As Advent worship prepares us for the grand celebration of the Nativity this Christmas, I was asking myself why we bother with gathering the community to worship at all? And here’s where I arrived this week - that it is the church’s duty to worship God. The scriptures command us to worship God. ‘Praise the Lord’ is an imperative, not a suggestion. It would be a mistake to frame it in terms of benefit to us, because that just keeps bringing everything around to the ego and the human-centric tendency to make everything about us. It’s not meant to be pragmatic, though it does have a benefit; it’s not meant to teach us something new, though we can be given fresh insight. It’s not meant to create community, even though it does connect us. It is, what Marva Dawn calls, ‘a royal waste of time’. It is a summons to behold the King. From the newborn in the manger to the Lamb upon the throne; there, and every place in between, we come to adore. We gather in community to be reminded that God is God and we’re not, and that to engage in the communal practice of recognizing Father, Son, and Holy Spirit at the centre and perimeter of everything is a fundamental reorientation. And it is good; it just is!
So, this season I’m inviting us to adopt a posture of humility and release.
For those who are accustomed to power, control, respect, and privilege this will be harder.
For those who feel like they are often invisible, there will be an advantage, because the scripture says that God humbles the proud and lifts up the weak; worship levels the playing field. We are invited, we are pleaded with, we are encouraged, we are told by the Spirit, and by the witnesses who have preceded us, to come and find our place together, celebrating the beautiful story of God in Christ interrupting history to put all things right. Let us worship God!
Glen S.