It’s easy to fall into the trap of the conventionally humdrum “worship service,” giving little thought to the extemporaneous beauty that becomes a reality when we properly behold the holiness of God. We don’t have to work up some frenzied performance to appease God; we just need to come in faith and truth offering our innermost selves, for God is already pursuing and singing over us (Zephaniah 3:17).

The Church, Our Mother

The early church father Cyprian said, “You can no longer have God for your Father, if you have not the Church for your mother.”¹ Such a statement may sound strange to our modern sensibilities. Protestants may even muster a bit of nervousness as they hear in this statement the rattle of incense bowls and see the vestments of the priesthood. But John Calvin helps us with Cyprian’s analogy to see that the church is vitally our “mother” in the sense that her ministry in our lives is essential in our Christian development and sanctification. For Calvin, we must

learn even from the simple title “mother” how useful, indeed how necessary, it is that we should know her. For there is no other way to enter into life unless this mother conceive us in her womb, give us birth, nourish us at her breast, and lastly, unless she keep us under her care and guidance until, putting off mortal flesh, we become like the angels. Our weakness does not allow us to be dismissed from her school until we have been pupils all our lives. Furthermore, away from her bosom one cannot hope for any forgiveness of sins or any salvation.²

And

we must allow ourselves to be ruled and taught by men. This is the universal rule, which extends equally from the highest and the lowest. The church is the common mother of all the godly, which bears, nourishes, and brings up children to God, kings and peasants alike; this is done by the ministry. Those who neglect or despise this order choose to be wiser than Christ. Woe to the pride of such men!³

Our “mother” is the church not of national or cultural identity but of spiritual sustenance as we humbly submit ourselves before God in beautiful worship.

The apex of our fellowship and communion with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is holy worship. Worship of God originates with God, not man. Worship was never the idea or plan of man, as there’s nothing in us that seeks after God or even desires to know him (Rom. 3:11). The desire to worship God is wrought in the heart of believers by the Holy Spirit. We love God because he first loved us. We seek God because he first sought us. We worship God because he commands such worship, and we willingly obey.

The context in which worship is most abundantly realized is within the church—not ornate buildings, entertaining experiences, or worship liturgies, but God’s gathered people. Worship is the conscious recognition of God’s sovereign greatness and resplendent, holy beauty and our ascribing honor, adoration, reverence, and glory to him. It is the bride of Christ extolling praise and adoration to who God is, what he has done, and what he has promised to do. It is the forsaking of all idols in our lives—which divert our focus, attention, and devotion—and singularly riveting our hearts and minds on the supreme, transcendent God of the cosmos.

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