The heart of worship

I love worship! I love to worship! I love to worship alone and in a group. It’s such an important part of our lives and has such a great emphasis in our services. Many hours and many people go into creating our weekly worship services. Worship is so many things – and I’d like to share with you what worship is not.

Worship, very simply, is not about us – not for us. What do I mean by that? Worship is a gift that we give to someone else. Worship is for God.

The origin of our word worship is similar to the word worth. We think about what something is worth – its value. In the Book of Revelation we hear a lot about worship: “You are worthy, O God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.”

Worship is for God. It’s so easy to lose sight of this truth. We often have people coming to our church to “check us out.” They say they’re church shopping. That’s great – there are so many different brands of churches and flavors of worship for so many different tastes. When I hear about church shopping, it reminds me of Goldilocks and the Three Bears: “This soup is too hot. This soup is too cold. This soup is just right!” Until someone disappoints them, because no church is perfect – because it’s made up of people!

We form opinions about all aspects of life, don’t we? We are comparison shoppers, and we make most of our decisions this way. During the past few decades this has spilled over into worship. Some writers have described this as the “worship wars;” contemporary versus traditional; my favorite style versus your favorite style and music often becomes the scapegoat in all of this. I get asked what style of worship we have on Sundays – and I say we have a blended style. It fits well for us because we’re a church made up of so many different faith backgrounds.

Now, there can be profound worship in any style, but going down the road of style leads us to the wrong place, because it places everything in the context of my preference or your taste. Worship is unique in that it’s not about your preference or mine. It’s something else altogether.

It’s not for us. It is for God. It’s the offering of our very best selves to God. There’s a deep biblical tradition of worship; of giving our best – our best offering, our first offering, the first fruits of the harvest to God. Why do most churches worship on Sundays? Because it’s the first day of the week – not the last. God’s people were instructed to give their first fruits to God. Worship is an offering of our best selves, our real selves, our authentic selves, to God.

In the sixth chapter of Isaiah we see a beautiful picture of what worship looks like. Isaiah is in the temple, overwhelmed with the beauty and glory of God, and he hears the voices singing, “Holy, Holy, Holy is the God of hosts; the whole earth is filled with God’s glory.”

What’s going on? Isaiah is having a wonderful experience of praise. Then something happens. After praise, after authentic and real worship – there’s an experience of the holy – and we see ourselves and life in a different way. Isaiah makes a confession, an acknowledgment and a true statement about himself. “Woe is me, I am lost. I am a man of unclean lips and I live in the midst of a people of unclean lips.” He was reminded, perhaps, of a time when he used his words to harm someone else or even himself. Perhaps it was in worship where he was reminded of one of the “Four Agreements:” Be Impeccable with Your Words.

“Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.”

When we worship God, we are somehow changed. This is not the purpose of worship; it’s not about us, but by experiencing God, we are transformed. In worship, God’s unique and special love for us is revealed. In worship, we might be nudged to go make amends or ask for forgiveness or forgive someone who has hurt us.

Worship is more than a relationship between God and us. When worship is authentic, when it’s an experience of the holy, there is unfinished business. God has our attention.

Back in Isaiah 6:8, “Then I heard the voice of God saying, whom shall I send, who will go for us?” Isaiah responds: “Here am I, God. Send me.”

This is a long way away from church shopping; a long way from sizing up a deity that matches our temperaments and tastes, our styles and status.

In worship, there is praise, confession and forgiveness – and in worship there is a desire to reflect God’s glory beyond the temple, outside of a church building and into the world where we live.

Worship is not about us; yet when we worship we are transformed and filled with a deep desire to reflect God’s light in the world. That’s why we support our outreach ministries into the community. That’s why we support Transgender Day of Empowerment. That’s why we have a children’s and teen’s ministry. Worship fills us with the desire to be God’s light.

Without worship we see our gifts as our own possessions; the world as a resource to be used; our neighbor as competition for those things that we want for ourselves and truth as whatever spin we can put on it.

Passionate worship changes all of life. I think miracles take place in worship. Sometimes someone will make a comment like “our attendance was a little down this morning.” My thought is usually, “I’m just grateful for those who came to worship!” I mean, why would anyone leave the comfort and warmth of their bed on a Sunday morning; put expensive gasoline in their cars; search for a parking place that sometimes is a ways away; drink coffee that may not be as good as you make at home; sit in a room that is usually either too hot or too cold and sometimes next to people you don’t even know? Why would people do this?

It makes no sense unless there’s a God who is real; who is above us and beyond us but also beside us and within us; who created and sustains all things; who is worthy of our worship.

Rev. Dan Koeshall is the senior pastor at The Metropolitan Community Church (The Met), 2633 Denver Street, San Diego, California, themetchurch.org. Services every Sunday at 9 and 11 a.m.