What is worship?
Worship is one of the most misunderstood things today in the evangelical Christian church. The understanding that the entire “worship” service is built around music and a sermon is misleading at best.
This is not worship.
Right now I have incense going behind me. You might be able to see it at the bottom of the screen. The incense is a reminder of the prayers of the saints going up to the Lord in heaven. It is the reminder that God is with us, and that he loves us, and he cares about us, and we ask that our prayers, like these incense, be a sweet aroma to his nose.
Brothers and sisters, worship is not what I get.
It isn’t coming to sing so I feel the fullness of God, and the filling of the Holy Spirit, and a sermon that simply reminds me of what I’m going to forget in three days.
Instead, the whole idea of worship is worthyship.
Who is it that is worthy of worship?
It is the Lord Jesus Christ.
He is worthy, and when we come into the church, and we participate in the sacraments, and we give ourselves to God, we are focused wholly on him because he is worthy.
It is not what I receive. It’s what I give.
It’s what I bring to him that then reminds me of how good, and great, and amazing, and awesome our God is. That in the scope of things, I am but a humble servant that he created to love him and adore him, that he would love and adore me, that if I would be his, he would be mine.
Worship is not about what I get.
It’s not entertainment.
You know, I often think of an evangelical worship service, right? If you were to record the service and then mute it so that you can’t hear anything, all you have is the visual, what would you see?
Would it look all that much different than if you put a rock concert next to it, or whatever kind of concert it is that you might like? But would you notice anything unique or distinctive?
What I love about orthodoxy is that the service is reverent. All around me are the stories, as you see behind me, the stories of the saints, what it means to be in Christ.
I see the stories repeated over and over in the iconography. In the incense, I’m reminded that everything I do goes to heaven. I’m reminded over and over again at the altar of God and the preparation of the Eucharist that I get to become a partaker of his divine nature.
And in doing so, I receive the blessings. I receive the joy. I receive the Eucharist, the body and the blood of Christ in a way that’s regenerative, in a way that sustains me and fills me, but not because I’m coming to get something, but because I gave him something.
Most orthodox churches, when you come into them, you’ll see that there’s off to the side a place where there are candles that are not lit. Now, many times people purchase these for a very small price, maybe a dollar or so. Depending on the church, it’s all different.
But the idea is that I’m buying the candle, and then the candle is lit, which is the light of the world. It’s the light of me to the world, of God through me. And I take the candle to the front with all of the other candles.
There could be tens or maybe even hundreds of candles all lit together, reminding us of the unity of the church and the body of Christ, that together we have come together, individually, members of the body, to be the light of the world. That the Holy Spirit who fills us and gives us everything that we need for life and godliness, empowers us and helps us.
Brothers and sisters, worship is not what I get. Worship is what I bring.
What are you bringing?
When you come to church, are you giving all of yourself to God? Do you have a faux worship where it’s all about emotions and hands raised and prayers said? And brothers and sisters, this is, in my view, not church. This is not worship. Worship is about what I bring.
Am I bringing myself to God that he might receive me?
When we think of worship and worthyship, only Jesus is worthy.
He is worthy of our praise. He is worthy of bringing all of us to him without distraction, without thinking about the things going on this afternoon or next week, or the things we left at work, or the struggles that we’re having in a family relationship, or the hurts and the pains of financial pressures.
None of this is important when we enter into the presence of God because the church is heaven on earth. And when heaven is present, we are present with it.
Do we think bigger?
Do we ask God, as we read in Isaiah 6:10, do we ask God to give us eyes to see, ears to hear, and hearts to understand that we might be healed and restored?
Brothers and sisters, I implore you, when you come to church, stop asking God to give you things, including himself, and bring yourself wholly to him because he’s worthy.
Father Don Purdum
Pastor, Holy Trinity Church
