Don: In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gave some instruction regarding personal worship. He addressed three elements of worship common to all religions, everywhere and in all ages: Prayer, alms-giving, and fasting:
“Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven.
“So when you give to the poor, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be honored by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But when you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving will be in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.
“When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.
“And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words. So do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.
“Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven.” …
“Whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance so that they will be noticed by men when they are fasting. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face so that your fasting will not be noticed by men, but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.” (Matthew 6:1-8,16-18)
This call to privacy in worship is a call to the centrality of God in worship. We so easily place ourselves, our piety, our study, our own communion with God, our own prayer life, our own meditation, our own devotion to duty, at the center of worship. And yet, how many workshops, seminars, and sermons have called and still call for improvements in these areas. Jesus did not discount them entirely, but he wanted them to take place in private—so private that it is not enough just to do it at home: You have to go into a closet and close the door; and even so private that your left hand should be kept in ignorance of what your right hand is doing.
Jesus regarded fasting as a call to service. It seemed to have little personal value, in his view. No doubt he had in mind the passage from Isaiah, which also addresses the issue of Sabbath rest:
“Cry loudly, do not hold back; Raise your voice like a trumpet, And declare to My people their transgression And to the house of Jacob their sins.
“Yet they seek Me day by day and delight to know My ways, As a nation that has done righteousness And has not forsaken the ordinance of their God. They ask Me for just decisions, They delight in the nearness of God. ‘Why have we fasted and You do not see? Why have we humbled ourselves and You do not notice?’ Behold, on the day of your fast you find your desire, And drive hard all your workers.
“Behold, you fast for contention and strife and to strike with a wicked fist. You do not fast like you do today to make your voice heard on high.
“Is it a fast like this which I choose, a day for a man to humble himself? Is it for bowing one’s head like a reed And for spreading out sackcloth and ashes as a bed? Will you call this a fast, even an acceptable day to the Lord?
“Is this not the fast which I choose, To loosen the bonds of wickedness, To undo the bands of the yoke, And to let the oppressed go free And break every yoke?
“Is it not to divide your bread with the hungry And bring the homeless poor into the house; When you see the naked, to cover him; And not to hide yourself from your own flesh?
“Then your light will break out like the dawn, And your recovery will speedily spring forth; And your righteousness will go before you; The glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.
“Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; You will cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’ If you remove the yoke from your midst, The pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness, And if you give yourself to the hungry And satisfy the desire of the afflicted, Then your light will rise in darkness And your gloom will become like midday.
“And the Lord will continually guide you, And satisfy your desire in scorched places, And give strength to your bones; And you will be like a watered garden, And like a spring of water whose waters do not fail.
“Those from among you will rebuild the ancient ruins; You will raise up the age-old foundations; And you will be called the repairer of the breach, The restorer of the streets in which to dwell.
“If because of the sabbath, you turn your foot From doing your own pleasure on My holy day, And call the sabbath a delight, the holy day of the Lord honorable, And honor it, desisting from your own ways, From seeking your own pleasure And speaking your own word, Then you will take delight in the Lord, And I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; And I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” (Isaiah 58)
We have always thought that the injunction against “doing your own pleasure” referred to doing something enjoyable, but really it means to refrain from putting ourselves, our piety, our own good behavior, abstinence and self-denial at the center of the Sabbath instead of placing God and what he does at the center of the Sabbath. The alternative to “doing your own pleasure” and the meaning of putting God at the center is to “take delight in the Lord,… ride the heights of the earth,… [and be fed with] the heritage of Jacob.” To “delight in the Lord” is to celebrate our salvation and his love and grace:
I will rejoice greatly in the Lord,
My soul will exult in my God;
For He has clothed me with garments of salvation,
He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness,
As a bridegroom decks himself with a garland,
And as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
For as the earth brings forth its sprouts,
And as a garden causes the things sown in it to spring up,
So the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise
To spring up before all the nations. (Isaiah 61:10-11)
To “ride the heights of the earth” is to be above the fray, to be tuned away from the stuff of everyday life. The Sabbath rest is a retreat from business as usual, to set aside one’s work and accept instead the grace of God:
For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His. (Hebrews 4:10)
The “heritage of Jacob” refers to God’s forgiveness for a sinful past and his being reborn with a new name: Israel—the person who contends with God, instead of Jacob—the supplanter, the deceiver.
Thus the end product of personal worship is the discovery and appropriation of God’s grace. The Sabbath rest is a powerful symbol of God’s grace and effort on our behalf, rather than of us and our pious efforts supposedly on God’s behalf. The end product of corporate worship stems from this: Grace received must be passed on or it becomes toxic to the hoarder. It must be shared or it rots and corrupts the soul, just as the manna in the wilderness—another symbol of God’s grace—rotted and sickened the individuals who hoarded it.
Jesus illustrated the link between personal and corporate worship, in the Sermon on the Mount:
Therefore if you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering. (Matthew 5:23-24)
This is a remarkable contrast between worship of God and reconciliation with one’s fellow human being. The extension of grace to one’s fellow human trumps even worship of God. Corporate worship is about reconciliation and service, extending God’s grace to others, and the process of being at one with the community.
There is a particular aspect of corporate worship that is worthy of mention: Paul and Peter both talked about the practice of greeting one another in the early Christian church with a “holy kiss,” for example:
Greet one another with a holy kiss. (Romans 16:16)
It is mentioned also in several other places in scripture, including this one, where Peter exchanges “love” for “holy”:
Greet one another with a kiss of love. (1 Peter 5:14)
Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart,… (1 Peter 1:22)
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another…. If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. (1 John 4:7-11,20)
The call is beyond just being nice to one another, or helping one another; it is a call to a deep affection.
So personal worship is private and concealed, and its goal is to be filled with God’s grace. Corporate worship is to share this grace, and the love that accompanies it, to others.
Few things divide worshipers more than the form of worship—the music, the liturgy, the order of service, appropriate gestures and behaviors, and so on. Is worship that causes friction, tension, and division invalid? Can personal worship be a means to improving corporate worship, or vice versa? Must we worship both personally and corporately, or can we choose one or the other?
David: In all of the scripture quoted in our discussion of worship I hear only a call for personal worship, which includes a call (by both Isaiah and Jesus) to serve others. There is no call to organize, no call for a priesthood, no specification of an altar, etc. God clearly seeks only to unify through person-to-person love, not through the human-contrived corporate “love” called religion. History clearly shows religion to be divisive. Surely, then, God cannot approve of it?
Christon: Paul said not to neglect assembling together, but he probably was not talking about large church gatherings. Most early Christian worship occurred within families, Corporate worship was born when families started inviting other people and families to come over for worship. It was meant to be intimate—perhaps no more than two or three families joining together in a small setting for fellowship. Organization and growth inevitably followed, but the early Christian church was not organized on the scale of today’s churches. Today, we tend to substitute eating together for fellowship, but in the early church it was about sharing ideas and concerns and intimately bonding with one another. It tended to create a unified community of shared fellowship. Can today’s church achieve that same unity? I believe it is possible, just as it was possible for early church gatherings to end up in disagreement and division, because people grow and mature at different rates. Tension in worship may simply be a reflection of our differential growth and maturation.
Robin: Grace is spiritual water, and should not be hoarded. Just as we need a clean water well both individually and as a community, so we need both personal and corporate worship.
Donald: Fellowship is the means of healing division. Prejudice stems from ignorance—from not meeting in fellowship. The mantra of the megachurch of thousands in Chicago I keep mentioning is that a healthy local church is the hope of the world. People are drawn to a community of like minds, where they feel a sense of belonging.
David: By definition (at least as I would define fellowship) any differences among people gathering in fellowship will tend to be outweighed by their similarities. If only religions and denominations, and their members, would gather in fellowship with other religions and denominations and their members—attending one another’s places of worship and worship services—would they not find their similarities outweighing their differences? Some religions and denominations forbid, or at least strongly discourage, their members from entering a foreign place of worship. There are pockets of interfaith meetings of Jews, Moslems, Christians and others. These need to be drastically extended and accelerated. Any church can help to make this happen.
Donald: In Tanzania, our Adventist study group annually visits a mosque and has a richly rewarding two-hour meeting with the imam. But perhaps that is the exception that proves the rule. We don’t do enough of that.
Kiran: But in spiritual fellowship, regardless of venue, the focus should be on God and his grace, not on ourselves. If we can unify around the concept of grace, then we have achieved the goal of corporate worship.
Donald: The “holy kiss” seems a much more significant greeting than just a cheery “Happy Sabbath!”
David: Similarly, passing on God’s grace involves much more than smiling at, or even bestowing a holy kiss upon, the person next to one in the pew. It involves rendering real service to one’s fellow wo/man, as both Isaiah and Jesus said. Thus, unless churches routinely throw open their doors to feed and shelter and otherwise nurture the homeless and other people in need, they are not practicing corporate worship.
Don: Corporate worship as practiced is more about identity than anything else. Churches seem more concerned about maintaining their identity than about losing it in a sea of needy people.
Donald: Sometimes we are asked—nay, told!—to turn to our neighbor in the pew and greet them. It is an awkward moment! There was a time when congregations would get up out of the pews and really mix. It seemed more like fellowship.
Don: What would be the equivalent modern, digital, virtual experience of the Good Samaritan? Does sending money online to someone in need count?
David: It would seem more limited, though some level of help could be given, albeit at a distance. Socialism (properly done) is one way of sharing wealth with people less fortunate than oneself. I believe in paying taxes precisely because I want to give to the needy, and that a socialist welfare system is still the best way of doing so, in my view. It seems doubtful that sharing some money is equivalent to sharing God’s grace, and yet… Is it not better than nothing? A danger of the digital world (that seems to be coming to pass) is that it makes us even less social and more individualistic, which would seem to be a bad thing. On the other hand, perhaps it could be described as making us less corporate and more personal, in which case it would seem to be a good thing!
Don: Are we retreating to the point where the corporate experience is soon to be history?
Donald: There are online charities that fund people in remote places to start a business, etc. We’ve sponsored a young woman in Tanzania that way. I don’t know how else we could have done that.
Anonymous: Technology, government, culture, and organized religion have all taken away from Man the need for unity with which we are born and the responsibilities we have toward maintaining that unity. They have weakened the net that links people. Even though we meet in places of worship, in neighborhoods, and in other ways, we still miss that true connection. Even if we throw open the church doors to welcome the homeless, we are not likely to establish that true connection. True connection does not come through church, technology, or anything else. As individuals, we are quite capable of connecting with others in need personally, in the street, in our own neighborhood. Eastern culture seems to recognize this more than western culture. How can one worship God by delegating to others one’s own responsibility for service to the needy? Service is a by-product, or perhaps the end product, of being connected through a holy kiss. Such service is more feasible in a small group, it seems to me. How can we possibly establish connections with and fulfill our obligations to each of the thousands of members of a megachurch?
Donald: Our church is increasingly developing small groups or “initiatives” of around ten people with some shared interest, within which people can make true connections and re-establish a true sense of belonging.
Anonymous: But they still miss intimacy, because they are strangers. They are not family, nor often even neighbors. If corporate worship is sharing God’s grace (as I believe it is) then the place to start is at home, in the intimacy of the family. But this culture tends to tear families and even neighbors apart. They never see each other, let alone fellowship with one another. I come to church not to worship, but for the company, for community, since it’s all that left. But it is a poor substitute.
David: Religion does seem to offer that sense of community. But it does so through the exclusionary practice of establishing corporate identity. The brethren who Paul and Peter say are to be greeted with the holy kiss are fellow Christians, but would Jesus have said that? Not the Jesus I know! He would have wanted the holy kiss to be bestowed upon anyone in need, Christian or not. I understand that there is a measure of comfort to be found in community as we establish it, but it is not the (comm)unity with God and the universe out of which we are born. No-one is excluded from unity with God and the universe, but billions are excluded from our respective man-made communities.
Donald: I value the Adventist church, in part because of classes like this. It certainly has its flaws, but it can be hard to know how to overcome them and improve it.
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