Unceasing Worship, part 2

Preface: see here and here for earlier posts in this series.

I’ve not made as much progress reading as I’d like this week… it’s been far more tempting to close my eyes and nap on the bus than focus on texts about worship. But I’ve managed to finish “Chapter 2: What is Authentic Worship?” and offer up these summary thoughts:

Harold Best finished the previous chapter with the rebirth and redemption of authentic worship in Christ. In this chapter, he explores that relationship, beginning with an exploration of worship vis-a-vis faith, hope and love. He starts with a Hebrews 11:1 exploration of faith as the substance and evidence of our worship, emphasizing that faith does not bring substance to our worship and vise versa. If we mistakenly make our faith dependent on “good” worship to make it effectual, Best asks what happens if you don’t like the music…

Hope is the anticipation of faith, the joyful anticipation of our worship. Since worship is a continual outpouring regardless of the object of our faith, we always have hope, misdirected or not. Hope is not based on what we are capable of, but in what Christ has already done for us. “All the while I am continuously at worship, continuously outpouring, by faith and in hope.” Love underpins both hope and faith, providing a foundation for our worship and making it effectual in the working out of our lives.

“Therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your spiritual worship.” (Romans 12:1, HCSB)

Building on the discussion of faith, hope and love, Best tackles the outpouring of worship as a living sacrifice of our lives, the act of which is in a battle against a world-driven mind (vs. 12:2) and a self-driven mind (vs. 12:3). Authentic worship is from a Christ-driven mind in relationship to the corporate community. Best posits that worship is made up of service to all gifts, not just individual strengths. The community is not so much communism made up of specialized parts, but an overlay of individual worshippers, whose measures of all gifts, no matter how big or small, build up across the totality.

Best sees “a complete description of continuous outpouring as it should be, in Christ” in John’s account of the Samaritan woman:

“But whoever drinks from the water that I will give him will never get thirsty again-ever! In fact, the water I will give him will become a well of water springing up within him for eternal life. [A]n hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.” (John 4:14, 23 – HCSB)

Authentic worship is in spirit and truth from the eternal (continuous) spring of water of our salvation. Our worship is manifest in every moment of our lives, not just incidental time and location, for as long as we live.

Best then finds a trap in the flirtation that “beauty is truth and truth is beauty”. This leads us to speak of God as the ultimate Artist and assume that the purpose of the arts is create a “sacred bridge” into His holiness. The arts then are placed on higher ground than other kinds of human creativity and become an object of worship, an idol. Summarizing all of the above, Best restates Deuteronomy 10:12-13 and 20-21 as follows:

“Authentic worship and continuous outpouring are to be undertaken by faith, driven by love, designed by hope and saturated with truth, whatever the context, time and place. Our worship is acceptable and effective by our being moment-by-moment living sacrifices, doing everything in the Spirit and according to truth, seeking out the beauty of holiness as our only walk, holding fast to God, who alone is our praise and worship.”

Best concludes the chapter with a survey of texts on these themes, then concludes with the final image that worship in the Old Testament was embedded in time and place, but that when Christ came to finish the OT, not replace it, “time and place are not swept aside, but are swept up in Spirit and truth, in continuous worship [...]” so that we have both personal continuous worship and corporate time-and-place worship, both based on Biblical truth.

Advertisement