On the prayer of adoration…
Grace and Peace from Our Lord Jesus Christ!
We live in a day and age when visual entertainment is all the rage. Video games and movies often seek to bring us a rush that short-circuits our minds.1 It is not unusual then to expect that our worship services should bring us a similar rush. But rather than seeking to imitate the world by manipulating ourselves into some kind of rush or even to create an emotional religious experience, we are seeking the risen Jesus Christ! It is not that there is necessarily anything wrong with the emotional mountaintop high, but the danger is that we will replace the pursuit of Christ with the pursuit of emotional experiences. Remembering that we have gathered in worship to seek Christ makes a huge difference in how we participate in it.
We saw in last month’s Pastor’s Green Pastures that we have come seeking Christ because God has first sought us out with a call to worship that we have heard before we even arrive at church. And then as we begin the service the responsive Call to Worship is God’s calling us to come gather on the mountain. Since we usually use the Psalms they are both God speaking to us and our words to Him. Thus we see from the very start that worship is a conversation with God. Indeed, He speaks to us from heaven – from the mountaintop, and then we respond by climbing the mountain through prayer – the Prayers of Adoration – prayers appropriate for ascending this holy hill. But it is important to remember as we climb the hill that this is happening whether our emotions are experiencing some sort of high or not.
Nevertheless, we do want to engage more than just the mind as we walk up the heavenly Mount Zion. This is why a sung Prayer of Adoration is much more effective than a spoken one. Singing, unlike speaking, engages the whole person (heart, mind, will, body, imagination, etc.) in the praise of God. This is why it can and should be difficult to completely disengage from it. Everyone knows, for example, that singing aids in memorization and stays in the imagination. James K.A. Smith says, “song seems to get implanted in us as a mode of bodily memory” and “a song can come back to haunt us almost, catching us off guard.”2 The repeated practice of singing Prayers of Adoration every week can have the cumulative effect of pointing your desire to God and away from yourself and all the other things you were apt to seek.
There are many reasons that a Prayer of Adoration takes place in the beginning of our worship service. No doubt this is why Jesus taught us to pray that way in Scripture. But consider as well what the order of our conversation with God says about what Christianity is. Christianity is not about what is in it for us – Jesus is not some kind of genie in the sky whom we can call upon to get us out of a jam or to bring us blessings. It is not a religion that will give us greater prosperity or even ultimately about making us into better people. The true faith is one where God’s people love Jesus and praise Jesus because He is Jesus Christ! Authentic Christianity praises and loves God because He is God!3
It is not unusual today for many to expect worship to meet my needs and serve me. Unfortunately there are large numbers of young people who enjoy Christian praise music but describe themselves as ex-Christian. As I said earlier, remembering that we have gathered in worship to seek Christ makes a huge difference in how we participate in it. Anyone may ascend the holy hill to take a look but not really enter the holy of holies in heaven. Next month we will explore how we take the next step.
In Christ,
Pastor Justin
Check out the paper this blog post is based on here.
Recent Comments