This week as we talk about Passionate Worship around the St. Philip’s community, and I have been reminded of a conversation I overheard this summer, on a bus in Ghana. We were packed in pretty tight so I couldn’t turn around and see who was talking. For three hours I listen to these two Peace Corps volunteers talk. I wrote this in my personal blog when I was in Ghana. These two women are on their way to join volunteers from around the country for a 4th of July Celebration.
They catch up on each other’s lives, discussing everyone in the program and who they are currently “with”. I can’t avoid listening; they talk non-stop for three hours. One boy they talk about extensively, “like when you’re talking with him, he looks all thoughtful, and he gets that like far off look, like he’s thinking deeply about what you are saying…” the other jumps in, “but he’s not” she says. “There is like nothing going on inside.” I’m sure I’ve dropped a couple hundred usages of the word like. These women are such verbal processors, but their words burn in my ears. Am I like that? What would they say about me if they knew me? For three hours I hear them analyze their friends and colleagues, and that boy. “He’s passionate about nothing,” they say. Not that he isn’t passionate, its just that his passion does not have an object. Its talk without action, music without expression, art that can’t evoke an emotion. Passionate about nothingness except looking or feeling passionate. I think about myself, my situation, and wonder what makes me come alive, or back to my current situation, what would I jump across the crevasse to do, ignoring the danger of possible failure?
Someone once said “Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” [Howard Thurman] So have been compiling my list of things that make me come alive…
And one of the things on my list of passions is worship and that alone raises many questions. (If you want to read about the other two, here is the link to the complete blog post [click here]).
Being passionate about Worship, I wonder is that the same as Passionate Worship (AKA loving God in return)? Or is Passionate Worship the act of loving the love of God, that is the emotion of love without the object of it.
If there is a purpose to Passionate Worship, then is it to evoke passion in us?
Is Passionate Worship’s affect to increase our passion for God? Or is it like what I heard someone say about art, “I’m not sure what it is, but I know it when I see it,” or in our case experience it.
Here is I know about being passionate about worship:
Worship - I’m not just saying that because I’m a pastor, and should include something religious on my list (how sad would that be?) I do love worship, I love planning it, attending passionate worship services, feeling the playful love that goes into the service when everything works together, the danger when someone calls an auditable. I love being lost in the experience, as the work of worship helps me approaching the divine. This work can’t be measured by minutes, but only what that experience does, where it takes you. I love a well structured sermon, singing hymns I’ve never sung, connecting words of the hymns with the message, being lead by a talented lead worshipper, or listening to the perfect song following a sermon, like a good cup of coffee after dessert. I love that feeling after the benediction when I feel changed, encouraged, or challenged. I love it on Wednesday when my mind is still working through a “some assembly required” aspect of the sermon, or when I’m wondering years from now, about a particular point or story I heard.
So maybe I can adapt that Howard Thurman quote to look like this
“Don't ask yourself what your church needs. Ask yourself what makes your faith come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people of faith who have come alive.”
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