Worship as football

It is becoming clearer to me the more I consider worship the more I realize my metaphor for worship is conflicting to the dominate metaphor at the setting I find myself located. It seems we tend to approach worship as one might approach a the game of football. These are just some thoughts I have so far on this metaphor.

*(To be honest I have never played football and am more than willing to admit my observations of the game are limited. I also know metaphors break down if stretched too far and so I mindful of too much stretching. But here we go.)

Football seems like the ultimate game of control. Each team knows when they are on offense and when they are on defense. Whatever side of the ball you are on, every 40 or so seconds there is another play. Each play, is drawn up and each person has a specific task they must do in order for the play to work. There is little deviation from the play. Even the quarterback is given options of routes which are in a priority dependent upon the factors of the game. Pads are used in football to protect the players from crashing into one another. Although it is dangerous, it is as controlled danger as we might get. In football, there are so many players and back ups for the backups. There are several coaches who specialize in their area from defensive line coach to special teams coach. When a play 'breaks down' it is considered wasted or it is the opportunity for creativity (I am sure you all have seen the plays where there is are 15 laterals done in order to get to win the game. Those are amazingly memorable and fun to watch). Football audiences are involved with the game only if there is momentum (and if you are a fanatic and use body paint, you are considered extreme and a bit odd.)

Perhaps the issue of worship is not only we dominantly view it as the "start" to the detriment of the "culmination" of our week, but also that we approach worship as a football game.

Tomorrow I will put some thoughts down to the question, "What if we approached worship like a soccer game?"

Until then, what do you think thus far?

Could the problem with Sunday worship be that it begins our week?

I have been taught throughout my life that there is no better way to begin your week than to begin it with worship.

Getting your priorities in perspective

Focus on God

Take time to quite your minds

Give your first fruits to God

All of these, and others, have been used to describe why worship on Sunday is a wonderful way to begin our week and it should be that way.

However I wonder if this mentality has also contributed to the decline of Sunday worship.

If this is the way we need to start our week, then it is easy to see how worship is for the individual. That is, worship is a way to enhance the life of the individual because it sets the week off in a certain way for the individual. We are told that when we preach we should preach so that we are excited about life and energized to go out into the world and make it better. All of this lends itself to view Sunday worship as an internal and individual practice.

But what if Sunday worship was not see exclusively as the beginning of our week, but the culmination of our week. That is what if Sunday worship was framed as a place where we come together and share where we saw God in the previous weeks workings on the Kingdom of God? What if we could not wait to get to Sunday worship and share with others where we saw God the previous week? What if we could not wait to get to Sunday worship and discover where others saw God moving in the previous week?

What if Sunday worship was a culmination of our week?

The story says God created the world in 6 days and then on the last day, the day when work was done, the day the work culminated, God observed Sabbath.

If Sabbath for God is practiced at the end of the week and celebrated as the culmination of the work done, why wouldn't we?

What if Sunday worship was the culmination of our week?

Sunday Worship Observations

Things which raised my eyebrow this morning in worship:

1. The gospel of Mark begins in the wilderness with John the Baptist who is firing off like a roman candle exploding for a moment then burning out quickly.
2. We listen to John the Baptist like we listen to flight attendants who give us life saving information about safety belts and exits.
3. The was a young kid, Max, who had a plastic alligator on his head while he took communion.
4. A little girl said to her dad while at the Communion rail just before we gave her communion, "I don't know what or understand." - Which I thought was amazingly honest response to communion.
5. Who are we? (self-identify)
6. Who is God calling us to be? (purpose)
7. Who is our neighbor? (context)