On Worship: Community

Continuing on with with my thoughts on worship I want to examine yet another purpose behind our worship. In my post on lists, I talked about the 5 acts of worship. We concentrate on what we are doing in worship (specifically inside the "worship service") too much when we should be focusing on why we worship. As a quick review, the primary need our worship fills is to give glory to God, the Father, the Creator, the Sustainer of all things.
There are other needs that our worship fills within us, other reasons for our worship:

• Worship is to encourage our brothers and sisters (1 Corinthians 14, Ephesians 5:18-20, Colossians 3:15-16) to build up the body and spur one another on to good works (Hebrews 10:23-25) 
• Worship is to welcome and bring in unbelievers (1 Corinthians 14)

I recently heard the analogy of cross-shaped worship. The cross points both horizontally and vertically. Cross shaped worship involves us reaching up to God and reaching out to our neighbors. If we are neglecting any of these aspects of worship then we are not living up to our potential. As always there is grace overflowing in our weakness. Our relationship with our fellow man is so important that Jesus said we should delay our worship if we there is a conflict between us and another and go solve the problem (Matthew 5:21-24). Looking at the letter of 1 John, it seems as if every chapter stresses the importance of loving each other. It's a new command, it's an old command. Whatever era you are from, loving one another is vital to our Christian worship.

The church is about community. The reason God put us all together is to help each other and bear one another's burdens. Paul tells us to speak to one another in our songs, but we rarely do anything other than face forward. When I am leading worship, I really appreciate everyone singing toward me. It is a great encouragement. Now imagine if we all sang to each other.

When the believers in Corinth gathered for worship, they turned communion and potlucks into divisions. Paul did not chastise them for the acts themselves, it was their attitudes and lack of consideration for the body of Christ. "For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself" (1 Corinthians 11:29). When I write about communion in a few posts, I want to go deeper into how the Lord's Supper can be more than just remembering Christ's body, but also remembering His body. It is something that is sorely lacking in our worship. As I hear about some other practices of serving the Lord's Supper there are some great ways to help emphasize the "one another" aspects of communion.

While worship is about community, it is not a gated community. We do not get to decide who we want in and who must stay out. In fact, it is our mission to bring in everyone from all over the world. On Jesus' last night before his crucifixion he prays a beautiful prayer. One of the few things he requests is for the unity of all believers, "that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us" (John 17:20-23).  The reason he gives for this unity is "so that the world may believe that you have sent me." In addition to encouraging the church, our worship is to be a beacon for the unbelievers, those seeking a path to God. Paul writes that in the use of various gifts (tongues and prophecy specifically) some of them help believers and some help nonbelievers (1 Corinthians 14:22-25). In our worship, we need to show the world something that they cannot get elsewhere, namely God. It is not about entertainment but about engagement. When they visit our assembly, do they get drawn closer to God? When they look at us as a community, do they see God? Do they see love? Do they see peace and joy and all the other fruits of the Spirit?

I ran across this blog the other day that is well worth a read: The Work of Worship by Mark Love. Mark  talks about the church functioning as the priesthood in the world. He writes that in our worship we often try to see God more clearly, but what we need more of is to see the world as God sees the world, to love as He loves. "In this way, worship rehearses us for our vocation in the world." Lots of things for me to think about there.

How do we accomplish this? Speaking to one another in worship. Inviting outsiders into our community. This worship cannot just be 1 hour a week or even 2 or 3 in the "assembly." Whenever someone says "Worship Service" it should be redundant. Of course worship is about service (Romans 12:1-2). If we are not in each other's lives, we cannot be united. If we are not serving each other, we cannot be united. If we are not united, the world will not believe. Just think how many more would believe if God's church stood united before the evils and apathies of the world.

Throughout scripture we find examples of worship that is pleasing to God and worship that is not pleasing. But amid all the ceremonies and rituals, when the people did not get the purpose right God was never pleased.

• Jesus quoting Isaiah “‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’” (Matthew 15:6-9)

• David from the depths of despair writes "For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise." (Psalm 51:16-17)

Lord, let us never forgot who we worship and why we worship. Help us to be the unified body that will bring the world to You.

I Learned a New Acronym

Growing up I always heard about the CoC's standard hermeneutic for Biblical interpretation: Direct Command, Approved Example, Necessary Inference. Just recently I was reading and saw this refered to by the acronym CENI. So I learned a new acronym which is always exciting. Sometimes it is refered to as just CEI. Really it should be DCAENI, but that is much harder to say and write and not as catchy.

This whole revelation got me thinking about many things including the following discussion that took place based on a Facebook post of mine. I had been reading that the Lord's Supper was to be taken only on Sunday and every Sunday. Taking the LS on any other day of the week is sinful. We had also recently discussed this in a Sunday morning Bible class. Not liking the way that sat in my stomach, I came up with this "modest proposal" hearkening back to my HS English class days and Jonathan Swift.

I didn't take all the comments here, just a couple from David and my Mom (in honor of Mother's Day). Notice how quickly I went from the "modest proposal" into ranting and didn't stop ranting even after I said I would. Only minor edits here for grammar.

For my CoC brethren (and cisterns) and others interested in needless controversies: Since the Lord Supper is to be taken on a Sunday, each Sunday, and only on Sunday (as the general CoC instruction goes) and the examples we have in scriptures would follow the Jewish time reckoning of sundown to sundown and there was no concept of timezones, should we only be taking the Lord's Supper while the sun is up in the land of Israel? Seems we should make this a new rule and put it into practice immediately based on the CENI principles we hold so dear.

Well it would change based on the seasons as days get shorter and longer but we could probably pick a time that would always be acceptable, I'll have to figure that out and codify it into the rulebook

The earliest sunset in Israel is 4:36PM local time which translates to 8:26AM CST. The latest sunset is at 7:51PM which is 11:51AM CST. So to have a constant time throughout the year, any time between noon Saturday and 8AM Sunday local time would be acceptable. Thinking of bringing this to the elders and suggesting we adjust our service times accordingly.

You're welcome to use my timezone research so that my labors are not in vain. The problem with disputable matters is that we sit around disputing them so much, we get mad and then divide ourselves into small groups call each other false teachers and unfaithful. All this serves to harm the cause of Christ rather than spreading God's love to all. Where there is grace for moral issues, there is no grace for doctrinal issues (in the eyes of many). Jesus worshiped (as was his custom) in the Synagogue which was not authorized for Jewish worship by God but their own institution. David ate the sacred bread which Jesus said was fine. The disciples picked grain on the Sabbath which Jesus said was fine. There is grace from God, just not a lot of grace among those that should be brothers and sisters. Rant off

In addition we must also take Communion on Thursday evenings since that's when Jesus started it. Afterwards we must all go out to the local park, pray, sleep and get arrested. I'll let someone else do the timezone math on when this should all take place.

Regarding CENI (Command, Example, Necessary Inference) it is just a tool. it seems to be best suited toward evaluating what we already do rather than exploring what the Bible said God would have us do or not do. You can pass practices through the filter of CENI and come out with a Yes/No answer, but you can't use it to discover new things. Also, the implied adjectives "Direct" Command, "Approved" Example, "Necessary" Inference are really squishy and can be and have been used to filter in or out lots of ideas using many legalistic machinations that make my heart and head hurt. I've been reading too many religious blogs this week.

http://oneinjesus.info/* is a blog I've started reading this week trying to spider out and find both "liberal" and "conservative" viewpoints on a variety of issues. Some of the ulta-conservative stuff I've encountered has made me sick to my stomach. Little tiny things causing such division in God's body.

David said: "So I really wonder if there are other tools, or mechanisms, or logic paths used by others for interpreting secpriture. CENI is a fairly stright forward method of categorizing ways to glean information from scriptures. Do other people use something else? IFG-YFG-LF (I Feel Good - You Feel Good - Lets Fellowship)."

Mom said: "So are you thinking something more detailed like a NT book similar to Leviticus would solve many of these disputes?"

Yes, mom, we definitely need all the rules clearly defined so that we know where to look for the loopholes. I am starting to think that CENI and the other lists we make are good for teaching simple principles but start to fall apart amid the messiness of life. 5 steps to salvation, 5 acts of worship, 4 types of prayer. All are simplified ideas pulled from a variety of scriptures but do not tell the whole story. That's the problem with living by rules in general, there are always more rules to make. And rather than finding common ground by focusing on the important stuff, we make important that which is God has not and create divisions in his church. David, hopefully this will give you plenty of sermon fodder. Bottom line, I think it is a fallacy to say that CENI or any other hermeneutic applies universally specifically since God did not give them to us.

Another recent FB status update I spewed at the world (or at least my social network):

Speak where the Bible speaks and create binding laws for everyone where the Bible is silent.

As quickly as I came to know and understand CENI, I have come to dislike it. As I said, it can be useful, but it doesn't not tell the whole story nor is it the right tool for every encounter with scripture.

*Note: http://oneinjesus.info/ that I mentioned is not one of the ultra-conservative writings that I said hurt my head. It is a very well thought out set of writings that I appreciate very much. I just wanted to make this clear as reading through the context it might seem that I was putting it down.