Vibrant Worship

Just what is Christian worship? Why do we gather, week in and week out? What actually happens in the space of an hour or so that could possibly be worth the time, effort, and attention of so many people across cultures and around the world?

Whether you enjoy following a liturgy from the front of the hymnal every service or you prefer different words to express what God is doing and how we respond from one week to the next, there is a basic flow or structure that helps worship happen. Within this structure are basic movements, like confessing our sins, hearing the Word read and proclaimed, gathering tithes and offerings, receiving the Lord’s Supper, or responding in song.

These moments of worship are not accidental or haphazard, even if they follow a different flow from week to week. In fact, the basic movements of worship grow out of the Biblical story itself. From the earliest expression of Christian worship, certain images, verses, and stories from the Bible have expressed what we as Christians understand to be taking place when we gather around Word and Sacrament for the purpose of worship.

The Vibrant Worship sermon and Bible study series is a closer look at what is actually taking place as God gathers His Church in worship. We will unpack the images and stories from Scripture that shape Christian worship and ask how these moments in the biblical story apply to our worship experience today. The more we understand what is actually happening in worship, the more our worship will come alive. When our eyes are opened to what God is doing, our worship takes on a whole new meaning. Vibrant worship, worship that is alive and active, is worship experienced in the knowledge and confidence of what the Triune God is working among us.

The English word worship in its root form has to do with ascribing worth to someone or something. Worth-ship, then, can be seen primarily as ascribing worth to God through our praise and prayers. In this sense, the word worship is similar to the word liturgy, which literally means the work of the people.

While the active participation of the people in a worship service in all kinds of ways—hearing, singing, offering, praying, confessing, praising—while the work of the people is vital to worship, it is not central to worship. The central images that shape Christian worship make abundantly clear that God is the primary actor in worship. The people are certainly active, but more importantly, God Himself is active, giving His gifts and Spirit to those He has gathered.

For this reason, the old German phrase for worship is perhaps most descriptive: Gottesdienst literally means God’s service, God serving His people. A worship service, then, is not primarily about us serving God, but about God serving us—and, of course, though in a derivative way, worship is also about our full and vibrant response to God’s action in this “God (Divine) Service.” Whether we use the word worship or liturgy or even Divine Service, the activity is the same: God comes to act in the hearts and lives of His people; His people respond in vibrant, Spirit-led ways.

Understanding what God is doing in worship will help us enter more fully into our role as worshippers, a role that centers on receiving God’s gifts but then blossoms and grows into an active response to what God has done and continues to do in our lives. Vibrant worship is worship that understands God has the primary role to play and, for this very reason, can enter into worship fully engaged and ready to participate in all that is going on.

If the biblical witness is true, then worship is the single most important hour of our week, a brief time when heaven itself opens up and God once again steps into the mundane lives of common human beings. Since God promises to meet us in worship to give us His gifts, strengthen our faith, and shape our lives, we show up expecting nothing less. That kind of worship holds God to His promises. That kind of worship demands an active response. That kind of worship shapes who we are and how we live. That’s worship the way God intended. That’s vibrant worship, worship that eagerly receives God’s gifts and seeks a faithful response.

Whatever your background, whatever your age group, whatever your favorite worship style, the images and stories in Vibrant Worship are meant for you. They are meant to open your heart and mind to what God has in store for you when you show up in His house. Sometimes we can lose sight of these promises, sometimes our worship can feel tired or stale, but the promises remain. God promises to show up and work in worship. Vibrant worship flows from understanding this promise in its rich complexity and simple beauty.

God once told Moses and Joshua on separate occasions, “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” What made that ground holy is the same thing that makes every Christian worship service gathered around Word and Sacrament a holy moment in the midst of our mundane week: God Himself is present, just as He promised.

So the next time you go to church, the next time you set aside on hour in God’s house for prayer and praise and Scripture and song, be aware of what’s really going on. Let the images and stories that shape the basic movement of worship draw your attention to the promises embedded in our assemblies. And then stand in awe that God Himself would choose such lowly means to work His miracles in the hearts and lives of people still today.

Where God is present to bring his gifts and promise, true worship is taking place. True worship, Vibrant Worship, is worship that seeks to receive what God promises to give.

The Vibrant Worship sermon and bible study series begins September 17/18, 2011.

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