Yancey vs. Dylan

You're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed, you're gonna have to serve somebody. Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord, but you're gonna have to serve somebody.

Bob Dylan

I could be wrong, but I'm guessing there is a class preachers take in which they are taught to use some variation of the following phrase: "Now the original Greek word is ..." It immediately suggests scholarship and preparation while requiring very little, and congregations eat it up because they feel like they're getting some real Biblical insight without necessarily needing to do anything with it.

Phillip Yancey recently wrote an article for Christianity Today about authentic worship. Even though authentic is one of three words that Christians use that quickly makes me question the value of what I'm reading, (relevant and post-modern are the other two) it's not a bad article. He usually says something worth hearing and he typically says it well. In this article he makes the point that really worshipping God involves more than singing with your hands raised and repeating a chorus over and over. It's a good point to make, considering most congregations would be reluctant, at the very least, to hire a worship leader that didn't come with the requisite guitar and desire to tell people to get on their feet. He's right; worship is more than singing. There's a big "but" though.

Yancey uses the whole "original languages" bit to make his point. He says the primary Hebrew word for worship means "to bow down in reverence and submission." That's true. He also says that in the New Testament, the "the most common Greek word for worship means "to come forward to kiss.'" Okay, we can see where he's going with this: worshipping God requires an attitude of fear and intimacy. We have this convenient literary contrast, and making reference to the original Biblical languages gives the impression of scholarly authority as well. Put them together and that's a pretty good way to make a point about worship. Unless of course, it isn't. To take Yancey's point we may come away with the impression that we simply need to balance our bowing with a little kissing, or in context of what he writes- balancing our noise with a little silence, and that is what worship is about.

I understand the need to make a point and how nice it is to juxtapose these words to reveal a God that spoke in the wind but also came in the flesh, who is at once transcendent and present. But if we're talking about worship that's not really all there is to it. Yancey says the most common NT Greek word for worship means to come and kiss. This is true, but by way of background, in the Old Testament this word is applied to leaders, it is directed to the temple, Samuel's shadow, the scriptures, and other "things." It refers to a general attitude of appropriate piety or regard so it is very common. It refers to an internal condition towards a particular object, in this case God. But it applies to a ton of stuff. So why's that matter?

Philip Yancey isn't wrong but Bob Dylan is right. We serve someone. We're supposed to serve God, and that has nothing to do with instruments, hymns, raising hands, closing eyes, blah blah blah. Well, it has very little to do with that. It has to do with who we are and how we live. That word, serve, is only properly applied in human relations with God. It is only right to serve God. We can and do serve other things, but that's idolatry (to use the churchy term).

Understanding worship as service is more helpful because it is active and contextual. Service requires me to do something other than show up on Sundays.. This word when used in the Bible doesn't just refer to cultic rituals but the entirety of life in service of God. It's the leaving the gleanings in your field for the poor, it's visiting the imprisoned, feeding the hungry, giving drinks to the thirsty, it's loving justice and mercy, it's actually doing the stuff Jesus says to do if I really want to follow him.

Or maybe it's not. Maybe, I'll just close my eyes extra hard, sway a little more and raise my hands higher tomorrow morning.