Moral Worship
2
WORSHIP
Glorying in God’s Holy Name
It is often said that the church’s preeminent responsibility is evangelism. But this is not so, for at least three reasons. First, evangelism comes under the heading of our duty to our neighbor, whereas worship is our duty to God, and our duty to God must take precedence over our duty to our neighbor.
Second, although all of us are expected to share the gospel with others whenever the opportunity presents itself, evangelism is also a spiritual gift or charisma that is given only to some. Thus not all Christians are evangelists (see Ephesians 4:11), but all Christians are worshipers, both in private and in public.
Third, evangelism is a temporary activity, which will cease when the Lord Jesus comes to consummate his kingdom. But our worship will continue throughout eternity.
This being so, namely that worship is the church’s preeminent duty, we should surely give it our closest attention.
Worship is the church’s preeminent duty.
What, however, is worship? Perhaps the best scriptural definition of it is to be found in Psalm 105:3. To worship is to “glory in God’s holy name.” God’s name is his revealed character. It is “holy” because it is unique, set apart from and above all other names. And once we glimpse the holiness of God’s great name, we see the fitness of “glorying” or reveling in it. Indeed, we are to join with all creatures in pronouncing him worthy of our praise, because he is both our Creator and our Redeemer (Revelation 5:9-14). Because of who God is, it is appropriate that we should “worship at his footstool” (Psalm 99:5).
True worship according to Scripture has four main characteristics.
BIBLICAL WORSHIP
First, true worship is biblical worship, that is to say, it is a response to the biblical revelation. We no doubt remember how the apostle Paul found in Athens an altar inscribed “to an unknown god.” Paul went on to claim that what the philosophers worshiped as unknown he was going to proclaim to them (Acts 17:23). The truth is that it is impossible to worship an unknown god. For if we do not know him, we cannot worship him, and our so-called worship is bound to degenerate into idolatry.
So Christian worship could be defined as “a response to revelation.” Hence the reading and preaching of God’s word in public worship, far from being alien intrusions into it, are rather indispensable aspects of it. It is the word of God which evokes the worship of God. So the sixteenth-century Anglican reformers provided in the Prayer Book both a church calendar and a corresponding lectionary, that is, a table of set lessons for every Sunday of the year. They rightly swept away all unbiblical legends, which had been popular in the middle ages, and they retained only biblical prayers.
It is a good and healthy custom either to encourage members of the congregation to bring their Bible with them to church, or to provide Bibles in the seats. Then, when the text of the lessons and the sermon is announced, there is a great rustling of pages as people find the place and follow the text.
When this happens, the situation is similar to the time when Cornelius the centurion received the apostle Peter into his home. He said to Peter: “Now we are all here in the presence of God to listen to everything the Lord has commanded you to tell us” (Acts 10:33).
This spirit of receptivity is a necessary condition of hearing the word of God. So much depends on how the readers and preachers approach their task.
It is a great privilege to read the lessons in church. I was fortunate enough while still at school to be commissioned to be a lesson-reader in chapel. One day an elderly Christian man on hearing that I read the lessons, shared with me the lesson-reader’s text, namely Nehemiah 8:8: “And they read from the book, from the law of God, clearly; and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading” (RSV).
More privileged still than those who read God’s word are those who are commissioned to preach it. It goes without saying that preachers are expositors; their task is to open up, explain and apply Scripture. (This is the subject of chapter 6.)
Since our worship is a response to God’s word, its mood must be modulated according to the nature of the truth being expounded.
Our worship is a response to God’s word.
Take Psalm 95 as an example. It is an exhortation to the people of God to praise him, but it contains an abrupt change of mood in the middle. The psalm begins with a call to sing for joy to the Lord and to shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. Why? Because “the LORD is the great God,” the creator of earth and sea. Then in verse 6 the mood changes, and we are summoned to bow down and kneel before the Lord. Why? Because he is our God, and we are “the people of his pasture; the flock under his care.” Thus there is a place in public worship both for shouting aloud because he is the great God, and for bowing down before him because he is our God. It is a mistake, therefore, to sing all our hymns and songs fortissimo, as if the Holy Spirit’s presence is to be measured by decibels. For it is sometimes more appropriate for the music to be piano, and even pianissimo, varying the volume according to the subject.
CONGREGATIONAL WORSHIP
Second, true worship is congregational worship. Of course some people still tell us that they find it easier to worship God on their own than in a crowd. And certainly there is a place for private and individual worship, even in the Psalter. But the psalmist focuses more on corporate worship. For example, “Praise, O servants of the LORD” (Psalm 113:1) and “Sing to the LORD a new song, his praise in the assembly of the saints” (Psalm 149:1). And in the New Testament we read this exhortation:
Let us not give up meeting, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching. (Hebrews 10:25)
Worship which is pleasing to God is offered by his people together.
Moreover, the worship which is pleasing to God is offered by his people together, who have assembled in order to do so. Our Reformers understood the implications of this principle, namely that everybody should participate. Whereas the medieval mass was celebrated by the priest at the high altar, and the lay people were spectators, the Reformers deliberately brought the action down from the chancel to the nave and ensured that the lay people were not merely spectators but participants.
Further, whereas the medieval mass was said in Latin, the Reformers insisted on the use of the vernacular. The Anglican Article 24 could hardly be more explicit:
It is a thing plainly repugnant to the Word of God, and the custom of the primitive church, to have public prayer in the church, or to minister the sacraments in a tongue not understanded of the people.
Yet the Roman Catholic Church retained the use of Latin until the provisions of the Second Vatican Council (1965).
Archbishop Cranmer was concerned that his Prayer Book would be a “Book of Common Prayer.” He ensured lay participation in the different services by including some forms which the congregation would say together—for example the General Confession, the Lord’s Prayer, the Apostles’ Creed, the Gloria, the General Thanksgiving and the Prayer of Humble Access. True, such prayers and other forms can degenerate into a mere recitation, but during extempore prayer the mind can also wander. Probably the best and safest way is to combine liturgical and spontaneous prayer, and to replace a monopoly by one leader with different participants—in music, lesson-reading, intercessions and preaching.
Our common congregational worship should clearly express the international, intercultural character of the body of Christ. For example, throughout his Roman letter the apostle was conscious of the tensions which existed in the church between Jews and Gentiles. So in chapter 15 he prayed that God might give them “a spirit of unity” among themselves, in order that they might engage in the common worship of God “so that with one heart and mouth” they might glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 15:5-6).
This issue of united transcultural worship has recently come to the surface in the debate about the so-called homogeneous unit principle (HUP). It was developed by the late Dr. Donald McGavran, the founder of the Fuller School of World Mission and Church Growth. In his book Understanding Church Growth (1970) he stated the principle thus, that “people like to become Christians without crossing racial, linguistic or class barriers.” This HUP is an observable fact. And most people go further and argue that it is legitimate in evangelism to focus on particular people-groups.
But if the HUP is legitimate in evangelism, is it also legitimate in the church? This is where the debate erupted. Should we tolerate, let alone welcome, HUP churches, that is, churches whose members all belong to an identical and particular culture? Surely not. For the Lord Jesus has broken down the barriers between Jews and Gentiles, men and women, slaves and free. How then can we erect fresh barriers in the only community in which Christ has abolished them?
An important international colloquium on this topic took place in Pasadena, California, in 1977, in which five faculty members of Fuller’s School of World Mission met and debated with their critics. Its report was entitled “The Pasadena Statement on the Homogeneous Unit Principle.”1
All participants affirmed both the fundamental unity of the church and the colorful diversity of culture. But the question was how to reconcile them. We felt able to say that, although there are circumstances in which a homogeneous church can be a legitimate and authentic church, yet it can never be a complete church in itself, since it cannot reflect the universality and diversity of the body of Christ. This being so, every homogeneous unit church should take active steps to broaden its fellowship, in order to demonstrate visibly the unity and variety of the church. For example, a large city church should break itself down into several homogeneous unit churches or sub-churches, so that they can celebrate both separately and together.
Every church should demonstrate visibly the unity and variety of the church.
In particular, we should all be inspired by the eschatological vision of the great multitude which no one can count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, redeemed and standing before God’s throne (Revelation 7:9-10). The Lord’s Supper should be a dramatic foreshadowing of the Messianic banquet of the kingdom of God.
SPIRITUAL WORSHIP
Third, true worship is spiritual worship. Scripture often emphasizes that true worship is not in itself a matter of forms, rituals and ceremonies. We need to listen carefully to the biblical criticism of religion. No book, not even by Marx and his followers, is more scathing of empty religion than the Bible. The prophets of the eighth and seventh century B.C. were outspoken in their denunciation of the formalism and hypocrisy of Israelite worship. Jesus then applied their critique to the Pharisees of his day: “These people… honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me” (Isaiah 29:13; Mark 7:6). And this indictment of religion by the Old Testament prophets and by Jesus is uncomfortably applicable to us and some of our churches today. Too much of our worship is ritual without reality, form without power, fun without fear, religion without God. Nobody has expressed this with more mischievous sarcasm than Malcolm Muggeridge:
One of the most effective defensive systems against God’s incursions has hitherto been organized religion. The various churches have provided a refuge for fugitives from God—his voice drowned in the chanting, his smell lost in the incense, his purpose obscured and confused in creeds, dogmas, dissertations and other priestly pronunciamentos. In vast cathedrals, as in little conventicles, or just wrapped in Quaker silence, one could get away from God. Plainsong held him at bay, as did revivalist eloquence, hearty hymns and intoned prayers. Confronted with that chanting, moaning, gurgling voice—“Dearly beloved brethren, I pray and beseech you…” or with that earnest, open Oxfam face, shining like the morning sun with all the glories flesh is heir to, God could be relied on to make off.2
At this point something more needs to be said about the place of music in public worship. For both vocal and instrumental music can be a wonderful vehicle for the praise of God, but can also provoke him to cry: “Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps” (Amos 5:23).
It seems that in every generation there has been a flowering of gifted musicians who have brought their talent to the service of God. Jewish praise was enriched by singing and a whole variety of musical instruments (see Psalm 150). So it has also been with Christian worship, whether we are thinking of the sonorous organ in the medieval cathedral, or brass, strings and wind in Lutheran devotion, or the guitar, the saxophone and the drums today. I have no intention of pronouncing between classical and contemporary music, for different styles appeal to different temperaments and cultures. What is essential, however, is the biblical content of the hymns and songs. Then we shall avoid excessive repetition, which can easily degenerate into the “babbling” which Jesus condemned in the Sermon on the Mount (battalogia in Matthew 6:7). Battalogia seems to denote any speech in which the mouth is engaged but the mind is not.
The vocation of the church to offer God spiritual worship is of special importance today. For even in the “secular” west there is a widespread hunger for “spirituality.”
The most striking of all recent religious trends is the rise of the New Age movement. It is a bizarre assortment of diverse beliefs—of religion and science, physics and metaphysics, ancient pantheism and evolutionary optimism, astrology, spiritism, reincarnation, ecology and alternative medicine. In sum, it is a recognition that materialism cannot satisfy the human spirit, and a search for another, transcendent reality. People are seeking it everywhere.
This quest for transcendence is a challenge to us and to the quality of our public worship. Does it offer what people are craving—the element of mystery, the “sense of the numinous”; in biblical language “the fear of God,” in modern language “transcendence”? My answer to my own question is “Not often.” The church is not always conspicuous for the profound reality of its worship. In particular, we who call ourselves “evangelical” do not know much how to worship. Evangelism is our specialty, not worship. We seem to have little sense of the greatness and glory of Almighty God. We do not bow down before him in awe and wonder. Our tendency is to be cocky, flippant and proud. We take little trouble to prepare our worship services. In consequence, they are sometimes slovenly, mechanical, perfunctory and dull. At other times they are frivolous, to the point of irreverence. No wonder those seeking reality often pass us by!
We do not know much how to worship.
What is needed, then? Here are some suggestions. First, we need such a faithful reading and preaching of God’s word that through it his living voice is heard addressing his people again. Second, we need such a reverent and expectant administration of the Eucharist or Lord’s Supper that (I choose my words carefully) there is a Real Presence of Jesus Christ. His presence is not in the elements, but among his people and at his table, Jesus Christ himself objectively and really present, coming to meet us, ready to make himself known to us through the breaking of bread, and anxious to give himself to us, so that we may feed on him in our hearts by faith. Third, we need such a sincere offering of praise and prayer, that God’s people say with Jacob, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was not aware of it” (Genesis 28:16), and unbelievers present will fall down and worship God, exclaiming “God is really among you!” (1 Corinthians 14:24-25).
In brief, it is a great tragedy that many of our contemporaries, who are seeking transcendence, turn to drugs, sex, yoga, cults, mysticism, the New Age and science fiction, instead of to the church, in whose worship services true transcendence should always be experienced, and a close encounter with the living God enjoyed.
MORAL WORSHIP
The kind of worship which is pleasing to God has one more major characteristic. True worship is moral worship, that is to say, it must not only express what is in our hearts but also be accompanied by an upright life. Samuel put this beyond doubt in his explicit words to King Saul: “To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams” (1 Samuel 15:22).
Worship without holiness was hateful to [God].
Yahweh was even more outspoken in his declaration to Isaiah. He had had enough of Israel’s offerings. He took no pleasure in their sacrifices. Indeed, their sacred assemblies were an abomination to him, and he would not even listen to their prayers. Why so? He tells them: “Your hands are full of blood.” If they would “stop doing wrong, and seek justice, encourage the oppressed,” they would be forgiven (Isaiah 1:1019). It was this mixture of religion, wrongdoing and injustice which Yahweh could not abide. Worship without holiness was hateful to him.
I cannot think of a better place to conclude this chapter on worship than at the beginning of Romans 12. For here Paul describes the Christian life to which he summons us as our “spiritual act of worship.”
For eleven chapters the apostle has been unfolding “the mercies of God.” And now, in view of God’s great mercy which we have received, he appeals to all the members of God’s international family to present our bodies as living sacrifices to God. He calls this physical offering our “spiritual” act of worship. Logikos is the word he uses, which could be translated either “reasonable” (logical in response to God’s mercy) or “rational” (intelligent, the offering of heart and mind, spiritual as opposed to ceremonial).
It is clear that Paul is thinking of a worship which is expressed not only in a church building but in the home and in the workplace. One kind of worship is unbalanced without the other.