III. Private Worship
Worship is both a private and a public activity. It is both personal and corporate. In this post, I want to describe how worship takes place in private, personal settings.
During Jesus’ time, worship was generally viewed as limited to specific times, specific places, and specific rituals. Jews viewed God’s presence as restricted to the innermost room of the Temple, and only one person, the High Priest, could enter that place once a year on the Day of Atonement.
This perspective on worship was displayed by the Samaritan woman who said to Jesus: “Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem” (John 4:20). She was referring the temple that was built on Mt. Gerizim by the Samaritans as a rival to the Jerusalem temple. Since she recognized that Jesus was a prophet, she wanted him to settle this interreligious dispute.
Instead, Jesus challenged her to expand her understanding of worship: “But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:23-24). Worship is not a matter of external ritual but of internal fellowship with God, which can take place at any time in any place.
After his death and resurrection, Jesus poured out the Holy Spirit on the church. Now, every person who surrenders his or her life to Christ receives the Holy Spirit as a permanent possession. Because God’s own Spirit dwells within his people, we can turn within and commune with God at any moment.
Other passages of Scripture suggest that our entire lives are to be characterized by an attitude of worship. Paul says: “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thess 5:17). He also suggests that every word and act should express worship for Christ (Col 3:17). Worship of God is not restricted to one hour on Sunday morning when we meet together in a building. Worship occurs any time our thoughts are centered on God’s greatness and any time we say or do something to bring glory to God’s name.
This attitude of ceaseless worship was exemplified in the life of Brother Lawrence, a fifteenth-century French monk. He discovered the secret of what he called “the practice of the presence of God.” Whether he was cooking in the kitchen, washing the dishes, or scrubbing the floors, he had learned to maintain a constant awareness of God’s presence with him (Foster, 1988, p. 162). His devotional book about this topic has inspired countless Christians through the centuries to look beyond the mundane activities of everyday life to experience the presence of God with them.
Private worship also occurs in moments of solitude when we turn away from the distractions of outer life and focus on the presence of God within. I have already written about this in a previous post. Our private prayers should always begin with praise for who God and thanksgiving for what he has done.
We will also find that certain places evoke an attitude of awe toward God. Paul wrote that “ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made” (Rom 1:20). This “general revelation” that we receive through creation makes us aware of God’s greatness and goodness, and so we respond in worship. Athanasius rightly said: “No part of creation is left void of the Word of God” (Chase, 2011, p. 3). Even Calvin confessed that “nature is God” (Chase, 2011, p. 42).
According to Diogenes Allen, “we can better understand and admire God’s power, wisdom, and goodness as we increase in our knowledge of the world’s order, harmony, and beauty—God’s glory” (1997, p. 111). Allen shows that saints of the past such as Basil of Caesarea, Bonaventure, and Julian of Norwich “emphasized contemplation of nature as a way to increase our knowledge and love of God” (1997, p. 109). Bonaventure, for example, suggested meditating on the following seven properties of creatures:
- Origin
- Magnitude
- Multitude
- Beauty
- Fullness
- Activity
- Order.
Similarly, John Scotus Erigena regarded the whole world as a theophany, a manifestation of God, in which the God of light illuminates and enlightens matter. Richard of St. Victor taught that “the visible, material things of creation lead those who are contemplative to the invisible, spiritual things of God” (Chase, 2011, pp. 32-34). Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote that “Earth’s crammed with heaven,/ And every common bush afire with God;/ And only he who sees takes off his shoes;/ The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries” (Aurora Leigh, Bk. vii, 1:821).
In her famous essay “Forms of The Implicit Love of God,” the French philosopher and mystic Simone Weil includes “love of the order of nature” as one of the ways that a person becomes aware of God. She describes how God woos us through contemplation of nature: “The soul’s natural inclination to beauty is the trap God most frequently uses in order to win it and open it to the breath from on high” (Weil, 1951, p. 103). She describes nature as a labyrinth that leads us to God:
The beauty of the world is the mouth of labyrinth. The unwary individual who on entering takes a few steps is soon unable to find the opening. Worn out, with nothing to eat or drink, in the dark, separated from his dear ones, and from everything he loves and is accustomed to, he walks on without ever knowing anything or hoping anything, incapable even of discovering whether he is really going forward or merely turning round on the same spot. But this affliction is as nothing compared with the danger threatening him. For if he does not lose courage, if he goes on walking, it is absolutely certain that he will finally arrive at the center of the labyrinth. And there God is waiting to eat him. Later he will go out again, but he will be changed, he will have become different, after being eaten and digested by God. Afterward he will stay near the entrance so that he can gently push all those who come near into the opening. (Weil, 1951, p. 103)
John Eldredge profoundly describes an experience like this when he was a young boy of six or seven. As he wandered through the landscape of the farm, he sensed that, through the music of life sung to him by crickets, katydids, cicadas, and bullfrogs, he was being romanced by some unseen lover (Curtis & Eldredge, 1997, pp. 14-16).
Worshipping God in the cathedral of nature expands the self beyond one’s own petty concerns. It draws our attention away from the orbit of our own self-centered desires. It calms the emotions and pacifies the mind. I have had this experience standing on the south rim of the Grand Canyon overlooking that great chasm carved out over the ages. I have experienced the presence of God in the deafening roar of Niagara Falls while riding the Maid of the Mist. I have sensed something greater than myself while standing in stunned silence with my parents in the yard of our house as we watched the Northern Lights spread their shimmering, multicolored curtains across the night sky. I have seen God’s power and majesty as a young boy watching the midnight sky lit up by the heat lightning from a massive thunderstorm rolling in from the prairies of Illinois. I have come to know the greatness of God while standing on the tower on Clingman’s Dome in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
In these moments of transcendence generated by nature, we join in praising God with creation: “Praise the Lord!/ Praise the Lord from the heavens; praise him in the heights!/ Praise him, all his angels; praise him, all his host!/ Praise him, sun and moon; praise him, all you shining stars!/ Praise him, you highest heavens, and you waters above the heavens!.... Praise the Lord from the earth, you sea monsters and all deeps,/ fire and hail, snow and frost, stormy wind fulfilling his command!/ Mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars!/ Wild animals and all cattle, creeping things and flying birds!” (Ps 148:1-4, 7-10).
St. Francis of Assisi also joined in creation’s praise in his famous canticle “Brother Sun, Sister Moon”: “Praised be You my Lord with all your creatures, especially Sir Brother Sun…. Praised be You my Lord through Sister Moon and the stars…. Praised be You my Lord through Brothers Wind and Air…. Praised be You my Lord through Sister Water…. Praised be You my Lord through Brother Fire…. Praised be You my Lord through our Sister, Mother Earth…. Praised be You my Lord through Sister Death….”
Worship is not a purely private experience. Worship with others is also necessary, as I will show in the next post.
Reflection Questions
1. How would it change the way you live to understand that worship is a ceaseless activity?
2. How do you worship God in private?
3. When and where have your thoughts been lifted up to God by the contemplation of nature?
Sources:
Allen, D. (1997). Spiritual theology: The theology of yesterday for spiritual help today. Lanham, MD: Cowley.
Chase, S. (2011). Nature as spiritual practice. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans.
Curtis, B., & Eldredge, J. (1997). The sacred romance: Drawing closer to the heart of God. Nashville: Thomas Nelson.
Foster, R. J. (1988). Celebration of discipline: The path to spiritual growth (Rev. and exp. ed.). San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco.
Weil, S. (1951). Waiting for God. Translated by E. Crauford. New York: Putnam.
No comments:
Post a Comment