Worship
-- Purpose
Useless Worship
Have you ever been to a worship service that was simply “a royal waste of time?” Such services have no direction, no object (not even God) and produced no change in the worshippers—they are “useless worship.” Why get up on Sunday morning to attend worship that has no use? Good question.
However, not so fast, Charlie! It could be that worship is supposed to be useless. That is, worship in its purest form is not designed to accomplish anything at all—except worship. The purist worship doesn’t try to “get something done” any more than the purest love-making. Worship is an expression we make to God in a relationship, it is not a means to something else. So, while we might reject services that are poorly planned and accomplish nothing because of it, at the same time we must recognize that worship does not ideally need to accomplish anything at all to be worthwhile… except worship.
In practical America we try to make everything useful—even our worship. We want to use worship to get something more worthwhile accomplished. We use worship to make converts, to teach the people, to entertain the masses, or to build the church. To us worship is more a means than an end. Thus we have hatched all kinds of modifiers for worship defining its use. Charles Finney’s “Evangelistic worship” (or more recently, “Seeker worship”) is useful in making new converts. Presbyterian “Pedagogical worship” is useful for teaching the Word through preaching. “Entertainment Worship” is useful in building attendance that leads to church growth. There are others but these are enough to make the point: we are always trying to make worship useful… a means to another end.
Perhaps we do this because we are lazy. Worship is the largest gathering we have in the church. We know we should accomplish evangelism, teaching, service and other worthy goals, but we have no program to do that adequately. So we try to “do it all” when they come for worship. At least our penchant for efficiency
Yet worship at its best has no use whatsoever other than worship. Worship can hold its own with evangelism, education, service, and fellowship as a worthy end, not just a means to doing these other things. In its purest form the goal of worship is worship. This is the picture we get of worship in the book of Revelation—in “heavenly Worship.” Everybody in heaven appears as totally absorbed in worshiping God, nothing else. They are not scurrying about trying to use worship for some other practical purpose. Worship in Revelation is impractical… worship is used to accomplish worship! It is the end not the means.
This notion of “useless worship” is recently gaining popularity. “Worship is the primary goal of worship” is it is said most often. I see this theme commonly expressed among the college students I teach. They yearn for a worship experience that is pure and simple worship—not just as a means of promoting the building program, building the church, or promoting the women’s missionary meetings. They hunger for worship focused mostly on worship.
It isn’t just students. A 1997 book on worship picks up this notion in the book title. Sacred Games by Bernhard Lang (religion professor, University of Paderborn, Germany) calls worship a “sacred game.” It appears irreverent or sacrilegious at first. Worship… a game? The title comes from Plato. Using Plato’s quote Lang explains that worship, like children’s play has no purpose itself yet is full of profound meaning.
"What, then is our right course? We should pass our lives in the playing of games--certain games, that is, sacrifice, song, and dance--with the result of ability to gain heaven's grace…All of us, men and women alike, must fall in with our role and spend life in making our play as perfect as possible."
--Plato. Laws 803 D/E; 803 C, trans A. E. Taylor
Lang was not the first in the 20th century to try out this idea. In 1937 Romano Guardini picked up the idea and said it like this:
"Such is the wonderful
fact that the liturgy demonstrates: it unites art and reality in a supernatural
childhood before God… [Worship] has one thing in common with the play of the
child and the life of art--it has no purpose, but is full of profound
meaning. It is not work, but play. To be at play, or to fashion a work of art
in God's sight--not to create, but to exist--such is the essence of the
liturgy. From this is derived its
sublime mingling of profound earnestness and divine joyfulness."
--
Romano Guardini, The Spirit of the Liturgy.
Trans. Ada Lame. London: Sheed & Ward, 1937
The point of Plato, Guardini, and Lang? Some expressions do not have to be “useful” but are a worthy end in themselves. In this sense worship is like art.
In the 1999 book A Royal Waste of Time Marva Dawn makes a similar argument. At first glance the book title seems to suggest she will probably lambaste poorly planned or executed worship. That is not the meaning. Dawn is an advocate of good planning and leadership, but here she tries to help us understand that when worship is done right, our culture will think it is a “royal waste of time.” If you are a music-worship leader the book is worth getting just to read her opening chapter to music directors. Is worship at its best “a Royal Waste of Time?”
So, is worship in its purest form a “royal waste of time?” In pragmatic America when we say something is a ‘waste of time” or “useless” we as kissing it off. However, Plato, Lang, Guardini and Dawn suggest that perhaps we don’t understand worship fully so long as we try to make it so useful. Worship at its best may accomplish only worship. “The purpose of worship is worship.” To these thinkers worshipping is a good enough goal for worship—it does not have to accomplish other things to validate its worth.
So, what do you think?
So what do you think?
To contribute to the thinking on this issue e-mail
your response to Tuesday@indwes.edu
Other "Thinking Drafts" and writing by Keith Drury -- http://www.indwes.edu/tuesday