Worship Not About Us
by
Suzanne Hadley
on Aug 31, 2007 at 10:44 AM
We know worship is about God, not us. But in his article "The Real Worship War," Mark Labberton considers the connection between worship and loving our neighbor.
For all of our apparent passion about God, in the end much of our worship seems to be mostly about us. We presume we can worship in a way that will find God but lose track of our neighbor. Yet it was this very pattern in Israel's worship life that brought God's judgment. Biblical worship that finds God will also find our neighbor.
What is ironic and especially pertinent is that many debates about worship are just indirect ways of talking about ourselves, not God. Our debates devolve into how we like our worship served up each week. It's worship as consumption rather than offering. It's an expression of human taste, not a longing to reflect God's glory.
The heart of the battle over worship is this: our worship practices are separated from our call to justice and, worse, foster the self-indulgent tendencies of our culture rather than nurturing the self-sacrificing life of the kingdom of God.
Labberton essentially pushes aside the argument over the logistics of worship (choruses versus hymns, anyone?) in favor of discovering the purpose of worship. He writes:
True worship reclarifies the purposes of God and our part in them. False worship, which can be found as much among God's people as elsewhere, leads to distorted mission.
I found this article extremely challenging and practical. The author points out that often our "worship" is distorted because of our blessed perspective. We have so much! And while our problems are legitimate, we can lose site of the larger issues in the world around us. Labberton claims that when we fail to recognize the needs of others we disqualify ourselves from true worship. Consider this statement:
This disparity between economics and justice is an issue of worship. According to Scripture, the very heart of how we show and distinguish true worship from false worship is apparent in how we respond to the poor, the oppressed, the neglected and the forgotten. As of now, I do not see this theme troubling the waters of worship in the American church. But justice and mercy are not add-ons to worship, nor are they the consequences of worship. Justice and mercy are intrinsic to God and therefore intrinsic to the worship of God.
Our worship should lead us to greater mercy, to costly acts of justice, for those who are the least seen, the least remembered, the least desired.
What do you believe is the purpose of worship? This article makes some good points. Perhaps when we bicker over the style of worship, we miss the point. I know I will consider more deeply what God would do in my heart as I come to Him. What should be the outcome of praise?
1. Ted Slater had the following to say on Aug 31 at 11:12 AM:
Though I approached it from a different angle from Suzanne, I also asked the question about the purpose of worship in a recent blog post on The Line.
I don't want to detract from this post; just want to provide a link for those interested in this topic....
2. Jacob had the following to say on Aug 31 at 1:02 PM:
I heartily agree that worship has become too much about "me." In college, I saw far too many people coming to our large-group worship meetings to get a spiritual high. I really wish we would return to a more contemplative and awe-filled worship, not this trendy "experience" that it has become.
I wish we would worship like Job did: "The Lord gives, the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord."
The purpose of worship isn't me and how I feel. It's about God: his works, his goodness, his mercy, his holiness. The outcome of praise ought to be humble awe of our majestic God. It should remind us of God and what he is like, thereby helping us remember what we are called to be like, what we have been set free from sin to do: Do justice, love mercy and walk humbly before God.
3. Matthew had the following to say on Sep 2 at 2:51 PM:
I totally agree! When we are right with God and seeking after His heart, we will long to be right with the community around, and that means seeking justice for the oppressed as well as longing to do mercy. The idea of shalom (which is well worth researching) in the Bible speaks to this.
Isaiah 58 is all about this. The people of Israel were complaining to God because they were doing their best to worship Him and He wasn't listening; he pointed out that they were abusing their workers, quarreling, and not keeping the Sabbath. I think there's a lot of lessons we can draw from this passage-- how we treat workers in the U.S. (or how we support companies that severely abuse or enslave their workers overseas.) Or how we don't keep the Sabbath, or how we have lots and lots of constant unnecessary and mean quarrels between devoted and faithful Christians.
I think that we can look at Scripture and see that God sometimes even judges injustice by giving people over to idolatry- Pharaoh, the children of Israel, and maybe even in modern times He did the same to European nations who were once Christian but ravaged people all over the world with their colonial injustice (and now have some of the hardest hearts in the world.)