The nature of worship

The Nature of Worship

NOTE: this piece is posted as a conversation opener. Responses are warmly invited.

A working definition of worship

Worship is submission to the Lord and all that flows from it.

The first act of worship submission is to quit our rebellion and enter the covenant relationship with God on the terms he sets and through his appointed saviour/ king who is Jesus.

The second act of worship submission is to live faithfully in that covenant relationship on the terms that God sets and under the rule of his appointed saviour / king who is Jesus. This primarily means living a life of faith, hope and love. It also includes specific acts of intentional devotion, whether in private (quiet time), with our earthly family (family worship) or with the family of God (church services). 

 

Notes

This definition derives from study of the key Hebrew and Greek words for worship and from the way that worship is discussed within the flow of the Bible.

For example, God saved his people from Egypt (Ex 12ff), initiated a covenant relationship with them (Ex 19:1-6) and within that gave instructions for the life of covenant obedience. This instruction primarily covers a whole-of-life obedience to God within which, and only within which, the specific instructions on corporate acts of devotion take place.

That is, intentional acts of devotion are a derivative of the primary meaning of worship as entering and living within God's covenant. This does not reduce their importance but puts them into perspective within covenant and kingship theology. This needs present emphasis because of the trend to invert the Biblical order and push devotional acts into prominence as the primary meaning of 'worship'.

Note also the emphasis on all this happening on God's terms. As the saving king who initiates the covenant relationship and makes all this worship possible, God sets the terms. We worship in the way that pleases him not us. The Scripture must thus be carefully studied to know what pleases God in both the principles and the actions of worship.

David Peterson’s Engaging With God is the primary inspiration for this definition. It steers between views that equate worship purely or mainly with church services (or parts of them) and between views that reject use of the word ‘worship’ for church services.

 

Implications

The primary worship task is to help bring people into right relationship with God as they enter his kingdom by faith and then go on to live under the rule of Jesus.

Congregational acts of intentional devotion are very important for fostering this right relationship and for giving opportunities to worship God by declaring his praise, depending on him to meet needs (both temporal and eternal), listening to his word, supporting his work and both preparing and  encouraging one another for the worship of life. Because these acts are so important, care is needed in their planning and presentation – including care that we don’t unwitting foster a reductionist theology of worship as just being these corporate acts of devotion.

Words matter and the way we use them matters. Care is needed to use the word ‘worship’ in a way that reflects the wide sense discussed above. For example, it is right to speak of church services (or any part of them) as worship but the word should not be used such as to imply that church services (let alone any one part of them) are the sole, main or primary meaning of ‘worship’.

Your will be done

The Lord’s Prayer: Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven

 

The prayer that God’s will be done on earth extends the previous petition: Your kingdom come.  God’s kingdom comes as his rule is extended. The final form of that is linked to the return of Jesus and the banishment of all evil.

 

In the meantime, God’s people desire to see God’s will done on earth as part of our prayer that God’s name be hallowed.

 

The key to God’s will being done is that people enter his kingdom. There is little point in expecting non-Christians to behave like Christians in moral behaviour and such like.  Such attempts will fail, for behaviour reflects character and the non-Christian will act out of non-Christian character.  Even worse, attempts to force non-Christians to behave like Christians are apt to be counterproductive. Such attempts can set back the cause of Christ in that the non-Christian grows resentfully and stubbornly resistant to the gospel.

 

So, the first part of God’s will being done is that people quit their rebellion against God’s rule and submit to him by naming Jesus as their saviour and Lord. Evangelism comes first in the outworking of this part of the prayer.

 

What then? Christian people need to be taught what God’s will is so they know what pleases him. We then need to encourage one-another to have such a love of God in our heart that we will naturally desire to do God’s will rather than doing it as matter of duty. We need to pray for the Spirit’s help both to know the application of Scripture in this or that situation, to have the desire to do it and to have the grace to do it.

 

The Lord Jesus models God’s will to us.  He wanted to avoid the Cross, but submitted to it with the prayer: Not my will, but yours be done (Lke 22:42). May this be the prayer that is in our hearts and on our lips every time we mouth our desires to God. By all means let us tell God what we want, but let us always treat him as our Lord and King by asking that his will be done.

 

This is very personal in its applications.  We need to look first to God’s will being done in our own life before it is done in the lives of others. We all have some areas where it is easy to do God’s will and others where it is hard. These hard areas are the test of our commitment.  One sign of loving God as our Lord is that we are discontent if any part of our life is outside of the rule of his will.

 

So, next time we pray the Lord’s Prayer, let’s all ask God to show us those areas of our life where we need most to pray Your will be done.

Our Father in Heaven

Our Father in Heaven...

The terms in which we address our, emails and conversations are all-important for setting the tone for the message that follows. Too informal a tone may mean that we are not taken seriously. Too formal a tone may produce a frosty reception and stilted response.

The opening words of the Lord 's Prayer set the pace for our messages to the Lord. Let's consider each word carefully. ..

Our Father in heaven: 
The Lord's Prayer, like all prayer, arises from a relationship with God. Unbelievers have no right to pray to the Lord at all, let alone to address him as Father. But those who believe in God's Son Jesus have the right to become God's children (Jn l: l2). We can address him as our Father, because he is.

Our Father in heaven : 
It is remarkable to call God our Father when we have all been such prodigal children, spurning his grace and presuming on his goodness. The language of God's fatherhood echoes the belief that we owe both our physical and spiritual life to him (Gen l: 26; Jn 3:3-6). Like any father he is attentive to his children's needs and desires, only he gives with perfect wisdom, ability and timing (Mat 7:7-ll). This is a great encouragement to prayer for it speaks of his willingness to give.

Our Father in heaven: 
The Lord to whom we pray is not some localised and earth-bound deity, but the one who created the heavens and the earth and who is Lord over them (Job 38-4l). He sees, knows and rules all. This also is an encouragement to prayer as it speaks of God's ability to give.

Put together this phrase is a great enticement to prayer. We approach our heavenly Father who is both wiling and able to hear and answer prayer.

However, even as we rightly call God 'father' let us never forget to whom we speak. Many years ago I was an office junior with open access to my CEO's office and an invitation to call him by his first name. But, however often I did so; I was never to forget who he was and who l was. Likewise, let us remember that the Lord is God and we are not. So, let us pray to Our father who is in heaven ...

When You Pray

When You Pray

Prayer is one of the most important aspects of the Christian life. It is a great act of private, family and public worship to admire God, apologise to him, beg his pardon, thank him and to depend on him to meet our needs and the needs of others and of his work.

Prayer is also one of the most delightful aspects of the Christian life.When we have had a good time with the Lord in prayer we are refreshed, refocused, reassured and ready to face the world again.

Yet, prayer is also one of the most difficult parts of the Christian life. It challenges our concentration to focus on God and resist the devil's distractions. It challenges our pride to be thus dependent on God rather than on ourselves. It challenges our activism to be still before god rather than busy for him. It challenges our faith to entrust needs to God rather than try to meet them ourselves.

Notice how Jesus assumes that his people pray. He says ... when you pray ... not 'if' (Mt 6:5). (Note that he also assumes that we fast and give relief to the poor - Mt 6:2 & 16) Prayer ought to be as natural and common place in our lives as talking to our family and closed friends.

Is this so? Do we pray?

Jesus also makes it clear that it is not enough just to pray. We can sin in our prayers. One way is to make prayer a public display calculated to impress people with our piety (Mt 6:1, 5). Or we can sin by making prayer as assertion of our self-righteousness (Luke 18:10- 14).

At heart, prayer is the action of a child to draw aside with day and say what is on his or her mind (Mt. 6: 6- 8). We don't need many or long words or even to worry about asking of the right things. God knows the needs, loves to hear us ask and will always give well. (Mt 6: 8; 7:7-11)

All this is a great encouragement to pray. There is an art to praying well, but the key is a heart to pray. So let us bright hears that trust, hope and love God and express them in our prayers. And let's listen to Jesus as he say '...when you pray' and then teach us how to pray.

Hallowed Be Your Name

The Lord’s Prayer - Hallowed be your name

We talk about a person’s ‘name’ as something that matters. Our name is our reputation. A good name is highly treasured (Prv 22:1).

In the ancient world names were seen as representing the person. Parents chose names with great care as to their meaning. In some circles, to know a person’s name was to gain some power over them. We see a little of that today, for when we invite someone to call us by our most familiar name we invite them to come closer to us.

What of God’s name? Our God reveals himself under several names in the Bible. It was highly significant when he identified himself to Moses by the Hebrew word YHWH (Ex 3:14). We generally render this as Yahweh. ‘Jehovah’ is another attempt to render the same Hebrew word. Most English Bibles translate YHWH as Lord, as distinct from Lord. It’s a name that means ‘I will be who I will be’ and reminds us that the Lord is who he is and not who we want him to be.

What does it mean to hallow God’s name?  The word hallow comes from the same root as holy. To treat God’s name as holy goes beyond respect. It is to treat God’s name as special or different.

The ancient Hebrews took this literally and did pronounce YHWH for fear of misuse – and that is why we do not know how to say it. But is that what it really means to hallow God’s name?

Of course we should take care with God’s name in a literal sense and thus not use it flippantly or irreverently (Ex 20:7).  Some of us may need to correct our speech here.

However, the real hallowing of God’s name is hinted at in the following words of the Lord’s Prayer. God’s name is hallowed in the coming of his Son’s kingly rule and as his will is done.

This has a personal aspect. God’s name is tied to his people. When we tell people that we are Christians, God’s reputation becomes tied to our behaviour. We are the banner for his name. What messages do the banners of our lives give?

So let us indeed pray that the Lord’s name will be hallowed. But let us be part of the answer to that prayer with a life lived under Jesus’ kingly rule and doing his will.

Your Kingdom Come

Your Kingdom Come

The kingdom of God is a common phrase of Jesus and his teaching. What is this kingdom and what does it mean to pray for its coming?

The kingdom of God has been defined as God’s rule over God’s people in God’s place. This theme can be traced from one end of the Bible to the other and used to ‘unpack’ the key movements in the ‘creation, fall, redemption’ pattern of God and humanity.

God’s king is central to his kingdom. The Old Testament has big promises about a future king of David’s line who will have an endless kingdom (2 Sam 17:12-16). Zechariah is one of many prophets speaking of this king’s coming and describing his kingdom (Zech 9:9-10). Matthew introduces Jesus to us as God’s king (Mat 2:2-6). Jesus’ first sermon was to announce that the kingdom was at hand and to command that we enter it by repentance (Mat 4:17).

God’s promised king came in Jesus. He came to inaugurate the kingdom in his Cross and he will come again to consummate it at that time when every knee shall bow and acknowledge his Lordship (Phil 2:10-11).

The prayer your kingdom come has present and future aspects.

Its present aspect has inward and outward dimensions. The outer dimension is that more and more people enter the kingdom by obeying the command to repent and believe in Jesus. The inner dimension is that every part of our life is presented to God as a sacrifice under King Jesus’ rule (Rom 12:1-2). In short, we are to be loyal to our king in every part of our life and to seek to bring others under Jesus’ rule. Do we really mean that when we pray this part of the Lord’s Prayer?

The future aspect of your kingdom come is bound up with the end of things when God is all in all and all is subject to God (1 Cor 15:28). This is echoed in the final words of our Bible: Amen. Even so, come Lord Jesus (Rev 22:20).

Your kingdom come: Let us give our prayer integrity by submitting to Christ as king in every part of our life; seeking to bring others into his kingdom, and by pinning our greatest hopes on his return and rule.

Thoughts on Thaipussam Feb 2009

Thaipusam was celebrated on Sunday 8 Feb in 2009. That meant an all day procession of devottees making pilgrimage between temples and passing in front of our church buildings. Many of these carried huge burdens on their shoulders and attached to their bodies through skin piercing. It was also a day when we celebrated the Lord's Supper. That led to this reflection.

Oh Christ my Lord and Saviour,

I thank you that you made the pilgrimage to Golgotha for me;

And that you carried the burden of my Cross, my sins;

And that your flesh was pierced for my transgressions.

Give me grace to make my life a pilgrimage .

.. of trust in your piercings 

... taking up my Cross to follow you;

All because you made this journey first for me.