Worship ...."Who am I?"

Who am I?

I have been challenged recently about who is at the centre of my faith and of my Worship. The obvious Christianese answer is ‘God’. Now we have established that I can give the right answer, lets look at how things really are. We begin with my worship. We sing lots of the ‘Jesus is my girlfriend’ type of songs. They drip romance and intimacy. I love them and still believe there is a strong biblical justification for them. A while ago, however, we realised that they were almost the only songs we used. We were dying of intimacy. There are, after all, only so many ways you can tell Jesus you are ‘falling in love’ with him in half an hour. Phase two of our journey has been to write and sing songs of commitment and intercession. So we knock on the door of heaven, offer up our lives, are led to the lost and basically tell the Lord how hard we are going to work for him. I am sure there is a place for this in sung worship. We need to make our vows of service and requests for the lost as well as our whispers of love.

Here is the question that has challenged me recently. How many songs do we sing that are just about God and do not bring us into the story. How much is God not only the object but also the centre of our worship? I am sure we need to sing more songs that praise him for who he is irrespective of what he has done for us. The picture of the worship of heaven we see in Revelation 4 and 5 is amazing in its colour and its sound and also its participants. The four living creatures and the twenty-four elders seem to be having a great time as they take it in turns to sing their songs and fall down. A few million angels and then every creature join them. Great sight. Great noise. But incomplete. The centrepiece comes as the grand finale. The one who sits on the throne and the Lamb. The rest is incidental, the audience, the supporting cast. How God centred is my worship? Maybe I need to tell him a little less about me, what I feel and what I am going to do and focus a little more on him.
As with worship so with the whole of life. Am I living with Jesus as the centre or am I consumed with myself, my abilities, my plans and my work. The big mistake Moses made at the burning bush was in the first question he asked after receiving the revelation of God. He asked ‘Who am I?’ One would have thought he would have asked ‘Who are you?’ My mistake is that I ask the first question too often and the second too seldom. Peter made the same mistake on the mount of Transfiguration (Luke 9 v.28-36). What does he say in response to the revelation of the glory of Jesus? Is it Hallelujah? Does he fall on his face in silence? He says and I quote; ‘Master, it is good for us to be here.’ Can you believe it? He then wants to start a building project. Peter was truly the first Charismatic evangelical! Why can’t we just gaze at him, lost in wonder, love and praise?

There has to be more than a me-centred Christianity which always descends into hype and techniques and the latest quick fix solution to the problems of the Church. The answer is what it has always been, to see and savour more of the Saviour.
Peter Ward