This English expression to describe our time of corporate worship is so taken for granted its significance is often missed. It has its background, first, in the Hebrew verb 'abad (pronounced 'avad), which means 'to serve,'' or 'to work.' From the same root is derived such words as 'slave' or 'servant,' ('ebed), 'service' or 'labour,' ('aboda), and 'servitude,' or 'bondage,' ('abdut). From the OT perspective, then, to worship God is to serve Him. The second background is the Greek, where the verb latreuo has the same meaning, 'serve,' 'worship.' From this we derive the other familiar English word, 'liturgy,' i.e., the form or expression of worship. In ancient Greece, liturgy refers, in fact, to the service a person owes to the state. From this comes the custom of referring to our corporate time of worship as 'service.' The fact that most of us do not think of our time of corporate worship on a Sunday as "service to God," even "service owed to Him" is highly significant in two ways:
1) Today what we find in most churches on any Sunday is, often, the equivalent of a concert with a pep-talk (the sermon) thrown in. And as in a concert we come late if it is convenient to us. Or not at all. If we only understand that we are coming to serve God, would we dare be offer to God what we offer to Him last Sunday? Or come late or sloppy?
2) This also means that the complaint we often hear from Christians that they are missing church because their needs are not met represents a failure on the part of the church to help her members understand the meaning of worship. Corporate worship is about serving God, not about having our needs met. Now, it should be stated quite categorically, that it is the responsibility of the leaders of the church, to the best of their abilities and resources, to meet the needs of her members and if members feel that their needs are not met in the worship service—the main corporate event in the life of the church—something is wrong. That something needs to be searched out and put right. But it remains a fact that we need to teach afresh (without it being seen as another excuse by the church leaders to justify their failure) that when we come to our corporate worship we come to serve (to serve God, and serving others in order that they might serve Him), not to be served.
A full article on worship is planned for ALBERITH.
©ALBERITH
200224lch