When worship is second-rate…

What do you think of when you hear the word ‘worship’?

The songs in a church service? A time of prayer and praise within a meeting? The whole of a church service such as Morning Worship? Or something else entirely?

The origin of the word worship is ‘worth-ship’: offering a deity what he/she is worth, what he/she deserves. It’s not a word we tend to use for other people. It’s a term for a being far greater than ourselves, set apart in holiness, power and glory.

The first chapter of Malachi outlines how the people are getting worship all wrong.

The priests are showing contempt for God’s name by offering defiled food on the altar.

A second rate offering. A damaged, lame, diseased sacrifice.

“A son honours his father, and a slave his master. If I am a father, where is the honour due me? If I am a master, where is the respect due me?” says the Lord Almighty.  Malachi 1:6

God isn’t pleased with them. They might as well go home if that’s the best they can do. They might as well give up now. A second rate offering is meaningless.

Turn off the lights, shut the doors and go home now. 

God is not going to waste His time here; neither should they. God will go where the true worship is to be found – which may well surprise them all!

We are not called to sacrifice living creatures on an altar any more. That all ended when Jesus offered himself as the ultimate sacrifice for us all.

But we are called to worship. Why would we not?

And if we shine a light on the church services that take place across our land, across the whole globe, can we honestly say that in all cases, we are offering God what He deserves in our worship?

When worship is second rate Part 1: in the worship we offer as a body…

• when the elements of the service are under-prepared, under-rehearsed and under-delivered
• when we stick to the same format because that’s what we’ve always done and it would take too much effort to change it
• when the language we use is outdated, difficult to understand, unexplained and inaccessible to the average person
• when we make no attempt to make the message applicable to everyday life and contemporary culture
• when those leading worship and liturgy seem like they are just going through the motions: as if they themselves are bored by the sound of their own voice
• when the sermon is used as a vehicle to get across the personal agenda of the preacher
• when the focus of the church is on maintaining the building and services that rely on the latest technology and not on the actual worship itself
• when we miss the opportunity to present God’s good news in an exciting and relevant way

When worship is second rate Part 2: in the worship we offer as individuals…

• when we arrive late to the service and rush in without preparing ourselves for worship
• when we play on our phones or count the wall tiles or think about the Sunday dinner during the sermon
• when we sing the words (and say the prayers) without any understanding of what they mean and without even noticing what we are singing
• when we avoid certain people during the Peace because we have a real problem with them
• when we sing about love and hear sermons about love and yet never seem to put love into action
• when we invite people to come just as they are to worship and then criticise them (hopefully not out loud at least) for the way they present themselves and behave
• when we raise our hands or shut our eyes or wave a flag or clap because we feel we have to or because we think it will make us look good
• when we constantly criticise what’s going on at the front without ever offering to get involved ourselves

Quite a challenge, isn’t it?

It doesn’t have to be perfect. But it does always have to be our best, the best that we can bring.

Having said all that, let’s not get too hung up on what we do for an hour or two of the whole week in that building we call church. Let’s not ever imagine that that is our only act of worship during the week.

Far from it!

Our whole lives are worship. Everything we do is to be about offering God what He is worth.

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.  Romans 12:1

Everything we have is God’s. Everything we are is God-given. It is of His own that we give Him.

And if we ask ourselves ‘What is God worth?’, ‘What does God deserve?‘, maybe that will help us in the offerings that we give Him, the offering of the whole of our lives.

Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.  From ‘When I survey the wondrous cross’

Exactly. We are not giving God more than He deserves. How could that even be possible?

God deserves it all.

And He deserves the very best.