Last week we examined the Fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control) which emerges in our lives the more we align our lives with Jesus Christ through the work of the Holy Spirit. The concept of spiritual disciplines is that they are practices which help us align ourselves with Jesus. Spiritual disciplines also assist us in aligning our hearts with God such that our daily decisions become more and more Christ-like.
The idea of spiritual practices is an ancient one and bridges the gap between Judaism and the church. Many of these disciplines are also part of other religions and their practices. Over the next several months we will be examining these practices from both the Biblical historical and modern practices points of view. We begin with the most important spiritual discipline…worship.
The most basic definition of worship (from Wikipedia) is that it is an act of religious devotion toward a deity. Devotion would be the act of an individual or a community physically, mentally, and emotionally orienting themselves toward a deity and performing actions which imply that the deity is worthy of their commitment of time, energy and resources. It would also imply that the deity will bless and protect the people who worship them. The religions present at the time of the emergence of the people of Israel followed this pattern of worship. Individuals, tribes or nations would have a god or gods whom they worshipped and to whom they looked for support and protection
The first mention of worship in the Old Testament comes in the Abraham story in Genesis. God appears to Abraham and asks him to pack up the family and go on a journey. Chances are that Abraham came from an area which was replete with gods and goddess (the Fertile Crescent). By choosing to follow this one God Abraham was orienting himself toward God and performing actions which implied that this deity was worth following. The first act of worship which might seem familiar to us occurs in Genesis 12:7 when Abraham builds an altar for the worship of the God who had called him to this journey and had made him a promise that the land would be his.
The understanding of worship takes a great leap in Genesis 14:17-20 in which we meet the mysterious Melchizedek, King of Salem (modern Jerusalem). Abraham has just been victorious in battle and upon returning to the area around Salem encounters Melchizedek who is not only a king but a priest of the God Most High (el Elyon). This phrase for God Most High is used more than 20 times in the Psalms to refer to the God of Israel. Whether that is the exact intent of this Genesis passage is unclear, but the New Testament Book of Hebrews takes up this idea and expands on it by declaring that Melchizedek was indeed a priest of the one and only God. In this episode Melchizedek brings forth bread and wine and blesses Abraham in the name of the Most High God who is the maker of heaven and earth. Abraham then gives to the king a tenth (a tithe) of all that Abraham had taken in battle. This tithe is intended as an act of worshipful appreciation to the Most High God. This is followed by Abraham declaring that he has sworn to this Most High God that he would not take anything that God had not given him (spoils of battle) because God alone has made Abraham rich.
What we also discover however in the Genesis narratives is that Abraham's family was not monotheistic; that they worshipped other gods. We can see this clearly in Genesis 31:25-35 when Rachael steals the household gods of her father Laban and takes them with her when she and Jacob flee Laban's house. We can assume that Rachael believed these gods were worthy of her devotion because she was willing to risk life and limb to steal them.
In these early narratives while we see worship emerging, the acts of worship have only a basic ritual: create an altar, give gifts and allegiance to God (or still at this time gods). Worship has not yet been formalized. We will watch its continuing emergence next week.
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