{"id":211,"date":"2010-06-29T14:27:12","date_gmt":"2010-06-29T19:27:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/acugst\/?p=211"},"modified":"2010-07-19T10:51:35","modified_gmt":"2010-07-19T15:51:35","slug":"renewing-worship-lessons-from-the-prophets-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/acugst\/renewing-worship-lessons-from-the-prophets-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Renewing worship: Lessons from the Prophets (part 1)"},"content":{"rendered":"

There’s a set of texts in the Minor Prophets I’ve been thinking about.\u00a0 The following comments are part of a curriculum I wrote for a great church in Arlington, Texas.\u00a0 Maybe it’ll be of use to others.\u00a0 To preface it, let me say that I think much of our discussion of worship — and by “our,” I mean every religious group in America — misses the point.\u00a0 Recall the acid comments of an Amos who has God saying “I hate, I despise your feasts.\u00a0 (And that’s just for starters.)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Here’s a conversation we need to have.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

To think about worship is to think about many things, including time, space, matter and its uses, the importance of leaders, the relationships between attitudes and actions, and many others.\u00a0 Worship involves both external phenomena (such as movements and words) and internal realities (the inclinations, passions, longings, and perhaps even fears of the heart).\u00a0 To worship well is to receive God\u2019s gifts with gratitude and peace to offer to God, not our things or even our works, but our very beings.\u00a0 Worship is not a transaction or an exchange.\u00a0 It is our response to God\u2019s overwhelming love and mercy.<\/p>\n

The Bible speaks of worship in many ways: response to God\u2019s creation (Job 38; Psalm 84), the response to God\u2019s justice (1 Corinthians 11:17-22), and so on.\u00a0 The Minor Prophets, in particular, take up two aspects of worship, its focus on the true and living God and its implications for the life of the community come together as one before that God.\u00a0 The next lesson will focus on the latter theme, and this one on the former.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Like many Psalms and other biblical texts, the prophets call their audience to consider the majesty and generosity of God.\u00a0 Unlike texts such as Isaiah 40-41, which explore God\u2019s incomparability in detail, Hosea, Amos, and Micah praise God in incidental ways.\u00a0 Consider some examples.<\/p>\n

Hosea talks often of the God who redeemed Israel in the exodus (Hosea 9:10; 11:1; 12:9; 13:4-5).\u00a0 This God calls human beings to lives of goodness and opposes evil (Hosea 4:1-3).\u00a0 God does not show favoritism or allow election to be an excuse for oppression and injustice.\u00a0 Such a God, therefore, cannot be represented by creations of human beings (idols), since any attempt to reduce God to something we understand denies the life-giving power of divine mercy (Hosea 14:8).\u00a0 Yahweh is worthy of Israel\u2019s worship because of His character.<\/p>\n

Amos makes the grandeur of God even more explicit, not only by focusing on divine mercy toward all, by reminding his hearers of the language of the hymns they already know, which point toward divine power over creation and willingness to communicate intentions to human being.\u00a0 Thus in Amos 4:13, the prophet quotes a hymn that speaks of God\u2019s ability to create a beautiful world (compare Job 38 as well as Genesis 1) and then turns quickly to the phenomenon of prophecy (\u201cand tells his thought to people\u201d; see also Amos 3:7).\u00a0 It is interesting that prophecy and creation can be mentioned in the same breath, as though they are two examples of the same sort of thing.\u00a0 Prophecy \u2013 revelation of God\u2019s will to people and thus guidance in things that matter permanently \u2013 creates something new.\u00a0 In any case, the poem turns back to creation, speaking this time of God\u2019s ability to undo what we have come to expect as normal and use it for new purposes.\u00a0 The poem concludes with a reference to another of Yahweh\u2019s names, \u201cthe lord of hosts\u201d or \u201carmies,\u201d speaking of God\u2019s mastery of the angelic hosts and thus of a world in which human beings play only a small role.<\/p>\n

Amos also contains a second hymn, 9:5-6, which speaks of God\u2019s incomparable power to reverse the normal flow of natural forces.\u00a0 What is at stake in such a view of God?\u00a0 Recall that the Bible does not celebrate power for its own sake, even God\u2019s power.\u00a0 Rather, it always speaks of power as it is used for good ends.\u00a0 For example, kings use their ability to coerce others in order to end evil and bring about justice.\u00a0 Parents use their power to train children in the ways they should go.\u00a0 And God uses more or less unlimited power in order to draw human beings, and especially those in covenant, toward ethical, grace-filled lives.\u00a0 At the same time, Amos wants to remind his audience of God\u2019s majesty so that they will no longer ignore their commitments as though God were someone they could ignore or treat contemptuously.<\/p>\n

Micah, meanwhile, offers many of the same visions of God as a majestic judge.\u00a0 Chapter 7\u00a0 opens with a lament (verses 1-6) to which a pious speaker responds, \u201cBut as for me, I will look to the Lord, and I will wait for my saving God.\u00a0 My God will hear me.\u201d\u00a0 This God aids those who humbly wait for deliverance in a troubled time.\u00a0 Verses 8-13 respond to the lament in a different way by considering the possibility of a reversal of fortune for Israel, a time of healing and the rebuilding of community.\u00a0 Those who believe Israel\u2019s God cannot deliver the oppressed from their bonds will have a rude awakening.\u00a0 How, then, does verse 7 connect to what follows it?\u00a0 The answer seems to be that the book of Micah is designed to encourage the few who do hope in God to remember that God\u2019s power and graciousness are complementary realities.\u00a0 Power will be used for the good of humankind.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Two reflections are in order at this point.\u00a0 First, notice that the prophets use an image of God with which many of us are very uncomfortable: God as judge.\u00a0 Our discomfort comes from the way the image has sometimes been used.\u00a0 Some Christians have made God into a judgmental figure, the \u201call-seeing eye watching you,\u201d who takes note of every infraction and punishes without fail.\u00a0 This understanding of God as judge is not what the prophets have in mind<\/em>.\u00a0 Their image is of a God of supreme mercy whose indignation is at injustice, not at petty violations, but at gross abuses of power and mistreatment of the vulnerable.\u00a0 God the judge is God the vindicator: these are one and the same role.<\/p>\n

Second, the prophets assume (as does the rest of the Bible) that those who are think deeply about the majesty of God will be better people than those who do not.\u00a0 Awe before God leads to humility, graciousness, forgiveness, generosity, and other virtues that profoundly shape a life.\u00a0 A vibrant, growing faith leads one to think of others as God\u2019s children and thus as objects of our care as well.\u00a0 (to be continued)<\/p>\n

Dr. Mark W. Hamilton<\/a>
\nAssociate Professor of Old Testament and
\nAssociate Dean
\nACU Graduate School of Theology<\/a>
\nAbilene, TX 79699
\nEditor, The Transforming Word<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There’s a set of texts in the Minor Prophets I’ve been thinking about.\u00a0 The following comments are part of a curriculum I wrote for a great church in Arlington, Texas.\u00a0 Maybe it’ll be of use to others.\u00a0 To preface it, let me say that I think much of our discussion of worship — and by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3538,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nRenewing worship: Lessons from the Prophets (part 1) - ACU Graduate School of Theology<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/acugst\/renewing-worship-lessons-from-the-prophets-part-1\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Renewing worship: Lessons from the Prophets (part 1) - 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