Yesterday I had the pleasure of guest teaching the high school Bible group at our church. Several regular members were away, wilderness trekking with the youth minister, and others overslept and didn’t make it in. But Claire, Lisa, Melanie, and Joel were present, and I found them bright, energetic, thoughtful and eager to learn and to share. We conversed about worship, starting at Isaiah 66:1-2.
Since the focus of worship is God himself, we began by reflecting on two realities Isaiah here reveals concerning God. Theologians speak of these truths as the divine “transcendence” and “imminence.” God is so far away, in one sense, yet he is also so very near. He is simultaneously “God most high” and “God most nigh.”
“Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool,” God says through the prophet. “My hand made all these things,” the Creator of the universe continues, almost matter-of-factly. How can our finite imagination grasp the notion of such a One who has no beginning or end, who neither sleeps nor tires, who called into being everything that exists anywhere? Surely we can only kneel or bow before this God, not daring to open our mouth. Perhaps we belong, like reverent Muslims, flat on our faces on the ground. Sometimes, in private, I pray that way, spending time in silence, visualizing myself on the outside edge of multiplied millions who fill and surround the Throne Room of heaven praising God. Sometimes just “being there” is experience enough.
But wait! There is more! “To this one I will look,” God continues, “to the one who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at my word.” The Creator notices us, his creatures of dirt, and relates to each of us individually. God most high is also God most nigh! In the flesh of Jesus of Nazareth he has joined our humanity. By the Spirit of the risen Jesus Christ he has come to us again. The God we cannot fathom knocks at the door of our heart, inviting us to open our lives to him who already knows us better than we know ourselves. This God calls us to celebrate, to rejoice in his presence, to shout with thanksgiving and with delight!
Christian worship reflects this full spectrum of reverent reaction to the reality of God. Sometimes we bow or kneel in total silence, properly awed by God most high. At other times we make a loud noise to the Lord, celebrating and rejoicing in the mercies of God most nigh. The Catholics and Episcopalians long ago discovered the first mode of worship. The Pentecostals and charismatics have especially developed the second. Both expressions are appropriate at times but neither is exclusively so. People may “go through the motions” with either, copying others, conforming to what is expected, repeating rote words or actions. There is no inherent virtue in either set of externals.
Genuine worship always flows sincerely, from a humble and contrite heart, no matter what the details in the program or the name on the sign out front.
Particular style and forms vary from culture and place and generation. But the acceptable heart everywhere remains the same. The God who is so far above us also resides deep within us. The God most high is also the God most nigh. The transcendent God is also imminent. In every place and in every way, let all that breathes praise his holy name!