WHY WORSHIP GOD?

Evening Star, Issue 22631, 24 April 1937, Page 6

WHY WORSHIP GOD?

Sermon broadcast by Kev. Albert Mead, M.A., from the Congregational Church, Moray Place, Dunedin, on Sunday last. Scripture readings, John iv., 19-24, Revelation iv., 8-11. Text, Matthew iv., 10. “Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.”

To as); a question is not ,necessarily a sign of irreverence. A question may be asked in an insincere or flippant mood, which makes it both irreverent and unprofitable; but to ask questions is the first step to knowledge when one desires hot merely to know truth, hut to obey it. It is in that latter spirit that, we ask the question : Why worship God ? There are actually two questions hound up in these words: (1) Why worship f (2) Why worship God,? I invite you to eonsidci these two questions because 1 most strongly feel and beliqye that much of the indifference and slackness on the part of men and women to religion is due to a neglect of the act and desire for worship, also because there arc many people who are giving worship to lesser, if not wrong, objects. In fact, I believe that the underlying trouble of ali our religious problems is just this, tho failure of men and women, Christian and non-Christian, to allow time for devotion and worship. Many of tho excuses given for our neglect of Divine and spiritual things are only surface excuses—tho underlying reason is failure of the devotional life. And the devotional life means a life devoted to God as the supreme object of human affection, adoration, and allegiance, which three things constitute worship. Affection, not merely affectation; adoration, not admiration; allegiance, not merely acclamation: these three constitute human worship, for that, which we worship is that which has our affection, begets our adoration, and claims our allegiance.

WHY WORSHIP?

Do wo not instinctively desire to worship ? Is there not something within us which prompts human beings to offer worship to some object—human, or in nature, or super-natural and divine. If not, then 1 am entirely at a loss to understand something which is most marked in human history. I fail to understand why the Romans and Greeks had their gods of the state, the farm, tho household, and I fail to understand the earlier gods of ancient civilisation and the most primitive peoples.' History reveals that in all ages and climes men and women have felt a presence, and, privately or publicly, have responded to an urge and offered worship to some natural or supernatural object. Regarding tho poet as one who makes a flight into truth which the logician often fails to reach, I ask if Whittier did not visualise a great truth when he wrote;

AU souls that struggle and aspire, , All hearts of prayer, by Thee are lit; And, dim or clear, Thy tongues of lire On dusky tribes and centuries sit.

Difficult as it is, I am trying to f.nswer this question without prejudice, so I tako a fact and sak the reason why tht fact exists. Worship is either fact or fancy, rational or irrational, the act of a. sane pr ~ insane being, and my estimate front historical sources is that it exists as a fact; as the sane act of a rational being. Much has been said by scientific men, psychologists in particular, about the act of worship of God being an illusion and the result of auto-suggestion, but I cannot regard all humanity of all races and types as being victims of an illusion or a common suggestion. If worship is merely the result of an illusion then, in the words of Dr Gwatkin, in his book, ‘ Knowledge of God ’: “ This illusion has nerved men and women to face a cross of shame before the world, and has given them the higher courage and still higher patience for the obscure and hopeless toil of continual failure in tho work which seemed appointed to them.” Worship has given mankind an impulse and vision ‘and goal, and only a fact could 1 accomplish that, not a fancy or illusion. There is a sureness which is dif-. ferent from cocksureness, as Eddington, the physicist, states. The prevalence of the act of worship in ail human life gives good grounds for believing that man is a worshipping ani-

jhal, - or something higher, which must have 'an 'object tor worship. Worship is the act of the human, spirit made voluntarily with the desire to make contact with a presence and power which answers man’s deepest need. He has chosen objects, as symbols—a tree or stone, an image or natural phenemena—simply because be felt he must, worship something. But man' has worshipped that which the object symbolised, and not merely the object itself. “No savage ever worshipped a tree or stone; it was always the spirit which he conceived to be in tho tree or stone that he worshipped.. However simple or crude the object was, man’s object was To gaze on things unseen By eyes of mortal sight ; To pierce through earths dark veil and gleam , Some beams of heavenly light. My deduction-from historical fact and human experience is that man must worship. We therefore pass; on to the next question:— . Why Worship God? The answer is man must worship thehighest if he Would rise to the full height of his nature and being, and find satisfaction. To-day one finds a man worshipipng lesser objects—himself or one of his human kind; gold or material things; the age of the golden calf is still with us, especially since the cloud of depression has fitted and people are looking forward to better times. Often one has travelled by train and found that the smoke ot the engine has blotted out the view of the country through which one has passed, and one has missed the glory and beauty of life. Wo easily become absorbed in temporal and earthly things which do not call forth the highest, noblest, purest, and best elements o: our nature, and which blot out nobler and better things. During this week I listened to a travel lecture which, was illustrated by film pictures. in conversation with the lecturer he told me that he had been offered the chance of disposing of some of his photographic “shots,” but his response was that money could not buy them, as they, were worth more than money to mm. There are many ideals and spiritual values surrendered for the sake ot tne worship of mammon. Worship is always based upon a sense of worthsinj). Someone has said,that “worship is worthship,” and surely that is very true. If a man worships gold, crease, or pleasure, or fame, or even himself or another person, he does it because he feels—-or at least acts—that the object is worthy of his affection, adoration, and allegiance. Now God represents not merely Someone to be believed in; God represents a standard ot spiritual values. God represents truth, beauty, and goodness in their highest glory and degree.. We see these things staged in the objective world, but the things which express truth, beauty, and goodness are not the realities, they are hut symbols. God is the eternal Reality,, the Ultimate, and Enduring, Who is able to satisfy man’s deepest nature as well as his direct need. We look . to the thing which we worship as being able to give ns that which we. most desire. Can we find the highest ideal',, can we obtain'security, can we get satisfaction from anything less than the worship of God Himself? I accept the story of our Lord’s temptation as a picture of that which happened not merely once in a wilderness, but often in the life of our Lord. How often Ho was tempted to worship material things, but He refused knowing that to offer worship to Satan and earthly things was to surrender His soul to things which could not answer the deepest needs of His nature and being, and give Him the wisdom and help He needed, as well as satisfaction

and contentment for His soul. worship God? Simply because God is the highest, noblest, .purest, the real, true, arid good. . . . Why not worship Nature? Robert Browning answers the question in ‘ Ferishtah’s Fancies,which has been stated to be the poet’s. “ most mature and deliberate reading of life. - My friend,” he says,

I eat my apple, relish what is ripe* But, thank an apple! He who made my mouth . To masticate, my palate to approve,My maw to further the concoction— Him , , ~ I thank, but for whose; work th» orchard’s wealth Might prove so many gall-nuts—* stocks -or stones For aught that I should thmk or know or care.

Behind all the comforts and con* veniences of life there is a kindness of God, which, as Paul states, has been made known - through Christ Jesus. Worship, whether expressed in praise or prayer, through sacrament or symbol* arises out of

The sense within me that I owe a debt .Assures me-—somewhere must bo somebody Ready to ..take His due.:

Therefore to whom I turn hut Thee* the ineffable Name? Builder and maker Thou, of houses not made with hands! What, have fesr of change ' from! Thee Who art ever the same.? Doubt that Thy power can fill tha heart that Thy power expands?.

In primitive times worship emerged! out of a sense of debt and wonder; it is the same to-day. God has often been pictured as demanding human worship, but that is not the picture given to us by Christ Jesus. The vision of His love, mercy, and power expressed in. His forgiveness and readiness to commune 'with us if we but) seek Him in reality and truth, inspires our worship. He is worthy to receive our worship, which is the highest 'act of which wo are capable. I have purposely omitted all reference to forma or methods of worship, for they may be spectacles or merely spectacle-cases.-I ask your worship for God, which is a spiritual thing and expresses itself through your power to love, through your ability to adore, and through your choice to obey. In all His love and grace, the Almighty Father humbly, stoops to commune with us in holy, happy fellowship, when we rise t* offer him our affection, our adoration* our allegiance. _ There’s the wonder of it aIUGod is not compelling us to worship Him as law compels one to act, but containing us to bow down before Him as a lover before the object of his love. Wonder and worship go together, and if the wonder goes, worship goes, foe they are twin.

When all Thy mercies, O my God f My rising soul surveys. Transported with the view, I’m los# In wonder, love, and praise.

“O come let us worship and fall down and kneel before the Lord our Maker. • For he is the Lord our God and we are the people of His pastur® and the sheep of His hand.” “ God is Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.” '

Why worship? Because our soul* constrain us. Why worship God? Because the love of God calls us.