SWEEPS: Worship

With the decline of newspapers, it's hard to follow your favorite comic strips. So I was glad to see that most of them can be found on gocomics.com. One that can be found there is Rose is Rose. If you have followed it for any length of time, then you probably know what a “garbage moment” is. Rose's husband Jimbo is that rare man who likes to take out the garbage. It's not because he enjoys carrying smelly bags. What he likes is that it is an excuse for him to stand under the night sky, alone, taking in the moon and all the stars. I can't say that I am wild about taking out the trash but I understand the awe that overtakes someone when looking up at the star-spangled heavens. As someone who grew up in the city, I never get over the sheer number of stars one can see out here far away from the light pollution of a major metropolitan area. Truly the heavens are telling the glory of God! (Psalm 19:1)

Worship is one uniquely human activity that will never be explained away by resorting to evolution. It has no strictly practical value from an earthly perspective, nor does it help you pass on your genes. Yet worship is a universal phenomenon. It goes back to the beginning of human history. The earliest song we've uncovered is a hymn to the goddess wife of the moon god. Why do we have this need to worship?

I once read an article about couples who have been married for 50 years or more. One was 90 year old Martin Spencer and his wife of 67 years, Ruth. One of the secrets of the longevity of their relationship is that he writes her a love letter every day. Writing it not only endears him to her, it reminds him of the reasons that he chose her and why he's fortunate that she chose him. People who are married tend to live longer. Worship works like that. It reminds us of what we love about God and how much he loves us. And that is good for us. Studies have shown that attending church weekly is associated with better mental and physical health, a reduced risk of depression and anxiety, increased happiness and life satisfaction, a reduced risk of addiction to drugs and alcohol, a sense of belonging, reduced feelings of loneliness and isolation, and a sense of purpose and meaning in life.

The word “worship” literally means to ascribe worth to someone or something. So it's important that what you worship is worth it. If you don't worship the God who is just, loving and forgiving, then odds are you will worship something else, something less worthy. And the next most powerful thing in the world is government. And at the top of every government is a ruler. That's really what the Communists worshipped. That's what the Fascists worshipped. In both of these cases they ended up worshiping a man: Stalin, Mao, Hitler, Mussolini. In each case they put a particular form of government, built around the cult of a man, above all else and ended up killing more people in the 20^th century than all the wars, crusades, witch hunts and inquisitions did in 4000 years of recorded history. Which is why the Bible tells us, “Do not trust in princes, or in human beings, in whom there is no help.” (Psalm 146:3)

When you value anything above God—an idea, a political party, a country, even your family—all relationships get disordered and distorted. In Christopher Guest's mockumentary Best of Show we see a couple whose show dog is the most important thing in their life. Everything is structured around keeping the canine happy. And their relationship is suffering. Though the portrayal of the couple is satirical, you can't help but feel that you have met people like this before. It may not have been a dog but for some people their whole life revolves around something that in the grand scheme of things is rather trivial. And it may have bothered you, even though you can't quite put your finger on exactly what it was that made you feel uncomfortable.

I think it is the lack of a sense of proportion. I'm a fan of science fiction but I have met people whose homes are shrines to the shows and movies they love above all else. I have met people whose lives were devoted to hunting and their homes were full of guns and mounted animal heads. The 2009 documentary series Little Miss Perfect shows parents devoted to their kids, or more accurately, to turning their kids into tiny beauty queens. All these things have gone way beyond being a hobby and have crossed over into an obsession. The people involved feel that it gives their lives value. But at what cost?

We tend to become what we worship. That's because we were created in the image of God. The desire to become like what we worship is programmed into us. But like a baby duck imprinting on the family dog and trying to act like a dog, sometimes we focus on the wrong things and mistake them for what we should love and emulate. One of the reasons we worship is to remind ourselves of whom we love and why.

There are 3 words in Hebrew that get translated into the one English word “worship.” The most common of these Hebrew words literally means “to bend at the waist.” It is a gesture of deference. In the ancient Near East, the bow was more elaborate, often involving getting on one's knees or totally prostrating oneself. And because our minds and bodies are connected, the physical action triggers a psychological state. We acknowledge that what we are bowing to is higher than us, not only spatially but spiritually.

In some churches it is common, though not mandatory, to bow at certain points: when approaching the altar, when the cross or gospel progresses down the aisle, and at the name of Jesus in the Gloria and in the creed. It is a gesture of humility, which is essential to worship. To worship something is to recognize its spiritual superiority.

The second Hebrew word translated as “worship” means “service.” This is used in the same sense as when we talk of acolytes or others serving at the altar during worship. It involves participating in a ritual. Human beings love to observe rituals. We have rituals when getting up in the morning or when entering our workplace or leaving it. The need for rituals seems to be inborn. If you don't believe me, try altering the way you tuck a small child into bed or radically changing the way you read their favorite bedtime story. Your most treasured memories of your parents or grandparents are probably the little family rituals you observed together. One of mine is how, when my dad owned a tavern, my brother and I would sit at the bar before it opened on Saturday mornings, watching cartoons on the TV and eating cereal out of beer mugs. Rituals enhance our sense of security. They reinforce our sense of order, that everything is where it should be and in the proper relationship to everything else. If you are planning to do something special for someone you love, like a wedding or a birthday party, you want to get how it's done just right. The same is true in worship.

The third Hebrew word to be used for “worship” means “reverence.” Sometimes it is translated “fear” as in “the fear of the Lord.” Again, this is a matter of proportion. We may honor certain people and worthy institutions but our utmost reverence should be reserved for God.

We express our reverence for God through worship. We sing his praise. We pray to him. We listen to his word. We come to his table and commune with him and his people. We contemplate his sacrifice.

Sacrifice is at the heart of worship. In ancient Israel, at certain times of the year, or in response to certain transitions in life, or in response to certain sins, you would bring an animal to the temple to be sacrificed. Its blood would be sprinkled on the altar and portions of its body would be burned while other parts would be eaten. We are so removed from agricultural life these days that the idea of killing animals is repugnant to us. But this was not a sign that the lives of the animals were cheap but rather that they were valuable. They gave you food. They gave you clothing. They pulled your plow and made it possible for you to turn the rocky soil into fruit and grain. They were your wealth. So you didn't kill an animal lightly. To turn it over to the temple to give thanks for the birth of a child or to atone for your sins was a huge sacrifice. It showed the depth of your repentance or of your thankfulness.

At the center of our faith is the sacrifice of Jesus. God becomes a human being to live as one of us and to offer himself as a sacrifice for the sins of the whole world. You could say that his death on the cross was an act of worship. He was showing the depth of our sin, the extent to which we have perverted the gifts God has given us and converted them into the instruments of our self-destruction. Jesus was showing how much God both abhors that sin and how much he loves us.

Jesus showed how much higher our God is spiritually than we are, in that he, God incarnate, is willing to give his life to save us, akin to a heart donor. And it is only fair that we reciprocate. We come to the table of the Lord and hold out our empty hands, in essence exchanging our empty life for his life, one full of love and generosity and forgiveness and hope.

Sacrifice doesn't simply mean giving something up. At its root, it means making something sacred. By giving our lives to him, we make them sacred. And we receive them back, transformed.

We become what we worship. If we worship a God who is not only just but merciful, not only loving but love itself, that is what we become. (1 John 3:2, 4:8) But because God is love, we can only truly worship God in loving relationship with others. It's easy to stand under the starry sky and let awe overwhelm you. It is harder to see the divine image in messy, contrary human beings. Those gurus who retire to the mountains and those hermits who move into caves are taking the easy way out. The real test of faith is living it out in real life. And worship should be a way of life, not just an hour on Sunday. We should acknowledge God in everything we do. We should serve him in every action. We should make sacred every part of our life.

What we do on Sundays and on holy days is concentrated worship. We are building up reserves of reverence, sacks of sacrifice, a surplus of service so we can get through the week. It is recommended that you also do this on your own each day to keep up your momentum. In the Episcopal church, the Book of Common Prayer has the complete services for Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer and Compline, as well as a schedule of Bible readings for the Daily Office. There are even one-page personal devotions for morning, noon and night, like 5 hour energy blasts for the busy Christian. The book of Evangelical Lutheran Worship has its own versions of those as does the Roman Catholic missal. But that doesn't mean we can neglect the Sabbath, the weekly day of rest and reverence we need to lead a balanced life.

Last week we spoke of stewardship as an overarching way of looking at our life in God. Today we have looked at worship in the same way. There is no contradiction. We were put in this world to take care of it for God. Think of the world as something intended as a temple of God and all of its things as sacred vessels. Some need to be cleaned up. Some need to be found and restored. Some just need to be put in their proper relationship to everything else. And so everything should be treated with respect and everyone, our fellow ministers and potential fellow worshipers, should be treated with love.

Originally preached on February 28, 2010. It has been revised and updated.