Thoughts on Praise & Worship

A Few Personal Thoughts and Opinions on Praise and Worship

by James Kevin Gray

Praise is a natural reaction to the awe and reverence we feel when we encounter God. 

Worship can be described as the opening of ourselves individually and corporately to an encounter with God. 

As Moses stood in awe of the burning bush, we stand in awe of God in our present age. This awe we feel is expressed through our collective voice, amid our praise, prayers, readings, and singing. These expressions point us toward God as God points us toward each other and the world's needs. Could it be said this rhythmic and cyclical encounter we have with our creator is worship? 

Why public worship?

In reading the holy scriptures, one of the overwhelming themes is the love of God and the love of others. 

‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these. - Mark 12:30-31

Also, the scriptures teach us to love ourselves, for we are deemed valuable by God.

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well. - Psalm 139:14

In all these respects, we learn to love better when we come together in community, for community is love tested, love in practicum, not solely in theory.

Isn’t it easy to say that you love others if you do not have to plan, pray, sing, or eat with them?

When we work and worship in community, we begin to see the weaknesses and gifts that others have that we do not. For the weaknesses there is the lesson of grace, for the gifts it is the understanding that God gave us all different abilities so that when we re-Member the body of Christ, we are more equipped and whole than when we try to navigate the world alone. 

In some models of worship, we are told that worship is solely for God, but in all transparency, I have struggled with some aspects of this interpretation. For God seems to take our praise and love and direct them at those sitting next to us, and to those out in the world. 

Perhaps God calls us together and gives us the gift of worship because we as human beings need worship. We are designed for ritual and pondering. 

Worship gives us community, confronts us in loving ways, inspires us, and equips us for our interactions with the world. Worship prepares us to be the living reflections of Christ. When we are open to God we begin to interact with each other more like Christ, we love each other more like Christ. You may allow love to transform you to the point that when you are singing a song you do not like, you can look over at your neighbor enjoying it and feel your heart warm just watching them. 

When my son was a much smaller kid he adored Pokémon. Honesty, I did not like it at all, but I would lay on the floor and play Pokémon not because I loved it, but because he did, that’s what love does. 

As we allow ourselves to be remade in the spiritual image of God, the natural progression is to care more and more for those we sit next to, for those outside the doors, outside the borders that we have created within our human mind and systems. 

In closing, every time you walk into a sanctuary, know that you are bringing church with you, for it is the people who are the gathered body of Christ. We are gathering to celebrate the great love that God has revealed through the life of Jesus, a love that transforms us and sends us out into a world that is in need of the light of Christ.