The Monday Morning Quarterback

Yesterday I preached about worship--again. I often preach about worship because I believe that worship and prayer are at the core of the faith. If we don't worship "well," if prayer isn't a high priority, then I have no doubt that our faith will be anemic and our lives will look no different than those around us. In other words, we will be poor disciples.

I shared in my sermon, "Worship's Who's Who," some of the thoughts that I have been wrestling with since reading Robert E. Webber's book, The Divine Embrace. I have been well aware that the fundamental question that worship answers is not, "How do I experience worship?" That question clearly implies that worship is first and foremost about me and my experience. It emerges out of a consumer culture that has invaded the church in which people who visit and attend churches are consumers looking to consume and be satisfied by the spiritual goods that churches deliver. Don't we even say if we are looking for a church, "I'm shopping for a new church?" The fundamental question is, "What do I get out of it?"

I think that up until reading this book, my attitude was based more on the question, "How does God experience worship?" I have used the analogy in sermons before how the congregation is not the audience being entertained by those who are leading worship and providing the music, but that the congregation and the leaders are involved in worship and that God is the audience. As Webber points out in his book, this way of thinking means that God is the object and that we, the worshipers are the subjects. This means that worship ultimately originates in me, the subject. In a kind of convoluted way, this kind of worship still ends up with the focus on me. Is God pleased with what I have done in worship?

The question most appropriate to ask of worship according to Webber is: "Did God's story which was proclaimed and enacted today make a transformative impact on my life? Or How has the weekly rehearsal of the meaning of human life that is rooted in God's story changed the way I treat my family, my neighbors, the people I work or go to school with" (94)? Webber argues that in true worship God is the subject, not the object. God is the one who has acted, is acting, and will act in the world, and "Worship is then not the acts of adoration God demands of me, but as the disclosure of Jesus, who had done for me what I cannot do for myself...worship...is the doing of God's story within me so that I may live in the pattern of Jesus's death and resurrection" (232).

Worship, then, is our proclamation, enactment of what God is doing in the world for the purpose of our transformation. The true test of worship is not how I feel at the end of the service, but how has the service made an impact on my life, so that I am more able to life the Jesus Creed (love God and neighbor) in the world in which I live.

This understanding of worship ties my worship experience with my living the discipleship life in a much closer connection. I believe that one of the major reasons that the Christian church is so anemic is because our worship is so self-focused and so "practice poor." We seek marketing gimmicks to enhance people's worship experience, rather than invite people into a different and much deeper sense of worship.

Webber writes,

True worship generates the sense of "What a great story," or "I can't believe that God would do that for the world and for me," or "What a God to become human and to restore all things through Christ." For some people the truth declared in worship will be received with exuberance, and for others the truth of God's story will be received with reserve, with a quiet sense of joy, or even with relief. But for us all, a worship that sings, proclaims, and enacts God's story should result in a delight that produces and ongoing participation in the purposes of God in life" (238).

I couldn't have said it better.