WORSHIP: THE FUNCTION VS. THE FORM

Here is one thing that surprises a lot of first time visitors to Nashville. It’s a full replica of the famous Greek temple, the Parthenon, which is left over from when Tennessee was hosting the World's Fair forever ago. Apparently, Nashville used to be well-regarded as "the Athens of the South," back in the days when it championed the very progress and higher learning it now politically dismisses at "elitist." But regardless of any ironies between past and present... A full-scale ancient temple is not something you expect to see after driving down the Nashville strip. But it's cool to check out, especially since it's not in ruins. We went when we moved out here. And we've taken some friends to see it when they visited.

The Parthenon houses a huge statue of Athena. What we'd perhaps call an "idol." It struck me, though, while looking at this ornate, 40-foot carving... I just felt confirmation of something I've sensed for a long time. It's the idea that people don't worship the FORM, but the FUNCTION of a god. We can't even process the form of Divinity – we can’t conceive of it – so instead we echo it; we echo the Way of a god in the manner by which we ourselves live. This is why the ancients had gods for every kind of commerce or lifestyle or culture. And current civilization is no different.

The way we live is indicative of what “god” means to each of us. Our hearts are found in the same place as the things we treasure.

As large as Athena may have been, I've never been able to swallow the common conception of ancient people being that in awe of a mere statue. I simply have always had a hard time imagining them literally believing it was fully mystical or divine. However glorious its composition or however assured its craftsmanship, I've thought that it would make more sense if they just held it to be a symbol for something much greater. And from what I’ve learned of religious life in that context, what I'm thinking seems to be true – at least, for most ancient people, that would seem to be the case. For a temple in ancient Greece, the worship taking place was not so much of the fashioned image, but of what the image represented. What it meant. What it stood for. The real action and weight of "worship" was of the other activities being blessed or endorsed by the temple, both inside and outside of it. And thus, when ancient people attended temple rituals and gatherings – they went to be a part of the scene, to ingest many substances (from wine, to hallucinogens, to the meat of sacrificed animals), they went to have interactions of a commercial or sexual nature, to form trade agreements, to take advantage of young children and traffic in human life, to carouse and make profitable business connections… Basically, they got together and did all the things they wanted to do anyway, excusing otherwise questionable activity by sanctifying it as “religious,”

And for them, this was all part of “worship.” Misguided, absolutely – but integrated holistically into all of their lives.

Contrary to popular opinion, they didn't go because they were so stupid they thought a statue was the end-all to their religion. Any pagan would know that mere worship of the form yields nothing. They knew that, ultimately, only the function matters. The form is an icon made to reflect the greater function. The icon is not an end in itself, and temple worship did not entail people just sitting there, praising a carved rock. The ancients’ religious views and acts of worship implied and included a way of life involving one’s place in society, view of culture, political stances, industrial ventures, treatment of other people, environmental philosophies… All of these things were integrated into “worship.” A functioning worship. So when they "worshiped before an idol," it wasn't just them bowing, saying, "Wow, this statue sure is fantastic... Wow, isn’t this stone terrific…" Rather, in the biggest and most lavish temples, full of the wealthiest and most important people, they didn't merely revere idols - they altered their minds and preyed on the weak and helpless while building their own kingdoms. Their worship exhibited actively the things they valued most in life: Greed. Excess. Gluttony. Power. Unchecked lust and aggression…

...So I'm thinking about all this and then something hits me: It is very sad and telling that - despite serving a God who is the opposite of the things mentioned above - so many people of Jesus' Way don't always realize the same thing ancient pagans did. That in vain, we attempt to be at our best and most meaningful by gathering together to “worship” the FORM of God – which remains so intangible and elusive to us – when it is the FUNCTION which should ultimately matter most. And then I realized that God understands this – God recognizes that worship is about making connections, about the transitive properties of WHAT WE DO. In fact, isn't that what God has been telling us from the very beginning? Isn't that why Jesus can say, "Peter, do you love me? Really? No seriously, you do? …Then feed my sheep." If worship is how we overflow to God our love and devotion, we need to take another long look at those famous words. “Do you love me? …Feed my sheep.” We’d also do well to examine the things Jesus says about sheep and goats, and the things we do as unto God.

As misguided as some of the ancients’ worship may have been, we can still learn from the way they engaged worship in general, and, possibly, get a little closer to God’s ideal in the process. We should be aiming closer to function and not settling for a form that we can’t pin down. Of course, it’s always humbling when we learn lessons of worship from those we consider misguided. But that’s good for us. A lot of us pride ourselves on how closed off we are to those we consider “wrong” in any way. We staunchly assert that no one who is "wrong" could ever have anything to teach us, or could live in any way that might inform the way we live. A lot of us do not allow ourselves to be challenged, and end up going through life without permitting ourselves to change – thinking we’ve already arrived – as though we have something to prove to God. We’re too often too set in our ways, and too often unteachable... And yet God is always trying to talk to us, however we might be reached, and in many diverse ways.

Now, I say all this as a long-time "worship leader." One who is feeling the paradigm shift inside, feeling God transform his desire for how to accomplish real and true worship. I have been feeling that shift for some time - years, in fact. I have been coming to grips with the reality of how my own music might take shape, how it might function for this purpose, and how the rest of me might take shape in all that I feel, think, say and do. And I've had to ask the question, "How can I use who I am and what I do to best worship God now?" And the answer has come, "Worship will be accomplished as you saturate your aim with doing as God does - not just calling out to a vague notion of God's form, but joining in God's function. Live in this way, letting all you do be marked with love, mercy, compassion, honesty, truth, beauty, freedom..."

This is a timely realization for me.

The church has essentially commoditized "worship" into the ground, strangling it with the passionless hands of Industry. A bit over ten years ago, worship music became synonymous with Christian Pop. Now, a decade later, the consumer-machine has mostly run its course with this trend. Worship leader rock stars have made a lot of greedy people a lot of money, and now the hysteria is dying down. But while the “worship boom” as a “movement” shows signs of exhaustion, we once again face the reality that our flavor of the moment is not the answer. Once again, we’re forced to look at the entirety of our holistic selves to examine whether or not our lives are pleasing to the Divine – whether or not they are marked by “worship.” We used to sing a Matt Redman song which began, "When the music fades / all is stripped away / and I simply come / longing just to bring / something that's of worth / that will bless Your heart..." For as many people as I've seen passionately sing that song with abandon, I've seen far fewer of those same people who actually attempt to live in the truth it dances with. Here we are today - the music is absolutely fading - and where does that leave us? Is worship like theater or print, where it can be pronounced dead? Can real worship actually become obsolete? ...Or did it never fit in the tidy compartment of "congregational singalong" to begin with? 

The tough part to just come out and say is that it's almost eerie to consider how misguided so much of Christian worship is, aiming merely to drum up emotion towards the FORM of God even as we imperfectly describe it, when any worshiper (Christian or Pagan or Jedi) should know – worship is ultimately in the FUNCTION: God's activity informing and inspiring ours. Worship is practical in its transcendence. Worship is holistic in its spirit. It’s integrated. It’s real. It’s who we are. Not just something we leave compartments to do. Who we are. All the time. Existence itself... In that sense, I wish that our idea of worshiping God in song featured less focus on trying to sing AT God and more of a focus on the idea that we're joining God in the song God is singing.

Are we marked by a real, FUNCTIONAL lifestyle of worship? Or have we just scheduled routine moments in which we embrace the FORM of a small shadow of it?

Now, of course, I must say I am not AGAINST singing together. And obviously, “worship” would include our singing out to God, since singing and music are a big part of what it means to be human. It would include our singing to one another of the wonders of God as well. Worship would include those things. Of course it would. We’d never disagree with that or question its place – there is certainly room (and reason) for the church to be singing together. I’d never minimize that.

The problem, though, is apparent in that for many of us, singing is ALL that worship means. When we begin a gathering with “worship,” we know we’re referring to music. When we go to a church conference focused on “worship,” the conference will be focused on playing and singing in groups. And on (and on) we could go with examples. It’s as though, when we hear the word “worship,” some synapse in our brain fires and translates the term for us. We hear “worship” and we interpret “singing.” And as much as we’d never minimize the music we make together, this is a problem. It’s a problem because worship is so much more than that. And it deserves so much more than that. Our definition of “worship” is small and limiting. Worship is not singing. Singing can be worship, but worship is not singing… And if this is the case, how might we better define worship? I’d suggest something like this:

Worship is… A LIFE… REFLECTING… GOD. It’s what God’s creation looks like when it’s basking in God’s light. It is any part of the universe communicating God’s nature, will or purpose. It’s God’s character on display in God’s artistry…And for us in particular, worship is a life reflecting God.

It’s not just singing. It’s broad and beautiful. It’s an endless exploration. And consider, when many of us get to thinking, “So like, Heaven will be really boring if all we do is sing at God all the time, right?” We’re selling the eternal kingdom far, far short of its glory. If all we ever did was the same exact thing, it would be boring. Thankfully, God is far more creative and empowering than that. God’s delight is in engaging and involving people in what God is accomplishing. And God is in the habit of receiving worship in this way.

I’d suggest that worship is such an expansive and mystical pursuit that we’ll never run out of ways to take part in it. When we worship, we join in the dance of God. On an eternal plane, this dance will never lose its mystery or its beauty. It will be forever, infinitely awesome.

Consider: At our worst, we are worshiping the form of our worship itself. At our best we are functioning constantly in a worshipful capacity, being saturated by God’s purpose, and doing only the things we were created to do.

And even now, we could see much more as “worship” than we do. We could take on much more with the mindset of “worship” than we do.

- There is worship in delighting in the natural world, enjoying the splendor of the universe – from the smallest creature to the grandest solar system.

- There is worship in appreciating beautiful things – from any form of art, to the personalities of those you encounter.

- There is worship in creating things and exploring creative passions.

- There is worship in serving others.

- There is worship in an act of love.

- There is worship in any action of selflessness, compassion, mercy, community, generosity, sacrifice, etc.

- There is worship in making peace, bringing comfort, enacting justice or ministering healing. 

- There is worship in “doing as God does” in anything we’ve been called to join God in doing.

- There is worship in any instance our lives reflect God. 

To a follower of God in the Way of Jesus, worship… is… life. When a person’s being reflects God’s Divine light, worship is taking place. As Romans 12 has always said (and I’ll paraphrase), “So, brothers and sisters, since you see life through the lens of God’s merciful way of being, you should offer up all that you are in response – your entire self as a living sacrifice – which is holy, as in set apart for purpose (and absolutely delightful to God, by the way), because this is the core of your spirituality, your way of being marked by worship.”

So I’ve been thinking…

The ancient Greeks and Romans went to a temple and did as the gods did. This was “worship.” They joined in the function. They partied. But modern Christians go to a church building and attempt to drum up the most emotional response toward an intangible form, and then we get confused and saddened when it doesn’t stir us or fails to connect... So even our “worship” becomes a selfish fix – part of an ongoing religious routine. And because of our conditioning and tradition, we end up missing what we should already know intrinsically – that real worship is primarily about function. Our God is spirit, and even our best descriptions, even our best poetry, falls vastly short of capturing God's form. To worship God in the temple, we should be doing as the prophets have always said in showing mercy to one another and releasing every yoke of bondage and oppression. This function of joining God's dance would be a great expression of "worship." It would even be a primary one.

And because God’s temple is not a building but a people, how much more should worship be everything that we are and all of life? Not a compartment for singing, but a core reality which awakens us to enjoying and experiencing God in EVERYTHING.

Like I've said so many times, now I can see more clearly from a different angle – The scripture Jesus' quoted most, "I desire mercy and not sacrifice." …Mercy is what God's doing. It's the function, the purpose, the direction… But then there are the elements which make up much of our gathering together. The religious rites and events we try to prop up in mercy's place, those things which are but a shadow, an imperfect form. 

God’s people have always had a history of this very thing – giving primary attention to the things God would say are secondary, and eventually losing track of the most important things. The book of Isaiah deals primarily with this theme: God telling his people, “You gather. You posture. You fast. You sing… but then you are selfish, rude, uncaring, exploiting, and oppressive to one another. How can I hear your prayers when you are so far from my will, my nature? If you choose religious routines over walking in intimate relationship with me and others, I am not impressed. I am not pleased with you setting yourself a quota and motivating yourself through guilt. That’s selfish too. If you were in my embrace, you’d have joy and empowering to shine. You’d be motivated by love, which is Divine. If even your spirituality is all about you, something is off.” 

Worship is not contained in our limited forms, or in our crying out to a form. It’s ultimately in our function – the entirety of our lives, everything that we are and exist to be and do.

I suppose that to attempt primarily worshiping God outside of the realm of function could ultimately prove as misguided as just bowing down to a statue. And if that's the case, our "worship" itself becomes idolatry. Without function, that form is cheap and meaningless. Without function, worship is left to our best guess at an object, rather than our joining in the subject (and WITH the Subject) of the Great Story.