Ángel
Manuel Rodríguez
My
question is about worship. What elements are appropriate and which are
not?
Your
question is extremely important. One of the main elements of our mission
is to call the world to worship God (Rev. 14:7). In a search for guidelines
relevant for us today I will deal with a few of the main elements of biblical
worship and its expressions.
1. God Is the Center:
Worship is delimited by the personal and collective acknowledgment of
believers that God is exclusively worthy of supreme honor. In the Bible
God is the only legitimate and exclusive object of worship (Ex. 20:2,
3; Luke 24:53), which is grounded in His creative and redemptive power
(Rev. 4:11; 5:12). Worship is the response of the inner being to the awareness
of the majesty, mystery, and uniqueness of God revealed in His work of
creation and redemption. Confronted by Him, our lives find their place
of origin and vibrate with joy, thanksgiving, and the reverent fear that
only God can inspire.
Since everything else
in the universe belongs to the category of the created, it is reprehensible,
even an abomination, to replace God as the center of worship with any
other object. This fundamental view of biblical worship should inform
the appropriateness of any activity that will be part of it.
2. The Role of Emotion:
Worship is more than an attitude; it is also an act. Since we are
emotional beings, it is impossible to separate our emotion from the practice
of worship. In that holy act we praise and give thanks to God (Ps. 118:28),
express our joy and gratitude through offerings (1 Chron. 16:29) and songs
(Ps. 147:1). We even cry to Him for deliverance, forgiveness, and guidance
(Ps. 139:23, 24; 142) as a response to His presence in our lives. The
temptation is to use worship as a sociopsychological avenue to "feel good"
about ourselves and accepted by others. When that happens we have imperceptibly
shifted the center and focus of worship away from the Creator and Redeemer
to ourselves, at the risk of falling into the realm of idolatry. We bring
to Him our gratitude, needs, fears, and concems in order to praise Him
for what He has done and will do for us.
3. The Role of
the Body: We cannot separate the expression of our emotion from our
physicality. In worship we come before the Lord as emotional and bodily
creatures. The act of worship involves our bodies as vehicles through
which our emotions express themselves. In the Bible worshipers lifted
up their hands to offer the Lord their petitions (Ps. 141:2; 1 Tim. 2:8);
they stood up (Mark 11:25), knelt down (1 Kings 8:54), or bowed down with
their faces to the ground to worship (Neh. 8:6). They used their tongues
and lips to sing to the Lord (Col. 3:16) and their ears to capture the
beauty of musical instruments (Ps. 150:3-5) and the reading of Scripture
(1 Tim. 4:13). Worshipers joined processions that went to the temple praising
the Lord (Ps. 68:24, 25), and at times joy was expressed through ritual
dancing (Ps. 30:11).
The extent that the body
is used to express emotion varies from culture to culture. What is appropriate
in one culture may be offensive in another. Therefore, it is important
to keep in mind that the purpose of worship is not to stimulate our emotions
and their bodily expression (as is sometimes done through loud music)
in order to create a feeling of well-being in the worshiper. That would
again dislodge God from the exclusive center of adoration, placing there
the satisfaction of our psychological needs. The moderate involvement
of our emotions and body in corporate adoration should not distract us
or others from what is probably more important, listening to the Word
of the Lord and its proclamation.
We
go to church to worship God, to praise, adore, and thank Him for all His
blessings, to be instructed through His Word, to celebrate the Lord's
Supper, to be equipped to proclaim the gospel, and for fellowship with
other believers. Worship is not a form of entertainment that needs to
be adjusted to the taste of the individuals using marketing
practices. The music we bring, the songs we sing, the prayers we offer,
are our feeble attempts to praise the Lord and express our love and thankfulness
to the one who has done so much for us through Christ.
5/8/03
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