I've Been Thinking About Why We Worship

My newspaper column, to be published June 29, 2012 in the In-Port News:

     That might seem like a strange question for a pastor to ask. Shouldn't it, after all, be self-evident? Do I even need to ask the question “Why do we worship?” And yet, I suspect that if we were to sit down with a diverse group of people who call themselves Christians, we would discover that there are a lot of very different answers to the question (and that all of them are very sincere and faithful answers, regardless of the fact that almost everyone is convinced that the only right way and right reason to worship is, by sheer coincidence of course, the way and reason that they happen to worship! I started thinking about this question when I heard a portion of the novel “The Color Purple” read aloud. In the novel, one of the characters says “Folks come to church to share God, not to find God.” Right there, in eleven words, you see two different perspectives on what worship is about. Well, since worship is at the heart of what we do as Christians, it's a valid topic. Although we probably have a fair amount of agreement on what we do in worship (not the form, but the content) we may not know why. What are some options?

     Some people worship out of duty. They feel a sense of duty to their God to gather together. There's nothing especially wrong with that. There is, after all, a biblical injunction about this: “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing,” is written in the Book of Hebrews, and it reminds us both that we should worship, and that we're often sorely tempted not to worship.

     Some people worship because they like the rituals. Human beings are creatures of habit; we like things to be at least a little bit predictable. We don't like chaos. There's comfort to be found for many in the natural and understood progression of a “good” worship service: the singing of the songs, the reading of the word, the saying of the prayers, the celebration of the sacraments. Doing these familiar things is for some a reminder that God is a constant; that God doesn't change.

     Some people worship noisily, with praise bands and loud music and shouting preachers reminding them of the joy and excitement that accompanies a relationship with God; others worship in quiet contemplation, seeking just a brief word or revelation from God that reminds them of the peace God wants to give us. Some see worship as their acts of service to the world, remembering that “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”

     Some people worship simply to praise God. Their worship is an act of thanksgiving from beginning to end – with hands and voices raised to the glory of God. Some people worship because they like the sense of community created, as different people with different gifts and talents and needs join together as one. As the character from The Color Purple hinted, some worship to share God, hoping that there's someone present who needs God's presence, and some worship to find God, remembering that since Jesus said “when two or more gather in my name I am among them,” then the experience of his presence must be natural to worship.

     I think all of those (and there are a lot more) are perfectly good reasons to worship. Too often we judge others who we think worship for the wrong reasons, believing that only our reason for worshiping can possibly be right. I don't think that's what God wants of us. The “why” we worship can have all sorts of different (and perfectly valid) answers. For me, after having thought about all this, the real question isn't “why we worship” but what ultimately happens when we worship. Whatever the reason for joining together, worship should change us in some way. We should always leave as a transformed person. Not perfected, not ideal, but transformed, understanding just a little more of who God is and what God wants from us. The great Christian ethicist John Howard Yoder wrote that “praising God is at the very centre of the Christian church's mandate. When we gather for worship ... we are to proclaim the virtues of the one who called us to the light and who made us into the people of God.”

     However and for whatever reason we worship, just by doing so we are rejoicing in our place among the people of God, who has a place for everyone!