The Necessity of Worship

As the student wobbled across the campus quadrangle one Sunday morning after an all night party, he was chagrined to meet one of his favorite professors striding briskly toward the college chapel. "I see that you decided to go to worship this morning, professor." "No." came the reply." But aren't you heading into the chapel?" "I am, but I didn't decide to do it this morning." "I don’t understand." "I decided to worship when I became a Christian 50 years ago. I understood then that worship is a part of the covenant that I accepted. That hasn't changed. That’s why I'm going to worship this morning."

When I joined the church, I announced publicly that Jesus Christ was my Lord and Savior, and I promised to uphold the church with my prayers, my presence, my gifts, and my service. I’m not sure that I really understood the implications of all I said that day, but one thing was clear to me then: worship was not optional. In the more than sixty years since then, that hasn’t changed for me. When I don’t "go to church," something is missing.

I love the little "aside" in Luke’s account of when Jesus announced what his ministry was about: "And he went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up; and he went to the synagogue, as his custom was, on the Sabbath day." [Luke 4:16] "As his custom was!" [the exclamation point is mine] For Jesus the covenant of faith included worship. It was not optional.

Now, I understand that "worship" and "going to church" are not synonymous. But I also know that most times when people say, "I don’t have to go to church to worship," it is often more of an excuse rather than a theological reflection. We used to tease my father that in the summer he was a member of the Fairway Baptist Church. I golfed with him enough to know that he didn't worship on the fairway (although I do think that he prayed a lot when he putted). Even a cursory reading of scripture reveals that worship with others was the norm. And early Methodists knew that, if they missed worship, John Wesley would hold them to account.

I don't want this to come off judgmental, and I apologize if it seems that way, but there is that little promise we [United Methodists] made to uphold the church with our prayers, our presence, our gifts, and our service. It appears to me that the necessity of worship is part of the covenant, and that keeping the covenant involves faithful worship.

So let me speak for myself, and about what worship with a community of faith means to me. I need Sabbath. I need the rest and the focus on God that is at the heart of Sabbath. I need a time to publicly say "Thank you!" to God for all that I am and for all that I have. I need other people as a sign that I am not alone in my faith. I need a special place where, with others, I can sing and pray and be challenged by the Word. I need a community where I can raise my questions, shed my tears, dream my dreams, see a vision of a world that embodies God’s kingdom on earth by encouraging me to be generous and inviting me to service in Christ’s name. I need a community that is larger than me, wiser than me, more faithful than me. That’s why I "go to worship."

I was privileged to be raised in a little church where people bought into the necessity of worship; who, week after week, created an environment where a young boy could mature in his faith, discover a calling, and be sent into ministry. Perhaps the greatest argument for the necessity of worship is not what it does for us, but what it does for others!