Why worship?

a reflection from summer...

Last week nearly all of my time was spent with the village’s theater project, “Beyond the Mountain”.  It was a busy and creative time of story sharing, singing, dancing and having a little fun with the idea that we are all on this life long journey of discovery.  With this theme villagers wrote monologues and shared their own stories, participating in the telling of life, of confusion, of wonderment, of losses and successes, too.

Personally I found it fascinating to be working on this project, all the while keeping on at my day job of supporting the village’s long tradition of daily worship.  There are so many elements of our worship and of this theater project that are similar – humans gathering to share a story, to wonder about life, to participate together in life and death .  And that connection led to other wonderings about other gatherings in the village – a good conversation in the Jacuzzi with miners, a philosophical wondering on the smoker’s porch, a hearty lunch filled with laughter – what’s the difference between these gatherings and our daily worship? Now, I am acutely aware that one of my worship professors from seminary is within ear shot – so here’s hoping I can tell the difference between Jacuzzi, cigs, show tunes and the gathered assembly in worship.   Here’s hoping!

We gather here, together, at the end of days that were impossibly full. Meetings and important conversations, physical labor or resting.  No matter what your activity, or lack thereof – you day was filled up with something, worthwhile or otherwise. And now we pause, for twenty minutes for our tradition of daily worship and I’m asking us all to consider for a moment, why?

The third commandment says, “Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.” From our full days, we arrive at a Sabbath moment – and this moment, is nothing short of a holy, restful disruption. Our Sabbath moment takes away all that we have been filled with, all our decisions and arguments, all our brokenness and fear, all our self-made gods and distractions – our Sabbath moment takes it and instead we, the gathered assembly, are given the holy, ever-present and loving company of God. 

In the Sabbath we experience the sweet liberation of engaging in a story we cannot mess up, in feeling a love we cannot destroy, in being so secure and beloved that we can give it all away, in being integral characters in a story this is not all about us! This is the rest-fill, disruptive gift of Sabbath worship.

Like children gathering for story time, we are entering a story as we worship – the difference between the theater project and our worship is the story we are participating in.  In the theatre project we asked each writer to share specifically about their life experience, and the words shared were holy and beautiful.  In worship we participate in a story that encompasses the entire arch of creation and all humanity is swept up in it.  In worship, we are set in the story of the life and death of Jesus Christ – we tell, hear, co-create and urge along the story of the cross.  As the beautiful hymn we just sang says, “creation lifts its voice to tell your might and glory, and we, too, will rejoice to proclaim the saving story.”

I have often heard that an effective worship leader gets out of the way so that the whole congregation can see God more clearly, but that still feels too close to performance art – as an actor tries to fade into the character they are portraying.  As if God could be hid behind a mumbling preacher or a showy musician. 

Sometimes, the church, behaves as those She has laryngitis.  No voice to raise, nothing much to say, other than grumbling and croaking.  We, the entire community, no matter if you find yourself in the pulpit or in the back row – together we tell the story of love and grace, of sacrifice and unity with God. And we must speak up and we must gather together, because this world needs to hear that word of love, and our community needs to hear that word of love and you are just the preacher God has supplied.

God is known here, in the breaking of the bread…in the praying of the saints…in the reading of the Word...in the community that takes care of their own…in the creation that gives fresh rain…God is known here in a spectacular and mysterious way.

We will all continue to gather in the Jacuzzi and smoker’s porch….and I don’t imagine it’ll be too long before the next theater project and the invitation to tell your story will come.  And at the end of all these full days of gathering and sharing and failing and flying we will remember the Sabbath and keep it holy as the gathered assembly here to tell the old, old story of Jesus and his love.