What Do You Expect?

Several years ago, while sitting in the top row of an arena filled with over 16,000 adoring fans of a particular professional sports team, it struck me like a lightning bolt, I was in a "worship service!" While it wasn't your traditional "church service," it was still categorically worship. This professional event, for which people spent considerable amounts of money to attend, was the "worship" of the masses. Win or lose, people still came and paid (literally) homage to something (and in many cases someone) beyond themselves. 16,000 people were exalting an entity that was "bigger" than they ever will be. Few of those 16,000 knew any of the players personally, and yet they let their emotions soar in praise as they would call players by name. All 15,999 (I was too long gone in thought at this point to really actively participate) chanted mantras repetitively with expert precision, "Beat L.A." or "Aaaaaiiiir-ball...aaaaaiiiir-ball." It was an amazing thing to witness from my perspective, so high in the rafters of the "sanctuary."

There is something compelling about worship. Transcending form, worship is more about function and is something of a natural expression of the "created" for the "Creator." Worship can be suppressed with minimal effort but this does not reduce the reality that one day "every knee will bow and every tongue will confess" the reality that calls all of humanity to worship the Creator.

What is interesting to me is the quantifiable difference between "worshiping the profane" and "worshiping the Divine." While I can be as guilty as the next guy of rooting (I'd like to think not quite worshiping) my favorite team or athlete, no matter how hard I chant, or yell or sing or "praise" my favorite team, there is nothing substantive that changes in my life as a result of that experience. I am, in no direct way, transformed by the contemporary "worship" of the "arena mass." I may walk away pleased if my team wins, but I'm not changed (especially for the better). The guy who walked into the arena is the same guy who walks out of the arena (okay, I may be a pound or two heavier from all the junk food I've eaten and $100 or more poorer from all the money I've spent -- but other than that, my life remains unchanged).

Coming into the presence of the Divine is to be changed, transformed, to experience a metamorphosis. To worship "the King, all glorious above and gratefully sing His wonderful love" means as a result of His exaltation and glorification, I, a worshiper, am different as a direct result of the worship experience.

This is an important distinction from your "garden variety" (Madison Square Garden perhaps being one possibility) worship experience. There are numerous examples of people coming into the presence of the Divine and being changed. Are we one of them when we worship?

If we worship, but aren't changed, what is the reason? Maybe it has something to do with what we expect going into the experience?

More on that tomorrow...