Day 733 - Why Do We Worship (God)?

Amongst all the arguing and controversy about using “orthodoxy,” to define what words and ideas can be used properly to describe God; and answers to questions such as how can God cause evil, what is proper worship and who can attend, and who are authentic Christians, it is sobering to stop and  ask the question, “Why do we worship (God)?” as a way to cut through this theological strife.

By nature on the discussion I will suggests answers to that question - but this is just my way of publically working out my ideas. The reader needs to work out answers personally, as the Apostle Paul said, with fear and trembling, before it can be discussed collectively. My humble suggestions (some might label them theological) should only provide a context for your answer to the question of why do we worship God.

We worship because we exist

One primary reason that we worship might be to joyfully express our honor of the creator of and reason for existence. One might go further and say worship is something God, the Creator, calls us to do as a consequence of creative action. These two ideas are rooted in a core idea about God being the all-powerful source of existence. (Not all Christians agree with this idea.)

This idea of a powerful source of existence (creation) is not new. The earliest recollection of God’s people is the relationship with their creator. This recollection is voiced by Hebrew, Muslim, Christian, American Indian, animist and many, if not most religious traditions. There is an intrinsic human sense of beginning, and, I argue, of home, or more properly, a longing for home.

We worship because of Reconciliation

Let’s reword the question to reflect the Christian tradition that I claim, “Why do Christians worship God?” This question contains an implicit assumption about history: that Jesus Christ is connected with God in our history.

The core element of that historical assertion is that God did something in relationship with humanity through Jesus Christ that we call Reconciliation. For me, this is a basis for worship. But what has been reconciled?

The crux of reconciliation rests on the idea that humanity has an inborn preference to struggle against the all-powerful Creator of our existence. It sounds irrational, doesn’t it? Well, reconciliation does means “to be in a state of compatibility or consistency with the other” so resolving the irrational idea that we can succeed in our struggle against God could be considered a reconciliation between God and humanity.

A reflection on being a little less than God (Psalm 8)

In my exploration of, and answer to “Why do we worship God?” I did not express any detailed assertions about what the Reconciliation means (I capitalize the word to refer to a special, singular event). For example, I did not go into a discourse about how God and Jesus Christ are physically and divinely related. I did not discuss whether God died for us (penal substitution) or whether the empty cross is the significant event. Did I make any assumptions about whether there are “good” people and “evil” people?

I did imply a few assumptions.  Among these are that pride is an innate, unhealthy quality of human nature, or at least it is an irreligious part of us. Two other assumption are God is creator of reality and therefore must transcend reality, and Jesus Christ is connected in some way with God.

An aside on the Fall: Actually, I believe my description of pride as a quality of human nature implies we all contain the element of evil, pride itself. Thus one answer to the question posed to me by a friend, “What really caused the Fall? might be “Our creation as mortal beings just a little less the God.”

The most important assumption in my answer to why we worship God is that the worship experience, and for that matter, the entire experience of God is (1) a personal experience as a created being and (2) a collective experience of humanity signifying our reconciliation with God.

The Problem of Pride

Scripture says God created us as an image of God, yet not as gods. Thus we have an inherent sense of our reality, or existence, that involves awareness of what power, control, and self-identity we have. That sense of reality involving power, control, self-identity can lead us to either a humble sense of thanksgiving for this gift of existence, or a resistance and resentment that struggles to attain what we cannot do, break the link we, the created have to our creator, or wrestle control over our reality from God.

Another way to say this is we seek the pride of self-determination – we want to be our own gods. Humanity fundamentally has two faces in this argument, one that acknowledges the gift of reality, or existence and trusts God, the other that struggles as an act of pride and power to control the reality of existence that God created in us. Perhaps pride and power are a consequence of our finitude, we all face death.

Our human history validates that pride predominates and is an ever-present element of our behavior. I suggest we are inclined to struggle against God, not praise God. Even those who we see as most penitent struggle to control their existence in the ways that abuse the two elements of God’s creation: other people and the environment, ergo, our living space.

If God were like us, perhaps in an act of pride or power God would wipe the table clean of us and start again? But no, we believe the event of Jesus Christ is the sign that God acted in a way that reconciled our pride and power  (our human nature) with God. This is the human act of God: Sharing our human existence in a way that resists and defeats this innate human pride.

Therefore, I suggest another good answer to the question of why we worship is “God reconciled the pride of humanity.” Or, “We worship as celebration of the fact that God created, embraces and welcomes humanity as children, family, in spite of ourselves.”

Is Orthodox Theology a Theology of Pride (Is It a Consequence of War)?

As early Christianity became established in dispersed geographic regions, Christians fought battles over how to fill in all the missing blanks interpreting the “Christ Event,” as if we can read the mind of God. For example, the earliest Christians believed they should resist the State that sought to incorporate, or subjugate Christianity in the name of the State. Tertullian, around the turn of the second century, clearly described the duty of Christians to refuse to wear the garland (the Roman herald or uniform of the state). Constantine and Augustine changed that and the state and “church” became allies. The State then forced religious leaders to form a description of God as three persons (Nicea), something that transcends our ability to understand at any rational level. This marriage of Church and State is a major reason for the present woes of the Church Universal. We cannot let go of our loyalty to the State when presented with a conflict with our duty to honor God and humanity.

Battles were fought over whether Jesus was human or God and whether he could be both, what was sacred writing and what was not. The fights were "either-or" battles. There could be only one winner and many losers. The pride of being right fueled these bitter and deadly arguments. At their root, these were battles of humanity’s futile, prideful struggle to control and describe God’s reality, to know God’s mind rather than simply honoring God and enjoying God’s grace.

The magnitude of damage and grief of these battles cannot be underemphasized. Many penitent Christian people died for voicing ideas contrary to the majority. The battles and bloodshed over these “interpretive” issues persists through the Reformation, on American soil in the 1600’s and even today.

The Tragedy of Victory

The Christian tragedy, as my professor of the History of Christianity (Dr. Rebecca Weaver) liked to say, is the losing side often was exterminated or exiled. Their detailed writings and thoughts were expunged and for the most part lost from the historical record. They were labeled enemies, heretics, or apostates (certainly some of the ideas were in the outer limits).

For all the positive value of “orthodox” theology, we must not forget that Reformed Orthodoxy, nee Christian Orthodoxy is the showpiece of the pyrrhic victory of human pride. It is in effect, the spoils of a war bought by the blood and tears of humanity.

This is why you should never just buy into what someone says is “orthodox” theology, or dismiss it off hand. You owe it to yourself and creator to test your understanding of God through exploration of scripture, experience, tradition, reason, and as a Christian, through Jesus Christ, in order to build a personal theology that faithfully honors your creator. This is the first step in understanding why we worship God.

If you agree that one real reason to worship our Creator is to honor both our creation and Creator, you may realize I have put the cart before the horse because to worship God demands we behave in a way that reflects that honor. We have to back up in the next post and ask, “Why should God shape our behavior?