Theology of Worship

With all the talk about worship we've been doing recently, in homegroups and worship committee and other places too, I've been thinking, not only about the practical side of worship - the times, places and styles, but about why we worship and what we expect from our worship of God. With those thoughts in mind, I came across this in a blog article about the trinity:

If a relational understanding of the Trinity is the context of our coming to worship, there is no longer a need to please or impress God in order for him to bless us with his presence. We do not need to create, as it were, a good enough party to wake God up and make him think he might join us. It's quite the other way around. The Trinity are already having a party of their own. There they are, communicating, loving, worshipping, laughing, dancing, always and forever, without a break. Grace, love and adoration flows constantly between the Godhead. And, if you look again at Rublev's icon, you'll see that there is a fourth, empty place at the table - an implicit invitation. Come and join us?

The call to worship is therefore an invitation to join in with God's party. Worship is already underway - come and join in if you like. No need to DO anything - if you want to dance you can, but if you want to sit for a while and let it all wash over you and through you, you can do that too. Of course, at some point you will get drawn into the giving, communicating, adoring, loving activity - but there's no pressure, because God doesn't need your little mite of energy to drive the worship machine. But if you sit long enough in the presence of God, you'll stop being a wallflower and find that the dance is irresistible. This is a theology of worship that allows us to rest in God, that acknowledges that we are wanted, needed, invited in the right sense - but that the impetus, the initiative, is always God's.

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