Restore my church Day 2 - Worship

Day 2 – Worship

 Worship is about relationship.

Our Father brings us wholeness and healing. He isn’t just a distant deity, but one who calls us into family life, and a covenantal relationship.

What is worship?

-  We’re called to it

-  We give it to God alone

-  We worship at mass

-  We do it at a specific place and time

BUT there is a danger if we think of worship as only the liturgy (though this is the highest point of worship), or just as event. It must be much more than an event which we do on Sunday mornings!

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Avodah (Hebrew for worship):

First used in Gen 2:15 (and not when the tabernacle/temple is first built!).

“The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it.”

The English translation of Avodah here is cultivate. It is a farming term, but it gets to the heart of what worship is. Worship is the creating of a garden; a place to meet God. A place of growth and of life.

Avad and Shemar – cultivate and keep.

Keep: to guard jealously the space for God. Later in the bible, shemar is also used to describe the act of making sure that no one entered the sacred space to meet God when they were not ready to do so.

Avodah also translates into “culture”; it is not just an individual call, but one of a community. The community is to guard jealously the space for God.

The first calling of our first parents was to worship God!

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Worship is translated from the Hebrew word shachah 80% of the time in the bible.

Shachah refers to a posture, and literally means “to fall on your face”.

Part of the mystery of worship is that you’re encountering something that takes your breath away. This can be seen in our reaction to nature – when we look at nature, we’re hearing creation sing a song of praise to God. It points to our beautiful Creator!

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In the Greek New Testament, another word is being used – Proskuneo.

It does not reflect the transcendence of God the same way which Shachah does, but reflects the other side of worship – the direct and intimate encounter with God.

Proskuneo means to kiss someone face to face.

When we take these two words together, we get a better sense of what worship is – ultimately, it is a call to an intimate relationship with the God of majesty. He wants to be face with us!

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Mount Sinai was the primary place where the Jewish experienced God; the bridal chamber.

They don’t call it the ten commandments, but the ten bridal vows. These are not a series a ‘do’s and ‘don’t’s. It isn’t a sterile law code, nor moral law. It is not meant to tell us what God expects of us.

First part of Exodus – God woos Israel. He tries to take her away from her other abusive boyfriends. (In Hosea – she is referred to as the bride in the wilderness)

When we recognise that it was a marriage moment, even our own rituals – like attending mass – takes on a greater meaning. It’s not just hollow ritualism (John Paul II). Attending mass week in and week out, we can lose the sense of relationship.

Mass is where the relationship becomes most intimate, and the bride kisses the bridegroom. It’s our Mount Sinai, a renewal of our spiritual wedding vows.

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Tradition in Judaism:

When a young man chooses his bride, he approaches the father of the bride and negotiates a bride price. (St Peter in his letter, when he spoke of our salvation, writes: you were bought with a price. This price is nothing less than the precious blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.)

The father would then fill a cup with wine and give it to the young man. The young man will then extend this to the girl, saying: “This cup represents my life, and I’m offering it to you.” If she accepts the proposal, she says the Hebrew word: Amen.

I’m going to receive your life, and I offer mine back to you.

When we say Amen whenever we receive Christ at Holy Communion, we respond in a reciprocal relationship. We’re affirming that this really is the body of Christ, that we’re receiving Christ and offering ourselves back to Him.

Jesus waits for the bride to be ready, and the bride should always be ready for the bridegroom. He is going up to heaven to prepare a room for us.

“Surely, I am coming soon.”

“Amen; Come Lord Jesus.”

One of the invitations to worship is to be more attentive in mass. It’s not just ritual; it’s relationship.

A contract is where goods and services are exchanged, but a covenant is where persons are exchanged in full, free, faithful, and fruitful love.

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Sources of refreshments – called the wellsprings of worship.

These are unending sources of life and restoration. (Catechism of the Catholic Church: Part IV – Christian Prayer)

Four places we can turn to for life and refreshing:

-  Scripture – the Word of God. CCC 2652: The Holy Spirit is the living water "welling up to eternal life" in the heart that prays. It is he who teaches us to accept it at its source: Christ. Indeed in the Christian life there are several wellsprings where Christ awaits us to enable us to drink of the Holy Spirit.

-  Liturgy. Re-energising of the soul when we receive sacramental and actional graces.

-  Living out the three theological values – faith, hope, and love. In living these out, we tap in on God’s very life. In the words of the Cure of Ars:

"I love you, O my God, and my only desire is to love you until the last breath of my life. I love you, O my infinitely lovable God, and I would rather die loving you, than live without loving you. I love you, Lord, and the only grace I ask is to love you eternally. . . . My God, if my tongue cannot say in every moment that I love you, I want my heart to repeat it to you as often as I draw breath."

 -  “Today”. This very day is a wellspring of worship.

“The spirit is offered to us at all times in the events of each day to make prayer spring up in us. It is in the present that we encounter Him; not yesterday, not tomorrow.”

If today you hear His voice, harden not your hearts. – Psalm 95

Today is equally available to each of us. It is equally distributed, and we have equal access.

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If we live these out, we become a lived liturgy. Our whole lives become an experience of worship. Every moment, every day, in every task, we can be worshipping God. In living this out, we respond to St Paul’s call for us to “pray unceasingly” – 1 Thessalonians 5:17.

We don’t have to be talking all the time. We rest in God’s spirit; prayer is not just vocalising.

Worship is to be attentive to the reality that God is always present with us.

John 5:19 – Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing; for whatever he does, that the Son does likewise.

Jesus shows this awareness of God’s presence.

Worship is “looking at God looking at me..”

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Worship is a lifestyle. Through the examen, we can come to recognise patterns of sin and step out of these.

Daily examen:

1.   Begin the day acknowledging the presence of God in prayer. Express gratitude to God for the new day to draw on the wellspring of worship. Gratitude frees us from the slavery of wanting more; the trend of upward mobility.

Make a morning offering – “O my Jesus, I offer you all the works, the joys, and sufferings of this day.” Say prayers through the day to bring our attention back to the awareness and recognition that God is with us at that very moment.

Send out little blessings to Him for the things in life – outfit your day with blessings! Crucifixes, rosaries, blessed icons can constantly remind us of the relationship with God. God wants to be in the most ordinary moments of our lives.

2.   Make a simple petition: “Show me what you want me to see.”

3.   Review your day witih Christ at your side. Where did you make him known in word and deed, and where did you fail to show his face?

Stop and review your actions, feelings, failings, growth... Your life. Walk through these, not in a judgemental manner. Where did you welcome or not welcome Jesus in your life?

This becomes like confession with God, and brings you renewal.

4.   Intention: Make a concrete intention to act differently tomorrow, learn from the patterns of sin in speaking and acting that are keeping you from showing Christ to those around you.

(note: the examen is not the same as the examination of conscience. The latter is done before the sacrament of reconciliation, and can be done by reflecting on the fruits of the spirit, the ten wedding vows, of the three theological virtues.)