O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker. For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. (Psalm 96:6-7)

I enjoy leading worship; I always have. I also enjoy almost all of the other things that I do as a pastor, but for the purposes of this edition of my newsletter article you need to know that I enjoy leading worship.

I enjoy the music, regardless of the type! It doesn’t matter whether it is an old favorite hymn or a brand new praise chorus. I enjoy the liturgy and the prayers and the preaching. I enjoy and feel that it is an honor to be able to preside over the celebration of the Lord’s Supper.  I enjoy gathering with people of faith to give honor and glory to our Lord God and Savior.

I also enjoy being on the receiving end of worship. As Christians we have a rich of tradition of possibilities for worship from which we can draw. It is not only on Sunday morning that we can gather, but daily and indeed at various times during the day if we are so inclined. Over the years I have come to understand that the possibility of worship is a gift that we have been given by God.

That said, I also know that misunderstanding and abusing the gift of worship is a real possibility. Through the ages the misuse and misinterpretation of worship has been a reoccurring problem in the Church.

We misunderstand worship if we think of it as human actions designed to please and appease God. We misunderstand worship when we think of it as something that “we do” that somehow triggers God to do what “God does.” We misunderstand worship if we think of it in terms of something that we do on Sunday – that holy time that is somehow disconnected from the rest of our week. We misunderstand worship when we think of in terms of how it makes me feel (Then worship becomes our weekly “god fix” or our weekly ration of God’s grace). We abuse worship when we make it self-serving and self-justifying. In other words, when worship is “all about me,” then there is something wrong. Ultimately these tendencies are nothing more that another human attempt to play God – the same thing that got our first parents thrown out of the Garden of Eden.

The intent of worship is to move me outside of myself. The desire in worship is to target my life focus on God’s purposes for my life. The desire of worship is to feed all who attend so that we might be better prepared to serve as God has called us, and to enable us to better use the gifts with which we each have been blessed.

Worship isn’t something that we do to entertain God or ourselves. Worship is a gift; worship is a means through which we know the grace of God. By intent and design worship moves me (and you) closer to God.

Blessings

Pr Ralph