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Meaningful Worship, Meaningful Response
introduction to a wonderful book by James B. Torrance. I had to read this section several times. MEANINGFUL WORSHIP, MEANINGFUL RESPONSE Christian worship is our participation through the Spirit in the Son's communion with the Father, in his vicarious life of worship and intercession. It is our response to our Father for all that he has done for us in Christ. It is our self-offering in body, mind and spirit, in response to the one true offering made for us in Christ, our response of gratitude (eucharistia) to God's grace (charis), our sharing by grace in the heavenly intercession of Christ. Therefore, anything we say about worship - the forms of worship, its practice and procedure - must be said in the light of him to whom it is a response. It must be said in the light of the gospel of grace. We must ask ourselves whether our forms of worship convey the gospel. Are they an appropriate response to the gospel? Do they help people to apprehend the worship and ministry of Christ as he draws us by the Spirit into a life of shared communion, or do they hinder? Do they make the real presence of Christ transparent in worship, or do they obscure it? To answer these questions, we have to look at the meaning, the content of worship, before we can decide whether our traditions and procedures are adequate. More profoundly, we have to consider our doctrine of God in worship. Is he the triune God of grace who has created us and redeemed us to participate freely in his live of communion and in his concerns for the world or is he the contract-God who has to be conditioned into being gracious by what WE do - by our religion? If our worship is to be intelligent, meaningful worship, offered joyfully in the freedom of the Spirit, we must look at the realities which inspire us and demand from us an intelligent, meaningful response. So the apostle says in Romans 12:1 - after expounding the gospel of grace in the first eleven chapters - "With eyes wide open to the mercies of God, I beg you, my brothers (and sisters), as an act of intelligent worship (logike latreia), to give him your bodies as a living sacrifice, consecrated to him and acceptable by him" (J. B. Phillips). - James B. Torrance, WORSHIP, COMMUNITY & THE TRIUNE GOD OF GRACE, from the Introduction "The Place of Jesus Christ in Worship," InterVarstiy Press, pp. 15-16. Dr. Torrance is professor emeritus of systematic theology at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland. This book comes out of the Didsbury Lectures, given at the Nazarene Theological College, Manchester, England, in November 1994. Have a great week, Chip Stam Pastor of Worship and Music Chapel Hill Bible Church Chapel Hill, North Carolina |