In Spirit and in Truth - Who? and Why? we worship.

 

Last night, I had to drive cross-country, in the dark and driving rain, to an outer limit of the city of Norwich, where my Diocese has its headquarters, Diocesan House. This was to attend an “Exploration Evening,” as part of the ongoing process of discerning a vocation (in my case as a Licensed Lay Minister – LLM) in the Church of England. It was the first time I have met the others in my cohort who are also hoping to be selected to begin training, later this year.

One of the questions, key to the discernment of vocation, is “Why Anglican?” I mean I have read the book Why I am Still an Anglican, a compilation of justifications edited by Caroline Chartres, and including such contributors as Nicky Gumble (Holy Trinity Brompton and famous for the ubiquitous “Alpha Course”), P.D. James, Fay Weldon, Ian Hislop (sic) and Elizabeth Butler-Sloss. Yet, while these may all be sincere advocates of Anglicanism (including Hislop’s “agnostic” version!), the book did nothing to convince me, in and of itself.

Of them all, Nicky Gumble’s testimony did ring with more spiritual authenticity than most of his co-contributors, though. But I might be biased – both for and against! Gumble started professional life as a Barrister, before being called to ordination. That he should have felt called to the Anglican communion as opposed to, say, the Baptist, Methodist or any one of a number of free-range [non-]denominations was the ‘hook’ for my interest. The second ‘hook’ comes in the fact that the Rector of Weybourne, the other Church of England parish church I worship with, came up through Holy Trinity Brompton, was also, formerly, a Barrister and has followed a similar cursus with the same outcomes for the churches he has ministered to. So, “Evangelical/Charismatic Anglican” then! A very different kettle of fish from St Peter’s “BCP-bound” experience.

All this to say that part of my answer to the question “Why Anglican?” lies in these diverse experiences that form active parts of my everyday experience of life in general, and church life in particular. The diversity, inclusivity (with notable exceptions, it must be said) the broad theological base and openness, and the variety encompassed by the umbrella of “Anglican” has given me a safe, welcoming – often loving - space that our more Evangelical-Fundamentalist church expressions have denied me. Of course, there is snobbery, aloofness, dualism, partisanship, partiality, fear and “ism-ness” in every C of E congregation, like most so-called “churches” today. But I do feel I have freedom to breathe and to become, within this ancient, established and often infuriating iteration of the Body of Christ.

(Saints Church, Weybourne. Image/Author)

For a long time, like so many people I meet, I held trenchant opinions about which was the “right” kind of way of worship and, especially, of the contrast between groups “baptized in the Holy Spirit,” and the “rest” who were, therefore, dead in this regard. I have been humbled (and humiliated) by the Lord’s discipline to realise that such judgements are not mine to make, and that, quite often, to choose ‘Paul’ over ‘Apollos’ is a category error of destructive proportions. (I am not talking, here, about recognising, honouring, and ‘following’ genuine “shepherds” over the narcissistic, abusive ‘wolves in sheep’s clothing’. Clearly Paul – and Jesus – warned us about such Godless, antichrist, self-absorbed and deluded ‘satan’ people.) We were warned about judging by outward appearances, though, on several occasions (1 Samuel 16:7; Luke 16:15; 2. Cor. 5:16). This last reference from 2^nd Corinthians is especially pertinent: Therefore, from now on we recognize no one by the flesh; even though we have known Christ by the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer. Because we are all saved and included in Christ, then matters of qualifications and discriminations regarding who worships, and how we worship are in altogether another, different dimension!

The key to this can be found in Jesus’ magisterial and mystical conversation with the Samaritan woman (doubly disqualified, therefore!) at the well in Sychar. While she more than holds her own in debate with Him, he lovingly and patiently explains a number of issues that her tradition and teaching had blinded her (and us) to. Regarding how and where we worship, for example, Jesus makes clear what the kingdom of heaven within now implies: “But a time is coming, and even now has arrived, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” John 4:23-24 NASB I love how Francois du Toit has treated this text in The Mirror paraphrase: “Believe me lady, the moment everyone was waiting for has come! From now on worship is no longer about a geographic holy mountain – or a sacred city in Israel experience…The end of an era has arrived - the future is here! Whatever prophetic values were expressed in external devotional forms and rituals are now eclipsed in true spirit worship from within, face to face with the Father – acknowledging our genesis in him – this is his delight! The Father’s desire is the worshipper rather than the worship! Du Toit explains in his running commentary: “Whatever it was that time pointed to, is now present in me. The word often translated ‘worship’, proskuneo, from pros, face to face, and kuneo, which I would like to believe to be a derivation of koinonia, joint participation.” Then, verse 24: “God is spirit and not a holy mountain or a sacred city with man-made shrines. Return to your Source – the Father is our true fountain-head!”

(Hillsong Worship)

Hillsong or Handel? Who floats your ‘worship’ boat? What is better about a rock band, with beautiful lead singers, and their spine-tingling voices, leading your ‘worship’ in evocative, emotional and, frankly, erotic ways than a well-trained choir with an expertly played, full-size organ and (perhaps) an accompanying orchestra, in choral Evensong? Auditorium, Stadium, or Cathedral? Mountainside or Temple?

See?

None of them! All of them! These are not the issues. God is no more in Norwich Cathedral than in Canary Road, Norwich’s Football stadium! God is in neither - yet also - in both! It depends on who we intentionally are when we are there.

Indeed, we are most likely to be a more authentic “worshipper” in our ecstasy over a spectacular goal, or at a virtuoso violin performance, or a spine-tingling electric guitar solo or a top Tenor’s “High-C,” than standing in rows in a cold church on a wet Sunday morning. Dangerously, though, our ecstasy over sporting spectaculars, goose-bump-inducing sopranos, or magical orchestral manoeuvres is equally inducible in modern as well as traditional ‘worship’ events. We are never far away from “the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life,” as John puts it (1 John 2:16). Or, as the NLT renders it: For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father but are from this world. Church-as-Nightclub is an increasingly popular phenomenon. But, maybe, not always for the best.

In his Reflections on The Psalms, C.S. Lewis takes a look at worship and the invocation of “the presence of the Lord” – an issue of such desperate importance to “Spirit-filled” worship seekers:

Thus when the Psalmists speak of “seeing” the Lord, or long to ‘see’ Him, most of them mean something that happened to them in the Temple, The fatal way of putting this would be to say, ‘They only mean that they have seen the festival.’ It would be better to say, ‘If we had been there we should only have seen the festival.’ Thus in [Psalm] 68 ‘It is well seen, O God, how thou goest…in the sanctuary…the singers go before, the minstrels follow after, in the midst are the damsels playing with the timbrels’ (68:24,25), it is almost as if the poet said, ‘Look, here he comes.’ If I had been there I should have seen the musicians and the girls with the tambourines; in addition, as another thing, I might or might not have (as we say) ‘felt’ the presence of God.

(From Reflections on The Psalms, C.S. Lewis, William Collins, 2020, (originally 1958) p55 My emphasis)

The confusion between emotional, physical, psychological, and psychical experiences perceived as pleasure (and quite legitimately) through some bodily ecstasy - whether sporting, sexual, artistic, archaeological [Temple/Church, place/space], natural (Nature-inspired), or otherwise transcendental - and encountering and enjoying the Presence of God in ‘worship’ is one very easily apparent in a lot of our individual and corporate worship experiences.

Tom (N.T) Wright puts the same idea thus:

…I have been in the audience for some great performances that have moved me and fed me and satisfied me richly. But only two or three times in my life have I been in an audience which, the moment the conductor’s baton came down for the last time, leaped to its feet in electrified excitement, unable to contain its enthusiastic delight and wonder at what it had just experienced.

That sort of response is pretty close to genuine worship…

(From Simply Christian, Tom Wright, SPCK 2011, pp147-8)

 

Tom’s overall message in this part of his book is: You become what you worship. His second point is: Worship makes you truly human. He has a warning, however:

Perhaps one of the reasons why so much worship, in some churches at least, appears unattractive to so many people is that we have forgotten, or covered up, the truth about the One we are worshipping. But whenever we even glimpse the truth, we are drawn back. Like groupies sneaking off work to see a rock star who’s in town for just an hour or so, like fans waiting all night for a glimpse of a football team returning in triumph – only much more so! – those who come to recognise the God we see in Jesus, the Lion who is also the Lamb, will long to come and worship him. (ibid: pp148-49)

So, am I saying one church/worship form and experience is superior to another in my discussion on BCP and post-Charismatic Anglicanism? Do I prefer one to the other (as if that mattered)? There was a time, not so long ago, when I would have made a clear, biased distinction, not only between the two forms of worship but, disgracefully, between the sort of Christians who habitually frequented either congregation. I neither can, nor will today.

As Paul insists: Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual [‘reasonable’] service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12: 1-2 NASB)

And, as Jesus insisted, “Love [and so, in an intricately entwined way, worship] the Lord your God with all your heart, your mind, your soul and your strength; and love your neighbour as yourself.”

So, where do you worship? How do you worship? Above all, Who and Why do you worship?

AMEN.

Grace and peace, Wayfarers. Go well.

EXTRA! EXTRA!

From the collection by Mercy Aiken who works with the Network of Evangelicals For The Middle East, and who co-wrote Yet in The Dark Streets Shining – A Palestinian Story of Hope & Resilience in Bethlehem with Bishara Awad.

 

A voice is calling, "Clear the way for the LORD in the wilderness; Make smooth in the desert a highway for our God. "Let every valley be lifted up, And every mountain and hill be made low; And let the rough ground become a plain, And the rugged terrain a broad valley; Then the glory of the LORD will be revealed, And all flesh will see it together; For the mouth of the LORD has spoken." Isaiah 40:3-5