A bow and a kiss---真實的敬拜

[angellee (耶 我回來囉)]

以下這篇文章是牧師寄給敬拜團的。
有點長，但是提到了一些我們常在敬拜中忘記的----敬畏
希望這篇文章能祝福大家
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A Bow and a Kiss
Authentic worship reveals both the friendship and fear of God.
by Philip Yancey | posted 04/28/2005 10:00 a.m.

Christianity claims a unique place among the world's religions.
Our faith tells of a God before whom the strongest saints took off
 their shoes, bowed down, fell on their faces, repented in dust and
 ashes. At the same time it tells of a God who came to Earth as a
baby, who showed tender mercies to children and the weak, who
taught us to call him "Abba," who loved and was loved. God is both
 transcendent and immanent, the theologians say. God inspires at
once awe and love, fear and friendship.

To most moderns, however, a sense of awe comes with the greatest
difficulty. We have domesticated angels into stuffed toys and
Christmas ornaments, made cartoons of St. Peter at the gate of
heaven, tamed the phenomenon of Easter with bunny rabbits,
and substituted for the awe of shepherds and wise men cute elves
and a jolly man dressed in red. Almighty God gets nicknames like
"The Big Guy" and "The Man Upstairs."

An article in the February 2005 issue of this magazine addressed
one of my pet peeves. How did it happen that the word worship
became synonymous with music? For several months my church
went on a hunt for a "worship pastor," and a parade of candidates
 auditioned with their guitars and backup groups. Some of them
prayed, yes: "Lord, just, you know, really be here tonight with us,
 just let us know you're here." None showed much knowledge of
theology, and assuredly none led us toward anything like awe.
Worship today means loudly filling every space of silence.

I welcome the sense of celebration and joy apparent in much recent
 music. Yet I wonder what we are missing when we seek to reduce
the distance between creature and Creator, a distance expressed so
eloquently by Job, Isaiah, and the psalmists. John, the disciple Jesus
loved, who had lain against Jesus' breast, records in Revelation that
he fell at his feet as though dead when Jesus appeared in full glory.

The style of worship swings back and forth like a pendulum, from
Orthodox to Doukhobors, from Anglican to Quaker, from Lutheran
to Moravian, from state-sanctioned churches to counter-cultural
 emergent churches, and perhaps we need a bit of both. Sen
Kierkegaard once said that we treat worship as if the pastor and choir
 are the actors and the congregation the audience; instead, God
should be the audience, the pastor and choir the prompters, and the
congregation the true participants. Which brings up an interesting
question: What kind of music does God prefer? We will have a long
time to learn the answer to that question, it seems, as Revelation gives
 many scenes of creatures worshiping God through music and through
prayer.

Jewish ethicist and writer Abraham Heschel made the observation,
"Awe, unlike fear, does not make us shrink from the awe-inspiring
object, but, on the contrary, draws us near to it." And Martin Luther
was said to pray with the reverence of addressing God and the boldness
of addressing a friend.

One worship leader, who is having an increasing impact on Christian
 music, strives to hold in creative tension the two elements of friendship
and fear. Matt Redman, author of such songs as "Heart of Worship,"
"Better Is One Day," and "Let My Words Be Few," leads the group Soul
Survivor, which meets in a large warehouse in London, England.
One year, concerned that worship music was turning the focus to
musicians rather than God, Redman and his pastor took the daring
step of eliminating all music from worship services. After that period
of "fasting," he emerged with a new understanding of worship. As
he said in a radio interview:

[Worship] is best summed up in Ephesians 5:10, which says, "Find
out what pleases the Lord." If you're talking about music, you want
to bring an offering that is going to please him and obviously he is
 not worried about the music, what style it is or if you're playing in
time and stuff. When you pour out your heart with the music and
you back it up with your life, that is probably the heart of worship.
An album Redman released in 1998, The Friendship and the Fear,
takes its title from a verse in Psalm 25: "The friendship of the Lord
is for those who fear him." Redman continues exploring the borderland
 between friendship and fear, for authentic worship encompasses both.
 It is the proper response when a holy God extends to flawed human
beings an invitation to intimacy. In the Hebrew Old Testament, the
primary word for worship means "to bow down in reverence and
submission." And in the New Testament, the most common Greek
word for worship means "to come forward to kiss." Between those
two—or combining both—lies our best approach to God.

Copyright ?2005 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.


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推 el1le:謝謝慧卿寶貝...果然對我是很大的提醒，借轉唷^^
推 angellee:okok