When "worship" isn't worship

To whom to we lift and direct our hands in worship?

We can be easily fooled--by ourselves--into thinking that what we're doing, or what we've been doing is just fine if there are no clear signs to the contrary.

In the previous post one point about worship is that it is a life thing. It's not defined by the songs, the liturgy, the prayers. In fact, sometimes the songs and praises and other stuff we usually associate with "worship" can get in the way of worship.

There are times when "worship" isn't worship.


The prophets of the Old Testament give witness to this. In a time when the Israelites were happy to think showing up to the temple to show their worship to God in song and sacrifice was sufficient, God through the prophets redirected worship to everything but the time spent in the temple singing songs and offering sacrifices.

The problem was that the Israelites had a very narrow understanding of worship, and they were complacent in that understanding. They neglected that the relationships and treatment of others affected worship; indeed it is part of worship. The prophets tell us that true worship plays out in one's daily life: the attitudes held, the decisions made, one's treatment of 'the least.' If this is not happening, then the "worship" we think is worship really is not worship.

Take a look at Amos 5:21-24. God has some difficult words for his people:

I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies;                    even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them and the peace offerings of your fattened animals--I will not look upon them. 

Take away from me the noise of your songs;                                                                         I will not listen to the melody of your harps.                                                                 Instead, let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

Amos voiced God's complaint against the show of worship--the prayer, Scripture, and songs--without the life of devotion. What was missing was a life of justice and righteousness.

It's important that we don't confuse justice and righteousness with "perfection." This is not what God is asking. God was looking, desiring from his own people, ways of living life that honored and glorified God, the giver of life and of all things. It includes, sometimes it is centered on, treatment of the least.

Earlier in Amos, God describes the problem that led up to God's refusal to accept Israel's "worship." It's in Amos 2:6-7:

For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment:
they sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals;
they who trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth,
and push the afflicted out of the way...

This passage in Isaiah reflects God's concern. God is concerned with the Israelites' treatment of others--particularly the poor, the needy, and the afflicted. The Israelites valued a new pair of shoes over lifting up the poor. They are too busy on their way somewhere, on their path toward advancement, to have time for the afflicted and those not worth their time.

They are full of injustice and unrighteousness. This is not injustice in terms of letting lawbreakers run amok. It is injustice in terms of not aligning their lives and ways of living with God's desires. It is dishonorable and unglorifying to God when God's people called to be witnesses neglect the poor who are made to reflect the image of God just as much as the rich.

It's not worship.

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If' we're connecting some dots between last week and this week, then offering our lives as worship to God needs to be related to lives of justice and righteousness for others.

The opposite of this, worship that does not factor in our lives of justice and righteousness toward others (which then really isn't worship) is by definition selfish worship. It's playing the game of worship as only a transaction between me and God. We can gather in community and still be selfish worshipers. We might go to worship to be "filled up" for the week, or to be affirmed in our faith.

But this is not worship.

Worship is what we offer to God, not what we get from God. And what we offer God in worship shows itself in the ways we live toward others.

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Jesus reverberates the complaint when he addresses the Pharisees: This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me." He's quoting Isaiah 29:13. I'll quote verses 13 and 14 for context.

The Lord said, "Because these people draw near with their mouths and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their worship of me is a human commandment learned by rote, I will again do amazing things with this people...the wisdom of their wise ones will come to an end, and the discernment of the discerning ones will be hidden.

The Pharisees were good at honoring God in one way, but failed in another. The word of Jesus, quoting the prophets, suggests that worship can be one-sided and incomplete. This sort of worship  amounts to rote ritual. And it in effect silences God's activity among them.

But God is ready and willing to do amazing things to shock his people back into a life devoted in worship to him. That's a good promise.

The solution to this, however, is not to add the life of justice and righteousness to the list of right things we need to do better so that our worship is real. Then we might just fall into the trap of thinking that enough actions of justice and righteousness can make us good, and we'll likely be in the same problem again of turning "worship" into rote command.

Jesus calls us, rather, to true worship. He calls us to a life filled by the Spirit, a life completely offered to God, and to others. He calls us to complete surrender to God and God's agenda.

Such worship is evidence that the kingdom exists among us as it is in heaven.

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As we reflect on family worship, the following things come to mind:

• How are we living out justice and righteousness toward one another in our homes as acts of worship? 
• Why is it difficult to truly worship God through our lives toward others? 
• What are worshipful experiences you've had that involve how you relate to those around you?
• Listen to the Spirit together with those in your family and home to discern how you can live worshipfully. Discuss your ideas of how you can do this together and encourage one another so that you practice family worship.
• How can we be involved in our kids' lives so we can teach this sort of worship to them?