A Reflection from the Rev. David Hoster
Dear People of St. James’,
There are many good reasons for Episcopalians to gather for worship in our churches. The sacraments give us physical connectedness to a God larger than ourselves. Singing together expands and regenerates our spirit. Being in the presence of our fellow worshippers expands our sense of self into connectedness of souls. Hearing scripture extends connectedness of souls across countless centuries to distant, yet familiar spiritual cultures. Preaching stirs our conscience and stimulates our creativity. Corporate confession heals and restores us to life.
Working our way forward under Covid quarantine, St. James’ has done a remarkable job of sustaining worship without benefit of our physical presence with one another. We feel the presence of beloved souls even from a distance, and we know that God is always near. Still, it would be valuable to recall what the heart of worship really is so that we can fill in some of the blank spaces that remote worship inevitably leaves.
“Worship” is a strange, discomforting word in ordinary American usage. It feels disturbingly extreme. Worshipping political leaders seems inappropriate, even dangerous in a democracy. If we say something like, “I worship cheeseburgers,” or “I worship at so-and-so’s altar,” we’re casting a sideling wink that says, “I know I’m overstating to make a point.” Sometimes, we stay “worship” to convey a sarcastic edge about people who, say, worship the Dallas Cowboys. Even when we speak of worship in church, we’ve often routinized the word so much that we dilute the full force it should really express.
“Worship” is a difficult word to use as a full-frontal, straight-on description of something we actually do. So, what does it mean when we actually do use it that way?
Worship is always about perspective. Without worship, our lives on this earth surge up out of proportion, sometimes fueling pride, other times energizing shame. Little things become big things. Setbacks become catastrophes. Accomplishments perish without recognition. When the only size person we deal with is the size of our self, we lose all sense of scale. We lose ourselves in ourselves.
To make matters worse, isolation under quarantine can easily scale up the problem to even greater dimensions.
Worship, however, restores perspective and proportion. Worship embeds our individual life in the larger life of God. Worship expresses a living relationship between a smallish human soul containing a spark of infinity and the immense, infinite wildfire that we call our God. Worship through singing, praying, confessing, listening—not to mention just plain worshipping—takes our hearts and minds far beyond themselves into vastly greater realities.
Forcefully pouring our individual hearts and minds into the immensity of God—worshipping, in other words—changes our sense of perspective. Personal prides, fears, shames, appetites, ambitions do not disappear, but rather shift their meaning, become less urgent and are directed toward new and better ends. Other, good instincts rise up within us. When we worship, we discover that our lives need not be defined by the deficits and problems that bedevil us, but rather by the vastly more generous reality of the divine. Thus, we ourselves become more generous, more forgiving of others and self, more open to other people’s realities, less mean-spirited, judging and rejecting of others and self.
A life alive to worship is a life vastly more desirable than a narrow, tight little life that lacks worship.
So, worship. Don’t sit at home obsessing about closed in spaces. Don’t go out in fear of what might become of your health. Don’t dwell on the perverseness of other people’s behavior and reject human nature. Worship.
Worship. Get up early tomorrow morning and see the sunrise. Yearn for the great national soul envisioned beyond the dreams of our founding fathers. Pick up the phone and tell somebody you love them. Rejoice in a book or a work of art or a great television drama that takes you deep into other human souls. Fall on your knees and open yourself to forgiveness, healing and love great enough to come from God almighty. Engage God and your soul in contemplative prayer, reading scripture, say the daily office, dust off your rosary. And remember, St. James’ is starting small, in-person, outdoor services this week. Whatever you do, wherever you go, worship.
Just imagine what the world would be like if everybody opened themselves to the straightforward usage of this simple yet explosive word, worship.
The Rev. David Hoster
