Definition: "The acts or rites that make up a formal expression of reverence of a deity"
The Beginning of Worship:
From the earliest history of humanity, worship seemed to have developed trying to prevent tragedy and hardships that were feared and mysterious. People assumed that the conditions in their world were controlled by gods in the heavenly realm above and believed that placating and appeasing them was the solution. They developed rites and practices showing their reverence and their desire to please these deities in order to prevent and stop harmful circumstances beyond human control.
In the Bible, Abraham left the country of his people who practiced human sacrifice as part of their worship. When Abraham finally had his first son from Sara, named Isaac, he felt it necessary to offer him as sacrifice. Having prepared the altar for the sacrifice, Abraham again heard a voice saying, "Do not lay a hand on the boy,” and, “Do nothing to him." A ram found caught in the bushes by its horns became the sacrifice. Abraham named the place "The Lord will provide." "Now I know that you fear God, because you did not refuse to give me your son, your only son.” (Genesis 22:1-12) Many years passed before the Prophets came with new wisdom about worship.
The Progressive Revelation of Worship:
Isaiah 29:13 The Lord says, “These people worship me with their mouths and honor me with their lips. But their hearts are far from me, and their worship of me is based on rules made by humans." In Jeremiah 31:33-34, “But this is the promise that I will make to Israel after those days,” declares the Lord: “I will put my teachings inside them, and I will write those teachings on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will each person teach his neighbors or his relatives by saying, ‘Know the Lord.’ All of them, from the least important to the most important, will know me,” declares the Lord, “because I will forgive their wickedness and I will no longer hold their sins against them.” In Hosea 6:6, "I want your loyalty, not your sacrifices. I want you to know me, not to give me burnt offerings."
Here is a good summary from Christianity Today, "True worship, in other words, is defined by the priority we place on who God is in our lives and where God is on our list of priorities. True worship is a matter of the heart expressed through a lifestyle of holiness. Thus, if your lifestyle does not express the beauty of holiness through an extravagant or exaggerated love for God, and you do not live in extreme or excessive submission to God, then I invite you to make worship a non-negotiable priority in your life." [http://www.christianitytoday.com/biblestudies/bible-answers/spirituallife/what-is-true-worship.html]
How Jesus worshipped God:
Most people with greatness whose lives influence and inspire, like that of Jesus, are sparse and few. The influence of Jesus, siting his teaching and ministry, grew especially after he was crucified. When the second Temple was destroyed in 70 CE, the four Gospels about the life and mission of Jesus were written over the next 30 or 40 years. There is a significant story about his youth in Luke 2:41-51 when Mary and Joseph find Jesus with the Teachers in the Temple Courtyard. After their frantic search to find him Jesus said, "Why were you looking for me? Didn’t you realize that I had to be in my Father’s house?” At the close of this story Luke adds, "His mother treasured all these things in her heart. ... Jesus grew in wisdom and maturity. He gained favor from God and people."
The Gospel's primary focus is on his ministry in the area of Galilee. Jesus went to the Temple for the Feast of Passover and often taught in the homes of people to read and hear the Torah. Jesus was an iterate Rabbi and is recorded as saying, "I can guarantee this truth: Until the earth and the heavens disappear, neither a period nor a comma will disappear from the Scriptures before everything has come true." The Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapters 5 through 7, are as relevant today as they were when Jesus spoke them! For “whoever hears these sayings of mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock” (Matthew 7:24-25). According to John R.W. Stott, “The Sermon on the Mount is probably the best-known part of the teaching of Jesus, though arguably it is the least understood, and certainly it is the least obeyed” (The Message of the Sermon on the Mount, 1973, p. 15)
WHAT IS WORSHIP - [Working Organizing Responsible Solutions Healing Inspiring Praise]
As the acronym points out, Worship is a way of living as Jesus taught and demonstrated by his own life among us!
What is our common understanding of worship today? Today's dictionary defines that: "The acts or rites that make up a formal expression of reverence of a deity." We have turned it into formalities and ceremonies which we gather to perform about one day a week on Sunday. Unfortunately our "formal expressions" mostly tend to define our many different denominations that too often keep us apart rather than bring us together. Our worship enables us to feel that we are "reverencing God" through "formal expressions" instead of daily service to our world and the needs of one another in body, mind, and spirit.
In a daily meditation on January 17, 2016, Richard Rohr says that God's Love is "What Is Right in Front of You." "The God Jesus incarnates and embodies is not a distant God that must be placated. Jesus' God is not sitting on some throne demanding worship and throwing down thunderbolts like Zeus. Jesus never said, "Worship me"; he said, "Follow me." He asks us to imitate him in his own journey of full incarnation. To do so, he gives us the two great commandments: 1) Love God with your whole heart, soul, mind, and strength and 2) Love your neighbor as yourself (Mark 12:28-31, Luke 10:25-28). In the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus shows us that our "neighbor" even includes our "enemy" (Luke 10:29-37).
So how do we love God? Most of us seem to have concluded we love God by attending church services. For some reason, we thought that made God happy. I'm not sure why. ... Jesus never talked about attending services, although church can be a good community to start with, and we do tend to become like the folks we hang out with. The prophets often portray God's disdain for self-serving church services. "The sanctuary, the sanctuary, the sanctuary" is all we care about, Jeremiah shouts (7:4). "I hold my nose at your incense. What I want you to do is love the widow and the orphan," say both Isaiah and Amos (Isaiah 1:11-17, Amos 5:21-24), as do Jeremiah, Hosea, Joel, Micah, and Zechariah in different ways. The prophetic message is absolutely clear, yet we went right back to loving church services instead of authentic living. I believe our inability to recognize and love God in what is right in front of us has made us separate religion from our actual lives. There is Sunday morning, and then there is real life.
Marcus Borg, a theologian and author of many books, makes this point:
"To be faithful to God means not only to love God, but to love that which God loves—namely, the neighbor, and indeed the whole of creation. Faith as fidelitas thus includes an ethical imperative." (Marcus Borge, The Heart of Christianity - chapter 2)
"Speaking in the name of God and addressing the rich and powerful, Amos contrasts their worship of God with what God really wants:"... "“Let justice roll down like waters” and “righteousness like an ever-flowing stream” are synonymous phrases. Justice and righteousness are not two different things, but the same thing. Justice is righteousness, and righteousness is justice." (Marcus Borg, Speaking Christian - chapter 12)
An acronym for CHURCH [Charitable Humanity Utilizing Resources Creating Hospitality] perhaps sums up the real point and place of "worship" for this 21st century.
Gerard A. Pisani, Jr.
No comments:
Post a Comment