Worship: Ontological; Interpersonal; Aesthetic

There are instructional or didactic elements in worship. For example, the recitation of a creed in Morning Prayer or in the Eucharist is partly instructional. Yet worship is not fundamentally or principally didactic in nature and purpose. Worship is ontological, interpersonal, and aesthetic. Worship expresses and shapes our being as creatures in the image of God, our relationships with God and our neighbor, and our sense of the sublime and desirable. Worship involves and informs our whole being, individual and corporate, in truth, beauty, and goodness; in faith, hope, and love. The forms and substance of worship, the rites and ceremonies, ought to reflect and enact this multi-dimensional endeavor.

With Sighs Too Deep for Words

St. Paul writes in his letter to the Christians in Rome (ch. 8, v. 26; NRSV), “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.” For those who can speak aloud and clearly, there are times, there are things, when and for which we find no words. We have vague or inchoate thoughts and feelings, and we cannot express to another what moves in head and heart. We may not even be able to articulate them within our own soul. Here, the Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. Yet for those who simply and ever cannot speak aloud and clearly, how much more do articulation, expression, communication, fail them? Perhaps they do have the words in head and heart, but they cannot physically voice them. Perhaps, more profoundly, thoughts and feelings lie beyond articulation, even within head and heart. How much more for them, the Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. So we hope and pray.