Calibrating

John 4:21–26 NIV

“Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”

What worship is

One of the most common practices among Christians is the regular habit of gathering for worship. But just because worship is one of those common practices that all Christians know about does not mean it is understood. In fact, I think there are many misconceptions among Christians about what worship even is. When we talk about worship, often we have different ideas to what that even means.

Some people like to think of worship as a very specific set of actions that we do. They would say that worship is what we do in the first half of the church service with music and singing. Worship is primarily about church music, they would say. Others see worship as a bit more expansive than just music. Worship, they would say, includes all the activities that take place in a church service, including offering, prayer, Bible reading, and sermon. Others say worship is not confined to just taking place in a church building. They would say we are able to worship at any time and in any place. In that sense, worship is both a community activity as well as an individual activity. And then in the broadest sense possible, there are some who say that all of life is worship. All humans, they would say, are always worshipping something: God, sports, popularity, money, career, materialism. Our worship is always turned on and directed towards something.

So, which one is right? Maybe I’m not even being fair by presenting the question of worship as a zero-sum game—as though one answer is right and all the others are wrong. Maybe worship carries an understanding that fits with all of these ideas. But, before we go any further, let’s consider the question of what worship is. Because we cannot truly uncover and apply the place of Christian worship in our lives unless we first know what worship is. Of course, scripture is always our best teacher. So, what’s the picture we see of worship through the examples of the Bible? Jesus had a little something to say about this in a conversation he had with a Samaritan woman next to a well.

John 4:21-26

In this conversation there is reference to both Old Testament practices of worship as well as a further understanding coming from Jesus. And notice that Jesus does not shut down any of those old practices of worship as wrong, he simply takes it further.

So, let’s start there with the Old Testament. For thousands of years the Jewish people would gather at the tabernacle, and then the temple, and then synagogues for worship. The priests from the tribe of Levi would conduct worship rituals over and over again. What was their understanding of what was happening there? Very simply, they understood worship as the place where heaven and earth collide, and they were unmistaken in the presence of the holy God in that place at that moment.

What worship does

Worship calibrates our souls.

My car needs a regular schedule of realignment. Regular driving and use wears it into misalignment. I can’t tell when that happens. In truth, it is such a slow graduate process over time, that I don’t notice it at all. Rather, it seems that I get to that point in the mileage when the maintenance schedule tells me it’s time to have the alignment checked. And then it sort of dawns on me that, oh yeah, it does seem like the road noise is quite loud when I am going on the freeway. And when I look at the tread wear on the tires, maybe it is a little uneven. And, oh yeah, there’s that point when steering wheel seems to shimmy just a little bit as I am accelerating. When did all this begin to happen? I’m not sure. It was such a slow process of misalignment. It was so gradual that it pretty much went unnoticed until something—like the maintenance log—called my attention to it. And so, every so often, the alignment needs recalibration so that the car runs smoothly again.

And here’s the thing, for those of you who have had this done. Doesn’t it seem that when you get into your car and drive after having the alignment recalibrated, it feels so smooth, and it rides so quiet. And you think, how did I not notice before that this car needed alignment calibration?

Listen to me here, because this is so important. Our souls are like that too. Life in this broken and fallen world messes up and wears out the alignment of our souls. And worship is the thing that calibrates our souls back into smooth running condition. Life in this world throws our allegiances and dependencies away from God. This world tries to align our securities with things like military strength and a full bank account. This world tries to align our sense of value and worth with things like career accomplishments and business successes. This world tries to align our perception of beauty with superficial outward appearances. This world tries to convince us that love is based upon whatever it is that makes you feel fulfilled at this particular moment.

Slowly, gradually over time, we fail to notice. Where we look for safety and security, for value, worth, and success, how we think about beauty, where we look for love and fulfillment—over time all these things become slowly misaligned. Our souls gradually lose their God-given purpose to reflect the image of our almighty creator. And this happens so slowly, so gradually, that we don’t even notice. What do we do about that?

Worship calibrates our souls. This regular habit of joining other Christians in a moment where heaven and earth collide, and we are in the presence of God, this is spiritual calibration. This practice of coming together and turning our hearts towards God in worship, this is the regular tune-up all of our souls need in order to run smoothly.

It is in worship that we rehearse every week who we really are and what we’ve been created to be and to do. In worship we remember and rehearse the story of God and his people. In worship we remember and rehearse our true purpose. In worship we are reminded that praise and adoration belong to God alone. In worship we are reminded that our safety and security come from God alone. In worship we are reminded that value, worth, and success are from God alone. In worship we are reminded that beauty is bestowed upon God’s good creation by him alone. In worship we are reminded what love really is, and that we are all loved by God beyond what we can ever imagine.

In worship we practice and rehearse together this praise and adoration of God. In worship we practice and rehearse that closeness to our almighty creator in prayer together. In worship we practice and rehearse our calling to discipleship together by opening his Word and examining his will for our lives. In worship we practice and rehearse generosity and sharing of blessings together in what we offer back to God. In worship we practice and rehearse together the receiving and giving of grace from God, among one another, and to the world about us. Worship is about remembering, practicing, and rehearsing what it means for us to the the people of God. And we need to gather regularly and do this regularly, because worship is calibration for our souls.

One salad won’t make me healthy against a lifetime of cheeseburgers and fries. One nap won’t make me rested against a week of overworking late into the night. One jog won’t make me fit against a month of binge watching Netflix from the sofa. One church worship service won’t transform your life against years of wandering and searching for answers elsewhere.

One song won’t do it. Maybe you’ve got your favorite worship song, and you could just listen to it and sing it over and over again. That one thing by itself won’t do it. One prayer won’t do it. One offering won’t do it. One sermon won’t do it. Maybe you’ve got that one sermon you remember that sticks in your mind and was so powerfully meaningful. There’s nothing wrong with that. But more powerful and more meaningful still is the cumulative affect of a lifetime of regularly remembering, practicing, and rehearsing these things. Because worship calibrates our souls.

And so, we regularly gather together and do this. We regularly worship together. We come to this place week after week together because our souls need this.