The Point of Worship

A two inch long discolored eyetooth is reverenced by 400 million Buddhists as the most sacred object on earth. The tooth is supposed to have been reclaimed from the Buddha's funeral pyre in 543 B.C. and was brought to Ceylon 800 years later. Today the tooth sets upon a golden lotus in the Glorious Temple of the Tooth in Kandy, Ceylon. It is surrounded by rubies and tons of flowers. Each year a 100,000 faithful Buddhists come from many countries to gaze at the sacred tooth and bring gifts of gold, silver and jewels to the temple.

The fact that an old beat-up and burned-up tooth could become the object of worship of millions is hard to imagine. But the fact of its veneration reminds us of two inescapable facts concerning worship:

• First, human beings are by nature worshipful creatures. French philosopher and mathematician Blaise Pascal said that each has “a God-shaped void” within that we seek to fill with God. A. W. Tozer said, “We are called to an everlasting preoccupation with God.”
  
• Second, left to our own devices, humans will always get worship wrong. We may be by nature worshipful, but we are not by nature very discriminating about what worship. So we get it all mixed up. We don’t fill Pascal’s void with God, so we settle for substitutes.

Is there any part of our Christian life and service that is any more important than is our worship? Is not our whole reason for existence to give God glory and praise? But do we get it right? Gordon Dahl once said, “Most middle-class Americans tend to worship their work, to work at their play, and to play at their worship.” That is an accusation of the worst kind… a true one!

The point of worship is not “getting it right.” The point is not getting the right forms and theology (the “five acts” and no piano). The point is not getting the right experience or exuberance (raising hands and raising the roof). The point of worship is God. Get the right view of God, and you will likely have the right idea of worship. But have the wrong view of God, and your worship will always be wrong! May God move us beyond the old debates on forms and formats and move us closer and closer to Him.