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We joyfully praise and worship God
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For some of us worship is a "four letter" word. It brings back memories of hard benches, boring sermons and having to sit still, when as children all we wanted to do was move around. For others of us the word worship brings more positive recollections. We remember glowing candles at Christmas, Easter dresses and singing familiar songs. Whatever our memories of worship, good or bad, true worship is more than sermons, songs and sitting. In his book, The Purpose Driven Life (1), Rick Warren speaks of worship in this way: "True worship - bringing pleasure to God - happens when you give yourself completely to God....Offering yourself to God is what worship is all about." |
To find out more about how and when we worship, click on the image below.
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Worship is about God. It is about our approaching God with our hearts, souls and minds. As the Presbyterian Book of Order puts it, "Christian worship joyfully ascribes all praise and honor, glory and power to the triune God. In worship the people of God acknowledge God present in the world and in their lives. As they respond to God’s claim and redemptive action in Jesus Christ, believers are transformed and renewed. In worship the faithful offer themselves to God and are equipped for God’s service in the world." (W-1.1001)
We are to worship in this way as a response to what God has done for us. We do not worship out of fear. We worship out of gratitude. God has loved us and we respond by loving God in return. What this means then is that worship occurs in a variety of times, places and manners. There is no one "right way" to worship.
The following texts come from the PC(USA) Book of Order in an effort to help us further understand what worship is all about. We hope you will find them helpful as you learn more about it.
"God brings all things into being by the Word. God offers the Word of grace, and people respond to that divine initiative through the language of worship. They call God by name, invoke God’s presence, beseech God in prayer, and stand before God in silence and contemplation. They bow before God, lift hands and voices in praise, sing, make music, and dance. Heart, soul, strength, and mind, with one accord, they join in the language, drama, and pageantry of worship. (W-1.2001)
When people respond to God and communicate to each other their experiences of God, they must use symbolic means, for God transcends creation and cannot be reduced to anything within it. No merely human symbols can be adequate to comprehend the fullness of God, and none is identical to the reality of God. Yet the symbols human beings use can be adequate for understanding, sharing, and responding to God’s gracious activity in the world since God has chosen to accommodate to humanity in self-revelation. (W-1.2002)
Christians may worship at any time, for all time has been hallowed by God. The covenant community worshiped daily. But God set aside one day in seven to be kept holy to the Lord. In the Old Testament the Sabbath was understood as a day totally set aside and offered to the Lord. In the New Testament, believers observed the first day of the week, the day of resurrection, as the time when the new people of the covenant gathered to worship God in Jesus Christ. They came to speak of this as the Lord’s Day. (W-1.3001)
Christians may worship in any place, for the God who created time also created and ordered space. The Old Testament tells us God met with people in many different places. Yet particular locations became recognized as places where people had special encounter with God, so they arranged space in such a way as to remember and enhance that meeting. Whether the stone altars of the patriarchs, the Tent of Meeting for the wandering people of God, the Temple of the Kingdom in Jerusalem, or the house/ synagogue worship of the Dispersion, each place was ordered to invite and express God’s presence. (W-1.3020)
Jesus’ life reflects the covenant community’s understanding of places for worship. He regularly worshiped in the synagogue and in the Temple, in the wilderness and on the hillsides of Galilee. Jesus especially disclaimed the notion that God could be confined to anyone place. (W-1.3022)
Because the identifying reality of Christian worship was neither the place nor the space but the presence of God, the early Christians could worship in the Temple, in synagogues, in homes, in catacombs, and in prisons. Wherever Christ was present among them in the interpretation of the Word and the breaking of bread, that space was hallowed. Yet the Church began to set aside special places for gathering in the presence of the risen Christ and responding in praise and service. To this day, when the Church gathers, it is not the particular place, but the presence of the risen Lord in the midst of the community which marks the reality of worship. (W-1.3023)
The early Church, following Jesus, took three primary material elements of life—water, bread, and wine—to become basic symbols of offering life to God as Jesus had offered his life. Being washed with the water of Baptism, Christians received new life in Christ and presented their bodies to be living sacrifices to God. Eating bread and drinking wine they received the sustaining presence of Christ, remembered God’s covenant promise, and pledged their obedience anew. (W-1.3033)
(1) The Purpose Driven Life, Rick Warren, Zondervan Publishing, Grand Rapids Michigan, 2002
