Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Four Cords of Worship

Four cords of worship in the Old Testament become tied together in Christian Worship.  Even though one or the other of these cords seemed to dominate in particular times of history, they become bound together in some of today's worship patterns.

The first is Personal/Family worship. In the beginning worship was personal, not corporate.  Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph didn't have a synagogue or temple to attend or even Ten Commandments to follow.  Their worship was a direct, personal, one-on-one experience with God.  It was a personal activity which eventually led into an intergenerational family activity.  The focus was intimacy.  Appearances of this influence today is in private devotional time and family worship.

The second cord is Temple/Tabernacle.  This was a big change as visiting a temple or tabernacle was not a private matter, but public.  It was impressive, exciting, and moving.  It was rich with symbolism and sacred actions that served to pass their faith down to the following generations.  This cord of worship did not appear in the early centuries of the church but later began to reappear. The focus was celebration.  Appearances of this influence today is the celebration approach to worship by the gathered church, musical and pageant presentations and praise gatherings.

The third cord is Feasts and Holy Days.  Old Testament worship was not just about sacrificing for the sins of the people.  It was also about remembering God's mighty acts throughout history. Holy Days are a way of remembering all that God has done in the past.  This cord continued into the early church. Christians adopted the first day of the week as their day of worship - remembering the resurrection - and they soon developed a calendar of holy days.  The focus of this cord was remembering.  Days and seasons such as Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter, etc.,  continue to influence today's church.  

The fourth cord is Synagogue Worship.  Synagogue worship seems to have come into being when God's people were in Babylonian captivity.  Far from Jerusalem and its temple site, perhaps this was their way of preserving and passing on their faith to their children.  Synagogue worship was more simple, cerebral, and teaching-oriented than the experiential worship of the temple. The focus of this cord of worship was teaching.  Appearances of the influence this cord has on our worship today is a focus on Scripture reading, teaching, and preaching in our worship.  Also, our small Bible study groups and Sunday Bible Study seems to have come out of this influence.

We should note that every one of these strong cords of worship was intergenerational in nature.  This also should influence our worship today. Four cords of worship, bound together by Scripture, tradition, and the history of God's people, rightly influence the ways we worship today.  mjm