Our gracious and loving God calls us to gather together in worship. What is worship? It is the coming into God’s presence in a spirit of thanksgiving, reverence, trust, renewal and hope for the purpose of honoring God, being in active and participatory grace-filled relationship with God, and to find strength and solidarity by gathering with other people with the same mind and purpose.
We sometimes use the term “worship service” or “divine service” to describe our hour together in the sanctuary. These phrases are translations of the German word “Gottesdienst” which means “service to God.” When we worship, we are coming to express our dedication to the God revealed in Jesus Christ who gives us love, forgiveness, redemption, transformation, healing, new life, and a way of life and the vision of a just and peaceful and verdant future.
The singer in the opening verses of Psalm 63 (1-4), captures the attitude that we are invited into in worship:
O God, you are my God, I seek you,
my soul thirsts for you;
my flesh faints for you,
as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,
beholding your power and glory.
Because your steadfast love is better than life,
my lips will praise you.
So I will bless you as long as I live;
I will lift up my hands and call on your name.
One of the most interesting aspects of worship is that there isn’t just one, “right” way to do it. We can use all kinds of musical styles and idioms. Our worship can be informal and liturgically formal. Our prayers can be scripted in advance or composed in the moment. We can kneel to receive communion with bowed heads and outstretched crossed hands, whisper “Amen,” and earnestly make the sign of the cross after we partake of the body and blood of Jesus. Or stand together around the altar, look in each other’s eyes as we get a morsel of bread and dip it in a glass, smile with joy and boldly say “Thank you, Jesus!”
What matters in worship is that we create and can experience the intimacy of God’s renewing love and grace, and receive the restoration and learning to continue on our journey with God into a way of life and future that embodies the teaching of Jesus.
It is the privilege, gift and obligation of the Church to carry out this charge of curating worship that inspires people, cultivates reverence for God and our neighbors and Creation, delivers renewal, fills people with gratitude, and empowers people to live out Jesus’ call to a life of mercy, peace and justice in an often antagonistic, violent, and harm-filled world.
Worship has power. It has the power to create the alternative space, place, and weave of relationships that is God’s community of love. --PS
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