Christian Worship

Introduction
Owing to the close link between the spirit and the body, man is unable to keep from outwardly expressing the movements of his spirit. Just as the body acts upon the soul, relating certain impressions to it through the organs of the external senses, in precisely the same way the spirit causes certain movements in the body. Like all his other thoughts, feelings, and experiences, the religious feelings of a man cannot remain without outward revelation. The whole of all the external forms and actions which express the inner religious disposition of the soul comprise what is known as divine service, or worship. Divine service, or worship, in one form or another, is therefore an inescapable attribute of every religion: in it the latter manifests and expresses it, just as the soul reveals its life through the body. Thus, worship is the external expression of religious faith through prayers, sacrifices and rituals.
Worship in Old Testament
Worship as an external expression of internal inclination of man towards God has its origin from the time when man first learned of God. He learned of God when, after the creation of man, God appeared to him in paradise and gave him the first commandments not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 2, 17) and to keep the Sabbath (Gen. 2, 3), and blessed his marital union (Gen. 1, 28).
The primitive worship of the first people in paradise consisted, not of any defined church ceremonies, as in contemporary times, but of the free pouring forth by the former of reverent feelings before God as their Creator and Provider. In addition to this, the commands concerning the seventh day and abstinence from the forbidden tree had already laid the foundation for defined liturgical establishments. In these lie the beginnings of our feasts and fasts. In God’s blessing of the marital union of Adam and Eve we cannot but see the establishment of the sacrament of marriage.
After the fall into sin of the first people and their expulsion from paradise, primitive worship found its further development in the establishment of the ritual offering of sacrifice. These sacrifices were of two kinds: those that were performed on all solemn and joyous occasions as an expression of thankfulness to God for the benefits received from Him, and those performed when it became necessary to petition God for aid or to pray for forgiveness for sins committed.
Sacrifices were intended as a continual reminder to men of their guilt before God, the original sin overshadowing them, and the fact that God could hear and accept their prayer only in the name of that sacrifice which should subsequently be offered for the redemption of their sins by the Seed of the woman promised by God in paradise — that is, He who was to come into the world and carry out the redemption of mankind, the Savior of the world, Christ, the Messiah. In this way for the chosen people worship had a propitiatory quality, not in and of itself, but because it was a pre-figuration of the great sacrifice which should one day be offered by the God-Man, our Lord Jesus Christ, who was crucified on the cross for the sins of the whole world. In the time of the patriarchs, from Adam to Moses, worship was performed among the families of these patriarchs by their heads, the patriarchs themselves, at times and places decreed by them. From the time of Moses, when the chosen people of God, the Old Testament Israel who preserved the true faith in the One God, increased in number, worship began to be performed on behalf of the whole nation by individuals especially appointed for this, who were known as high priests, priests, and Levites, as it is recounted in the book of Exodus and, later, in the book of Leviticus. The order of the Old Testament worship of the people of God was specified with all its details in the ritual law given through Moses. By the command of God Himself, the prophet Moses established for the performance of worship a place (the tabernacle of the covenant), times (feasts and fasts), sacred personages, and the very forms thereof. During the reign of King Solomon, in place of the portable tabernacle-temple, the beautiful, majestic, permanent Old Testament temple was built in Jerusalem, which in the Old Testament was the only place where worship of the True God was performed.
The worship of the Old Testament, which was defined by the law, before the coming of the Savior was divided into two forms: worship in the temple, and worship in the synagogue. The first took place in the temple. It consisted of the reading of the Ten Commandments and several other selected places from the Holy Scriptures of the Old Testament, the offering of sacrifices and, finally, the singing of hymns. However, besides the temple, from the time of Ezra synagogues began to be built, the need for which was felt especially by the Jews who were deprived of participation in temple worship, yet did not wish to remain without communal religious edification. In the synagogues the Jews gathered on Saturdays for prayer, singing, and the reading of Holy Scripture, as well as for the translation and explanation of the services for those born in captivity, who did not know well the holy language.
Worship in New Testament
With the coming into the world of the Messiah, Christ the Savior, who offered Himself in sacrifice for the sins of the whole world, the ritual Old Testament worship lost all significance, and was replaced by that of the New Testament, at the foundation of which lies the supreme Mystery of the Body and Blood of Christ, established at the Mystical Supper by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, which bears the name of the Holy Eucharist, or the Sacrament of Thanksgiving. This is the Bloodless Sacrifice, which replaced the sanguinary Old Testament sacrifices of calves and lambs that had but prefigured the One Great Sacrifice of the Lamb of God, who took upon Himself the sins of the world. The Lord Jesus Christ Himself commanded His followers to perform the sacraments prescribed by Him (Lk 22, 19; Mt 28, 19), to pray both privately and communally (Matt. 6:5-13; Matt. 18:19-20), and to preach throughout the entire world His Divine Evangelical teaching (Matt. 28:19-20; Mk. 16:15).
From this performance of sacraments and prayers and the preaching of the Gospel, New Testament worship was compiled. Its structure and character were still more fully defined by the Holy Apostles. As it is seen from the book of the Acts of the Apostles, in their time specific places were already appearing for the gatherings of the faithful for prayer. Thus the Church, the assembly of the faithful who are united in the one organism of the Body of Christ, gave its name to the place where these assemblies took place. Just as in the Old Testament, beginning from the time of Moses, worship was performed by specific individuals appointed for this — the high priests, priests, and Levites —, so also in the New Testament divine service came to be performed by clergy especially appointed through the laying on of the hands of the Apostles: bishops, presbyters, and deacons. In the book of Acts and the apostolic epistles we find clear indications that all of these three basic levels of priesthood in the New Testament Church have their origins from the Holy Apostles themselves.
After the Holy Apostles the divine services continued to develop, with additions of newer and newer prayers and sacred hymns, deeply edifying in their content. The final establishment of a specific order and uniformity in Christian worship was achieved by the successors of the Apostles, according to the commandment given them: “Let all things be done decently and in order” (1 Cor 14, 40).
Worship as Liturgical
Worship in the history of Christianity, for example has had a hoary past with rich and with a variegated forms of liturgy as we have seen above. This in extreme forms ended up as a dull monotonous or meaningless recitation of prayers or rituals. Christian worship had fortunately or not had a backdrop of Judaism. The early Christian worship continued in that tradition and yet tried to make a break with it. It retained many Jewish customs and rituals, and transformed them with its own interpretations and signs. One of which was the communal worship on an appointed day. Further Christian worship borrowed the Old Testament, its history and tradition, concept of God, etc. and enlarged them to encompass the whole creation as if it were in its folds, in all this like Judaism, Christian faith weighed and selected for use in its worship and liturgy and so on, signs and symbols etc., even from extra biblical resources, overcoming racial, cultural, philosophical and traditional barriers. However arbitrary and dated or partial this selection process might have been for a meaningful worship, Christians tried to make headway in making the Gospel relevant and intelligible to the people everywhere. This was the guiding factor in acclimatizing the faith to the cultural situation. This is itself was acting out the Gospel. The Gospel which went out to other lands on evangelistic mission was mainly couched in ’western form’, since the orthodox variety was not that ‘mission oriented’. Some of the orthodox variety of Christian faith spread to India, Russia, Egypt and other Eastern Countries, maintaining its historical traditions to this day from early times. The orthodox traditions continue in the so-called Orthodox churches. These Churches have been using elaborate signs and symbols, etc. in their liturgy and worship as part of their historic tradition.
On the other hand the Catholic Churches too have had traditional liturgy and worship maintained along with experimenting in new forms. However, in general Christian worship is experimented all over the world in the church and outside for its suitability in different cultural settings, continuing this tradition. New forms of worship services come out every now and then using different art forms to make worship meaningful and relevant.
Worship as:
Reflection
If worship is a time for reflection and meditation on the word (the Word made flesh, whose presence can be felt in our daily lives, events, in adoration, prayer et.) what better opportunity is there when we can enact the event of the word made flesh in our own reality (with whom and with whose sufferings Christ identified), for reflection and meditation. Articulation or dramatization of these events for reflection or mediation, would thus entail imagination and responsibility on the part of the devotee for relevance, and thus, for their appropriation in worship. In the light of the word made flesh, these acts in dramatization would in a way ‘enflesh’ our feelings and sufferings for reflection. Worship then is seen as a means to recover key events in history for reflection and meditation in our present time in the light of the fact that God acts in history. These events reveal God’ sanctions, as for example the Passover event which claim on a Jew in every generation (and now on every Christian, as that event of God which is seen as the clue to God’s liberation motif for all creation).
Christian faith is seen as celebrating the primeval saving act of God in Christ in worship. Thus the God who is blessed in the Lord’s Supper is not only the God who acted in the death and the resurrection of Christ but also the one who acted in all created order and human history. That this God continues to act in history is the witness of the Christian worship. That this God acts in concrete life situations is the affirmation in faith of the Christian in his or her life.
Enrichment
The Bible itself gives the human enough indication of the growth of worship and liturgy in the history of the early humans and Israel. The very radical concept of Yahweh, as the only God, God of gods, god of battles, God of the poor, the destitute, the alien etc. God the creator and Saviour etc, has had a discernible growth in the history of the humankind. This was so as human beings enlarged their knowledge and imagination I their concept of a theistic being to attain their mental, spiritual and rational maturity, as understood by Scriptures and beliefs. Worship and Liturgy however seem to have developed through history by trial and error.
Appropriation
Christian Worship, is an occasion to come together as faithful people to take bearings. It is an opportunity to examine them as to where they stand in the light of the fact that God acts in history. – That God acts in history in concrete situations are the faith affirmation of the people). Worship provides an opportunity to the faithful people to affirm this fact. This affirmation in faith that God has decisively acted in Christ from the very creation through Exodus and continues to act in the created order endorses the very lives of the faithful. It also provides an opportunity, not only to highlight the needs of the people but also urges the faithful to act to appropriate God’s action to bring about relief and joy for them. That these highlighting of the situations are brought about in the interpretation of the word, liturgy, songs, symbols, prayers or enactment, are immaterial. The faithful are called to take stock of the human situation around, and are then challenged and urged to co-operate with god to act upon it in faith, corporately or individually, to bring about freedom and justice. Christian worship thus, is a corporate witness in faith in recalling and in reminding the faithful of God’s continued involvement in history, reviewing the same in one’s own situation, articulating and interpreting the same, committing and confessing to the cause of Christ, celebrating the Christ-event as that which underscores God’s actions in history.
Effect of Worship on self-identity
Here we are concerned with what a community’s worship contributes to people’s self identity. One approach could be to work from an act of worship directly to questions of its after-effects in terms of self-identity.
Internalized Beliefs: Spirituality reinforces strongly held morals through its preaching. Self – awareness: “know-thyself” and the warnings from the institution of the Lord’s Supper – let a man examine himself. Self – Determination: Making one’s “decision for Christ” is of paramount importance in spirituality. Interests and Activities, Ascribed Characteristics, Interpersonal attributes, Existential Aspects- These are the aspects we can consider when we think of self – identity of a worshiper. By taking a qualitative rather than quantitative approach, we are not able to suggest which components of self-identity are more affected by worship. Nor we can which liturgical tradition affects particular aspects of self-identity. The question, What is our liturgy doing to us?, arises from a concern to reflect a Trinitarian anthropology of persons-in-relation in the development of worship. A social constructionist perspective enables us to discuss self-identity as a dynamic experience; one which requires us to explore the context as well as the context of our liturgical events.


Bibliography
WESLEY, A K, LITURGY AS WORSHIP (India, 2002)
FENWICK JOHN, LITURGY FOR IDENTITY AND SPIRITUALITY (Kottayam, 1992)
ERIC STODDART, “What is Our Liturgy Doing to us”, Liturgy Today 100-10 (2005) 100 - 110