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Worship in the
Absence of God
One
Man's Web > Mudmap
Theology > Worship in the Absence
of God > Absence
A re-mapping
of God....
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The Collapse
There has been the collapse of a
reality. The old models of God do not work for many people.
They find they are like the person lost in the bush... alone, scared, and
with no idea where to go.
I am not concerned here for the person
who wanted no God, but for we who still feel that there is, or must be,
something Divine, but are left with nothing to say. God seems
unknowable. Perhaps God is a desire, but is not. |
A
person may have met a Bishop Spong in their life, or come to their own
conclusions. However it happens, God and church lose the authenticity of
reality. We are talking here of that paradigmatic
shift where God no longer has reality. Where the old model of God
holds no sense. It is not about an adjustment of some theological
issues; the whole world view suddenly or gradually ceases to function. |
Neither am I writing for the one who wants or needs God as a crutch, but
the one who sees that there may indeed be no God, and if that is so,
that's how life and reality is. The one who will be prepared to
accept that reality if that is Reality, but who feels drawn to worship or
who experiences something they can only call Divine, even if they have no
words to express it.
Worship
Worship is what we do when we give something
the status of ultimate worth. We need something to live for, or some
rule to live by. It may be that we are a very relaxed personality type who
takes life as it comes, and be less driven to worship than the type of
personality who needs order and understanding as a priority. But we
all worship. We all give something the ultimacy in our lives.
Christian theology has always understood
that worship is something beyond an idea. It is about "living
out" a reality, not claiming a belief that does not issue in
action. Worship, properly understood, cannot simply be some theoretical
notions which are an existential crutch to prop us up. Worship
demands action of us. |
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Idolatry is the giving of worship to the
"Not-God." It is to worship something which is not worthy
of worship, something less than ultimate in our reality.
Society offers we men a number of well
tried idolatrous opportunities.
Work is the classic idol. We are invited to give our life to our
work. When we say someone "lives for his work" we saying
theologically that he "worships" his job. This is
idolatry. Work is not worth it! It never was worth being only
the extension of a company or job. Witness the alarming number of men who
die relatively soon after retirement! Work today is even less worthy
of worship. We live in the age of retrenchment, downsizing, and
contract labour. Why worship something so transitory? There is
nothing ultimate here.
Idolatry
continues....
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Idolatry
may seem an outdated concept in today's world. However, we give credit to
the notion of idolatry by our use of the phrase "to
idolise." We use it of the teenage fan of a pop group, for
instance. In that idolising we recognise that there is a worth given to
the object or person which is not quite proper. They are not quite
worthy of our attention in this way. There are occasions where we
deliberately use the word "idolise" instead of words like
"respect" or "esteem." We talk of
"discipling" ourselves sometimes, or of using a person as a
"mentor figure" or
"life symbol." These are all different to what we mean
when we say "idolise." |
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