Our historical examination of Jewish worship has finally led us to the time of Jesus and the early church. The worship milieu in which they found themselves was diverse and contentious. There were those for whom Temple worship with all of its sacrificial offerings was the primary mode of worship. For others who lived far from Jerusalem, the local synagogue had become the center of worship. For still others worship was about daily faithfulness to God (meaning keeping all of the rules and regulations of the Torah) with only a nod to the Temple or the synagogue. In other words there was no consensus as to what right worship looked like. We can see this in the Jesus' stories contained within the New Testament where we witness Jesus teaching in the Temple, in synagogues and out in the country side, where he offers visions of right living and right worship (the Sermon on the Mount is one such example).
This struggle over the right way to worship will continue within the early Christian church. In the Book of Acts we read that, following Jesus' resurrection and ascension, the disciples worshiped in the Temple, in synagogues (especially Paul on all of his travels) and in homes. This makes sense because at the outset of the church, the followers of Jesus understood themselves as messianic Jews; Jews who had found the messiah. This meant that they ought to continue with the traditions in which they had been brought up; Temple, synagogue and Law. They saw nothing wrong with this. In fact their worship in homes followed very closely the worship patterns of the synagogue.
Though we do not have any worship bulletins left over from a First Century synagogue service we know that there were certain acts of worship which were only allowed to take place within the a Jewish community which had ten males present (which is the requirement for a synagogue). The first act of worship was saying the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4-9) which is the declaration that there is only one God. This was to be repeated twice daily; a practice which was part of the Temple ritual. The second was saying the Tefillah prayer which contained 18 separate sections and was to be prayed three times a day. This prayer also had its roots in Temple worship. Next came the priestly blessing (Numbers 6:24-26) which was used by priests in the Temple. Next was the reading of the Torah. Some scholars have speculated that it was this part of the service that was the central foundation of the synagogue. We can see this in Luke 4:16 ff where Jesus reads and comments on scripture. Finally there was the saying of the Kaddish which was a prayer asking God to establish God's kingdom on earth. This prayer formed the basis for the Lord's Prayer. In addition many synagogues chanted Psalms 145-150 as part of worship. If we were to summarize synagogue worship, it would be pray, chant, read and expound on scripture, and pray again.
We can see these same practices in descriptions of early church worship both in the book of Acts and in the writings of the early church fathers. In Acts 2:42, "They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer." Here we have the two main aspects of synagogue worship, prayer and teaching, combined with sharing a meal. The breaking of bread was the one truly Christ-centered addition made to early Christian worship. At first this was called the agape meal/love feast; a meal sacrificially shared by all (I Corinthians 11:17-22). Over time however the agape meal/love feast morphed into the Eucharist (Lord's Supper) which was centered around the actions of Jesus and the disciples in the upper room (I Corinthians 11:23-26). In terms of music in worship Paul reminds his fellow believers that they were to speak, "to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit." (Ephesians 5:19a)
As you can see, the basic elements of modern Christian worship were in place almost two-thousand years ago. The differences that exist today between various denominations concern the focus and intent of worship rather than its basic components.
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