Where is Worship?
Have you ever noticed how much happens in worship that has nothing to do with worship? We are supposed to gather each week and direct people to the King of kings and the Lord of lords. We are to gather and lift our vision to what could be through the week in our worship. We proclaim forgiveness in Christ and freedom from sins. However, I can’t help but feel like we are seeing less and less of worship and more of a great many other things.
Graduation Sundays honor graduates. Mothers Day programs honor mothers. Awards honor people. Announcements sustain programs. There are times in worship I am left scratching my head asking, “Where is Jesus?” There are other times I wonder who we really came to honor today. Special days often start out as a good idea but when the day becomes bigger than the One who spoke the day into existence, there might be a problem.
The purpose of our worship gathering is not to sustain an organization. The purpose of our gathering to worship as the Body of Christ is not to applaud the accomplishments of our friends. The purpose of the worship gathering is to lay all the stuff down and reconnect meaningfully to the One who gave His life so we could live. When we turn around and trade that life in for lesser things in worship, we might just be in danger of celebrating idolatry.
So what is essential in worship?
Sacrament - the sacraments connect us in a special and powerful way to our creator through the Holy Spirit.
Scripture - The scriptures reveal to us the will and plan of God to unleash an alternate kingdom through the people he has adopted as sons and daughters.
Sermon - the proclamation of the scriptures that helps place handles on the what we read so we can know what we are called to do and how we are called to live.
Singing - there are 40 direct calls to sing in scripture and worship is a great time to sing.
If we are inclined to express appreciation, applause or other expressions of love, there are lots of creative ways and times to do it. Let’s reserve, as much as possible, the worship service for the One who laid down his life for us and worship him alone. At the church I serve, we are trying to declare to the world that of all the things we could have decided to do today, we decided to make this time about Jesus Christ.