Bodily Worship: Ordinary, Repetitive…and a Life-Changer — Rev. Jethro Rachmadi
In response to the online worship hype during the pandemic
PREFACE
This sermon note is an excerpt from a sermon series entitled Bodily Worship by Rev. Jethro Rachmadi on the account of online worship. As the world is partly shut down due to the pandemic, churches around the world find a solution in technological aid to continue religious services. And for some people, such abnormality might even be considered a more efficient way of worshipping and should therefore be the post-pandemic new normal of worshipping”.
By addressing this issue, we do not by all means force or promote shaming towards those who choose not to come to bodily services during the pandemic, because some congregants may live with elderlies or juveniles, doctors or nurses, or simply would like to be more cautious for themselves.
Our sole purpose in addressing this issue is to acknowledge that online worship is an inevitable abnormality that we must all hope and pray to return to normal bodily worship.
This is the fourth session of the Bodily Worship series. Previous sessions talk about how liturgy exists inside and outside of the church gate and how liturgy takes a big role in shaping the hearts of men. Though ordinary, liturgy is a double-edged sword that powerfully and actively changes its doer down to men’s most inner desire. We know that the heart reflects men’s desire, but it’s almost as important to remember how the heart also plants men’s desire. After all, we are what we desire, or more relationally, Who we desire.
For more information on the prior sessions, please click on the link below:
Bodily Worship #1: https://griikg.org/bodily-worship/
Bodily Woship #2: https://griikg.org/bodily-worship-2/
Bodily Woship #3: https://griikg.org/bodily-worship-3/
BODILY WORSHIP: ORDINARY, REPETITIVE…AND A LIFE-CHANGER
1. The Derision towards the Ordinary
Our Lord works through ordinary things. You might have even heard of this parable of a city that was drowned in a big flood. A man sought safety on the roof of a house, as he prayed, “Lord, have mercy on me and be quick to save me!” Not long after, a man in a wooden boat rowed towards him as he offered a seat on his boat. But the man shook his head saying, “Sorry, sir. I’ve prayed to God to save me. He will be the one who saves me”. And so the wooden boat left him. Soon after, a navy boat approached him and threw a rope towards him, but the man rejected the rope for the same reason. Finally, a helicopter hovered above him and with a loud voice a soldier cried, “Sir, take hold on the ladder, we will pull you up, the water has reached your neck!” But the man replied, “No, sir. God will be the one who saves me Himself”. At the end of the day, the man died and went to heaven. He asked God why He did not save Him, and God said, “I sent you a wooden boat, a navy boat, and a chopper, but you refused. You waited for an extraordinary rescue, while I work through the ordinary.”
Romans 10:17 says that “[…] faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the Word of God”, but let us go back to its preceding verses, “and how are they to hear without someone preaching?” (verse 14b). Someone preaching the Word is an ordinary act. We constantly expect spectacular repentance testimonies. Honestly, nobody wants to hear, “I came to believe in the Lord Jesus by reading the Bible for 20 years, or by coming to the Sunday School diligently as a kid.” The story that we want to hear is of a murderer who repents. But even when we study such extraordinary testimony, there is always an ordinary matter that we missed. Say that murderer repented because when he was imprisoned, he happened to find a piece of small paper that happened to be torn from a Bible. But surely somebody had to first bring a Bible to the prison, somebody else had to print the Bible and somebody had to translate it to another language. And how are they to hear without someone preaching?
When we go to a doctor’s appointment, nobody wants to be prescribed you just need enough rest, some vitamin C, exercise regularly, and don’t forget to hydrate. What we wish to hear is us needing a super dose of vitamin C or other extraordinary solutions.
Finally, have you not noticed that it is through ordinary things that the God we know in our Bible creates the most extraordinary things?
2. Skepticism towards Repetitions
As members of the Reformed movement, we are in danger of being an extremist by nullifying completely men’s duty, because we are alarmed by the utilization of ordinary and material things by the Roman Catholic. Just by faith alone, the bread and wine could actually become the flesh and blood of Christ. By just praying the rosary or reciting some prayers, you could participate in the lives of the holy ones. Witnessing these, reformers feared that we have absolutely nullified the work of God in our salvation. But pay close attention to the solution that the reformers suggested. They have never abolished the rituals of the Roman Catholic but modified them from one ritual to the other.
The analogy is similar to that of a light switch. The Roman Catholic switches on the light by pressing on a switch, but they fail to see the electricity that causes the bulb to light. Instead of completely abolishing the idea of a switch, the reformer modified the switch to be a transparent one, so when we switch on the light by pressing the switch, we may see the wires and remember the electricity behind it.
A liturgical example of this would be the invention of a votum by the reformers. We incorporate a votum before service so we remember that we would not be able to come before God if God does not first call us to worship.
The reformers are not against rituals, but are against false rituals. So instead of abolishing rituals, they created new ones. Because God is not only the object of worship but also the subject of worship.
3. The View of Worship as a Self-Expression
The question we must ask is how could God possibly shape me through my own self-expression?
One day, James Smith attended a Sunday service with his son. The church they usually attend to use old hymns on their services. But this one particular Sunday, the church integrated one contemporary song. Smith then asked his son to circle each time the words I, me, and my are present in the contemporary song and draw a star for each time he sees the words God, Jesus, and Father. Now we know how the result would turn out. My point now is not opposing contemporary songs. We use many contemporary songs ourselves in our church. We even use songs from the 20th century such as gospel hymns. These songs often use the words we, which later shifted to I and me to emphasize men’s personal and intimate relationship with God. We even see these in many of Isaac Watts’ hymnal works. We could sing a 500-year old hymn without the words I, me, and my and still possess a yearning urge within our hearts to channel our desire and express ourselves. And here we proclaim, “Worship is my time to express myself!”
If our mind orbits around the idea that worship is an act of self-expression, then for us, authenticity in worship — and not hypocrisy — is crucial. This leads us to be very cynical towards repetition, as repetition has become a nemesis and a threat to our worship.
We loathe when our partner says the same loving word, the same flowers, the same gift every day. Such repetition would lead you to doubt his authenticity. With the same mindset, we require worship to be different and never the same routine. The historical style of worship being passed down to generations are no longer in demand. And the view of worship as self-expression is the culprit of it all.
I want you to stop you here and quit thinking about other churches that fall under this self-expressive worship, reflect on your own hearts. We have all fallen.
I have another example that I have personally noticed during Sunday services in our church. There are some people who love to sing harmony during worship. Now, I’m not at all against harmony in music and I’m not a person who restricts instrumental accompaniment in services and enforces unison singing throughout worship. I studied music, I’m a musician. I know how harmony is a beautiful thing in music.
But what I observe in Sunday services is that this harmony-singing doesn’t only affect the person who sings the harmony, but also to those who dream of the ability to sing harmony, but can’t. And the reason why they dream of it is because they think singing in harmony would make their worship more effectual.
There was one seminary student who loved singing in harmony during Sunday services and I asked him why he does it. He responded with the most honest answer, he said, “I want to hear my own voice”. This is a form of self-expression, the result of viewing worship as self-expression.
Bodily actions affect their doer, and physical matters the eyes of the beholder. Decorate and build your church like cafes or shopping malls, and you will find yourself seeking Jesus as another commodity that would bring happiness to your life. You will find yourself inevitably worshipping consumerism Jesus.
CONCLUSION
We must learn to accept that the liturgy created for years is a narration in the shaping, where it is the Lord who actively transforms me through worship.
You might ask, “but am I not right by saying that repetition could really be dull and inauthentic? Is it not true that we don’t want the congregation to play pretend and be hypocrites?”
Worship is the program that the Lord runs. So partaking in the program does not make you inauthentic. In partaking in the Lord’s program, you have surrendered yourself and be who you truly are in the most authentic sense. Because you are most yourself when you surrender yourself to Another power outside of you, your God.
Now l would like to raise a question back at you, “if your partner gives you a different flower every day, different seducing words every day, do you guarantee that he’s being authentic? Is there a better parameter to prove his authenticity? Yes, there is. It is when he cares for you more than he cares about himself. It is when he puts you first above his other needs. This is a more authentic parameter than him exposing his heart’s fervor.”
The love of Jesus is authentic. And we know this not because he performed and expressed those miracles, but when He surrendered Himself on the cross for us. This is what makes us proclaim “truly, there isn’t a God like You.”
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This sermon note has not been checked by the preacher.
