The nation was in turmoil. A well-loved leader had died, and the future was uncertain. There was no way of knowing whether the successor would be good, or whether, like others in history, he would choose a way which would plunge the country into disarray, conflict and despair. With this concern weighing on him, Isaiah went into the Temple to pray. What he experienced there changed him forever – though he had entered as a politician, he left the sanctuary as a prophet.
What Isaiah describes in Chapter 6 of his book is a profound experience of God’s presence and glory. What he witnesses is God revealing God’s self to a mere human, and heavenly beings offering God such adoration that Isaiah could not help but be drawn into it. Although our worship may not be quite as dramatic, the essential experience is the same.
In the last few weeks we have been exploring what it means to gather, to be called to worship, and to take the time to ‘invoke’ God’s presence. These are all acts of preparation and of opening our hearts and minds to encounter God. Whether we actually expect the encounter to happen, or whether we are capable of discerning God’s revelation of God’s self to us, is often a product of how mindfully we have embraced this movement into worship.
Once we are fully engaged in the act of worship, though, we cannot avoid dealing with the reality of God, and searching for an appropriate response. One effective metaphor for what we do in Church is this: In worship God reveals, and we respond. Or, to put it another way, God speaks and we answer. Of course, there are also times when we speak and God answers, but that is pretty much always a secondary movement to what we have just described. If we do not come to worship in order to encounter God, in order to open ourselves to God’s revealing of God’s self, in order to be transformed by a true meeting with God, then we are wasting our time. And, if we are to ensure that we are fully present to the experience of God’s presence, we must embrace the act of adoration or praise.
It is not uncommon to hear sceptics asking why any God worth worshipping would need people to stroke God’s ego. The implication is that praise is for God, and that God is an arrogant, egotistical deity who should not need to hear how wonderful God is from men and women. This criticism completely misses the point. We do not praise God because God needs us to. We praise God because we need to. Unless we take the time to recognise God’s presence, to be overwhelmed by God’s greatness and to be impacted by God’s glory, we can never hope to find intimacy with God. Like in any good relationship, we need to hear the story of our beloved, sense the spirit reaching out through the words and actions to connect with us, and be led into deeper knowing of the one we love. This is what praise does. We may speak the words, but the act of praise is more than words. It reflects back to us the glory and beauty, the nature and purpose of God. It tells us who this God is and what God is doing among us. It invites us to know God, and be known by God.
The act of praise is a world-changing thing. The writer Annie Dillard once wrote that if we really knew what we were doing in worship, we should wear crash helmets! That’s why the book of Hebrews says: “it is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” (10:31 NLT). Isaiah was caught up in praise of God, and was changed. We can expect nothing less from an encounter with God, and if we will take the risk to give ourselves in praise, we will discover ourselves drawn ever deeper into intimacy with the God who is eternal Mystery.
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John van de Laar is a Methodist minister, liturgical consultant and the author of the book Food for the Road – Life Lesson from the Lord’s Table. He holds a Master’s Degree in theology from UNISA, and is the founder of Sacredise.com, an international worship training and resourcing ministry. John is married to Debbie, and they have two sons.
Visit www.sacredise.com for more articles by John, as well as resources for personal and public worship – music, prayers, liturgies, images and drama scripts.