(The Twelve Ways of Christmas, Part 2: The Way of Worship)
Jason Strong hates Christmas.
Well, at least this part of it.
And on this quiet Monday afternoon, he lies face-up on the stage floor, staring at the blackened ceiling of the church building he calls home, wishing it would all just go away.
Jason’s a twentysomething worship leader at a contemporary church. On his more philosophical, argumentative days he can tell you all the reasons why worship music should reflect today’s culture, not try to recreate the culture of Lawrence Welk. “Dude, nobody drives to work listening to pipe organs on the radio,” he loves to say. And they certainly don’t at Ovation Church, either.
But Christmas is a problem. “Angels We Have Heard on High” and “Joy to the World” tend to make lead guitarists feel a bit out of place. And at Ovation, even the youngest of adults starts pining away for the Christmas traditions of their childhood.
Ugh.
In the spirit of the season, Jason and the band try to cooperate. But honestly, he feels like a fool – leading a band of square pegs into jolly-round holes. What the heck is “Excesis Deo” anyway? And don’t even get him started on “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear.”
But there’s a back story to Jason’s simmering frustration. The fact is, this 28-year-old with the “I can do anything” attitude has hit a wall of sorts. He’s exhausted physically. He’s running on fumes emotionally. And even the spirit of this passion-driven worship leader is tired as he stares into the abyss above him.
Frustrated.
Dreading.
Somehow trying to avoid Sunday’s worship set being just another gig.
Yeah, that’s it. It’s just a gig now. An event. Stand and deliver, then what’s for lunch?
Looking to his Bible for inspiration, Jason begins reading the story of Mary’s encounter with an angel and a promise from God. Rolling his eyes at the fact that her worship still comes with Latin titles, Jason the worship leader coolly reads Mary’s song of praise:
“My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has been mindfulof the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me — holy is his name.
His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation.
He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble.
He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever, even as he said to our fathers” (Luke 1:46-55)
“That’s nice, Mary,” Jason says to himself. People do still call you blessed today. Just wish the Mighty One would do a few great things for me.”
The Dream
Sorry for his dark heart, but sorrier for himself, Jason closes his tired eyes. The next thing he knows, he’s on his hands and knees, crawling down the hallway outside the Ovation worship center. The hall carpet is a blended blue, with shades of black and white speckled in. He stops in front of a mid-hall threshold – a crack in the floor, lined all the way across the hall by aluminum – the kind of thing you would see if there were movable partitions that ran on it.
There on his hands and knees on one side of the threshold, Jason reaches with his fingers across to the other side. He can feel the cold of the aluminum runners, and a sense of confusion. Why is the threshold even there? Why can he not just get up and walk across it?
He then realizes that he is not alone. On the other side of the aluminum track stands a tall, thin, African man. He is dressed in traditional yellow-gold printed fabric, with a matching hat. Jason can’t see his face. But he hears his voice. The man speaks matter-of-factly – not what you’d call tender or tough. Just truth, spoken with a Swahili accent. And all he said was, “It’s one thing to begin in worship. It’s another thing to continue in it.”
The Vision
Just that quickly, Jason’s eyes fly open and he sits straight up on the stage. The dream is over. But for Ovation’s worship leader, the vision is just beginning. Still wondering what in the world his dream meant, his eyes return to Mary’s expression of praise. There, for the first time, he sees it: “My soul glorifies the Lord. My spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” The secret was not what Mary was doing, but when. How many times had Jason heard some speaker say it? “Present-tense, continuous action.” Mary was expressing ongoing worship.
Intrigued, he looks further. The angels – “…praising God and saying…” The shepherds – “returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.”
There it was again. Present tense. Continuous action.
It’s one thing to begin in worship. It’s another thing to continue in it.
But was that really something new? Yes. In the Old Testament, worship for the most part was an event. It was a destination (the tabernacle or temple), with a prescribed series of steps. But here, in the story of the coming of Jesus, something silently profound was taking place.
Almost imperceptibly, people were crossing a threshold.
The threshold represents the thin divide between “starting” worship and continuing in it – between worship as an event and worship as a lifestyle. And somehow, in this world of the awake, Jason (and I) want to cross it.
The Way of Christmas is the Way of Worship
You can’t touch any version of the Christmas story without running head-on into worship. Loud worship (shepherds, angels). Musical worship (Mary). Material worship (the wise men). Quiet, reflective worship (Joseph, Mary). Prayerful, prophetic worship (Simeon, Anna). But regardless of the form, something begins changing the moment Jesus arrives on the scene. It doesn’t come to full fruition until the coming of the Holy Spirit. But the hints of it are there.
So what does this Way of Worship – this lifestyle of praise – look like? Something similar to Mary’s song of joy, I suppose.
Offering Ourselves as God’s “Nobody”
Mary recognized her “humble estate” and offered it to the Lord. “I’m a nobody,” she was saying. “Yet my great God has regarded me. He noticed me when no one else did. He saw in me what others didn’t see.” And in honoring Him, she offered herself back to Him to be His servant.
Rather than trying to compete, impress, or exalt yourself, would you be willing to just be yourself, humbled before Him? That is the way of worship across the threshold.
Recognizing the Stoop
Mary saw herself as blessed. Bet you’ve heard that word lately, probably at the latest cliché reunion. But the word is rich. It suggests that in order for us to receive it, God must “stoop,” as it were, to give it. All generations, Mary said, would look at her as blessed. And she was. She was one for whom the God of Heaven stooped for. Truth is, so are we.
Can you see where God has “stooped” for you? Do you recognize that if you never received any other blessing from heaven for the rest of your life, He still is worthy of your gratitude because of what He has done for you so far? That’s worship across the threshold.
A Lifestyle of Reverence
Mary recognized herself as one who feared the Lord. She didn’t become a God-fearer because she was chosen to give birth to the Messiah. She was chosen because she already did have that deep reverence for the Lord.
This is no gig. It doesn’t show up in a worship set, a keyboard, or a building. It shows up at Starbucks. In traffic. When you’re taking your kids to school, recalculating a spreadsheet, or preparing a meal. It’s a lifestyle of reverence – of honoring, fearing, following the Lord.
A Hunger for More
Mary quotes the psalm that refers to the Lord as one who satisfies the hungry. In doing so, she is describing herself in the same language. She was hungry and thirsty for more.
How hungry are you? Are you crying out to God for more? Are you willing to recognize that God does the work, and that the primary work needs to be done on you? The Way of Worship is the sober recognition that every need you experience, every hunger pain you feel, is evidence that the Lord waits joyfully to fill it. Worship honors Him in advance for the satisfaction that is yet to be.
Back to the Floor
There on the empty stage, Jason waits. And worships. And for the first time in a long time, this is no gig. The music has faded. All is stripped away. And he has simply come to the Threshold.
No strip of aluminum, or imaginary line, this Threshold is a Person. And in His presence, worship is no longer an event. It’s a life where Heaven continues to stoop. And hungry nobodies continue to be amazed at such grace.
Can’t wait to see what happens when Jason picks up that guitar again.
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