I just finished Rober Webber’s The Divine Embrace.  I highly recommend it to any and all who wonder about the nature of Christian worship and why “nothing seems to happen” on Sundays when Christians gather.  Here’s a quote that really drives home a lot of what I’ve been trying to accomplish as a pastor, with varying degrees of success,

When worship does God’s story, our contemplation is simply a delight in the story that worship does.  The delight of worship is not expressed in words like, “That was a great program,” or “I loved the music today,” or “What an entertaining sermon,” or “I really felt like I was worshiping today,” or “That sure was fun dancing around, shouting ‘Amen!’ and giving my neighbor a high five.”  These are descriptions of delight in self as if “I did it; I broke through; I really worshiped.”  Worship that generates that kind of response is not worship that glorifies God and his story.  Rather, that kind of worship glorifies the self as the self has generated worship.

True worship generates the sense of “What a great story,” or “I can’t believe that God would do that for the world and for me,” or “What a God to become human and to restore all things through Christ.”  For some people truth declared in worship will be received with exuberance, and for others the truth of God’s story will be received with reserve, with a quiet sense of joy, or even with relief.  But for us all, a worship that sings, proclaims, and enacts God’s story should result in delight that produces an ongoing participation in the purposes of God in life.

This is why when I sit with people to plan worship I demand that our worship makes “narrative sense,” worship that reeks with nostalga or a desire to make people feel good, isn’t worship – it’s a travesty.  It’s also why my heart aches when folks seem to use any excuse they can come up with in order to not be in worship – it aches because it shows me how poorly the Church has brought people into worship for generations, and how shoddy a job I’ve done as well.  Worship is the immersion of God’s people in the story of the Gospel and in the revelation of the Triune God’s redemption of the world through the God-Man, Jesus Christ.  It is where we should experience the truth of the Hymn, “Here is Love.”

And Heaven’s peace, and perfect justice, kissed a guilty world in love

Who his love will not remember? Who can cease to sing his praise?

He will never be forgotten, throughout heav’ns eternal days.

Quotation taken from:

Robert E. Webber, Divine Embrace, The: Recovering the Passionate Spiritual Life (Baker Books, 2006). Pg. 238