I want to blather on more about acceptable worship. The Old Testament worship is so radically different than New Testament but I believe that we cannot worship properly without reflecting on the relationship between the two and what we learn from the interaction of the two.
The OT worship is detailed, regulated, and very ritualistic. Does this mean it's bad or inferior worship to the NT? I don't think so. I think that when God says, "Do this" or "Do that" then that is acceptable and proper worship. OT worship actually must be seen on two levels. The first level is Israel's worship before God. The regulations allowed Israel to approach God as His people. The second level is the picture it paints of salvation under the messiah. OT worship was both specific for Israel and a picture of what God would do in the future.
OT worship changed some over the years. It started off with a tabernacle (mobile temple) and then morphed into a fixed temple. Tim Woodroof (The Church that Flies) suggests that God didn't ask for the changes but He did accept the changes. I'm not sure that is a proper view of the changes. When Hezekiah was restoring the temple worship (in this case the musical instruments) in his day, it is written that he did so according to what David, Nathan, and Gad had commanded. What they commanded came from the Lord (2Chron.29:25). So I think Scripture states that the changes came through God's guidance, not man's desires.
The regulations teach us that worship is about what God wants not what we want. Maybe God hasn't been as specific in the NT as He was in the OT but worship still belongs to Him not to us. Just because we act excited and get teary-eyed doesn't make our worship acceptable. God didn't require of the Jews to be emotional during worship. That doesn't mean they couldn't be emotional but it also means that they don't have to be emotion to have worshiped properly.
Since God is so specific in the OT it makes sense to believe that God will at least give us some clues in the NT as to what He wants. We do see an assembly in Acts 20 and we have Paul telling the Corinthians about some of the things they ought to be doing in their assembly (11:17-34; 14:26; 16:1-2) - like the Lord's Supper, singing, teaching, and giving. Paul also told them that their assemblies should be orderly (14:40). Paul doesn't say what order things should be done in just that they should be orderly. So some clues but not as detailed. There is nothing I know of that tells us to emotional or lively in our worship. I'm not saying we can't just that the Scriptures don't tell us we have to be.
Why is it that we (churches of Christ) are wrong just because we discourage lively worship? Is it wrong for us to genuinely practice our faith even though that may be different than others? Is it wrong for us to have no instruments when others do? It seems to me that we really need to spend a little more time comparing the two testaments and seeing exactly what is in the NT.
Saturday, January 07, 2006
Tuesday, January 03, 2006
Acceptable Worship
Much of this is in response to Patrick Mead's post about worship (But Is It a Tree? http://www.tentpegs.blogspot.com). He make some interesting points. But his comments, much like the comments I hear men make during "table talks" at the Lord's Supper, make me wonder if any of us have really read the Scriptures and understood worship (least of all me).
In Patrick's first post he tells about going to a "traditional" (or formulaic as he calls it) worship where the five acts of worship indemic to the Churches of Christ were performed. He didn't feel the "spirit" there but felt maybe it helped some who were there. That night they went to a worship service where apparently the five acts were not followed but where the "spirit" was in obvious attendance. Patrick wonders why we can't accept these folks. I want to know where in Scripture (in particular the New Testament) we see a worship service where people played instruments, danced, drank the Lord's Supper from a cup, ate big loaves of bread, and had tears flow down their cheeks? Maybe we should also follow a certain denomination and have the Lord's Supper and worship every day. Maybe we should offer worship on Saturday night so people can sleep in on Sunday morning. Actually we see Paul preaching so long (Acts 20:7ff) that someone falls asleep (maybe he's bored). How can we say that "spirited" worship is more acceptable than "formulaic" worship?
How can we judge anything acceptable or unacceptable if we don't actually see people in worship services in the New Testament? I think that worship that must be in "spirit" and in "truth" (John 4:24) has not been understood properly in our fellowship (or maybe any fellowship). I'm not trying to set myself up as the "authority" but it seems to me that most commentators miss what Jesus is saying in this context. Jesus reminds us that God is "spirit" and those who worship Him must do so in "spirit." Patrick's post seems to be hinting that "spirit" here has something to do with the Holy Spirit. Our fellowship (Churches of Christ) typically believes that "spirit" has something to do with our inner spirit. I think they are both wrong.
In the context the Samaritan woman asks Jesus about where real worship will take place. Jesus tells her that one day worship will not take place either on her mountain (Gerazim) or in Jerusalem. The reason for this is that God is "spirit." I think in the context that Jesus is saying that God is omnipresent as opposed to we humans. Worship that honors God honors His omnipresence. That is worship in "spirit." New Testament worship no longer is located in one place. Maybe the real way to honor this is to not have a located place. We build buildings in which to worship and those buildings suggest permanence (This World is not My Home). Of course if what I have said were true than we must worship someplace different every Sunday. I don't think that God has that in mind in this context.
Still I think that Jesus is telling the woman that worship, in contrast to her Samaritan worship, will not be located in one place and will be done according to "truth" which is God's will. Worship is always on God's terms not ours. If God wanted "spirited" worship He would have shown us people dancing in the streets. Instead we really aren't given much of an insight into the worship practices around the Mediterrean World. I think both sides of this issue should be careful in judging the other side. Perhaps I'll have more in the next post.
In Patrick's first post he tells about going to a "traditional" (or formulaic as he calls it) worship where the five acts of worship indemic to the Churches of Christ were performed. He didn't feel the "spirit" there but felt maybe it helped some who were there. That night they went to a worship service where apparently the five acts were not followed but where the "spirit" was in obvious attendance. Patrick wonders why we can't accept these folks. I want to know where in Scripture (in particular the New Testament) we see a worship service where people played instruments, danced, drank the Lord's Supper from a cup, ate big loaves of bread, and had tears flow down their cheeks? Maybe we should also follow a certain denomination and have the Lord's Supper and worship every day. Maybe we should offer worship on Saturday night so people can sleep in on Sunday morning. Actually we see Paul preaching so long (Acts 20:7ff) that someone falls asleep (maybe he's bored). How can we say that "spirited" worship is more acceptable than "formulaic" worship?
How can we judge anything acceptable or unacceptable if we don't actually see people in worship services in the New Testament? I think that worship that must be in "spirit" and in "truth" (John 4:24) has not been understood properly in our fellowship (or maybe any fellowship). I'm not trying to set myself up as the "authority" but it seems to me that most commentators miss what Jesus is saying in this context. Jesus reminds us that God is "spirit" and those who worship Him must do so in "spirit." Patrick's post seems to be hinting that "spirit" here has something to do with the Holy Spirit. Our fellowship (Churches of Christ) typically believes that "spirit" has something to do with our inner spirit. I think they are both wrong.
In the context the Samaritan woman asks Jesus about where real worship will take place. Jesus tells her that one day worship will not take place either on her mountain (Gerazim) or in Jerusalem. The reason for this is that God is "spirit." I think in the context that Jesus is saying that God is omnipresent as opposed to we humans. Worship that honors God honors His omnipresence. That is worship in "spirit." New Testament worship no longer is located in one place. Maybe the real way to honor this is to not have a located place. We build buildings in which to worship and those buildings suggest permanence (This World is not My Home). Of course if what I have said were true than we must worship someplace different every Sunday. I don't think that God has that in mind in this context.
Still I think that Jesus is telling the woman that worship, in contrast to her Samaritan worship, will not be located in one place and will be done according to "truth" which is God's will. Worship is always on God's terms not ours. If God wanted "spirited" worship He would have shown us people dancing in the streets. Instead we really aren't given much of an insight into the worship practices around the Mediterrean World. I think both sides of this issue should be careful in judging the other side. Perhaps I'll have more in the next post.
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