October 1, 2001

LEARNING TO WORSHIP

The Israelites had spent 400 years as a slave people in Egypt. Then the Lord led them out through the dramatic Exodus across the Red sea and into the desert of the Sinai Peninsula. There they were stalled for forty years, living with the assurance that they were God's special people and he was soon going to lead them into the Promised Land.

This forty years "wilderness wandering" experience seems to have had a real purpose in God's plan for the Israelites. The society they were to establish in the Promised Land would be a bold new model of direct rule by God on earth. They could not pattern this new style of life after anything they had seen in Egypt or elsewhere. God's intention was to lead them into a different way of thinking, acting, and living together.

So, there in the Sinai desert, God met with their leader Moses and laid out the agenda. First he gave them some important rules for living which we know as the Ten Commandments. These and some other regulations for establishing a social fabric are recorded in Exodus 19 through 24.

Immediately after disclosing his Law, God expressed his views on how he should be worshiped. Beginning in Exodus 25 and extending through the end of Exodus and all of Leviticus, God details a model of how he should be worshiped: what the place of worship should look like, how it should be furnished, how people should act there. As worship in this "tabernacle" emerged, God led the people to develop some wonderful poems and hymns which, over the next two hundred years, became the Psalms of the Bible.

It seems that these priorities have never changed for God's people. First they have to know, respect and submit themselves to his Law. Then they need to learn to worship him in a way that he defines as pleasing to him and instructive to worshipers. For us, we base our faith on God's Law as it is revealed in the Bible. And second, we seek to worship him in a way that is authentic, deep, and life-changing. Neither the Law nor the worship is of our own creation—both are prescribed by him according to his will.

At ABC, we've been seeking for some time to develop a corporate worship experience that reflects the mind and heart of God and leads us all closer to him. In the process we have tried to honor traditional ways of worshiping God, while at the same time being open to new ways of worship the Spirit of God has been bringing into the church.

The ABC Celebration Band has been an important part of this journey. Through these gifted musicians, our worship horizons have been expanded and our experience of God deepened.

This Sunday evening the Celebration Band will lead us in an experience called "An Evening of Worship and Prayer" combining devotional music and prayer. The goal will not be to entertain spectators, but to involve participants. This will be one more step in our discovery of the worship treasure God has made available for our expression and our edification.

Alongside of our faithfulness to God's Law revealed in the Bible, let's show an equal dedication to developing a worship style that connects us with God "in spirit and in truth" (John 4:24).

–Pastor George Van Alstine