Worship is Life!
And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God. (Philippians 1:9-11 (NIV))
What a fantastic prayer this is for this day, for this season! This prayer is part of the Lection for this day, from Philippians 1:3-11.
The idea that love abounds in depth of insight, and that we CAN do what is best, fills me with hope, even if I am not yet filled with the answer I feel like I need in this hour. It isn’t news that we are struggling to understand the seemingly irreconcilable viewpoints of one another on many issues in this season of challenge. We are attempting to reconcile “love-your-neighbor safety standards” and the radical hospitality that all are welcome. A pastor in a hard-working immigrant community which yearns to worship several hours on Sundays proclaimed, “Worship is life!” while another pastor says, “Worship is 45 minutes (with masks, temperature-taking and distancing) to keep everyone safe. I am confident that as we listen deeply to one another, we will come to understand that worship is life, regardless of length and that God is in the midst of our differing viewpoints and reveals what is best, as we are ready to take it in.
May your knowledge be steeped in love so that you are able to discern what is best and be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, for not only is worship life, but life is worship. May the love of God fill us with motivation to appreciate the other, to seek to understand and discern what is best, that we may together build the beloved community God envisions for us.
Let us pray:
Make my love abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that I may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ. Fill me with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God. Let me worship you in all that I do. Amen.