Day 3: What Is A Worshipper?

Welcome to Day 3 of 5 – we're at the halfway point of our 5 day learning experience. I trust your heart and mind are stirring on these ideas, and you're already finding fresh revelation from the heart of God to you as we continue. As on the days before, watch today's video here, then read the material below. Blessings as you do. Video time: 8:44 Reading time (est.): 10:00 Day 3 Total Time: 18:44

DAY 3: WHAT IS A WORSHIPPER?

What Is A Worshipper?

Yesterday we looked at the nature of God through four lenses: God as Creator (the God who creates), God as King (the God who reigns), God as Trinity (the God who relates), and God as Savior (the God who acts). If the words of Genesis 1:26–27 are correct, then we who are made in the imago Dei, the image of God, will reflect the heart of God into the creation.

How Does God See Us?

The very first chapters of the Bible reveal to us a very intimate picture of the creation. God speaks, and heaven and earth come into being. God's Spirit is hovering over the surface of the waters of chaos, shaping earth and sky as we know it. Then, something remarkable takes the work of creation to a whole new level. God breathes into simple dust – the elements of the earth – and the flower and crown of the created order (N.T. Wright) rises. Human beings walk the earth.

"God spoke: 'Let us make human beings in our image, make them reflecting our nature so they can be responsible for the fish in the sea, the birds in the air, the cattle, and, yes, Earth itself, and every animal that moves on the face of Earth.' God created human beings; he created them godlike, reflecting God's nature. He created them male and female. God blessed them: 'Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Earth! Take charge! Be responsible for fish in the sea and birds in the air, for every living thing that moves on the face of Earth.'"

Gen. 1:26-27 (The Message)

"At the time God made Earth and Heaven, before any grasses or shrubs had sprouted from the ground—God hadn't yet sent rain on Earth, nor was there anyone around to work the ground (the whole Earth was watered by underground springs)—God formed Man out of dirt from the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life. The Man came alive—a living soul!"

Genesis 2:7 (The Message)

What Do We Have to Do With Worship?

Understanding the nature of human beings is an essential part of understanding what worship is all about. After all, we are the ones who worship, not God. I once saw a poster, hanging in a dorm room that said, "The two most important facts of the universe are:

1. There is a God.
2. You are not Him."

The poster was meant, and rightly so, to put arrogant human beings in their place. At the same time, there is a magnificence about what it means to be human that must never be overlooked. The heavens declare the glory of God, the Scriptures say. The trees of the fields clap their hands, the pages of the Psalms profess. The new colts kick, and the harvest moves in the wind. The stars shimmer and dance in celebration of the One who names them, and microscopic organisms respond according to their way and their wiring as participants in the symphony that is worship. And here we are, in the midst of this resplendent glory. What is our job? What is our place? Why are we not the same thing as a rock, an octopus, or a star in the night sky? Is there something special about us? According to Genesis, there is something very special about us. Our job is to reflect God's glory into His good world and then gather up the praises of creation to offer to God in articulate speech, declarations of thanks, praise, adoration, and acclaim. Does that sound familiar? Human beings were designed to take their place as the lead worshippers of the created order. When we stepped out of that role in the fall from Eden, attempting to become gods ourselves (Gen. 3:5), we broke the circle of worship we were intended to complete.

What Is A Human Being Here For?

In Genesis 1:26-27, the Hebrew word for "image" is the word tselem. It's a Hebrew word with very limited usage in the Old Testament. The word is used to speak of children and their similarity in personhood to a parent. While scholars debate the exact meaning of this word in its context, most perspectives on what it means to be made in the imago Dei, or the "image of God," come down to two ideas: nature and vocation.

Nature and Vocation

The nature perspective purports that our creativity, force of will, moral nature, and capacity to love and give, all stem from the fact that we are somehow made in the spiritual nature of God. There is some merit to this understanding of the image of God in human beings, yet scholars differ on what it means. The vocation (or role) perspective suggests that we are made in God's image, i.e., we are His Image Bearers and vice-regents, His stewards and caretakers, according to the ancient near eastern tradition of Kings setting exact replicas of their image in distant lands in order to declare their dominion over those lands. For the purposes of this session, we will mingle both ideas together, though both perspectives in isolation have strong merits in terms of biblical scholarship. In each of the following sections, reflect on the possibility that God has both formed us after His Personality and that He has given us a mission to be His vice-regents and caretakers of this good planet and all facets of its life.

1. Human Beings as Sub-Creators

If God is the Creator, then we are Sub-Creators. The doctrine of creation tells us that God creates ex nihilo; He creates something out of nothing. We, on the other hand, create something out of something. The Sub-Creators of God walk in the cool of the garden. With the "stuff of life," including light, fabric, voices, metal, elements, mathematics, materials, food, drink, sounds, and by means including our mental capacities, physical handiwork, and human sexuality, we express both glory and story through acts of sub-creation – creation after the order of the original Creator. We Make with What We Have Our wildest creations as human beings, with all due respect to the great scientists of the world, have always begun with something that God already created. We have yet to make our own dust out of which to make a human being. We have yet to create a new color, a new air to breathe, or a new building block of life. We work with what is, and we manipulate what is in order to discover, explore and rejoice in the world for which we are made. When we lose perspective on our utter dependence on God to be the source and goal of our creative outflow, we become lost in our creations. The unyielding creative pride of a scientist, artist, thespian, or even Christian leader must bow its knee before the One from whom and for whom such vibrant creativity flows. We create from a palette placed into our hands by God. The hues are of His ultimate making. Creativity Is a Gift of Both Joy and Necessity This impulse to make and create expresses our personality, but also is a primal function within our psyche that God has given us to invent, innovate, and supply for ourselves. Our creativity may be called out by necessity (in times of suffering, there is often tremendous creativity expressed in caring for the needs of the many) or by play (when space is created for self-expression or community expression, e.g., a jam session). In other words, creativity is a gift given to human beings to support us in a continually adapting, changing world. Studies in the strengths of both the right and left hemispheres of the brain tell us that there are both right and left- brained forms of creativity, and every person on the planet exhibits some form of one, the other, or both. Whether we are designing an Excel spreadsheet, creatively parenting a child, music-making, or star-studying, human beings are at their essence creative.

2. Human Beings as Image Bearers

If God is the King, then we are Image Bearers. Again, Scripture informs us that human beings have come onto the stage of terra firma with a calling, a co-mission, and a vocation. We have something to do. If God is the King of the universe, then we who have his breath are of royal origin. We too, have the capacity to lead and order great systems, and to reflect love, goodness, and wisdom into that which we lead. Icons in the Ancient World In the ancient world, it was not uncommon for ancient Kings and Queens to declare their authority over conquered lands by setting up images, or ikonos (icons), of themselves in those lands. When a subject would look at the image, they knew that they were under both the authority, and the protection, of that ruler. Imagine now, that God breathes into dust, placing images of Himself all over planet earth, in every color, shape, and size of person. Dark skin and tribal rhythm populate some corners of the world, while golden skin and desert strength populate others. Image Bearers are now everywhere – every human being declaring by their sheer presence, "God rules in this place. God's goodness, love, mercy, kindness, and grace are your shield and protection. Offer your allegiance to this benevolent Sovereign who will rule us with mutual joy!" Even when we don't believe it, we're still designed to be God's Image Bearers. Righteousness and Right-Relating In this understanding of vocation, Image Bearers are called to live in righteousness – literally, "right-relatedness"—in four key relationships:

1. We are called to live in right-relatedness to God.
2. We are called to live in right-relatedness with each other.
3. We are called to live in right-relatedness with ourselves.
4. We are called to live in right-relatedness with creation (i.e., all animate and inanimate creation).

In so doing, we honor God and take our place as the stewards of this good world that He created. No longer do we embrace or afford any credibility to dualistic ideas that separate the physical world from the spiritual world, but rather we look forward to days of new creation by tending to what is before us with love, goodness, wisdom, and creativity – all to the end of learning to rule and reign with the living Christ.

3. Human Beings as Community Builders

If God is the Trinity, then we are Community Builders. All this talk of "right-relating" and eternally living with others sounds tiring. For those of us who are introverts, the joys of community have their limitations. However, no matter our background, virtually every human being who has ever lived has recognized their deep need for some form of relationship with other human beings, and has sought to find a way to build on this natural impulse within. Made for One Another Hear these profound words from Dietrich Bonheoffer, the courageous Lutheran pastor who formed the Confessing Church (spiritual leaders who disagreed with Hitler's tactics in Nazi Germany), and who died in a concentration camp within a day of the Allied forces securing victory.

"Not what a man is in himself as a Christian, his spirituality and piety, constitutes the basis of our community. What determines our brotherhood is what the man is by reason of Christ. Our community with one another consists solely in what Christ has done to both of us.

This is not true merely at the beginning, and though in the course of time something else were to be added to our community; it remains so for all the future and to all eternity."

Dietrich Bonheoffer, from Life Together

We know it. We're built for community. Give any one of us enough time alone, and we'll begin to understand that a level of mental health begins to deteriorate as we long for the company of another. In the movie, Castaway, Tom Hanks plays a man lost on a lonely island, without companionship. A small soccer ball he calls Wilson becomes the only form of companionship he can find. Though it's a sad image, the hunger for relationship and the desire to not be left completely alone is common to the human family. Wired to Gather Community Human beings who believe in God's covenant pursuing activity, now step into the world as Community Builders, who are ideally wired to be the ones who re- gather the scattered human family under the banner of God's good leadership and the fullness of unconditional love. The kinds of communities that we are taught to build by Jesus in the New Testament, idealistic as it sounds, are those kinds of communities where love and grace is felt in the air and warms the chilled soul in need of thaw. Think of the moment where the prostitute caught in adultery felt the forgiveness of God after her accusers were sent away (right and law abiding as they were!). Imagine the feelings of euphoria in Peter when, after denying Jesus in the courtyard before his death, he experiences the grace and forgiveness of Jesus for his cosmically criminal actions. Imagine the thriving Body of the early Church welcoming into their ranks those distressed and overburdened by the unjust financial systems of their day, as the Church infiltrated the Roman Empire by caring for its widows and orphans as family. The community of Christ is designed and called to be marked by a love that sustains through the most tremendous of sorrows and even internal conflicts within itself. Christians, as healthy Community Builders, are called to become the supreme re-humanizers of every age, purging human hearts of the toxic effects of the dehumanizing atmospheres in which we live with the power of love. Whether we are Community Builders in our homes, on our streets, in our cities or in our churches, we are acting in accord with our nature as human beings and in accord with the heart of God when we bring people together.

4. Human Beings as Salvation Storytellers

If God is the Savior, then we are Salvation Storytellers. A number of years ago, a writer came out with a book that hit the Christian shelves called The God-Chasers. Maybe you read it, and it was a powerful turning point for your life. If so, you would find no one more excited than me that God had met you profoundly through someone's faithful writing. However, I just could not get past the title. Who Is Chasing Whom? As far as I know, no faithful Jew, at any point of history, would ever have dreamed of making such a brash claim before God or their fellow Jews. If the story of the people Israel (which literally means "he wrestles with God") tells us anything about the game of chase going on throughout all time, it tells us that the Pursuer in this relationship has rarely ever been known to be an ordinary human. In covenant after covenant, pursuit after pursuit, God showed the Jews that they were not God-chasers, rather they were the God-chased. Salvation history paints a picture of a God who will not allow His creation, His work of art, to see corruption and decay. "At the fullness of time," the Scripture says, "Christ came" (Gal. 4:4). Our theology of God as Savior demands that we recognize the expansive nature of God's pursuit of humankind. The Story of an Age to Come Christians tell the story of an age to come, of a present and future move of God that is righting all that is wrong in this world. We tell the story of a day when the world will be put to rights, when justice will be done, when the human family will understand how dear and priceless we are to one another. The creation/redemption project, the history of God's covenantal pursuit of humankind, provides our lyrics, themes, textures, and contrasts. Each of those poetic pieces mark the Story of Hope—the Story of a new creation and a bright Day of Awakening to come. We, as creative leaders in this wayward and forgetful human family, are asked a profound question as we stand before our human family:

"Will you be the narrator of the Story for us? Will you tell us in a thousand ways and in a thousand churches, homes and venues, the Story of God that makes sense of our lives?"

And God says,

"Yes, will you narrate My Story?"

:: A Note from Dan You're finished with Day 3. I'm praying for you as you see the study through to Day 5. Hang in there! It will be worth it. I hope the last few days have piqued your curiosity about how reflection on who God is, and who we are, impacts our theology of worship. Tomorrow, we reach the core question sitting at the heart of this 5 day learning experience – the question "What is worship?" I'm excited to explore that big idea with you, as it impacts everything we say, pray, and song write as leaders of worship.