I’m sitting in worship today and I’m thinking of how different church feels in Mississippi than it does at home. Here, it seems like young people who don’t have kids go to church pretty regularly, and that really isn’t a thing at home – it seems like it’s pretty rare, where I’m from, for people in their early 20’s to go to church. College students will go to campus ministries, for sure, but attending church in your early 20’s really isn’t the norm. It seems like many people at home will stop going to church in college, then start going again when they have kids or when they get married.
In Mississippi, it feels like everyone goes to church. I remember, at my school’s open house, a parent asked me where I went to church and it totally took me by surprise. I’m used to that being a fairly personal question, and I can’t imagine asking someone I just met if they go to church, let alone where – it’s so loaded and personal. There’s also the very real difference of going to campus ministry versus going to what I like to call “grown-up church”.
While I’m sitting in church I’m thinking about why we worship. A friend of mine has asked me this before – why should we worship God? Does God actually need us to worship?
In thinking through all of this, I googled “scriptures about how to worship God” because I honestly had no idea what the Bible said about it. The results that came up and applied to this specific context were 1 Chronicles 16:23-25, “Sing to the Lord, all the earth; proclaim his salvation day after day. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all peoples. For great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; he is to be feared above all gods.” and John 4:23-24, “Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers mush worship in spirit and in truth.”
But then there’s this other one, which feels pretty contrary to the above verses. Isaiah 29:13, “The Lord says: These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men.”
So in 1 Chronicles 16, it’s about sing to the Lord all the earth, great and worthy of praise, etc. John 4 is all worshiping in spirit and in truth, then we have Isaiah 29 with God being kinda “meh” about those whose worship of God is made up only of rules taught by men. Where does that leave us?
I don’t think God needs us to worship. I don’t think God needs us. Then what’s the purpose?
Of course, some parts of the purpose are obvious. Part of church is preaching, which is basically lecturing with more personality, right? That part isn’t so much about worshiping God as it is about learning, and learning together. Solely from the perspective of learning about faith, worship gives us a place to understand scripture with more context, which is valuable. We care about our faith but need some guidance in learning more, and sermons can serve that purpose. But if worship is only about sermons, why not just download a podcast and save yourself the time of going to church?
I sometimes think that if it was up to me, worship would only ever be walking in the woods, quietly, by yourself. If spirituality is about quiet contemplation and connection with something larger than yourself, that’s the way to do it. I fully believe that being alone in the woods (or wherever feels right to you) is an important part of faith, but there’s more.
My great grandmother died a little over a year ago. Her side of the family is from the Saginaw area, about an hour and a half north of Detroit. My great-great-great grandparents had a farm there, and there’s a small cemetery where generations of my family are buried. When we went there, to bury my great-grandmother’s ashes, I was struck by how rooted I felt, in that moment. It hit me in the face, this feeling of “This is who you are, and this is who you belong to.”
Standing in a cemetery at the corner of two roads in the middle of nowhere. This was not a matter of finding my people so much as realizing who I belonged to, all along.
That’s why worship, for me, will always be drenched in tradition and ritual. The purpose of worship isn’t so much to worship God, as it is to remind us of who we are and who we belong to.
Comments
I especially liked your concluding thoughts. “Who we are” There is a divine dimension to our being. We are ever growing, ever deepening, ever reaching for better and for more. We want to be better, deeper, wiser, more knowledgeable, more compassionate, to become capable of doing and being more than we are. We are self exspansive. That energy and drive, that capability to be self transcending that manifests itself in us, in an expanding and evolving universe is the divine in us and around us. We do well to be aware of and ever in touch with it.
You, my dear, are a very special young lady. I have delighted in following you from afar.
Uncle Jim
Love the conclusion. It’s something I’ve never thought of but it definitely rings true. I had a professor whose definition of worship was to become more like God and for me, this encompasses a huge purpose of worship. It’s a transformative process, a routine that helps us become better.
About Isaiah: The historical context is also very relevant but I like your broader reading. It invites the question, how does Christ worship the Father? I think this question would be beneficial to take to the scriptures and I’m excited to do just that. Thanks for sharing, friend!