A Word on Worship

1 Peter 2 tells us that we are being built up into a spiritual house “to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” We’ll talk more about this in the sermon, but one of the primary ways we do this is through our public service of worship. Therefore, it’s important that we have some understanding of what exactly we’re doing in worship each week. Why do we do things the way we do? In order to answer that question, I want to include here a few reflections each week on our various elements of worship. For many of you, this will simply be a review, but I hope it can be of some encouragement as we worship together each week. This week, let’s consider the Call to Worship.

The Call to Worship

In the past, VPC has referred to the opening choral introit as a call to worship, and this is appropriate under certain circumstances. We may return to that pattern at some point, but you may have noticed that in the past few orders of worship, the introit and call to worship have been separate. There are several reasons for this.

The Westminster Confession of Faith reminds us that “[public gatherings] are not to be carelessly or willfully neglected or forsaken, since God calls us to join other believers in public worship.” Isaiah 56:6-7 says,

“And the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD, to minister to him, to love the name of the LORD, and to be his servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it, and holds fast my covenant–these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.”

Notice it is God who brings us before him, not ourselves. This pattern is repeated in all of the great covenant renewals throughout the Old Testament, most notably in Exodus 19 and following, and reinforced by the first commandment:

“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me.”

Oftentimes, we think of going to church on the Lord’s Day as an act of personal devotion, something we do for our own “spiritual fix,” but not really something vital for the Christian life. This is an error. Of course, God is present in all his power when his people gather, and he really does bless us richly in our worship, but it’s not because we have willed him out of heaven. No, God is present in our worship because he has called a people unto himself. We do not gather ourselves, but we are joined together by the Lord who has redeemed from our sin. We worship in response to God’s gracious command to repent and believe.

So the call to worship is God speaking to us, just as he speaks to us in his Word throughout the worship service. Therefore, it is the ordinary (i.e., there are other perfectly acceptable ways to do this) practice of the Reformed tradition for the preacher to call the church to worship from Scripture. This is also the practice prescribed by the Westminster Directory of Public Worship. The Bible, and particularly the book of Psalms, is filled with these calls. This week, it is drawn from Psalm 118:

This is the day that the Lord has made;
let us rejoice and be glad in it.
Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
for his steadfast love endures forever!

Also, our call to worship this week is responsive. The past couple of weeks, I’ve used “one-way” calls to worship, but the Psalms are actually designed for responsive reading and singing. (Have you ever noticed that each verse of the Psalms are divided into two parts?) The congregation’s part is a direct response to the Word of God’s call.

So as we participate together in the Call to Worship this Lord’s Day, reflect on God’s grace to you. In our sermon text, Peter says that God has “called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” Let’s rejoice in his call, the call to come to Christ in repentance and faith, and lift up our hearts to him in response.

Some further devotional reflections can be found here, courtesy of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church.

A Ministry Opportunity

Some of the ladies have begun writing cards to people in our church and community that would benefit from the encouragement. This is a very simple but meaningful way to reach out to those in need and love our neighbors. If there is someone you think would benefit from receiving a card or if you would like to help, please speak to me or Janet James.

Your friend in Christ,
Reid