Liturgy continually confronts us with the call to sacrifice our preoccupation with self. Because liturgy is intrinsically corporate, it resists any narrowing of the spiritual life to a private relationship between the solitary soul and God. Liturgy places God in the...
Modern-day individualism has diminished and diluted the communal emphasis in Scripture. Piety has become compartmentalized, relegated to a private personal pocket of life. The result is a religious consumerism which describes worship as “attending the church of your...
An emphasis on what we “get out” of a worship service—above all, that we feel good about ourselves—displaces the theocentric praise of God with anthropocentric utilitarianism. Since the worship of God is an end in itself, “making worship useful” destroys it, because...
In all its elements,…Christian worship is the action of God, of Jesus, and of the community itself for the community, and therefore the upbuilding of the community. From this center, it can and should spread out into the wider circle of the everyday life of Christians...
We keep doing these things over and over again on Sunday morning because we know that if we didn’t we might lose our love. In fact, those times when we don’t feel like it, when we really feel no deep attachment or desire to worship the Beloved, are the times we ought...
“Praise” that uses only “upbeat” songs can be extremely destructive to worshipers because it denies the reality of doubts concerning God, the hiddenness of God, and the feelings of abandonment by God that cloud believers going through difficult times. I have counseled...
Worship is the expression of the Christian believer’s relationship with God. However that relationship is very complex, since God is at one and the same time our Creator, Redeemer (through Jesus Christ), Sustainer, Indweller (by the Holy Spirit), Friend and Judge. I...
Community is characterized by two things: one is forgiveness, the other is celebration. Forgiveness means that I continually am willing to forgive the other person for not being God—for not fulfilling all my needs. I too must ask forgiveness for not being able to...
Paul actually expects Christ to be encountered as his people share with one another a whole range of verbal ministries in the congregational. For example, as they “sing psalms, hymns and spiritual song,” with gratitude in their hearts to God, they will fulfill the...
Forgiveness does not mean ignoring what has been done or putting a false label on an evil act. It means, rather, that the evil act no longer remains as a barrier to the relationship.