Embodying the Gospel: The Structure of Worship

Structure in Nature and Experience
Structure of trees (same but different)
Structure of human skeletons, human bodies (same but different)
Structure of time and seasons (Read Genesis 1:14-19) – In the creation of all things tangible and intangibleGod is bringing structure to the shapeless and dark earth – [In the beginning when God created theheavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while awind from God swept over the face of the waters – Gen. 1:1-2

Structure creates certain boundaries than define and shape objects and events. But within and around thatstructure there is still variation and uncertainty. This combination of unity and diversity is what makessomething natural and wonderful. This is the secret that good musicians know. They can improvise, butthey don’t just play anything. They follow certain patterns, scales, and modes. Even musicians whocannot understand musical notation follow these structures. And even if an orchestra plays a veryprecisely laid out piece of sheet music, they must still interpret what it sounds like because there are somany variables in musical performance.

The combination of structure and variety is what makes sport and games interesting. Take March Madnessand basketball as a current example. Basketball is a game with defined rules. We give a referee a hardtime when he makes a bad call not simply because it is against our team, but because we know he isfollowing the rules. We know the rules and we want him to enforce them – unless the bad call favors ourside and then we ignore it! The referee is there because the players have to work within the rules andboundaries. But within those boundaries and rules there is opportunity for great variety, and chance, andplay. (This is why predictable games or simple games are boring – there’s no creative element). Thetournament is another example of structure and variety. The tournament of 64 teams begins as a veryprecise structure. The #1 plays the #16, #2 plays #15, etc. and so on. Yet, the uncertainty and themystery of it all that creates the great moments high and low – the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat!

Now let’s go from the lesser to the greater. If there is such a wonderful and beautiful and combination ofstructure and variety, unity and diversity in nature and human experience, shouldn’t we expect that we willfind and even more wonderful combination in worship. I think we should. And if we ignore this, then weignore the combination of structure and variety, unity and diversity that allows the human and the divine tointersect – what allows us to encounter God! As a result we reduce worship to a ritual or an obligation. Ourworship has a structure because we are embodied creature. We are bound by time and space. But theGod we praise is not limited in that way. Our worship embodies the gospel because the gospel itself is anintersection of the certain and the unexpected.

Consider the gospel event: Jesus is crucified, he is buried. Every explanation we give for that part of thegospel simply affirms the reality we know – we are sinful, we do not recognize God’s love, there is sufferingand cruelty in the world. But what part of the gospel event did I not mention? The resurrection! Theresurrection is unexpected and surprising! It is mysterious and powerful! Now there is hope where we hadnone. Now there is possibility where previously we had despair. And it is all because of God and who heis. (See Romans 11:33-36, the precursor to our spiritual act of worship)

Our worship embodies this experience with a certain structure. But we cannot experience the depth andthe riches of God’s grace if we are just ticking off a list of worship duties. Those are just daily chores – [Isn’t it interesting that a child that will balk at doing routine chores and will finish those chores off only to goand submit himself or herself to the rules of a game with other children – or the rigid structure of a videogame or the chapters of a book!] Without some understanding of how we “move” within the structure, wewill miss the opportunities to encounter God and enact his gospel together.

As an illustration, let’s talk about what we do when we have guests over to our house for dinner. There arecertain structures that are basically the same no matter the occasion. And we can even think of these interms of movement through the rooms of a house . . . Foyer, Living Room, Dining Room. Consider the waywe talk and converse in each of these. We move and talk in appropriate ways as we move from the foyerto the living room. Then we move in certain ways as we go from the living room to the dining room. In thefoyer we greet. In the living room we share news and tell stories. When do you bring up a serious subject? Certainly not in the foyer! Whether it is a cookout, a formal dinner with new friends, or PBJ sandwicheswith old friends, we have these little conventions that allow us to commune. Why? Because we arebodies, not shapeless minds floating thru space.

There is a basic structure of worship that enables us to encounter the God who is spirit and to communewith one another. Story and Feast. – Exodus 24:3-11 and Acts 2:42-47 demonstrates this basicstructure.

The “field of play” (or boundary) for worship that embodies the gospel is, I suggest, sort of like agravitational field. That is to say that it is the structure that orders the elements of worship in a naturalstructure that is sensitive to the gospel and our experience and we move through this field. We are shapedand order by it, even as we are allowed to move in it (like gravity). The structure of word and suppercommunicates our embodied similarities. It also enables us to embody the gospel and thus enact thegospel.

The gospel is real and so worship should be real. The death burial and resurrection of Jesus are real. Itwasn’t a myth or an act or a dream. God went through physical actions; he made a movement to show hislove. And we do the same in worship and mission (discipleship). Our faith is not just something to agreewith. It is an agreement that demands action. The images we use to describe our relationship (sheep andshepherd) are bodily, physical images. Just as our real baptism is a death and new birth.

Recommended Reading: I am indebted to Robert E. Webber for recognizing the Story & Feast structure ofworship in both the Old Testament and New Testament. Dr. Webber has discussed this structure in manybooks and seminars. Among these is Worship Old & New, Zondervan, 1994.