Drawing mainly from the Old Testament prophets Daniel and Isaiah, Labberton built a case for thinking differently about worship. “Worship reorders reality to help us see what is true,” he said. It should reorder our priorities and help us see the world differently. But quite often worship is simply a baptized version of our culture. In our worship we simply mirror what is all around us—worship of self. This, he says, is “illegitimate worship.”
“Fear of God is what matters most,” says Labberton. “The failure of our people to live this way is a failure of our worship.” The solution is not making our worship louder, faster, or more spectacular as many are in the habit of doing. Rather, we need to reevaluate what our worship is forming within our people. “Does our worship impact our view of our neighbor?”
<idle musing>
Worship in not a song, not even a fast song. Worship is about a life lived in subservience to God; in obedience to our creator. It is not about music; it is not about choirs, or good voices; no, it is not even a good sermon. It is about God, and it is a part of life Monday through Saturday even more than it is about Sunday. God commands us to love our neighbor—in practical ways. And what he commands us to do, he enables us to do via the power available in the Holy Spirit. It is not another thing I have to do; it is about surrendering my self to the cross and allowing Him to do it through me. Me dead, Christ alive (Galatians 2:20).
</idle musing>
1 comment:
James, Thanks. I have some thoughts on worship in gathering today. Of course, like you say, worship is ongoing. Our full response as a complete human being to God's grace to us in Christ.
I do think this is a difficult time on this subject. Having more of an eclectic practice that would incorporate liturgy as well as spontanaeity, traditional as well as contemporary- I think could be helpful here. A tall order, but helpful.
But what I say underscores part of the problem, I think. That so many are feeling their way, or experimenting. Or just doing what is the thing to do. While many of us wonder....
(And I have been a member of a Vineyard church that did worship very well, one way. Worship dances and the rest. For doing it that way, they did it very well. And we often we're left with a sense of God and his goodness to us in Christ, and of our need of forgiveness and of him.)
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