I recently had a conversation with a friend, in which she expressed her misgivings about worship consisting solely of a song leader leading worship in a concert-like environment. Her misgivings were well founded, and while she was looking for a purely biblical answer to her question, that got me thinking: What is the nature of worship supposed to be, and how is that concept often lost in contemporary society?
First, I think a little background info is in order. Let's begin with the question "how is worship portrayed in the Old Testament?" Scripture contains many references to the tent of meeting, the tabernacle, the temple... all names for the various places where God's presence was said to dwell on earth. And while we can find in Scripture very detailed explanations for the Liturgical Rites of the Temple, what is more important to notice is the attitudes that the Israelites had toward God, and how that had an effect on their approach to Divine worship.
There is a tradition among the Hebrews that the Divine name of God is never to be said aloud. In fact, the only place it could be pronounced was by the Priest as part of the Temple rituals. This reverence for the Divine name (referred to as the Tetragrammaton, is given to Moses in Exodus 3, and roughly translates to I AM WHO AM) is important, because there is another ancient belief that to name something or someone is to exercise power over that person. The insistence on not pronouncing the Divine Name indicates a recognition that no person can exercise power over God.
Another key element worth noting is the fact that even when the Israelites assembled at the Temple to worship, they themselves did not enter the Temple proper, remaining instead in the courtyard outside. Only the Priests could lawfully enter the temple, and only on the most solemn of occasions could they enter the Holy of Holies, which is the place where God's presence on earth was said to dwell, and is also the place where the Ark of the Covenant was kept. What this shows is a reverence for the Mystery of God's presence, which the people gathered to worship.
Present also in the actions of the Israelite people is a recognition of the transcendence of God's majesty and power. God's presence is known and mediated in and through real-life persons and events (the prophets, the Exodus from Egypt, etc.). But God is wholly other- and even when God does reveal His presence, it is always masked, as it was in the pillar of cloud/fire present at the Exodus. This is what leads to the belief that no one can see the face of God and live, and leads to Biblical Characters who do have an encounter with the Divine expressing great fear over said encounter. This is why so many people struggled with understanding the concept of how God could become man in the Person of Jesus Christ. If God truly was one, he should not have a physical presence- and moreover, he should not have a son! This was one of the great mysteries that the Early Church had to wrestle with- and while we see remarkable explanations of the nature of Jesus the Christ present in the writings of St. Paul, it would take the Church until 381 to fully codify the Creedal formula we use today, and many more Church councils to combat the heresies that sprung up that attempted to either deny Christ's Divinity, or his Humanity.
So why is all of this important? Because in order to fully understand what it means to Worship God, we must first recognize that God's transcendence plays a key role in worship. To worship is to enter into the Mystery of God's life and love for us- to have a reverence and respect for the Presence of God among us. Worship understood in this vein becomes a communal act, which transcends space and time. True Worship unites us to the entire community of Faith, making present one of the great mysteries of our Faith- the Body of Christ, which is present not only in the Eucharist, but in the assembled body of Believers.
Here, the concept of Mystery and transcendence is of the utmost importance. In contemporary society, people do not like unanswered questions. People instead want everything to be neat and organized, and they want to be able to have answers to all of life's great questions. The unfortunate side effect of this is that it devalues the transcendent nature of God, and makes God into a commodity- something that we can keep in a neat little box, and can explain with a few trite words that tell us who our "god" is. And here is the problem with worship expressed only through song- even though people are gathered together in a common space, there is no emphasis on community: The reality is very much that it's "just me and Jesus" and that's all that matters. All sense of mystery is lost, and we are left with a skeleton faith, which tells people that if they believe in "god," all will be well for them, and they will prosper. There is no theology of suffering, and most importantly, no theology of Sacrifice. This personal "god" enables a person to see god as they want to, and not as He truly is- the transcendent Other, whom no human being could possibly explain.
So does this mean that Praise music is bad, and we shouldn't listen to it? No, it doesn't. But what it does mean is that gathering together to "worship" at a concert every week cannot be the be-all and end-all of one's Faith Expression. The fact that worship has become such is by and large a product of the secularization of society, and our modern scientific mindset. It demonstrates an unwillingness to enter into and wrestle with things beyond our understanding, and to admit that we don't have all the answers. When we can begin to enter into mystery, without needing to find all the answers, then we can truly begin to understand what it means to Worship God.
In closing, I just want to state that the challenge for all of us who profess faith in God is to continually grow in our Faith. Even a person who has faith at the level described above can grow and deepen their knowledge of God. That should be the goal for all of us. Not to stay where we are comfortable, but to continually seek to grow in faith, even when it is difficult, or when challenges arise. That is how our faith gets strengthened.
There is so much more that I could say on this topic- I just wanted to express some basic thoughts. I hope reading this post has been helpful.
