For those who are reading this blog and haven’t read the previous two, I am reflecting here about some things I’ve been reading in the book You Are What You Love by James K.A. Smith.
If it’s true that what I love is central to who I am and the purpose to which I am calibrated, as a compass is calibrated toward the North magnetic pole, it would seem to make sense that the practices that feed my heart either assist or distract me. These practices either help keep me lined up toward that end or move me away from it – sometimes ever so subtly. And if it is true that the Holy Spirit wants to aid me in noticing when I move off-center, then what are some practices that will help me stay in tune with the Spirit?
I didn’t need Smith’s book to remind me that worship is a primary recalibration tool. But what I did need from Smith was his commentary on some of the elements of worship that I think I have either taken for granted or misunderstood for most of my life.
What is the purpose of worship? Obviously, it is to offer up to God the praise that he is worthy of. That is found in the composition of the word. We offer to God words, songs and heart attitudes that declare his “worth-ship.” But why would this be something that God looks forward to? Does he really need to be reminded of who he is?
Maybe God draws us to worship because we need to be reminded of who he is, who we are, and what our purpose is within the bigger story of his love. Smith states what he sees as the point of worship this way:
The goal of Christian worship is a renewal of the mandate in creation: to be (re)made in God’s image and then sent as his image bearers to and for the world.1
I break it down like this. Worship is partially intended
1. to show us our role (individually and corporately) as a character in the story of re-instating the world as it was intended, and
2. to shape us into the best version of that character.
Here is a personal confession. Somewhere along the way, through a conservatively estimated 12,500 hours of corporate worship in my lifetime, I missed the point. Or at least until the last 1500 or so hours in the last 15 years of my life.
This calculation is staggering to me! I have spent the bulk of my time in earlier church settings (worship) wrestling with sin management and feeling either good or bad based on the measuring stick I was pointed to each week.
The next phase of my worship life was spent re-understanding God and the reality of his love. It was a time of healing.
More recently I have entered a phase of discovering the joyful mystery of how completely effective the gospel is in the practical, everyday world that I live in: my attitudes and actions as well as how God has situated me in my family and community, to be shaped by and to help shape others.
And now, thankfully, the sacred rhythms and liturgies (habits) of worship that I participated in and felt I understood are coming into full color. Oh, I think I had flashes of understanding as I sung some of the old hymns, partook in the broken bread of communion, listened in reverence to the sacred vows of a wedding ceremony. The kinship I felt for a fleeting second with someone rising from the baptismal waters.
All of these are taking on a new meaning to me after reading this book and reflecting on the biblical principles behind it. In some ways, these common corporate worship elements are more critical to me now. But they are also more joyfully expanding.
Maybe you’d like to give some more thought and prayer to what your worship practices are doing to shape you more into a kingdom citizen and influencer. Download this free reflection exercise and spend some time with it over the next few weeks.
1 Smith, James K.A. (2016). You Are What You Love. Brazos Press.