OFFERING OURSELVES IN WORSHIP

(Preached on Sunday, June 3, 2007)

Gladly give the glory that is due,

offer yourself as you come into sacred courts.

-Psalm 96:8, paraphrase

 

Recently I have taken to reading Ablogs,@ (the common term for web logs, personal journals kept on the world wide web where anyone can log on and read your musings, ramblings, and personal reflections.)  One of the more intellectual blogs I read is posted by The Christian Century, a liberal, mainline theological journal.  In essence it is an on-line version of the journal, with postings written by many of the same people who write the journal articles.  The primary difference is that those who read the postings have the opportunity to make comments on-line themselves.

 

In the past few months, the blog post that received the largest number of comments, by far, was entitled, AIs blended worship possible?@ Written by a local church pastor, Debra Bendis, it was sparked by a comment she overheard after worship the previous Sunday that made her wonder if her 350-member Midwestern small-town congregation is the last church still experiencing skirmishes over music styles.  At her church they offer a Aspare 8 a.m. service with very little music,@ and a 10:30 a.m. Ablended@ service weekly, Aexcept for one Sunday a month, when that time slot is filled by a contemporary praise service.@  They have worked hard at this musical mix in their worship and she thought they had embraced a true diversity of musical styles with which the congregation was pleased.  So she was discouraged that Sunday when Atwo of the contemporary music singers turned to me and said: >Why do we call the 10:30 service blended?  There=s no contemporary stuff in it at all C only traditional.=@

 

Such stories have led many pastors, church musicians, and seminary worship professors to speak of the Aworship wars@ going on in the local church for the past 20+ years.  There were a total of 18 comments on that posting.  I printed them out in 10-point font and they covered 3 pages. 

 

Much of these discussions revolve around music in worship.

This has spawned the use of terms such as Atraditional,@ Acontemporary,@ and Ablended.@  Yet, as some of those writing comments pointed out, these terms are very slippery and not all that helpful.  One pastor said: AWhen we think about it clear headedly, all worship is blended.  It is a combination of styles ancient and modern.  The text is ancient, the sermon hopefully in tune with the modern.@  Another reminded us that A>contemporary= is a moving target ... To a twenty year old, the music from when he was ten is traditional.  And he will be startled to learn when he is thirty that his taste in music is no longer contemporary: that he is a neo-fuddy-duddy.@  Another discussed how inaccurate are those terms. AFor example there is a vast treasury of contemporary hymnody which would never be used in so-called contemporary worship, only in >classical= or >traditional= settings.  Why? Because such hymns are not sung to driving rock beats or played through sophisticated sound systems.  Instead, they are accompanied by pipe organs, brass ensembles and timpani.  Ironically what is called contemporary is often thirty or more years old.  But as long as there is syncopation ... it is considered >contemporary.=@

 

In an article published a few years ago, Thomas Long, one of my old preaching professors, wrote that the major issue in most congregations in the worship wars is a question of taste and style.  ARarely do churches fuss over the really big issues in worship C say whether the doctrine of the Trinity is fully expressed or whether Christology is balanced.@  It is taste that usually divides us C >Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam= verses >For All the Saints,= drums and synthesizers verses pipe organs, Ralph Vaughan Williams versus Fanny Crosby, Rembrandt versus Sallman, a trained choir singing Vivaldi=s >Gloria= versus a liturgical dance to >Lord I Lift Your Name on High.=  Good taste?  Bad taste?  Whose taste?@

 

I open up this can of worms because we have been experiencing these worship wars ourselves for a number of years.  Not so much in an overt fashion, but more of a covert war.  We did have a sort of overt salvo about a month ago when someone asked on AAsk the Pastor@ Sunday what we could do to improve our music program.  All of this does matter.  Aesthetics are an important element of worship and taste does matter.  But there are some other equally important elements to remember as well in our discussions and in our gathering for worship.

 

The Book of Psalms in the Bible is all about worship.  It was the hymnal for the ancient Hebrews.  It also became the hymnal for our faith ancestors, the early Congregationalists in Colonial America who only sang the Psalms set to plainsong tunes.  Psalm 96 is totally focused on worship, opening with the words to Asing a new song@ to God. 

Verse 8 offers a guiding reminder for our purpose in worship: AGladly give the glory that is due, offer yourself as you come into sacred courts.@

 

Worship is all about Aoffering ourselves to God.@

Frederick Buechner speaks of two ways to worship: (1) Ado things for God that God needs to have done C run errands for God, carry messages for God ... feed God=s lambs ...@ and (2) Ado things for God that you need to do C sing songs for God, create beautiful things for God, give things up for God, tell God what=s on your mind and in your heart, in general rejoice in God ...@  Notice, all those are activities directed toward God, toward offering ourselves to God.  We can offer ourselves to God by doing what God wants done, and that is worship.  We can also offer ourselves to God by doing things which we need to do in order to grow in our faith, become more like the people God created us to be, and that is worship.  Through both activities we are focused on God, not on ourselves.  That helps us to surrender to that which is greater than ourselves.

 

The temptation to create God in our image is virtually irresistible.  As human beings, we inevitably translate the world through our own experience.  But it=s important to recall that the reality is exactly the opposite of our own feeble efforts.  God created human beings in God=s image, not the other way around.

 

When we engage in discussions of what to sing, what to pray, what words and actions to use, it is important that we remember it is all about directing our attention, our devotion, our love and, most importantly, our lives to God.  Taste is an important element.  Personal preference is important.  But all these things are important only as they help us offer our lives to God in worship.

 

The other element to remember is that worship is what we do together before God.  It is a communal act.  We need to ask ourselves if what we do is creating community with one another and with God.  That is not happening when people skip the Sundays with the style of music they don=t like; or if they come 15 minutes late to avoid the praise songs, as one blogger mentioned.  What is comfortable for one person makes someone else uncomfortable.  Being a Christian is about being a member of a community.  Which is like being a member of a family.  I do not always get my way and sometimes I accept what I do not like or does not speak to me for the sake of someone else in the family or community, because I love and respect them.  It=s not always about excitement and feelings.  It=s not only about worship and fellowship.  It=s also about discipleship and justice and community.