Surely, worship should be a huge, creation-encompassing
activity? It is arguably the very purpose
of life to know God and enjoy him fully, to
worship him in spirit and in truth. It is
potentially the most powerful thing that human
beings can do in every area of our lives.
Yet so often in our minds, we see ‘worship’
as a thing that is only done in a church service,
in a 10-minute ‘sacred’ slot of
singing old hymns with funny tunes and old-fashioned
words, that are remotely related to the rest
of life and human experience.
This categorisation of worship happened at
the time of Jesus. One day, when speaking
to a Samaritan woman he spoke into a long-running
dispute about where it was appropriate to
worship God. One group said you should only
worship on a particular mountain, another
said the Temple at Jerusalem was the right
spot, but Jesus explained that neither of
these 'holy places' were essential to worship.
'… a time is coming and has now come
when the true worshippers will worship the
Father in spirit and truth, for they are the
kind of worshippers the Father seeks,' said
Jesus.
Worship is not about where you are; it is
about interaction with the Spirit of God and
with the Truth of God, which is Jesus. This
can, and should, happen anywhere and everywhere.
This does not mean that worship does not happen
in church, but worship is so much more than
that. Worship is what we do during the week
as we love and serve each other and our world.
Worship is how we work, how we treat our neighbours,
friends and family, how we play, how we laugh,
how we engage with the injustices and pain
in the world, how we allow the Spirit and
Truth of God to flow through all of life.
Worship at church should be a corporate celebration,
which is a combination of the worship we have
all lived out beyond the Church walls. Worship
needs to start from outside the walls, in
each person’s relationship with God
and with each other, and then work inside
the walls. Worship, in other words, is not
simply what happens when we put real life
on hold for a bit, dress up nice, perform
some rituals, and sing some songs. Worship
is real life.
