March Newsletter – Worship Matters

Dear Friends,
I have been thinking about that part of Christian worship which takes place when the church meets together on Sundays.
Of course worship is much bigger that that. The whole of our lives lived in relationship with Jesus should be lives of worship as we sacrificially serve one another and the community (Rom 12:1 “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God – this is your true worship”).
Nevertheless there is, surely, something special about those times when we meet together for praise, prayer, preaching and fellowship.
The bible teaches us that when we meet together as church Jesus is amongst us by his Spirit (1 Cor 5:4 “When you are assembled.. and the power of our Lord Jesus is present” ). The church is the fulfillment of the Old Testament Tabernacle and Temple (1 Cor 3:16,17 “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells among you … you together are that temple”). The glory of God in Jesus by the Spirit rests on his people as they meet together. The cloud of glory rests on each gathered church – whether there are three or three hundred present. When we sing “as we are gathered Jesus is here” we are singing truth not fairy tale.
We should come together to engage with God. He delights to engage with us. We are told that he rejoices over us with singing (Zeph 3:17 “The LORD your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.”) And that he wants us to rejoice in him (eg “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: rejoice!” Phil 4:4). He calls us to come as thirsty people to drink our fill of his Spirit (compare Is 55:1 “Come all you who are thirsty, come to the waters…” with John 7:38,39 “Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them. By this he meant the Spirit..”  and 1 Cor 12:13 “we were all given the one Spirit to drink.”)
I have been looking in the Bible at what God’s people do when they join together to worship.
I have found much that I am comfortable with; the central place of the word of God read, proclaimed, shared. For me that is an immovable priority. It is in and through the Word of the Gospel that we can approach God. The need to be focussed on the cross as the only way of access to God – in type, symbol and story in the Old Testament and explicitly in the New.
And I have found things that are not so comfortable. The Psalms for example contain joy expressed in singing and shouting (Psalm 81, 95, 98), hands raised in praise (Psalm 134), bowing down (Psalm 95), there are all sorts of instruments including loud and clashing symbols and tambourines (see Psalms 149,150). During the days of King David I find singers and musicians leading the people in their singing (2 Chron 5:13). There is embarrassing exuberance and equally embarrassing weeping and confessing of sin. There is trembling with awe and trembling with joy.
There is so much variety and yet there is a common thread running through, there is reality. And at the heart of it all, there is God! God makes people excited, he is the one they are rejoicing in, he is the one who silences them in awe, he is the one before whom they fall.
I’m aware that some say all the forms and patterns of the Old Testament passed away with the coming of Jesus. Not only are there no more priests and sacrifices (which I think is stated clearly and in detail in the New Testament) but also all the passages about singers and musicians and hands raising and knees bowed and cymbals and shouting have been overshadowed as well. Some, arguing this way, have ended up with no singing and no music. Others with no instruments.
I’m not sure I’m convinced.
For a start I’m not persuaded that we should so easily reject principles and patterns found in the Old Testament unless, that is, the New Testament clearly teaches that they have been superseded, as for example with the food regulations (Mark 7:19 “In saying this , Jesus declared all food clean”)  or the Mosaic legislation, priesthood and sacrifices (Heb 8:13 “In calling this covenant ‘new’ he has made the first one obsolete: and what is obsolete and outdated will soon disappear” Heb 9:10 “They are only a matter of food and drink and various ceremonial washings – external regulations applying until the time of the new order”). For two thousand years the Christian church generally has embraced the book of Psalms as it’s God given hymnbook (as read through New Testament glasses that is).
And then it seems to me that these passages describe natural human responses to something exciting and thrilling. Watch the behaviour of human beings as they get good news (an exam passed, a baby born, a team scoring). Do we become something less than human when we worship God?
That said we mustn’t make the mistake of thinking it’s all about style. That’s the easy route to go down and it is an empty path. Arguments about style and preference achieve very little in terms of true worship.
The question I have come away with is this; Do I come together with others hungering and thirsting to meet with the living God? Do I come yearning for reality and engagement with God? It’s not that style and preference are totally unimportant, but put them first and we are in real danger of missing the reality and more and more I want reality. And I do not doubt that reality is what God wants.
This I know; once you have tasted of the Lord and found that he is good you want more and more. Not just on your own, but together with your brothers and sisters whom you love. And when our meetings are full of reality and engagement with God I can’t help thinking we we may begin to see what the church in Corinth saw:
“But if an unbeliever or an inquirer comes in while everyone is prophesying, they are convicted of sin and are brought under judgment by all, as the secrets of their hearts are laid bare. So they will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, “God is really among you!” 1 Cor 14:14,25
Yours in Christ Jesus,
John Edmonds
All scripture quotations taken from Holy Bible Today’s New international Version (c) 2004 International Bible Society