Some additional words

It is good to get back to my schedule of posting on Wednesday, I hope to continue. In my last Post "A Few Words About Words" I talked about the word 'church', today I would like to talk about the word WORSHIP. When most people talk about 'worshipping in church' what they mean is they attend a worship service in a building (church). In an even more serious way equating worship with a particular activity in a specific place is wrong on many accounts. The Compact Bible dictionary says, "The English word worship comes from the Old English word worthship, a word that denotes the worthiness of the one receiving the special honor or devotion." Dom Dix in his book The Shape of the Liturgy says," The Liturgy is the term which covers generally all that worship which is officially organised by the church." he use both the words in the same sentence. But the phrase which I consider essential to my particular rant is, 'officially organised by the church'.

Martin Luther is quoted as saying, "Even a milkmaid can milk a cow to the glory of God." What Luther is saying to us is that every action we perform, our job, our study, our recreation should be done in a mindful way (this is very zen like for a German) and done in such a way that it reflects God's glory and that we, as his creation, respect us and all else within his creation. I wonder if Luther were alive and writing today, would he say, "Even the person collecting my garbage for Waste Management can do so to the glory of God" ? Think about how you would approach your day if you carried this attitude of doing whatever the activity not for your employer or teacher or whoever, but you were doing it to glorify God.

And so, the point I am belaboring here that we need to move beyond considering worship as the time we spend in the pew at 1700 Makefield Road. Several years ago after the flood in Yardley and Wing of Faith was working to clean up and restore the Duchat's home there was a great deal of work that still needed to be done after all the hours of work on Saturday. Pastor Taylor told

the work crew to return the next morning and continue their work, because that was a form of worship and they would be included in the attendance figures for the day. I want to be clear that this is not an invitation to skip attending church next week ! I want to be equally clear that this is not in any way an endorsement of works over grace as the path to salvation.

All the many ministries at LCR are a form of worship, it does not matter if they are done at a time other than Sunday or a place other than the building at 1700 Makefield Road. So regardless of where you are you can worship!

Peace,

Clyde