On Worship...
The word “worship” drums up many different images and definitions for anyone that cares to think about it for any length of time. For me, the most basic way of describing worship is a love response to God.
The Westminster Catechism responds to the question, “What is the chief and highest end of man?” with “Man's chief and highest end is to glorify God, and fully to enjoy him forever.”
In a way, it seems like another way of saying a love response to God…
Do I truly believe that my chief and highest end—my very reason for being is to glorify God, and fully enjoy him forever; to respond in love to Him? Do I wake from sleep each morning with a burning passion to live life to the glory of God? Is God’s glory the goal that is the driving force behind every word that I say, every thought that I think, and every decision that I make?
Sometimes.
Sometimes there are even whole seasons where I live life in this place.
In Mark we are met with a surprising image of worship, an outpouring of love that doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense.
It is the week leading up to the cross. Jerusalem is packed, and Jesus is there surrounded by harsh, negative attitudes and awaiting betrayal, the pressure intensified every day. Yet in the midst of it all…
Jesus was in the home of a man called Simon, when suddenly a woman carrying a jar of perfume entered the room. Without any explanation, she broke the top and unashamedly poured the whole jar of perfume over the head of Jesus. It was a crazy thing to do, and everyone there knew it. For one thing, it was an extravagant waste of money. This perfume was meant to be measured out drop by drop, not used all at once. But Jesus didn’t see it that way: He said, “She has done a beautiful thing to me” (Mark 14:6)
For Jesus, it was a well-timed act of devotion—unexpected, unusual and yet so meaningful to Him.
This woman was responding in a way that showed she had not been tamed by cynical religious attitudes. It was the worship of a woman who didn’t know the rules…an unpredictable, untamed heart on a quest to see Jesus glorified.
In our contemporary context, worship has been hammered down to a fine art. We have domesticated worship, discovered the secrets and even patented them…
It has resulted in a tamed worship. We have confined it to set times and places and activities. Singing songs to God on Sunday morning is clearly seen as a time of worship…but sitting down at our desk at the beginning of our Wednesday morning work day is just life…its not worship.
What would it mean to tap into the deep parts of ourselves that long to worship God with every ounce of our being in an untamed, unplanned, unpredictable manner…like the woman with the perfume…
When untamed response meets tamed worship, a disconnect takes place.
Tamed worship is civilized and sophisticated. Untamed worship is raw and innocent. I’ve often seen tamed worshippers attempt to help the untamed worshippers gain their learned civility and sophistication…
The disciples and other onlookers responded harshly and negatively to the woman’s generous response to Jesus, because...well, she should have known better, right? They were the sophisticated and civilized informing the raw and innocent of her obscene waste, resulting in squelching the bubbling love that was the root of her untamed response.
And Jesus said, “She has done a beautiful thing to me” (Mark 14:6).
The Westminster Catechism responds to the question, “What is the chief and highest end of man?” with “Man's chief and highest end is to glorify God, and fully to enjoy him forever.”
In a way, it seems like another way of saying a love response to God…
Do I truly believe that my chief and highest end—my very reason for being is to glorify God, and fully enjoy him forever; to respond in love to Him? Do I wake from sleep each morning with a burning passion to live life to the glory of God? Is God’s glory the goal that is the driving force behind every word that I say, every thought that I think, and every decision that I make?
Sometimes.
Sometimes there are even whole seasons where I live life in this place.
In Mark we are met with a surprising image of worship, an outpouring of love that doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense.
It is the week leading up to the cross. Jerusalem is packed, and Jesus is there surrounded by harsh, negative attitudes and awaiting betrayal, the pressure intensified every day. Yet in the midst of it all…
Jesus was in the home of a man called Simon, when suddenly a woman carrying a jar of perfume entered the room. Without any explanation, she broke the top and unashamedly poured the whole jar of perfume over the head of Jesus. It was a crazy thing to do, and everyone there knew it. For one thing, it was an extravagant waste of money. This perfume was meant to be measured out drop by drop, not used all at once. But Jesus didn’t see it that way: He said, “She has done a beautiful thing to me” (Mark 14:6)
For Jesus, it was a well-timed act of devotion—unexpected, unusual and yet so meaningful to Him.
This woman was responding in a way that showed she had not been tamed by cynical religious attitudes. It was the worship of a woman who didn’t know the rules…an unpredictable, untamed heart on a quest to see Jesus glorified.
In our contemporary context, worship has been hammered down to a fine art. We have domesticated worship, discovered the secrets and even patented them…
It has resulted in a tamed worship. We have confined it to set times and places and activities. Singing songs to God on Sunday morning is clearly seen as a time of worship…but sitting down at our desk at the beginning of our Wednesday morning work day is just life…its not worship.
What would it mean to tap into the deep parts of ourselves that long to worship God with every ounce of our being in an untamed, unplanned, unpredictable manner…like the woman with the perfume…
When untamed response meets tamed worship, a disconnect takes place.
Tamed worship is civilized and sophisticated. Untamed worship is raw and innocent. I’ve often seen tamed worshippers attempt to help the untamed worshippers gain their learned civility and sophistication…
The disciples and other onlookers responded harshly and negatively to the woman’s generous response to Jesus, because...well, she should have known better, right? They were the sophisticated and civilized informing the raw and innocent of her obscene waste, resulting in squelching the bubbling love that was the root of her untamed response.
And Jesus said, “She has done a beautiful thing to me” (Mark 14:6).
May we be worshippers with untamed hearts—responding to Jesus with ridiculous offerings, spontaneous and reckless sacrifices all because we are head over heels in love with our Savior.
May our lives kindle the words, “you have done a beautiful thing to me.”
May our lives kindle the words, “you have done a beautiful thing to me.”
5 comments:
Alright. Who has an example of an untamed act of worship that Jesus would call a beautiful thing?
I was in a church that was in a revival (of sorts) and people would bark and laugh in the Spirit. This disorderly worship did not edify anyone else in the sanctuary. Maybe the barking and laughing would have better suited a lonelier place - either way, I did not see this as an act of worship that would compare with the lady who poured the perfume on Jesus.
Open Question: How have you worshipped in an unorthodox, untamed way in the last few years? Right now, I cannot recall what it was, when it was, and if it has happened.
Bill,
Thanks for this! Definitely pointed out a glaring deficiency in the post.
A story is told of St. Francis of Assisi:
"St. Francis was on his way to do battle for his city. He was dressed in armor, riding upon his horse down the road to Perugia. Suddenly, there was standing in his way a leper dressed in rags. A good part of the leper's face had been eaten away by the dreaded disease. Francis bade the leper to step aside, but the man just stood there, silently.
On an impulse, Francis got off his horse, went up to the leper, and gave him some money. Still, the leper did not move.
Francis then took off his cape and wrapped it around the man. Still, the leper did not move.
Finally, Fancis took the man's head in his hands and kissed him on his rotted lips. When he got back on his horse and looked down to say good-bye to the leper, the road was empty. The leper was nowhere to be found, and Francis knew that in the leper he had encountered Jesus Christ."
St. Francis began with tamed response, tossing a few coins. He moved to extreme actions when he planted a cold one on the sick man's rotten lips. It was an extreme, untamed expression, yet somehow amazingly beautiful.
Mother Theresa spent her life with the poor and sick in Calcutta. I've heard so many stories about her extreme sacrifice and love for those divine nobodies.
Momma T used to say, "Following Jesus is simple, but not easy. Love until it hurts, and then love more."
Her whole life is an expression of the untamed, uncivilized, unsophisticated worship I was attempting to advocate in this post.
I realize now that I left the door open for "charasmatic craziness"...That was not the intent of the post AT ALL.
In a sense, the Charismatic Craziness that you describe isn't "untamed" worship in the sense that was trying to be communicated. It is still part of the "tamed" worship that has been patented (Jesus Camp?).
Tamed worship - giving your 10% in the offering bag
Untamed worship - emptying that "special account" that you were saving for a trip to put wells in Rwanda
Tamed worship - serving in a soup kitchen one evening only to return to your comfortable bed at night
Untamed worship - spending serious time building relationships with marginalized, maybe even time "getting in their shoes"
I hope the intent of the post is starting to become a little clearer.
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