What is worship?
"What is worship?" What a question! We all know what worship is, surely? Well, do we? I looked it up
in a dictionary once. "Worship: adoration". So I looked that up too: " Adoration: worship" - fabulous!
Obviously, it wasn't a terribly good dictionary, but I think many of us have much the same fuzzy kind of idea about worship.
So I tried a rather more authoritative lexicon, and did rather better this time. The Chambers dictionary defines worship, in
part, like this: adoration paid to a
deity, etc; religious service; profound admiration and affection; glorification, exaltation, idolization; the act of revering
or adoring. Note the 'etc'! Worship, then, is an expression of our adoration for God, or for a person, or for an object, or
even for an idea.
Some people worship football teams, or rock bands, or even individual players and musicians. They worship 'showbiz' personalities,
film stars, cars, computers, televisions, Communism, Capitalism, Liberalism, Feminism...
We're all different, of course, and some of the things we've mentioned will leave you cold. Why would anyone worship a football
player? We have no idea, but we all know it happens.
Many husbands worship their wives ("You're so beautiful"), and wives their husbands ("You're so
handsome/strong/whatever"). In many cases, they've even vowed to do so, during their marriage ceremony.
Just because we worship some person, idea, or object, that doesn't imply that the person, idea, or object is necessarily
worthy of our worship. Even the ugliest thug that ever pulled on a football shirt can probably count on quite a
few worshippers if only he can put the ball in the net enough times. And even the lowliest football team that ever languished
near the wrong end of a league table can count on at least a few people who will follow them religiously, week in and week out.
People tend to identify with the object of their worship. Devout football fans think they share in the glory of their team,
and so they delight in their team's successes - or are crushed by their failures. Their loyalty to their team often far surpasses
the loyalty of the players, the manager, or even the owner. They spend a small fortune on match tickets, replica shirts,
programmes, travel to away matches, and so on. Their devotion is admirable, but those of us who don't share the bug can't
help feeling they're a trifle misguided. What does the team care about them, except as a source of revenue?
(If the football example doesn't apply to you, what does? Maybe it's Harrison Ford. Or the England cricket team. Or
Cliff Richard. Or Terry Pratchett. Or EastEnders. Or your home, or your car, or your boat. Think about it. There'll be
something or someone. There always is.)
If we are prepared to offer our devotion, our loyalty, our love, to a bunch of guys who kick a ball about for a living
(or whatever it is that we worship), how much more should we be prepared to offer that devotion, loyalty, and love to
the Creator of the entire Universe?
We say that our footballers are "Great! Amazing! Brilliant!" when in fact they're not really
all that "great", their feats are "amazing" only insofar as they surpass those of another bunch of
flawed, imperfect humans, and their brilliance lasts only for a few short years before it sputters and dies.
How, then, should we respond to the truly great, truly amazing, truly brilliant Almighty God? Should we not offer Him
our praise, our admiration, our loyalty, and our devotion? (The more so since He really does care about each one of us;
to Him, we are not just a statistic on the gate figures and another few pounds in the bank.)
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