presentsense

Where credit is due

I have always believed that the deepest, truest worship cannot be "worked up." I think much of what passes for worship in our contemporary church setting should really be classified as just so much religion.  Religion in the sense of "doing what we do".  Worship music is one of the things "we do," whether we feel like doing it or not.  (Please tell me I'm not the only one who's been there!)  To not "do it" is to shirk a responsibility, or to let someone, if not the whole group, down.

I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing.  Discipline is necessary for an effective Christian life, and they wouldn't call it discipline there wasn't some effort involved.  But I don't want to talk about that right now.

I want to talk about those times when worship flows from an intense realization of the vastness of God and his creation.  One such time for me is during a thunderstorm.  It's during a thunderstorm that I most effectively realize just how much I matter, or more precisely, how much I don't matter.  Last night, while driving home, I saw the top of a thunderhead in the northeastern sky.  As I looked closer, I could see almost the entire storm.  When I got home, out of curiosity, I looked at a radar site to see if I could place the storm on the map, and I was surprised to find that the storm I had just seen was nearly 150 miles away!  In that moment, I was impressed once again with just how large-scale the earth could be, and therefore, just how much bigger the solar system must be.  Yet our solar system is but a speck in our galaxy, and our galaxy is one of an uncountable number of galaxies in the known universe.  And to think of the One who created it all put me in a state of true worship.  I wasn't singing - quite frankly, singing a trite little worship tune would have spoiled the moment.  I wasn't doing anything but pondering the vastness of God.  I wish I could learn to manufacture these sorts of moments for myself, but alas, I suspect that their scarcity only adds to their quality.

Lord, show me Your glory.

Interview with Jonny Baker

Jonny Baker has been a big influence on present.sense.  Check out this brief interview with Jonny if you are interested in "alt worship".

In or With?

The Bible is full of verses we have memorized over the years without fully knowing or understanding what they meant.  In my life, one such verse is John 4:23.  Here it is in the NAS version:

But an hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. Yes, the Father wants such people to worship Him.

This verse is part of a longer conversation between Jesus and a Samaritan woman - as story commonly known as the "Woman at the Well" story.  I believe that this conversation provides us with a beautiful example of how we can interact with today's postmodern generation, but I digress.

I have always been bewildered by the little phrase at the end of the verse, "in spirit and in truth."  What does that mean?  I guess the "in spirit" part makes sense in a American English - think "obeying the spirit of the law."  But what about "in truth"? 

So what?  So I started digging, that's what.  I got tired of assuming I knew the answer and I went back to the source, Greek.  (don't click away yet - I promise, this will be worth it).  The tools freely available on the internet for bible study are amazing.  Take Crosswalk for example.  Now, I will be the first to admit that the pop-evangelical advertising that goes on at Crosswalk can be a bit over the top at times, but their bible study tools are first rate.  You actually have the option of looking up a verse in the KJV or NAS versions with each significant word hyperlinked to it's original word (Greek or Hebrew).  I'll say it - it's time to throw your Strong's away and get a broadband connection (or visit your local library) - money comes and goes, but time is something we never have enough of.

So I am studying this verse and linking out to the original Greek, and I came across something more than interesting.  The word that is translated "in" in the phrase "in spirit and in truth" can also be translated as "with," as in "with the Spirit and with the Truth".  As a matter of fact, according to John Gill's exposition (also available at Crosswalk), the word in question - en - is rendered thusly in other verses in the NT.  Add to the argument the context of John 4:23, particularly as it follows verse 22:

You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews

This verse clearly shows that the point of both verses is not "how will we worship" but "who we will worship".  So let's retranslate this passage based upon this new understanding:

But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father with the Spirit and with the Truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers.

So now, who is this Truth character?  See John 14:6.

Your thoughts?

A couple links

Here are a couple worship-related links for your enjoyment.  The views expressed on these links are not necessarily mine...yet.

All about me worship

McWorship