If someone asked you what "worship" is what would you say?
The dictionary meaning says, "Worship is reverence offered a divine being or supernatural power-also an act of expressing such reverence - or a form of religious practice with its creed and ritual - extravagant respect or admiration for or devotion to an object of esteem."
For those who worship the Lord, it is honoring God through our words, our prayers, our songs and our actions. It is recognizing that we can have an encounter with the living God.
People have worshiped God since the beginning of time. Cain and Abel brought to the Lord their best. Abraham built an altar to the Lord; Jacob set up stones to mark the place where he had an encounter with God; the Hebrews built a tabernacle for a place to worship the Lord; Solomon built a Temple; people gathered to honor and adore the One who had saved them from their enemies, the One who sustained them in times of trial and tribulation, the One who knew them intimately.
Jesus worshipped at a synagogue - a place where the people gathered to hear the Word read and proclaimed and offered their prayers and sang hymns or psalms of praise.
In the Christian community, worship is something we do together to honor and show our devotion to Christ.
Worship, or "The Service" means the work of the people. We are not suppose to be spectators or a passive audience in worship, but instead, we gather to collectively realize the presence of God in Christ, and to respond together in adoration, in sung praises, in prayer, hearing His Word, and in the dedication of our lives. Worship is the Christian community concentrating on God so that God's presence may overflow into the activities of our lives in the entire week to come.
What does our worship look like?
Our worship service is basically built around the form represented in the worship experience of Isaiah found in Isaiah 6: 1-8. In the scripture, seraphs are gathered around the Lord, singing praises, a person confessing their sin, an assurance of pardon, the Word of the Lord spoken, and a response to the Word. In our worship services we have many of these same elements: the Gathering, Praise, Adoration & Thanksgiving, Confession, Assurance of Forgiveness, Hearing the Word (anthem, Scripture, sermon), Responding to the Word, Going forth into the world to spread the Gospel. Special parts of the service are Holy Communion and Baptism.
The way that the church is laid out and the items in that place are very important for it's people to experience the story of God as known in Jesus. In the Old Testament Moses is given instructions by the Lord for the layout of the place of worship. The altar is a place of offereng to ask God to forgive sins. The altar represents the grace that Christ offers to us through the sacrament of Holy Communion. Candles remind us of Christ who is the Light of the World and the Holy Spirit whom we ask to join us in our worship. The empty cross in our church reminds us of the resurrection of Christ and His victory over sin and death. The pulpit is the place where the Word is proclaimed. The baptismal font is the basin of water used in baptism. The communion rail is the place to kneel before the Lord showing humility and honoring God. The paraments are the colorful cloths on the altar and serve to remind us of what we are celebrating and observing in worship. These paraments center around the Liturgical year, which tells the story of our faith year after year and helps to structure our worship.
The Liturgical year is as follows:
-Advent- Prepare for Christ; 4 weeks before Christmas Day; color is purple
-Christmas- Celebrate Christ's birth; 12 days; color is white
-Ephiphany- Celebrate Christ's divinity and we learn about Jesus; Until Ash Wednesday; color is green
-Lent- A time to think about our lives and Jesus; 40 days, not counting Sundays, before Easter; color is purple
-Easter- Celebration of Christ's resurrection; 50 days; color is white
-Pentecost- Remember the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the birth of the Christian church; longest season; color is red
-Ordinary Time- time to reflect upon doing the work of God's Kingdom and to grow spiritually; lasts until November; color is green
Thank you Rev. Tefteller for this informative lesson.
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