Worship and Culture

Don: Most people everywhere, at all times, of all faiths, worship. Most of us are natural-born worshippers. Mankind seems to have a compelling need to worship.

It is likely that the most important factor influencing the object of our worship is the culture of our place of birth. We may change the objects and patterns and habits of worship as we grow, but we can seldom if ever fully discard our culture, even if all that is left is the trace of an accent. Regardless of our learning and education, of our worldview as it is shaped by our experiences, of our residency, the cultural heritage of our birth remains deeply rooted within us.

The same, I think, is true of worship and faith.

Is it possible to see God in any way other than through the lens of our culture? The essential elements of worship begins with our individual picture of God. That picture is highly influential in our faith and our worship. We then add to it praise, adoration, thanksgiving, petitions and so on. These elements are celebrated with a ful sensory experience though music, art, and the sacraments. We experience worship as a complete sensory exercise.

But our picture of God is deeply rooted in our culture. From our earliest years we are taught “This is what God is; this is what God is like.” Through metaphor, illustration, pantomime, and imagination we shape our view of God in the context of our culture.

In the early 1990s, a Lutheran World Federation study team did a comprehensive analysis of the relationship between culture and worship. Of course their cultural context was Christian but the analysis seems universally applicable. They found that:

1. Worship is transcultural. Some elements of worship are perpetuated and persist through all cultures. For instance, reading the Bible, and the concept of “one Lord, one faith, one baptism” as referred to in the Book of Ephesians, are transcultural aspects of Christian worship. Wherever Christians worship, whatever their culture, they read the Bible and accept the singularity of faith.

2. Worship must be contextualized to culture. Jesus was born into a specific culture at a specific time and place. He had a specific language and specific eye, hair, and skin colors. Nevertheless, he is viewed by Christians as the God of all mankind because of “dynamic equivalence” which seeks “to relate the receptor to modes of behavior relevant within the context of his own culture; it does not insist that he understand the cultural patterns of the source-language context in order to comprehend the message” (http://www.bible-researcher.com/nida1.html). (This principle can perhaps also be applied at the church level.)

3. Worship must also be seen as counter-culture. As Paul said:

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:2)

Jesus came to show us a different way. The kingdom of Heaven—where one seeks the back of the line, no the front; where one turns the other cheek; where one gives not just one’s coat but also one’s cloak—is perhaps the ultimate counter-culture. The counter-culture of Jesus specifies that one must view others as being higher than oneself, and is a call to the service of others.

4. Worship must also be seen as cross-cultural. After all, God is the God of all mankind and Jesus is the savior of all the world. This is where the contextualization of the music and art and gestures and postures of worship is important, since they must be understood and respected.

How can we incorporate these principles into our worship? Paul confronted some of these elements in his visit to Mars Hill:

So Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects. For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ Therefore what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His children.’ Being then the children of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man. Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.” Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some began to sneer, but others said, “We shall hear you again concerning this.” So Paul went out of their midst. But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.(Acts 17:22-34)

Is culture like an accent, something we can never quite shake off if we change it? The attempt to convert tribes in sub-Saharan Africa whose women have always been bare-breasted or that practice polygamy, was bound to be problematic. These are just the tip of an iceberg of impediments to cross-cultural worship. In India, all Adventists sing the same western songs, wear western dress, and so on. Their hymns are not set to Indian music, they do not wear Indian dress. “Western” worship was imposed on them.

David: The Witnesses also sing the same music, though in their own languages, all over the world.

Anonymous: The Copts sing to their own music and in their own language.

Mikiko: The website of the Jehovah’s Witnesses (jw.org) is published in over 700 languages (https://www.jw.org/en/publications/magazines/awake-no3-2016-june/language-translation-techniques/).

Anonymous: The Crusaders sought to force culture on people, and were resented. The Moslems tended not to, and were not so resented. This makes it a social problem, not just a religious problem, since it foments hatred.

David: Our quick and dirty misinterpretation of scripture causes problems. People take the phrase “people not of this fold” as meaning “other”, outsider, foreigner, not one of us. In this class we’ve come to interpret the totality of such scripture as meaning that we are all ultimately of one fold. The difference in interpretation has enormous social and religious ramifications.

To me, issues of music and language are relatively trivial. I class singing and other liturgical appurtenances as attributes of “small-w worship” as opposed to the “capital-W Worship” which simply (!) means to live the life of Jesus, or as close to it as one can manage. Capital-W Worship—showing goodness, love, compassion, and mercy towards one’s fellow wo/man—is in my opinion and in my experience common to all cultures. It has nothing to do with culture and everything to do with humanity. Small-w worship has everything to do with culture and nothing to so with humanity, it seems to me.

Kiran: Pentecostal churches in India have adapted their worship to Indian culture, and as a result is growing very fast.

The parables of Jesus seem deliberately to avoid cultural context. They talk about things—seeds, father–son relationships, etc—common to all of us.

India has been influenced by many cultures, but has managed to absorb these influences into its own culture. Women often wear denim jeans, for instance—but they are heavily embroidered with Indian patterns.

Mikiko: All cultures appreciate God but express their appreciation in different forms. Japan does so in a mixture of shintoism and Buddhism. As a child in Japan, the story of Adam and Eve was to me just a children’s story. Male and female bathrooms in Japanese restaurants are often marked “Adam” and “Eve” respectively.

Kiran: Only the Abrahamic religions—Islam, Judaism and Christianity—have a creation story. Hinduism has no concept of the process of creation, only the recognition of a God of creation.

David: We all start with Capital-W Worship, but the hardness of living like Jesus pushes us to the much easier small-w worship, which we try to dignify by making it complex and mysterious. Daoists, Buddhists… every major religion started with wonderful core principles of Worship but over time they have succumbed to subversion from within, so we end up with elaborate Daoist temples and chants that really (in my view) have nothing to do with the Dao! We want to worship, but we also want an easy life.

Don: Is it possible to see God without the context of culture? From the perspective of a grandfather who has watched his children and grandchildren grow and become socialized in religion, it seems to me that we are all indoctrinated from the very beginning of our lives into cultural worship patterns. How could our children avoid culturally biased indoctrination? Should they, even?

David: I have to believe that true worship (as reflected in all the great scriptures) recognizes that God cannot be seen, but small-w worship does not. Capital-W Worship embodies goodness, love, and compassion in ourselves; small-w worship merely preaches them. (Paradoxically, I suspect that in fact one would “see” God if one were able to Worship as Jesus did, but that is impossible.)

Anonymous: In Jordan, people have the Christian ethic without reading the Bible. They are naturally kind and generous. They teach their children to be good as the Bible teaches—but without having read the Bible. It’s been handed down through the generations—it is cultural.

Don: So you would argue that culture has a strong influence on worship.

Anonymous: Yes.

David: I would counter that the origin of their humanity is not their culture but their humanity!

Anonymous: I would say that the origin is God’s word. My point is that in this country we seem to need to refer to the Bible all the time to worship, but Jordanians don’t seem to need so much reminding!

Moslems sum up their worship in the phrase “God is bigger” (than me, than anybody). This simple statement of humility seems to me to be the ultimate worship. It outshines all the grandiose and fancy forms of worship we tend to indulge in.

David: To me, it is still small-w worship. One can be humble without declaring it. In fact, it seems to me, Jesus suggested one would be more humble by not declaring it. The Good Samaritan was humble when he put himself out to help someone in need—he put himself and his own interests below the person he helped. He didn’t even acknowledge God overtly and probably not even consciously, but he did so through his act of compassion.

Anonymous: I agree that one can worship with a false heart. But if one declares one’s inferiority to God with a sincere heart, and repeats it over and over, then it seems to me true and beneficial worship.

Don: Some worshipers press their foreheads to the floor so hard that over time their foreheads display a visible mark of their piety.

Next time we will discuss what happens to worship if we consider culture at more parochial levels, ultimately at the family level.

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