Today, "worship" means something different to each person. Yet there may be a common denominator among many people, a description of worship that many would recognize. It goes like this: "When I worship, I thank and praise God." Sound familiar?
Is there a different way to describe worship? Is there any really different way of talking about worship?
From God to Us
The aforementioned description of worship involves an action from people-us or me-toward God. "I" am the subject of the verbs-the source of the "thanking" and "praising"-and God is their object. I am the actor; God is the audience. Yet could it be another way? I want to, I need to, I ought to, I must praise God, thank him for his mercy toward me, his gifts to me, and so on. Of course, this is all correct. But is it the right starting point for Christian worship? Is this Christian worship's chief emphasis-from me to God? Language can be ambiguous and misleading. For instance, when we call something the "worship of God," do we mean our work for God or his work for us? The word of can point either way, either for God or from God. Sometimes we speak of "a worship service." Again, is it our service to God or his to us? The answer is, It is both. But which comes first? What is first in the Christian understanding of worship?
The introduction to Lutheran Worship answers, "Our Lord speaks and we listen. His Word bestows what it says. Faith that is born from what is heard acknowledges the gifts received with eager thankfulness and praise." That is it! First God acts, and then we act. God acts through his Word, which is an active Word. Then, and only then, do we respond. As the Apology to the Augsburg Confession puts it, "It is by faith that God wants to be worshiped, namely, that we receive from him what he promises and offers."
In God's Name
A familiar verse of Scripture tells us that "where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them" (Matt. 18:20). One of the most direct indications of God's presence among human beings in the Old Testament was expressed by God's name. Thus, Israel is told, "But you shall seek the place that the Lord your God will choose out of all your tribes to put his name and make his habitation there" (Deut. 12:5, my emphasis; see also 12:11; 14:23-24; 15:20; etc.). God later revealed that Solomon would "build the house for my name" (1 Kings 5:5). At the temple's dedication Solomon announced, "I have built the house for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel" (1 Kings 8:20). God then responded to Solomon's prayer at the dedication by declaring, "I have heard your prayer and your plea, which you have made before me. I have consecrated this house that you have built, by putting my name there forever. My eyes and my heart will be there for all time" (1 Kings 9:3).
The children of the New Israel were called people of "the Way" (Acts 9:2) and "Christians" (Acts 11:26). But they were also identified in another manner. Jesus spoke with Ananias in a vision, and Ananias answered him: "[H]e [Saul] has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your [that is, Jesus'] name" (Acts 9:14, my emphasis). That same Saul, now Paul, would later open one of his letters with these words: "To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours" (1 Cor. 1:2, my emphasis). Worship, then, must also be in God's name.
Heaven on Earth
W. Loehe has said, "In public worship the Church experiences a special nearness to God; she approaches into the very presence of the Bridegroom, it leads a heavenly life on earth, an earthly life in heaven." We learn in Hebrews (10:19-20) that "we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he has opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh." When Jesus died, the curtain separating the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place was "torn in two, from top to bottom" (Matt. 27:51; Mark 15:38). Here we learn that the body of Christ is the curtain through which we enter the holy of holies, just as in the old covenant there was the veil through which the High Priest entered. St. Paul describes this: "Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand" (Rom. 5:1-2, my emphasis).
Because of this we have "confidence … through Christ toward God" (2 Cor. 3:4). "For through him we … have access in one Spirit to the Father" (Eph. 2:18). In fact, no one comes to the Father except through him (see John 14:6). When in the great Gloria in Excelsis we declare that "we worship you," where does this take place? In church? Of course. But even more in the very presence of God and of his Son. It is truly, in the words of the hymn, "at the Lamb's high feast we sing."
