A Chaotic Unity
Worship simultaneously reflects and creates cultures.
Yesterday, the National Cathedral hosted an inauguration prayer service. It featured representatives from about as far and wide as could be imagined - at least with regards to religious traditions. Muslim Imams prayed alongside Jewish rabbis who prayed alongside liberal Protestants including a transgender pastor from Longmont. It was intended as an expression of unity in prayer to (what was called upon at the close of the inauguration) “the great name of our one shared faith.” It was an attempt to give expression to and perhaps even garner some sense of national unity at a time in which our nation is deeply divided and for whom the last 8 months have been marked by social chaos. And while the attempt was unity, the affect was chaos. Disparate voices all barely connected to their own religious traditions praying in the name of some shared faith. The worship of the people will reflect and create culture.
If you read the Bible much, it shouldn’t have surprised anyone that if you pray to Brahma among the other unnamed monotheistic gods on Sunday night you will get chaos and a Buffalo Man standing in the same spot at the Wednesday night prayer meeting. The worship of the people will both reflect and create culture.
Religious chaos reveals cultural chaos, more than that, religious chaos creates cultural chaos.
Paul, in Ephesians 5 pushes for a different sort of unity. He has talked about the ethics and truthfulness of unity in chapter 3. A beautiful (if difficult) combination of truthful speaking and gentle humility towards one another. But in chapter 5 he begins to describe the practices of this unity, particularly a call to sing to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Here the unity that the work of Jesus creates among a people redeemed by him is sustained and expressed in the practice of singing to Him and to one another. This is one of the many reasons the people of God gather to sing to Jesus every Sunday in our worship: It is an expression of and the creation of real unity. Jesus calls and saves a people who then, in his name (and not some other unnamed god), sing - this is a sort of confession of faith (that we are, despite appearances one) and the creation of that unity (we are singing together). You see, Worship both reflects and creates culture. But this isn’t simply something the church does for herself. She worships as salt and light in the midst of culture that has gone chaotic. Churches spread like salt throughout a city and a nation, calling on the Father in the name of Jesus, singing as one, and the cities and cultures are both preserved and even changed . When the church doesn’t gather, in force, to worship in the presence of God together - there is a cost to society, not just the church.
We think this singing is so important at Trinity that we’re willing to gather together and practice. Practice doesn’t sound like fun, but we have a good and rowdy time gathered together, laughing and learning how to sing the Psalms in harmony and unity. This is both an expression of a real unity in the name of Jesus Christ, and a means by which such unity is sustained and grows. Worship both reflects and creates culture.
You cannot use scotch tape and strip the gods of their names to pretend some national unity. You will only get chaos and madness. Choose which god you will worship. But if you worship the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the Triune God who made heaven and earth, and who has come in Jesus to rescue us from our sins, conquer death and reign forever, you should count on something: He will not share his glory. All honor and glory and power is His and he will not share the podium with other gods. And he loves to teach us to sing together.