TWOnity - Unity Continued

I will eventually get to how I think all this ties back to unity in the body - and eventually what unity in the body looks like. But I'm still stuck on my understanding of worship. As promised, here's a bit more, involving Abraham, Isaac, and David.

OK - lets start with Abraham - I should say that a lot this was directly inspired by an article on Experiencing Worship, written by Rob Parsley. The first time that the Hebrew word, 'shachah', is translated as 'worship' in the Bible comes from the story of Abraham and Isaac. This is the OBVIOUS biblical introduction to worship - though many people worshipped before - if you're looking up worship, the is the first place at which you arrive.

After finally fathering a child with his wife Sarah, God says to sacrifice him. Wow. This is a guy who has been promised to be the FATHER of a great nation of people Talk about a legacy. It is relatively more difficult to do that if you have to kill your only son. But there's no rebuttal - Abraham knows what he must do.

Once Mount Moriah is in front of them, Abraham and Isaac continue alone - no servants. Here it is: Abraham says to them, "We will worship and then we will come back to you." (Gen 22:4) Of course you know that Isaac lives - sorry to give away the ending to those of you unfamiliar - and God provides a ram for sacrifice.

Worship, then, is about, at least in part, SACRIFICE. Abraham was willing to give up EXACTLY that which God had given Him - the blessing that God poured out on Him, he was willing to give back. Abraham must not have had ANY pleasure in this - this was his son whom he loved as only a father can love his son.

I wonder, then, how much I'm willing to sacrifice. If I go to church and they don't sing my song, does that mean that I don't worship, or does it mean that I'm making some regal sacrifice: "Well I went to church and they didn't sing any of my songs - God must be well-pleased with my worship!"

This is from the author of that article I mentioned: "When we make the choice to worship God, we are emptying ourselves of our own rights and will and surrendering ourselves to Him. Worship is the foremost act of sacrifice. It proclaims death to our self."

Perhaps corporate worship is different. I don't think so, but maybe someone has that arguement. Corporate worship, as we understand it (i.e. going to church and singing songs and reading scripture . . . you all know what they do at church), seems like such a contradiction of terms to me, if you're arguing that people 'all worship differently'. Here's what I mean - people worship differently - they come to a place where they can worship differently together. They only 'corporate' part is that they're all in the same building. The corporate part implies together - the worship part (if everyone worships in their own way) implies apart.

Worship at its core is not different from person to person. There are endless expressions of it. But there should only be one motivation - the Lordship of God. Granted we may be aware of that Lordship whether we're being blessed or being tested, through times of comfort, or of loss, but the base motivation is always present when someone chooses to worship.

David also said something very cool - and I'm not entirely sure how I've missed it for all of these years. BUT, here goes. After realizing a grave sin, David wanted to make a sacrifice (<- key word) but had no animal. An owner of a nearby 'threshing floor' was willing to give David whatever he wanted, but DAVID said this: "No, I insist on paying the full price. I will not take for the LORD what is yours, or sacrifice a burnt offering that costs me nothing."

HOW did I miss that? I will not sacrifice a burnt offering that costs me nothing. That in itself is a fantastic blog post - we're SO used to getting a lot for nothing: on Uncle Bill's tab.

In any case, King David realized that a sacrifice, by definition, has cost. The question is what does my worship cost me? I'm not rich, I'm not poor, I've got enough that's for sure (<- Old Mother's Day recitation - reliving my childhood, sorry). I've certainly got enough to sacrifice. I'm in the top 1% of incomes in the world (Global Rich List)!

Alright . . . I think I've set it up well enough. Next time, I deal with unity in the body of Christ.

Grace.