Worship

Figure Kneeling in Prayer* 

What is worship? Is it something you do in a group about once a week, usually on a Sunday? Is it a style of music, as indicated by playlists on iTunes with titles like "Praise and Worship”? Is it something you can do for a little while and then… stop? There is something unsatisfying to me about looking at it that way. Perhaps worship is something both more basic and holistic.

According to Andrew McGowan, Dean of Berkeley Divinity School and historian of early Christianity, the scriptural and ancient Christian idea of worship was about “obedience or service, not gatherings, nor beliefs, nor song, nor ritual, except within that wider whole.”** This is more like it. In the Bible, such obedience and service is often performed with the body, specifically in the acts of bowing and prostration. See, for instance, Genesis 24 where a man "bowed his head and worshipped the Lord" or Matthew 28, where the disciples saw the risen Christ and "worshipped him.”

The simple act of kneeling, bowing or prostration not only expresses a life of worship; they are means by which we might be so formed into obedient servants of God. This has certainly been true for me. I have often found myself sensing my imperfect love and wavering dedication, longing for grace to make up the difference between where I am and where Christ calls me to be. At such times, if I am simple or just weary enough to actually do it, it is the act of lying prostrate on the hardwood floor of my bedroom and letting my heart pour through my lips, my desire to be nothing so that Christ may be all in me, that begins to close this gap. This physical expression of humility actually begets humility. In it, I dimly mirror the self-emptying Christ who became a lowly servant for our sake. I begin (begin) to resemble him more, and to resemble Christ is salvation.

Maybe getting down low on the floor to see the humble Jesus is where God is calling you to worship this Advent season. It’s where you will find me. It is through such acts that we prepare room in our hearts and in our lives for him to be born.

Post by John Kennedy

*https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ABEL_-_Figure_Kneeling_in_Prayer.jpg

**Andrew McGowan, Ancient Christian Worship: Early Church Practices In Social, Historical, and Theological Perspective (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2014), 3.