Called to Worship

To start services Sunday, I used a phrase that may have sounded foreign: call to worship. What is the call to worship? More importantly, who is calling and who is being called?

During both services, I welcomed everyone and invited us to stand for a call to worship. For the call to worship, I read from Psalm 46:1-4 (NIV):

God is our refuge and strength,
    an ever-present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
    and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam
    and the mountains quake with their surging.

There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
    the holy place where the Most High dwells.
Then we sang a song called "There Is A River."

We heard God's word to us through the Psalm, and we responded with words straight from the Psalm. This is a perfect example of the revelation-response pattern of worship. God reveals, we respond. A call to worship is an example of the first part of this pattern: note is who is calling, and who is called. It is God who calls us to worship. Sounds obvious, but understanding this can be transformative in how we follow Jesus.

First, God calls. Think about it: we don't go to a party without an invitation. We show up because God has invited us. It's not the song leader, or Tim's email blast, or our Twitter account (@newcovlincoln, by the way) inviting you to worship. We don't come to God, he calls to us. This is affirmed over and over in scripture (1 John 4:19, Romans 5:8, Romans 8:30, John 14:6). If instead worship is something we initiate, then it is man-made. It can easily become an idol, a source of pride, a work meant to earn our own salvation. Man-made worship depends entirely on our own feelings, circumstances, preferences. It's me-centered.

Second, God calls us. The beautiful thing about worship is it's a chance to participate. Jesus has already done everything necessary to give us eternal life, relationship with the Triune God, peace that passes understanding, refuge and strength, ever-present help in trouble! We don't respond to earn/maintain salvation. We respond to join in the celebration and thanksgiving.

So what is a call to worship? It is a way to frame our time together, not as a time when we initiate asking God to hear us, but as a time to celebrate what God has already done and continues to do.