Worship in Spirit and Truth
I had an interesting discussion on Sunday with my wife and a friend. They had been to a worship service at the church we currently belong to that was very moving. It involved testimony on signs and audience participation. Evidently it was very moving.
My wife said that she kept thinking about how unimpressed I would be. She even mentioned something about wearing a Pharisee hat.
I’m not opposed to emotion in worship. I just don’t believe that it should be about emotional reaction, that it should be crafted specifically to elicit emotion as if that were some measure of “spirit and truth”. I think the Pharisee remark was based on my assertion that there is a right way and a wrong way to worship God. I’m just becoming more and more cynical about the whole concept of “personal” religion and the American “roll your own” mentality. I object to the idea that it’s your intent that matters, not your actions or words or forms. Where’s that scriptural precedent? Intent does matter, but so does what we do. Christ did not abolish the law and prophets, nor did he say that any of the ancient forms were wrong. He said that the forms and actions are not enough.
I think it does matter what we do when we say we’re “worshipping”. For what it’s worth, the Pharisees weren’t necessarily wrong, their doctrine was simply insufficient. You can get to Heaven by following every rule and law, but no human being other than Christ was able to do it.
Worship is about pleasing God, not us. Sermons aren’t worship. Fellowship isn’t worship. I don’t think we get to tell God what worship should be. I’ll need to read more on this issue, too.
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