St Mary's Church Almondsbury
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WORSHIP: Doing what comes naturally			X-plore Programme
(A summary of a talk given by Canon John Poarch at the January 2007 meeting of X-plore.) “There is nothing the church does on this earth which is more important than the worship of God.” Now there’s a statement for you, calculated to wind people up! And their reaction can be scathing. “Nothing more important? Are you telling me that going to church is more important than doing something about the hungry and the homeless and others who cry out for help? No doubt the priest and the Levite who left that poor chap in the ditch and went by on the other side were late for a service. The church should sort its priorities out.” Such a reaction is understandable and even laudable but it reveals a serious lack of understanding about what worship really is. So what is worship, fundamentally? What lies at the heart of it? Our word “worship” in fact comes from the old English word “worthship” - which is how we get His Worship the Mayor - and therefore to worship someone or something is to acknowledge its worth. And it may help us to think more clearly about the worship of God if we start by thinking about the way we “worship” the man or woman in our life or our best friend. Not that worship and love and friendship are all the same thing but there is enough overlap to make the comparison worthwhile. Let’s start with the most important way and ask, Who is the genuine worshipper, the true lover, the real friend? Is it the person who could charm the birds out of the trees with his endearments and promises undying devotion “until hell freezes over” - and yet is never there when most needed? Or is it the person who is always there for you, no matter what the cost? When I advertised my old car for sale one of the people who rang up explained - and obviously expected me to understand - that what he was looking for was an old banger which would not cost too much, because it was “only for the wife.” This may be an unfair comment on their relationship, but it raises the question, How do we show our love? Is it primarily by our eloquence or by our generosity? And shouldn’t this include not only the man or woman in our life but also other people who are dear to them? It could even be “love me, love my dog.” So we worship, we acknowledge the worth of the person we love, first and foremost by the way we honour them in our life - by being faithful to them, by the practical service we are able to give them, and give to other people for their sake. But because we are human there are other ways too in which it is natural to express our sense of worth-ship. First, we can use words. If we think we have a talent for it, we might try our hand at poetry. We might even set our efforts to music. Or we might use other people’s poetry and songs - “hymns”, as some call them. Or we might write love letters. Or we might, at the very least, say “I love you.” Secondly, we can use what people in church would call “sacraments”. That is to say, we can use things which we can see and touch and yet have spiritual meaning, signs and symbols in other words. We can “say it with flowers.” We can give a handshake or a hug or a kiss. We can make love. As it says in the old marriage service, “With my body I thee worship.” Thirdly, we can use quietness. Lovers are taken up with one another. Their symbolic stance is face to face. The symbolic stance of friends on the other hand is side by side. But both lovers and friends can enjoy a companionable silence. Words are often unnecessary. Fourthly, we can recognise that a sense of reverence and even awe is perfectly natural in a love affair. In fact for some people, in the early stages, it can be an agony and when the object of their devotion appears they go red in the face and stammer and have even been known to lose the power of speech. And fifthly, we can do our best to ensure that our worship, the way we express our love, is appropriate, and appropriate in two ways. When the Queen paid a state visit to Seychelles the visit was preceded by months of preparation, and among the questions that had to be decided was, “What gifts would be appropriate to present to Her Majesty?” It was quite clear what would not be appropriate. To give her a coco-nut with the words “Souvenir from Seychelles” just would not do, because it would not take into account the person she is. On the other hand, to write to a Bond Street jeweller and order up a diamond necklace would be equally inappropriate because it would not take into account who the islanders were. In the end they probably got it about right, and presented the Queen with two baby giant tortoises, a model of a fishing canoe and a collection of rare shells housed in a cabinet made by local craftsmen. There we have examples of six ways of “worshipping” people - one which is an all-important way,and five which are not alternative but rather additional ways of expressing the worth which a person has in our eyes. The thing to ask now is whether what has been said above also applies to the worship of God. Where the priest and the Levite in the story of the Good Samaritan went wrong was not in rating ritual and purity highly. It was rather in failing to see that going to the aid of a wounded man was also a form of worship, because showing compassion would have honoured the God of all compassion. And for them at that moment it would have been the highest form of worship. It is in our nature to use words to express our devotion. In church we sometimes use our own words but most of all we use other people’s words - we say their prayers and sing their hymns and in doing so we make them our own. And because they are the words of men and women who are saintlier than we are, we find ourselves expressing what we aspire to be rather than what we actually are. There is nothing however insincere about that as long as we recognise what we are doing. It is in our nature to use signs and symbols to express our worship of God - candles, banners, palm crosses, Christmas cribs, Advent wreaths, Easter gardens, water, bread, wine. It is in our nature to use silence. As the French peasant said to his parish priest who was curious about what he did during the long hours he spent in church, “I looks at him, and he looks at me.” It is in our nature to feel a sense of reverence and awe in the presence of God, though the speed and noise of modern life have helped to blunt this sense in us. Seventy years ago objections were raised to the broad-casting of religious services on the grounds that men might listen to them sitting down in public houses and with their hats on. We think that is quaint nowadays, but perhaps they had something there which we have largely lost. And it is in our nature to express our devotion in ways which are appropriate. How do we express worship which is fitting when God is both Abba, our Father, and yet also the Holy One, before whom cherubim and seraphim veil their faces? And what worship would be a fitting offering coming from us, seeing that we are the utterly dependent children for whom Christ gave his life? Worship is what we do naturally in the sense that it is in our nature to put someone or something (wealth, perhaps, or a party or a country or a cause) first in our life and give them our devotion. Sometimes - sadly, and very dangerously - the object of our worship is ourself and that too is human nature. But worship is not natural in the other sense that we take to it easily and without effort and without having to learn the ropes. Anything which is worthwhile in this life - whether cabinet-making or playing the piano or working to achieve a more just society - is likely to demand discipline and sheer hard work as well as inspiration. It would be naïve to suppose that the worship of God is any exception to that. After all, to worship God means to acknowledge the supremacy of God with every part of our being. So it is no more than a plain statement of fact to say that the worship of God is the most important thing the church has to do on earth. It is also the most difficult. No wonder then that we fail so often and can only learn to do it, as we say at the end of our prayers, “through Jesus Christ our Lord”.
Contact the Church Office Rev. Philip W. Rowe, Vicar of Almondsbury and Olveston with Aust The Vicarage, 3 Sundays Hill, Almondsbury, Bristol, BS32 4DS 01454 613223		Email the Website Administrator