Worship and Justice

This past week I had an opportunity to attend the National Pastors Convention in sunny San Diego. It was a most inspiring and encouraging time to hear about the state of the church and the hearts of people who love the Lord and want to see more of God work in the lives of people worldwide.

One message that I heard really struck the chord of some things that I had been reflecting on for some time. The message was on Worship and Justice.

For starters, when I think of what the word worship entails, it brings me to a state of mind, an opening of the heart, an approach to have an encounter with the God of the universe and give God the well deserved attention and adoration that He so desires because of the idea that God is after all God. The pastor who gave the message preached on the idea that the love that God has for us, and the love that God commands for us to demonstrate to others is one and the same. In the Bible, one of the greatest commands is to love the Lord your God.... and love your neighbor as yourself. Expressing our love to God is part of our worship.

Mark Labberton writes in his book, The Dangerous Act of Worship, " Jesus, if anything, was and is awake. That's the shock for those who encounter him in the Gospels. He came to make a world of those who are awake - awake to God, to each other and to the world. Waking up is the dangerous act of worship. It's dangerous because worship is meant to produce lives fully attentive to reality as God sees it, and that's more than most of us want to deal with."

Furthermore he discusses how sometimes there is a disconnect between worship anad justice, and how a more vigorous encompassing theology of worship can help us understand - who God is on our lives and then truly practicing that life in the world, especially for the sake of the poor, the oppressed and the forgotten.

In Micah 6:8 it says

What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God ?

I'm really challenged by that thought... How to live out our worship and what that means for DOING JUSTICE in the world....
I'll have to ponder that some more and I'd like to create some more ways to live that out more in my own life.