Foolish Worship

Sunday 3/6/2011 3:55 AM

I have always enjoyed playing with children, helping them to exercise their imaginations.  A couple of weeks ago at a Wednesday evening dinner at our church I ate at a table with the two young daughters of a close friend.  I often pretend to have super powers that make me superman around them and I started a conversation regarding that topic.  Soon I was running around the room pretending to fly like superman with the two girls.  Those eating dinner were somewhat surprised to see an old man running around the room.  Later we pretended to be animals of different sorts and I suddenly morphed into a giraffe and an elephant at the suggestions of the girls.  A few days later their mother said that her daughters said that I was the best grandpa ever.

Today I read a quote by Frederick Buechner that reminds me of my interactions with those two young girls.  He writes, “To worship God means to serve him.  There are two ways to do it.  One way is to do things for him that he needs to have done – run errands for him, carry messages for him, fight on his side, feed his lambs, and so on.  The other way is to do things for him that you need to do – sing songs for him, create beautiful things for him, give things up for him, tell him what is on your mind and in your heart, in general rejoice in him and make a fool of yourself for him the way lovers have always made fools of themselves for the one they love … Unless there is an element of joy and foolishness in the proceedings, the time would be better spent doing something useful.”

This view of worship seems different than that with which I was raised and the view of many in the congregation with whom I regularly worship.  That view sees worship as a somber and staid affair in which the worshipers must maintain an attitude of proper respect and decorum.  Anything that strays from the norm is seen as falling below the standard that God requires of us, his people.  We seem to avoid what Buechner calls the “foolishness” of worship but it seems to me that in doing so we also miss the accompanying joy.  It seems to me that few looking from the outside would be drawn to that kind of joyless worship and would certainly never say that we are the best worshipers ever.  I pray that I will be able to have those elements of unabashed joy and foolishness as I worship with the people of God.