February 15, 2004
By Jack Price

Worship is a wonder.  It is an encounter with what is ultimately important in the universe.  Worship, in fact, is an encounter with the living God.  It is also an encounter with our true selves, the authentic self whom God has made us to be.  Finally, worship is also an acute awareness of our community.

Isaiah of Jerusalem lived in 8^th century before Christ, some 2800 years ago.  The passage Isaiah 6: 1-8 describes his personal experience of God, an experience that took place in the context of public worship.  He encountered God in a profound way.  The reality of his own self was revealed and he became acutely aware of the community surrounding him, both spiritual and human.

The good king Uzziah had died after a long and prosperous reign.  Unfortunately, he contracted leprosy during his last years and that was taken as a sign of punishment by God for a terrible sin.  Uzziah's death, then, was a time of confusion and a pivotal event for the kingdom of Judah.  Isaiah, a court prophet, found himself confronted with a career crisis.  The vision described in Isaiah, chapter six, was his "call" to the prophetic ministry that has had such an impact on Jews and Christians alike.

            Isaiah had an experience of the numinous, the holy and mystical presence.  Such experiences involve the whole self:  thought, feelings, will, and body.  Isaiah's words can serve as a guide in our experiences of God.

Isaiah is in the temple, a place of worship.  He says, "I saw the Lord . high and lofty."  The first thing is perceiving God's glory.  Perception is an aesthetic awareness of sensing and contemplation, requiring space, time, and practice.  Twentieth-century Roman  Catholic theologian Hans Urs von Balthazar asserts that it is this aesthetic perception of  divine glory that comes first in our awareness of God.

Angels then call as they fly, "Holy, holy, holy."  Praise is the conscious decision to affirm.  It flows out of a recognition of the order of being.  Then the angel says, "The whole earth is full of God's glory."  We make a choice to "faith" in God's ownership of life.  It is indeed a matter a faith to perceive creation as God's gift.  Finally, we must choose to direct our thanks to the source.  These are choices of thought, feeling, and will.

The "pivots on the threshold" start to shake and Isaiah is confronted with a frightening reality - that God is truly awesome.  Then, he becomes aware of himself and says, "Woe is me."  Encountering God means confrontation with the truth of self.  We are challenged to acknowledge the authentic self that God has created us to be, without borrowing identity from achievements, career, or relationships.  Through thoughtful and honest reflection, embracing our authentic selves is necessary to move forward and to grow.

            Responding to Isaiah's confession, the angels touches his lips with a live coal from the altar and says, "Your guilt has departed.."  Worship necessitates that we accept our need for forgiveness.  And this forgiveness is not so much for breaking a list of rules of behavior as it is for living cut off from authentic self and for living out of touch with God's nature in our lives.  Each of us needs to embrace grace and the assurance of pardon.

Finally, the voice of God is heard:  "Whom shall I send?"  There is always an invitation in worship to realize God's true nature and purpose.  Always the question is proffered, "Who will go?"  In response to an experience of the Spirit, action is always needed on our part.  Change is required and we are given the opportunity to be open to new possibilities.

Isaiah responds, "Here am I.  Send me"  How will you respond to God's invitation? 

Will you choose to commit yourself?  Significant life choices are very often clarified in worship.

A funny thing seems to happen on our way to encounter the numinous.  We get in the

Way.  While it is truth that worship is partly about "me," the opportunity is to confront self as a way to let go self and, then, to meet God.  The more we are self-conscious, the less we will be God conscious.

Our attitudes can disorient us.  First, there is the "correctness" orientation.  Our worship must be done the right way, with proper decorum and correct theology.  Certainly, the theology of our worship is important.  The words said, sung, and prayed lead us to ponder the mystery of God.  The implied text of our music and our ritual can lead us to experience the numinous.  Too great an emphasis, however, on correctness in worship leads people to be judgmental and to worship that is both dead and deadly.

A second orientation is to feelings.  That is, the purpose of worship is help me feel a certain way.  In that regard, how does worship differ from a terrific rock concert or a wonderful experience of the symphony or opera.  Worship is not about my feelings, but about my will.  The danger in a feelings orientation is to focus on the self and not on God.  It leads to an idolatry of our feelings.

We, at Crossroads Church, encourage people to be comfortable in worship.  This underscores the importance of each person finding his or her own path.  It is healthy and helpful to embrace your expressions of worship and to know your needs as we worship together.  At the same time, be challenged in worship.  Be open to new perspectives and expressions of praise and thanksgiving, of confession and introspection.  Focus on God in your life.  Focus on God in your community.  Be aware of the witness of your worship  to others around you.

Worship is a matter of the whole self and so involves our sensations, perceptions, and taste.  Each of us participates in multiple circles of taste.  There is our very personal - music we listen to on headphones, in private, and things we enjoy doing when no one else is around.  There is also communal taste.  There are certain styles and ways of being that seem to identify this congregation.  For example, one would not have to worship here long to feel our of place wearing a suit.  As a congregation, we have certain songs and practices that mark our communal taste.  Beyond this level, there is cultural taste.  In the culture of  the United States, our taste runs to fireworks on 4^th of July, picnics of Memorial Day, and excessive gift giving at Christmas.  Then, there is a more universal taste.  This is taste for the ages and includes expressions of art and practice that stand the test of time.  Included in this circle of taste are great works of art that people of many cultures and eras embrace.

Above all else, worship is a matter of trust.  This idea of trust goes to the roles we play in the process of worship.  The typical dynamic is to perceive worship leaders as the actors of worship.  They do it.  In this regard, God functions as a prompter to help them do it right, and help us feel it right.  The congregation is the audience and worship is something done to us and for us.  Philosopher Soren Kirkegaard has suggested a different grouping of roles.  According to his understanding, the congregation, all of us, are the actors of worship.  Those who function is leadership roles are the prompters of our act of worship.  Finally, God is the audience of our worship.

Both of these dynamics contain truth.  The basic truth behind them, and behind all our worship is this:  God is God and we are not.  Therefore, we must trust God's control in worship.  As we learn to trust God's role in worship, is it not also crucial to learn to trust each other? 

Consider the sequence of trust relationships that reflect our worship at Crossroads.  The pastor considers scriptures and themes for worship.  He gives these to the planning team, shares a vision for the direction of his preaching, then lets go control to the worship planner.  The planner designs a service order using that input and guidance from the worship planning team.  Then, that planners brings that vision to the worship team at rehearsal and shares her vision.  Then, she lets go control to the rehearsal process.  The worship team prepares the elements of worship, including music, at the Sunday morning rehearsal.  At that rehearsal, the band and singers work in conjunction with the worship leaders.  They then support the worship leaders in their leadership of the service.  This group of leaders offers "prompting" to the congregation in the worship service.  The congregation receives direction from the leaders and also brings its own issues and expectations.  With all this, the congregation offers its gift of worship to God, then lets go control of the results of that worship.  God receives our worship.  Finally, God reveals God's own self to people through scripture and experience, the God lets go control of responses.  We people offer our interpretations of God to each other and our worship to God.

            The wonder of worship is that, in its ordered, and often not so ordered, process, God encounters us.  In our worship, we can encounter God.  We can encounter our true selves.  We can become acutely awareness of the community surrounding us.

The late United Nationals General Secretary Dag Hammerskjold, in his book called Markings, has written:

I am being driven forward into an unknown land.

The pass grows steeper, the air colder and sharper,

A wind from my unknown goal

Stirs the strings of expectations.

Still the question:  Shall I ever get there?

There where life resounds,

A clear pure note in the silence

Worship is the wind from our unknown goal that stirs the strings of our expectations.  The wonder of worship is our renewed commitment to the question, "where life resounds".  Worship is faith that life is renewed in the mystery.  The wonder of worship is the affirmation that we are not alone.  "Brothers and sisters, come, let us worship together."