Worship and Spiritual Awakening

Worship changes all that. It shifts attention from self-interest to something and someone who embraces the interest of all. This shift of focus to God open us up to God as Love,  love for the whole where all are equal and where violence, greed and coveting wealth that rightly belongs to all people dissolves in the face of that love.

In worship we invite the Spirit of God to infuse us in such a way that our hearts and minds are turned to God, the mother and father of us all, such that our own inner desires are healed so that – love of God, self, neighbour and those we consider our enemies grows.  It is in worship, along with other spiritual practices, that we are opened to the Presence of God’s Spirit in such a way that we are energised, healed, empowered and our motivations and interests guided in the direction of  the creative Spirit of God.

No amount of study, or anger at the state of the world, or desire for change will bring about a change in human beings that will free us from the cycles of violence and greed that contaminates our world. No removal of violent language from our speech or our liturgies will remove the violence and greed from our hearts. Only the encounter with the One who is Love can make that change. Worship is at the heart of this encounter.

But what do we mean by “worship”?

Worship is the expression of the desire for loving relationship with God, with ultimate reality. This is like a hunger or thirst which expressed in many ways but which is universal, written into the DNA of every human being.

Worship is not to be confused with liturgy or with hymns and songs made as beautiful as possible. No, worship is learning how to place ourselves in the Presence of Beauty itself and in the Presence of Love that changes us. Then our liturgy and our music become expressions of that ecstasy.

“And that, friends, is what worship is. Ecstasy. Ecstasy in the most fundamental root-sense of the word – standing outside oneself in response to a source of pure and unadulterated joy. Real worship transports the worshiper into the place where angelsong is the norm, the place where God’s redeemed future breaks into the present. Where we see Him face to face, and see ourselves as fully redeemed in the reflection of his eyes.” Jeff Krantz

“To the extent that we abandon ourselves to our desire for God, and allow God to fill us, we are filled also with God’s desire for us, and our ability to ‘love our neighbour as we love ourselves’ is radically altered. We are now able, by virtue of the Indwelling Spirit, to ‘love one another’ as he has loved us, something utterly impossible apart from that infusion of God’s very self.” Jeff Krantz

This piece is very much influenced by reading Jeff Krantz’s paper: Worship – the redemption of desire. http://www.preachingpeace.org/images/Worship.pdf

JJelfs 23.06.2014