WORSHIP --- An utter lack of an ulterior purpose.

“Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve.”

“Worship the Father in spirit and in truth.”

The most difficult and yet the most glorious thing that we care called to do in this world – in anticipation of the next – is to worship the LORD our God, the Blessed, Holy and Undivided Trinity. As the congregation of Christ’s flock, we are called “to enjoy and glorify God, the Holy Trinity, for ever and ever, even unto the ages of ages and world without end.”

I see four major temptations arising within western culture which both undermine the true purpose of Christian WORSHIP and reduce IT or change IT into something else. Professional and amateur liturgists, clergy and worship committees face these temptations and, regrettably, seem not always to resist them. It is not that they always re-write liturgies but that they use existing liturgies to serve new purposes by the spirit and ethos in which they are actually used. And, if growth in numbers or increase in “ministries” or making an impact are the real criteria by which to judge then Satan’s suggestions are good ones.

1. Satan comes along and, with excellent examples and/or stories, presents the thesis: that “a worship service” is (at least in part) to keep people interested and in an acceptable and dignified way to entertain them. So the people sit as the audience and the performers are at the front FACING the audience. God is assumed to be the friendly, non-judgmental Onlooker who blesses the occasion for the people are sincere in their desire for religious activity, performance and entertainment. Satan’s aim as the tempter is to make the people feel welcome, happy and emotionally satisfied/ fulfilled. What he wants to cause them to avoid is to fear God the Father, to bow before His Majesty and to seek His Face through and in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

2. Satan comes along and using telling phrases and ideas created by the modern therapeutic culture suggests that how people feel and their sense of self-worth are of major importance in true and vital religion. So he presents the thesis: that “a worship service” and all other church activities must have as a major aim the purpose of making people feel good about themselves. Folks need to know that God actually loves everyone unconditionally and wants each one to feel affirmed as His child, and this despite whatever they have done and whatever be their position or state in life. What Satan wants to avoid is the idea that it is much more important to be obedient to the Lord of glory and to seek His holiness through bowing before His Majesty than to be nice and to feel good about one’s individual faith.

3. Satan comes along and with moving illustrations suggests that people are alienated from one another and even from themselves in modern society and thus they need a real human community to which to belong. So he presents the thesis: that is it necessary to make the church of God in this place into a “community of faith” where the “worship service” is truly a community celebration. Alienated and lonely souls need to find soul-mates and soul-companions so that they feel they belong and that they existence is meaningful. So each person’s “faith and feelings about God, Jesus and religion” is affirmed and the church is seen primarily to exist as the place and sphere of affirmation one of another and each one by all. Satan wants to make sure that the idea of belonging to the local group and affirming each other rather than belonging to the communion of saints of earth and heaven is the ethos here. He is most happy when a lot of emphasis and time is spent on the “passing of the peace” with its walkabout to embrace as many people as possible.

4. Satan comes along and demonstrates that many people are ignorant of the basics of religion and of the meaning of the liturgy. So he presents the thesis: that “a worship service” is basically a teaching opportunity for instruction (they may not stay for Sunday School but they are here as a captive audience). Instead of the liturgy flowing naturally according to its own inherent ethos and logic, it is interrupted often in order for the “worship leader” or the clergyperson to use the opportunity to add comments to whatever is being sung or said or prayed in order to further the education of the people. The service is treated as an evangelistic or missionary opportunity. Satan is mosthappy when a congregation is engaged in learning about religion rather than involved in knowing God as GOD, the LORD, and experiencing communion with the Father through the Son and with the Holy Spirit.

I close with a description of what awed Russian diplomats saw and felt when they first experienced the Divine Liturgy at Byzantium.

“The Byzantine Liturgy was not a way of teaching doctrine and not intended to be. It was not a display of the Christian faith in a way acceptable or attractive to onlookers. What impressed them as onlookers about the Liturgy was precisely ITS UTTER LACK OF AN ULTERIOR PURPOSE, the fact that it was celebrated for GOD and not for spectators, that it sole intent was to be before God and for God, pleasing and acceptable to God….”

In the Anglican Way the celebration (in spirit and in truth and in the beauty of holiness) of the historic Liturgy for the Lord’s Day -- Matins, the Litany, the Order for Holy Communion and Evensong -- also has no ulterior purpose for it is celebrated for God and not for man. No doubt man is blessed by rightly celebrating but this does not change the basic purpose of the [Divine] Liturgy, celebrated for the glory of the One, Holy, Blessed and Undivided Trinity.