ardor can be happily wed. Truth is canonized but not style. The issue is not structure or freedom, but Spirit. God has no preference for formless spiritualism or spiritless formalism \u2014 he rejects both. Spontaneity offers no innate advantage over liturgy. Liberty is about where the Spirit is, not where the Preacher has thrown away his notes.\u201d To all of which I add a hearty AMEN! But to go further, if we would have \u201cworship that works\u201d we must never forget these four points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1. Holy God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Psalm 96: 9 we find these words, \u201cO worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness let the whole earth stand in awe of God.\u201d God is the subject and predicate of all Christian worship. God is the one worthy to be praised. To God alone belong all Glory, Power, Honor and Dominion. All that is in heaven and on earth come from and go to God. This created order is the Lord\u2019s, and God is exalted as head above all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To this, the most holy one, we offer our sacrifice of thanksgiving and make good our vows to the most high. We respond with positive, fervor to the advice of St. Paul (Romans 12: 1) that \u201cwe present ourselves as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is our spiritual worship.\u201d With the prophet Amos (5: 8), we \u201cseek him that made the Pleiades and Orion, that turneth deep darkness into the morning, and darkness the day into night; who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out upon the surface of the earth: the Lord is his name.\u201d Before this Holy one of Israel, we set our prayers like incense, secure in the faith that all who follow where he has led will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life (John 8: 12). We who would have worship that works never forget \u201cthe pit from which we were dug, nor the rock from which we were hewn: and that pit is the Love of a Holy God, revealed in his Son, Jesus Christ, who is the solid rock! This is where worship that works, begins, centers, and ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
II. Holy People.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Psalm 16: 7-8, paraphrased in a modern gospel song, we hear these words, \u201cThe joy of the Lord is my strength.\u201d Worship that works occurs when The Holy God is at the center of all life, and the people God has chosen to be The Covenanted ones give God thanks for their being and becoming The Holy People. We are the modern Ephesians (2: 19), those who are \u201cno longer strangers and souourners but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.\u201d We are those who hear and love the words of \u201cthe high and lofty one who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy. \u2018I dwell in the high and holy place and also with the one who has a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble and\u2026of the contrite\u2026’\u201d (Isaiah 57: 15).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We are those who understand that we must \u201coffer to God, the sacrifice of praise\u2026the fruit of lips that acknowledge God\u2019s name. And, to do good and distribute forget not for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.\u201d (Hebrews 13: 15 \u2013 16). We are those who \u201cwalk in Love as Christ loved us and gave himself for us, an offering and sacrifice to God.\u201d (Ephesians 5: 2). We are those who even when we would do right, remember that \u201cif as we offer our gift at the altar, and our sister or brother has something against us, we must leave our gift at the alter and go: first be reconciled, and then come and offer our gift.\u201d (Matthew 5: 23 \u2013 24).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We are those who because God who is Holy and has called us to be the Holy People, must always \u201cgive thanks to the Lord, and call upon God\u2019s name, and make God\u2019s deeds known among the people.\u201d (Psalm 105: 1). Only when we have done these things as God\u2019s Holy People shall we enjoy worship that works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
III. Holy Place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Worship that works involves a third factor that often seems complex. The issue is the relationship of \u201cHoly Ground\u201d to \u201cHoly Situation.\u201d This tension is exemplified by Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and Paul on the \u201cGround\u201d side, and by Hagar, Deborah, Ruth, Esther and Mary on the \u201cSituation\u201d side. We in our blindness often confuse \u201cGround\u201d and \u201cSituation,\u201d while scripture talks and teaches about Holy Place. Worship that works is focussed on Holy Place and looks to Acts 2: 11 for clarification:
\u201cand we all hear\u2026in our own languages, about the mighty miracles of God.\u201d
When the Holy People know and praise the Holy God, wherever they are is the Holy place, and the sound there of has gone out into all lands, and the message to the ends of the earth (Psalm 19: 4). Christianity is an incarnational religion. We know the love of God because it is shared with us in tangible ways \u2014 the blind see, the deaf hear, and the captives are set free. God gives us His word; confronts us with opportunities for faithful and obedient ministry. We respond to the challenge of faith and often say \u201cYes Lord.\u201d When we do, the situation and the location become Holy Place \u2014 for it is \u201cthere\u201d that we have met and known the Lord. In a manner and with words appropriate to each of us, but empowered with a spirit that is greater than all of us. Worship that works always occurs in the Holy Place.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIV. Holy Play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Anyone who reads about worship in the Hebrew scriptures will soon discover that God is no grouch. There were many occasions of worship that worked and the people enjoyed themselves. The 2nd Book of Samuel (6: 5) records one such event:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\u201cDavid and all Israel danced for joy before the Lord, with all their might, to the sound of singing, of lyres, lutes, tambourines, castanets and cymbals.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
The scene described is one where people entered into the gates with thanksgiving and the courts with praise. I call this activity \u2014 Holy Play, and believe such to be a necessary component of worship that works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The late Powell Mills Dawley, teaching at New York\u2019s General Theological Seminary was fond of observing that \u201cGood liturgy is always good drama. Good drama is not always good liturgy.\u201d We need forms that give us a sense of continuity; that shape our identity; that provide structure to keep us focused on God as our center. We also need actions and symbols which involve all our senses and communicate in a more complete way. Ways that spoken propositions cannot. Paul Anderson says we need form and freedom. That we must not omit the artistic, the mysterious, the subconscious, the historical or the immediate situation \u201cWorship is as much a matter of seeing as of hearing\u2026and liturgy that breathes well not suffocate the saints.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At a recent consecration of a Bishop in North Carolina, the prelates present engaged in a mild bit of Holy Play which drew sharp comment from certain quarters. I believe that some ideas of a North Carolina theologian, Dr. Michael J. Battle, reflecting on the work of the Jesuit, Anthony de Mello, will help in sorting out this matter of Holy Play, and move us closer to worship that works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Referring to Jesus in the work of de Mello, Father Battle writes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\u201cThe Master surprised everyone. He was not solemn and austere as everyone expected. He did not step on the children or wear a frown. He made people laugh. This made those disciples, wanting to be powerful people who expected more of a Master, angry because they wanted to be proud of their solemnity. But the Master was doing a strange and marvelous thing: he was teaching them not to laugh at him but to laugh at themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
When we have learned that lesson, we will be closer to worship that works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Conclusion<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When have we worshiped? That\u2019s what this reflection is really all about. How do we take the best of that old-time religion and hitch it to God\u2019s \u201cnew thing?\u201d When the spirit blows where it will (and it will), how are we to catch the direction of the wind and respond appropriately? The answer, like much that is basic in Christianity, is quite simple \u2014 we must do what we can, using whatever we have, to enable people to enter the presence of God to worship. In quietness or exuberance, weeping or joy, repentance or reflection, the Holy People encounter the Holy God in the Holy Place with Holy Play to receive the power of the Spirit. When that occurs, worship works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
HAPPY NEW YEAR!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This sermon was written by Frederick Boyd Williams<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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