Ethics as Worship

We have to see worship as being more than the act of praise, in song and in dance.

Worship needs to be understood as our participation in the Mission of God; our honouring God in expressing the practices that arise from communion with Him. We see this call to this active participation in the character of God in Scripture. It is at the heart of the Law (Deuteronomy 11.22), the Prophets (Isaiah 58) and the  Writings (Psalm 146). It is in the practice of expressing Transforming Presence, Embodied Instruction and Constructive Community through pursuing personal Integrity of Being, Doing and Proclaiming the Character and Mission of God.

To understand the essence of worship being the way we walk in our lives, we need to turn both to the teachings of Jesus and also the Mosaic Law: where the location of worship and the regulations guiding us are expressly laid out for the practices of daily living.

In the life and teachings of Jesus; his undertaking of healing and acts of ministry on the Sabbath, as well as eating the grains in the field, we see the outworking of worship and Sabbatical rest in His ongoing communion with God and the ministry that issues out of that. Indeed, we see Jesus reorientate an understanding of Temple, and worship 'at the place of God's choosing', in terms of His teaching to the disciples that reorientates them to see His body as the temple that God will raise on the third day. Participation in His body, in His life, becomes the central act of worship. An understanding of self, redefined by the Transforming Presence, Embodied Instruction and Constructive Community that is in Jesus Christ Himself.