Yes – a definite senior moment – I intended to post some writing by Michael L. Lindvall before I started to offer my own thoughts, observations, and such – but, alas, I forgot one that is important to this discussion – so – here it is and we will begin my writing with the next post.

“People often seem to imagine that worship is eiher entertainment, therapy, or education, perhaps some blending of the three. If it’s entertainment, worship would seek to please us in some way, distracting us from routine and invoking happy feelings. This view would suggest that the worship hour should attempt to be as engaging as the flood of entertainment that pours into our secular experience. There may indeed be some sense in which worship entertains, but such a concept is far too trivial.

The language of therapy has become universal in our age. This vocabulary evaluates experiences in terms of whether or not they promote psychological or spiritual healing. If it is therapy, worship is judged by the extent to which it makes one ‘feel better’ or brings ‘healing’ into a person’s life. There is, of course, a sense in which worship must do just that, but to understand it so simply reduces the worship of God to something much smaller.

Finally, among many Protestants, worship long ago started to look a lot like school. Worship was approached as an opportunity for the spiritual and intellectual improvement of Christians, largely through instructive sermons. Of course, Christian worship ought to teach. In worship, a congregation learns the things of Christ. But again, this category is simply too small to comprehend the fullness of worship.

The insufficiency of each of these categories lies in the fact that they are facing the wrong direction. Each is oriented toward entertaining, healing, or educating the worshiper. But the spiritual vector of worship ought to be in exactly the opposite direction – toward God.

Here is the heart of the matter. Worship doesn’t really have a ‘purpose’ in the utilitarian sense of these three categories. Maybe worship is just a glorious and transforming waste of time. At its most profound, worship is nothing but a deliberate and repeated activity in which we are called to turn away from self and turn toward God. As such, it is ‘devotional’ in the best sense of that crusty old word. Worship is nothing less than an attempt to set the order of creation right. The creature owns her creaturehood. Honest confession is spoken. Praise is offered. The worshiper surrenders his pretense to be a god; all turn in adoration to the One who is God. In this dramatic enactment of the fundamental ‘rightness’ of things lies transformation and restoration. Life edges into proper balance. We are free to be who we are – no more but no less. We discover the liberation that comes with being forgiven and accepted by both God and neighbor. We are freed from the pretense of autonomy and invulnerability. We no longer imagine that we have to be in control of everything. Worship is no less than weekly practice at not being God.” (Chapter 11)

Now we are ready to begin the work that I promised yesterday. Grace and peace

Lindvall, Michael L. A Geography of God: Exploring the Christian Journey. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2007.