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What is Worship?

Hokey Smokes

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Hullo! :wave:

My Christian friend has already answered this question for me in his own terms, but I'd like to broaden the answer to include Christians from a whole range of backgrounds, countries and religious denominations.

So, if you don't mind, would you please tell me what worship is to you? What's your "technical" explanation of it, and what's your "emotional" explanation of it? How do you, specifically, choose to worship?

Thank you. :blush:
 

drich0150

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Hullo! :wave:

My Christian friend has already answered this question for me in his own terms, but I'd like to broaden the answer to include Christians from a whole range of backgrounds, countries and religious denominations.

So, if you don't mind, would you please tell me what worship is to you? What's your "technical" explanation of it, and what's your "emotional" explanation of it? How do you, specifically, choose to worship?

Thank you. :blush:

Worship simply put is an expression of faith.
 
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Afire

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Recognising and appreciating the greatness of God is how I would define worship.

I love to worship God through laughter. Though the Bible has a very grim and stern aspect to it, I think God's great sense of humour shines forth. The absurdity of Abraham and Sarah begetting Isaac in their old age is one such example. Abraham himself was so confounded with incredulity, he fell down before God in laughter. As a result, the name 'Isaac' means 'He laughs'.

But we need look no further than the absurdity of the cat, as a near infinite number of YouTube videos testify, that God delights in reaching down to us to make us laugh with joy.
 
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Hokey Smokes

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drich0150 said:
Worship simply put is an expression of faith.

It sounds lovely. If it's alright if I ask, how do you personally worship?

jehoiakim said:
and act you do that brings glory and honor to a person/object

Is worship therefore always an act, or can it be a thought? If so, do thoughts count as acts in this respect? How would you tie "brings glory and honour" to the above, "expression of faith"? Does it become natural when expressing your faith to desire to bring glory and honour to God? And finally, if I may ask, how do you personally do it? :)

Afire said:
Recognising and appreciating the greatness of God is how I would define worship.

I love to worship God through laughter. Though the Bible has a very grim and stern aspect to it, I think God's great sense of humour shines forth. The absurdity of Abraham and Sarah begetting Isaac in their old age is one such example. Abraham himself was so confounded with incredulity, he fell down before God in laughter. As a result, the name 'Isaac' means 'He laughs'.

But we need look no further than the absurdity of the cat, as a near infinite number of YouTube videos testify, that God delights in reaching down to us to make us laugh with joy.

That's awesome -- one of the first things my Christian friend said to me when we started discussing religion was, "I like to think that God has a sense of humour." How do you worship God through laughter? I mean to say, how does laughter tie in with recognising and appreciating the greatness of God? Do you laugh during prayer, or do you consider God every time you laugh in day-to-day life?

Sorry for all the clarifying questions, guys. :blush: I really appreciate that you've all answered, I'm just a massively curious sticky-beak!
 
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Afire

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That's awesome -- one of the first things my Christian friend said to me when we started discussing religion was, "I like to think that God has a sense of humour." How do you worship God through laughter? I mean to say, how does laughter tie in with recognising and appreciating the greatness of God? Do you laugh during prayer, or do you consider God every time you laugh in day-to-day life?

Sorry for all the clarifying questions, guys. :blush: I really appreciate that you've all answered, I'm just a massively curious sticky-beak!

Well, I don't mean to imply that I practice a form of holy laughter or anything. Just whenever I laugh or smile throughout the day, or if I'm watching cat videos online; this to me is an act of worship, though not a formal one.
 
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drich0150

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For me it is a way of life. It manifests itself in everything I do. How I manage my family, run my business, study, answer questions here, the music i listen to, down to the time and help I give others. Turning my life into a living sacrifice to God is the way i worship.
 
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ViaCrucis

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Hullo! :wave:

My Christian friend has already answered this question for me in his own terms, but I'd like to broaden the answer to include Christians from a whole range of backgrounds, countries and religious denominations.

So, if you don't mind, would you please tell me what worship is to you? What's your "technical" explanation of it, and what's your "emotional" explanation of it? How do you, specifically, choose to worship?

Thank you. :blush:

In some ways this is a really complicated question with a complicated answer, largely perhaps because so many of us of faith take it so for granted as a "given" that we don't always spend much time extrapolating it into a refined answer.

I'm a word nerd, so I often like to look at the etymology of words and how they have evolved over time. In this case our word "worship" is a compound of worthy and -ship; that is the state or condition of being worthy. Worship is, archaically speaking no a verb that is "done" but is a noun that is given; or a noun that describes a subject. For example the archaic honorary of "your worship". Therefore we give worship to an object (whether it be a person, thing or deity, etc).

It's actually fairly generic, though today is usually exclusively used in reference to acts of homage and reverence offered to the Divine. And because of this can get really confusing, especially in inter-Christian dialogue between Protestants and Catholics/Orthodox (similar to confusion over the word "pray").

Traditionally two concepts have been rendered as "worship": Latria and Dulia.

Latria is a familiar word, as it forms the suffix for the word idolatry, which literally means "the adoration of idols". Latria refers to adoration, and is defined in the Christian tradition that form of reverence which is due exclusively to God and no other. Only God is worthy of adoration, worthy of the highest honor and highest glory.

Dulia is a less familiar word, but can be found in the word icondule (one who venerates icons, in contrast to iconoclast, one who breaks icons). It is derived from the Greek doulos, meaning "a servant", and refers to the respect or veneration which a servant bestows upon one's master, or the veneration one offers a king or person of authority. When a nobleman would kneel before the king, it was an act of dulia. In Christian tradition dulia is the honor paid to the Saints (including Mary), or to that which is sacred (such as icons or relics). The honor which a child gives to his/her parents is dulia, the honor which one shows a statesman, dignitary, or even just their employer is dulia.

The focus here, of course, is on the former: latria or adoration. Worship, that is adoration/latria, is that which we offer in word, action or deed which bestows the highest worship, offers our highest praise, makes known that God is of the greatest worth to us. We do this through prayer, song, gesture (prostrations, genuflections, the lifting up of hands, and any other assortment of reverent gestures); we do this by our participation in the corporate act as the Church when we gather for our liturgy and/or service, by partaking of the Eucharist (and that alone could probably be a completely other topic), and ultimately by the very way in which we live our lives day-in and day-out.

Thus worship is not one thing, it is a multitude of things, it is a wide array of many things which are done out of our adoration and highest reverence for God as we manifest our acknowledgement of His greatest and highest worth above every other thing conceivable.

That, in a nutshell I think, is how I'd answer this question.

-CryptoLutheran
 
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bling

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It is the offering up to God, obedience to His commands and is contrasted with "vain" worship which is offering up to God obedience to "man's" commands. This means if you go through life helping others in responce out of Godly type Love compelling you, you are worshipping all the time.
 
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Hokey Smokes

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Afire said:
Well, I don't mean to imply that I practice a form of holy laughter or anything. Just whenever I laugh or smile throughout the day, or if I'm watching cat videos online; this to me is an act of worship, though not a formal one.

Okay, thank you for clarifying. :)


drich0150 said:
For me it is a way of life. It manifests itself in everything I do. How I manage my family, run my business, study, answer questions here, the music i listen to, down to the time and help I give others. Turning my life into a living sacrifice to God is the way i worship.

That's beautiful -- thank you for expounding on your earlier answer.

ViaCrucis said:
In some ways this is a really complicated question with a complicated answer, largely perhaps because so many of us of faith take it so for granted as a "given" that we don't always spend much time extrapolating it into a refined answer.

I'm a word nerd, so I often like to look at the etymology of words and how they have evolved over time. In this case our word "worship" is a compound of worthy and -ship; that is the state or condition of being worthy. Worship is, archaically speaking no a verb that is "done" but is a noun that is given; or a noun that describes a subject. For example the archaic honorary of "your worship". Therefore we give worship to an object (whether it be a person, thing or deity, etc).

It's actually fairly generic, though today is usually exclusively used in reference to acts of homage and reverence offered to the Divine. And because of this can get really confusing, especially in inter-Christian dialogue between Protestants and Catholics/Orthodox (similar to confusion over the word "pray").

Traditionally two concepts have been rendered as "worship": Latria and Dulia.

Latria is a familiar word, as it forms the suffix for the word idolatry, which literally means "the adoration of idols". Latria refers to adoration, and is defined in the Christian tradition that form of reverence which is due exclusively to God and no other. Only God is worthy of adoration, worthy of the highest honor and highest glory.

Dulia is a less familiar word, but can be found in the word icondule (one who venerates icons, in contrast to iconoclast, one who breaks icons). It is derived from the Greek doulos, meaning "a servant", and refers to the respect or veneration which a servant bestows upon one's master, or the veneration one offers a king or person of authority. When a nobleman would kneel before the king, it was an act of dulia. In Christian tradition dulia is the honor paid to the Saints (including Mary), or to that which is sacred (such as icons or relics). The honor which a child gives to his/her parents is dulia, the honor which one shows a statesman, dignitary, or even just their employer is dulia.

The focus here, of course, is on the former: latria or adoration. Worship, that is adoration/latria, is that which we offer in word, action or deed which bestows the highest worship, offers our highest praise, makes known that God is of the greatest worth to us. We do this through prayer, song, gesture (prostrations, genuflections, the lifting up of hands, and any other assortment of reverent gestures); we do this by our participation in the corporate act as the Church when we gather for our liturgy and/or service, by partaking of the Eucharist (and that alone could probably be a completely other topic), and ultimately by the very way in which we live our lives day-in and day-out.

Thus worship is not one thing, it is a multitude of things, it is a wide array of many things which are done out of our adoration and highest reverence for God as we manifest our acknowledgement of His greatest and highest worth above every other thing conceivable.

That, in a nutshell I think, is how I'd answer this question.

-CryptoLutheran

Oh, wow -- your answer is so detailed! However, as somebody who would also consider herself a bit of a "word nerd", I really enjoyed it. It actually clarified everything quite well, even in just the differentiation of latria and dulia. Now -- you said that the Eucharist alone would probably be a completely other topic. In what way? I'm keen to make it, because I just don't know what the Eucharist really is. ;)

bling said:
It is the offering up to God, obedience to His commands and is contrasted with "vain" worship which is offering up to God obedience to "man's" commands. This means if you go through life helping others in responce out of Godly type Love compelling you, you are worshipping all the time.

Thanks for your answer! Can you give me an example of vain worship so that I can compare the two, if possible? :blush:
 
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