Often when we think of worship, particularly on a Sunday morning, what comes to mind is singing. Singing has long been part of worship. It is an important part of Christian worship, for the apostle instructs both the Ephesians and the Colossians to sing. Singing is part of the church’s teaching function. This is why we must have worship music that tells us who God is and what he has done. Singing, however, is only part of worship. If we limit “worship” to singing, we will end up robbing ourselves of the other gifts given to aid us in worship.
For some traditions, a new cultus has been introduced. A cultus is what Israel was given. There were prescribed rituals they had to perform. This is what many think of when they hear the word “religion”. In the ancient world, religion was simply a matter of offering to the gods according to the proper rituals. Precise language and precise actions were necessary and so long as you followed the ritual precisely, you could go about your life knowing you had satisfied that particular god’s demands and the blessings would come. There was no other impact on your life than this.
In church history, some things from the Israelite cultus were brought into Christian worship. The concept of priests offering a sacrifice was borrowed from the Old Testament. What had once been an organic expression of worship soon came to be a precise ritual—a formula. Say these words and say them in this way. Lift this up and move this way and repeat this line. Peter Heather’s book “Christendom” explain this massive increase in cultic ritual as stemming from the association between the empire and the church, beginning with Constantine’s “conversion”.
As Christian bishops were appointed to imperial government posts, the pomp and circumstance of imperial royalty began to enter the church’s worship. Worship was made more formal. Strict liturgies began to flourish. Eastern Orthodox Churches today still use John Chrysostom’s “Divine Liturgy”—written in the fourth century! Soon the liturgies became the only way for a church’s corporate worship.
The truth is a worship service needs structure, but it does not need a cultus—a strictly prescribed form. We have liturgical practices. When celebrating the Eucharist, the “thanksgiving” that is communion, we speak the Words of Institution given to us by Paul. When we baptize, we do so “in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit”. When we read Scripture from the Lectionary we respond with, “This is the Word of the Lord” and “Thanks be to God”. Our prayers, however, are not written prayers, though they could be. There’s nothing wrong or inherently bad about a written prayer. Our sermons are are not off-the-cuff but are crafted beforehand. We choose songs ahead of time.
Our worship service follows a form. It has three parts: the Liturgy of the People; the Liturgy of the Word; the Liturgy of Sacrament. In the Liturgy of the People we come together as the body of Christ in the name of Christ for he promised that when we assemble in his name he will be present in a unique and powerful way. In this opening act of our corporate worship we sing songs together and we spend significant time praying together and for one another. We conclude the Liturgy of the People with our offerings. We the church are fully engaged in this, for singing and praying and giving are acts of corporate worship.
Next is the Liturgy of the Word. It begins with a Scripture reading from the Lectionary. From the very beginning Christians have used a systematic way to do what Paul instructed Timothy: we devote ourselves to the public reading of Scripture (1 Timothy 4:13). We have the children’s story from the “Jesus Storybook Bible”. This reading points our little ones to the reality that Jesus is the entire point of the Bible. The book’s subtitle is “Every story whispers his name”. Then we have the sermon. We generally preach “lectio continua”—through an entire book of the Bible, verse by verse. We the church are fully engaged in this, for hearing God’s word proclaimed requires our active response in the moment, but also in subsequent obedience to the Lord.
Finally is the Liturgy of Sacrament. We have baptisms as the Lord calls people to faith and repentance, and we celebrate the body and blood of the Lord given for us and to us. As Paul describes in his letter to the Corinthians, through the bread and the cup we participate in the body and blood of the Lord. We are not consuming literal flesh and blood, yet somehow in some mysterious way we are participating in them (1 Corinthians 10:16). In both baptism and communion we receive the promise of forgiveness of sins, for they point us to the Lord Jesus and his sacrifice for us. We close our service with the recitation of the Creed, whether the Apostles’ Creed or the Nicene Creed. Through this we declare together our common faith in our one God in Three Persons.
The tendency of the human heart seems to be to take the gifts of worship we’ve been given and reduce them to mere outward acts. The cultic acts God required of Israel were never really about the outward form. Consider what the lawgiver—Moses—said to them:
“And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the LORD, which I am commanding you today for your good?”
Deuteronomy 10:12-13 ESV
Notice he does not say that God requires rituals of them. God does not require adherence to specific formulas. Instead, the focus of Israel’s service—that’s the word for worship!—is to love the Lord. By loving him they will keep his commandments, yet merely keeping his commandments is not what he desires. Keeping his commandments is the inevitable outcome of what he desires, for what he desires is their service—their worship.
This is why worship is so much more than singing! Throughout Scripture the response to God’s presence is worship. We even see this response when angels appear to ordinary men, for angels come from God’s presence. This nearness to God’s holiness induces worship in men. In Revelation 19:10 the apostle John sees an angel and falls at his feet to worship him. The angel rebukes him and tells him, “Worship God!” The holiness of God seems to have clung to the angel, inducing a desire to worship.
So what, exactly, is worship? It is something we offer to God in response to who he is and in response to what he has done. Paul says in Romans,
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
Romans 12:1 ESV
Paul says the service we render to God is our lives. We present ourselves to him—our physical selves—which is is our spiritual worship. When we assemble together in the name of Christ on Sunday mornings, we are gathered together to present our bodies as a corporate living sacrifice. This offering to God is holy and acceptable to him through the Lord Jesus. When we pray for one another, we offer our prayers to God for his glory. When we read Scripture, we read to one another yet we do so for God and his glory. When we give our offerings, we give to the Lord for his glory. When we preach his word we preach for our benefit and for his glory. When we sing we sing to God and to one another for God and his glory. When we celebrate the sacraments we do so out of gratitude to God for his incredible gift and we offer this thanksgiving for his glory. Every single part of our worship service is an act of worship. Singing is an important part of this, yet it isn’t close to the whole of it.
In corporate worship what matters most is saying true things about God from a heart of love and faith. How we say them is culturally defined. It is far more than assembling together and saying the right things, however. What is clear throughout the pages of Scripture is worship that is acceptable to God is worship that comes from a transformed heart and mind. The style of music is quite secondary to the heart of praise that sings. The expression of love and thanksgiving is far more important than the physical actions involved in celebrating communion. Worship has never been about the outward form but about the inner experience of love and faith.
This is why musical styles in worship can change. This is why the structure of a worship service can change. The outward form of the worship is not the most important part of worship. When determining what to include (and what not to include!), we simply ask whether a thing turns our hearts toward God and causes us to praise him and adore him. This is what worship is: it is ascribing to God his incredible worth.
In our Liturgy of the People we proclaim the honor and glory that belong to God by praising him and by praying to him and by giving our offerings. In our Liturgy of the Word we proclaim the honor and glory that belong to God by proclaiming his Word through the Scripture reading and the childrens’ story and the sermon. These all point our hearts to him. In our Liturgy of Sacrament we proclaim the honor and glory that belong to God by receiving the gifts of baptism and communion. In these we visibly and tangibly experience the goodness of God given us in Christ. We proclaim together our common faith in the God who saves, the God who reveals himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. When we assemble together we respond to his honor and glory through worship.
God is simply worthy of worship. The English word for worship comes from the Anglo-Saxon word meaning “worth-ship”. We proclaim he is worthy. When we worship God, we receive something incredible. The truth is you become like what you worship. As we worship the Lord together, our act of worship is forming us into his image. As Paul put in 2 Corinthians 3:18, we behold the glory of the Lord. We proclaim this glory and we respond to this glory. Through this we are being transformed into his image. We become like the one we worship. Even in this his worthiness is on full display.