A hundred years ago, the United Presbyterian Church in North America – one of our predecessor denominations – spent some time and energy thinking about why the church exists. That’s always a good question to ask. It’s important for us to constantly remind ourselves why we’re here, because it is so easy for us humans to lose our way, to wander from the path that God has set before us, to “go astray,” like lost sheep. We can be more intentional about doing that which we know we ought to be doing, when we have a deep understanding of what we’re all about in the first place. A hundred years ago, the United Presbyterian Church in North America identified six “great ends of the church” – six fundamental reasons why the church exists. The third “great end of the church” is the maintenance of divine worship. What does that mean for us, here and now?
“Clap your hands, all you peoples; shout to God with loud songs of joy!” (Psalm 47.1)
“Praise the Lord! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty firmament! Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his surpassing greatness! Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp! Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe! Praise him with clanging cymbals; praise him with loud crashing cymbals! Let everything that breathes praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!” (Psalm 150)
“Hallelujah! For the Lord God omnipotent reigneth! The kingdom of this world is become the kingdom of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign forever and ever, King of kings, and Lord of lords!” (Revelation 19.6; 11.15; and 19.16, as quoted by G. F. Handel in the “Hallelujah” chorus of The Messiah)
“David danced before the Lord with all his might. . . . David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet. As the ark of the Lord came into the city of David, Michal daughter of Saul looked out of the window, and saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord.” (2 Samuel 6.14-16)
“And Peter took the lame man by the right hand and raised him up; and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. Jumping up, he stood and began to walk, and he entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God.” (Acts 3.7-8)
“So, here I am to worship, here I am to bow down, here I am to say that You’re my God. And You’re altogether lovely, altogether worthy, altogether wonderful to me.” (Tim Hughes)
“What is the chief end of man? Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.” (The first question of the Westminster Shorter Catechism)
“Christian worship joyfully ascribes all praise and honor, glory and power to the triune God. In worship the people of God acknowledge God present in the world and in their lives. As they respond to God’s claim and redemptive action in Jesus Christ, believers are transformed and renewed. In worship the faithful offer themselves to God and are equipped for God’s service in the world.” (The opening paragraph of the Directory for Worship in our Presbyterian Book of Order)
Worship! We should get excited when we hear that word. Worship! It’s a celebration of joyful thanksgiving for the good that our Lord has done in our lives and in the life of this world. At its best, worship flows out from the deep places in our hearts, as we look up to God with tremendous outpourings of gratitude for the depth and the richness of God’s amazing love and mercy. There are a multitude of stories in the Bible of people bursting out with joy, leaping and dancing and celebrating with festive musical instruments, as they respond with genuine, heartfelt gratitude for the bountiful love of God that has been made manifest in their lives. Worship! Joy! Thanksgiving! Festivity! Celebration!
We all know that worship can become a rote activity, something we undertake because we feel we are “supposed” to, something that doesn’t connect with the deep places in our lives, something that we find dry and boring and sometimes even lifeless. That is not what worship is intended to be! If we are participating in worship halfheartedly – reading the words on the page but not pondering their meaning, thinking about our grocery list instead of the scripture readings and prayers, mumbling the words of the songs, putting a token gift in the offering plate – then the problem lies with us, and we need to discipline ourselves to participate in worship in a more responsible and meaningful way. If, on the other hand, the scripture passages are poorly read, or the prayers are obtuse, or the music is of poor quality, or the sermon is irrelevant to the living of a faithful Christian life or is something other than a biblically-rooted, theologically-grounded witness to Jesus Christ, or the worship leaders are lacking in joy, passion, and energy, then the problem lies with the church, and we need to challenge those in leadership positions to go deeper. No one should have to suffer through a poorly designed or poorly executed worship service – but, at the same time, neither should any of us approach worship with anything less than a full heart bursting with gratitude and thanksgiving for the good that God has done and is continuing to do in our lives.
Worship is not for us. Worship is for God. The Christian philosopher Søren Kierkegaard offered an analogy that views worship as “theater” – with a stage, actors, and audience. Many of us might say that the stage is the chancel area (the front of the sanctuary), the actors are the pastor, liturgist, musicians, and other worship leaders, and the audience is the congregation. Kierkegaard would say: Wrong! The stage is the entire sanctuary. The actors are the entire congregation. And the audience – the audience is God. Worship is all of us, together, worship leaders and congregants alike, united in one common voice, offering our praise and thanksgiving to almighty God. We need to be nudging and challenging one another – as individuals and as a whole community – to be offering to God the most vibrant, most engaging, most Spirit-filled, most inspired, most faithful, most creative, most resounding worship services we can possibly offer.
In our Presbyterian tradition, there is a tremendous amount of freedom and latitude offered to us in the manner in which we can construct worship services. In our weekly Sunday worship services, scripture must be read and proclaimed, prayer must be offered, the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper must be celebrated regularly and frequently, the Sacrament of Baptism must be administered at appropriate times in the lives of the members of the congregation, and people must be given an opportunity to present their tithes and offerings to God – but everything else is up for grabs! The order in which we do things, the music we offer, the songs we sing, the length of the service, the manner in which we offer prayers, the creeds and confessions we say, the style of the sermon or other scripture-based proclamation – there are no “rules”! We have the freedom to create and design worship in a huge multitude of ways. Some decisions are the Pastor’s to make (or to have the freedom to delegate to others), such as the selection of Scripture lessons to be read, the preparation and preaching of the sermon or other form of exposition of the Word, and the music to be sung (I’ve delegated most of that responsibility to Sandy Wright-Auge, who has been doing an outstanding job finding music appropriate for each week’s scripture readings and theological themes) – while other decisions are the Session’s to make (or to delegate to a worship committee), such as determining the dates for the celebration of the Sacraments, being responsible for the arrangement and furnishings in the space where worship is conducted, and the use of special appointments such as flowers, candles, banners, paraments, and other objects of art. Good worship leadership takes effective teamwork and planning, and I am very grateful for the large number of people who help us make decisions about the worship life of this congregation or who assist in worship leadership in a variety of different ways. I am also cognizant that there are many ways in which we can make our worship services and the space in which we gather for worship more engaging, and I anticipate that there will be continued, ongoing conversations about how we might make our worship services as inspired and inspirational as we possibly can.
Why does the church exist? For the maintenance of divine worship. Let’s give God the best worship we possibly can. Alleluia! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns!
Peace and blessings,
Bill
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