Clergy/Leaders’ Mail-list No. 0-181

GLORIFY GOD AND ENJOY HIM FOREVER!

From ‘Sunrise Sunset’ (HarperCollins/Harper San Francisco), Rowland Croucher’s book of daily meditations. Feel free to use or adapt it.

We will bless the Lord from this time on and forevermore. Praise the Lord! Psalm 114:18.

Something is happening to people’s expectations of worship in this television age. They want the stale water of liturgies-as-usual turned into the wine of celebration. Worship services for many are a morose experience. As the Devil says in The Brothers Karamazov, ‘Everything would be transformed into a religious service: it would be holy, but a little dull.’ But is ‘spiritual entertainment’ the purpose of worship? Do we worship to make the faithful ‘feel good’?

As we begin these meditations on worship we – you the reader as I the writer have done – should pause reverently and pray for wisdom and a teachable spirit. Worship is the sublime and awesome key to everything the church does.

‘Worship’ is a contraction of the old English word ‘worth-ship’. It’s recognizing that which is worth most, in the ultimate sense. In the old marriage service a man and a woman promised to ‘worship’ each other; to accord value and worth to each other. Divine worship is a love affair too! The Westminster Shorter Catechism asks ‘What is our chief end?’ It’s ‘to glorify God and enjoy him forever’.

As I worship, may my key question be, ‘What can I offer the Lord for all his goodness to me?’ (Psalm 116:12). Amen.