I’ve noticed that a certain theme keeps returning in the worship resources I have written the past few weeks. I am assuming this is because it is something that is really on my mind. The theme can be summarized as “all life is worship.” This may seem simple, but it has really stuck with me. I have even included this in sharing the announcements… shouldn’t what we are doing as a church be worshipful too?
We’ve been working through Philippians the last three weeks and we are finishing up with chapter 4 this Sunday. In his letters, Paul often answers questions related to right living and believing by not only providing specific answers but by also encouraging others to mimic the example he and others have provide.
I was doing a little reading this past week (and I do mean a little, I am still post-seminary reading recovering); I read a story about a pastor who was visiting with an older member of his congregation he respected who was dying. The pastor told the man, “when I grow older, I want to be like you.” He later reflects, “I don’t think I could have said anything more meaningful to him. The highest compliment we can ever pay anyone is our desire to be like that person.
We also just sent some of our Junior High to a Church of the Brethren National Workcamp in Brooklyn, NY ; the theme for 2014 being “teach with your life.” Hmm… no wonder this is on my mind…
I think most of us have those people in our lives, whether they are family members or not, that we notice have lived in a peculiar way; their lives stand out. The person I can’t help but think of for me is my Grandfather, Paul Groff. He had the ability to start a relationship with pretty much anyone in just one meeting. He had the ability to make anyone feel like they were being cared for. He was also the one who first called me into ministry. And I am currently serving in a church where he was also an interim. There are times when I feel an unavoidable poetics of place as I begin my ministry in the Hagerstown COB.
While I look up to my Grandfather and feel his life is an example that I live into, this does not mean that I minister in the same exact way. I am definitely not the same person and it would not work if I tried to be exactly like him. My Grandfather provides the foundation and his example gives me strength. I remember some of the things he taught — for example: balance is important — and I remember that as I think about what that means for me in this time and place.
Adoration and praise has a very important place in worship, but it’s not all that there is to worship. Is there a greater way to show adoration and praise then by living into Jesus’ example? If we think about all life being an act of worship, how would that change how we lived? If we thought about worship as living like Jesus, what would that change? I find myself pushing back against that very thought in my head; how does one “live like Jesus…”? I definitely do not have a systematic theological answer, but I seem to be constantly in the state of discerning what this looks like.
Just a few ponderings from the Desk of Pastor Audrey H-D...
