Worship

This past weekend was the semi-annual world conference for my Church. There were three sessions on Saturday and two on Sunday. During the Saturday morning session, President Dallin H. Oaks spoke, and especially the first several minutes were meant for all people, not just members of our church.

Pres. Dallin H. Oaks, speaking during General Conference, Saturday morning,
October 2, 2021; screenshot from here

In another day or two, I expect the talks will be separate for viewing and reading—with footnotes. But today I did things the hard way and transcribed the first few minutes, so any errors are mine. 

President Oaks started with an example quoted by an earlier church leader about a good family who didn’t attend church, and why that is a concern:

Many years ago Elder Mark E. Peterson, a member of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles, began a talk with this hypothetical example: “Kenneth and his wife, Lucille, are good people, honest and upright. They don’t go to church, though. And they feel they can be good enough without it. They teach their children honesty and virtue. And they tell themselves that is about all the church would do for them. And, anyway, they insist that they need their weekends for family recreation, and church going would really get in their way.”

Today my message concerns such good and religious-minded people who have stopped attending or participating in their churches. When I say churches, I include synagogues, mosques, or other religious organizations. We are concerned that attendance at all of these is down significantly nationwide. If we cease valuing our churches for any reason, we threaten our personal spiritual life. And significant numbers separating themselves from God reduces His blessings to our nations.

I’ve been sensing that, despite a long decrease, we’ve had something of a turning back to God recently. That seems to happen when we go through hard times—like hurricanes and floods in the Gulf Coast region. We’ve been going through it with a pandemic and the associated problems caused by the response to it, shutting down schools and businesses. I might only be sensing a regional response, and we’re in the Bible belt where people pretty openly live their religion. But is the turning toward God enough? That has been a question I've had.

There are a great many calamities scheduled for the last days, and maybe we’re in the midst of those, or on the cusp of things to come. But this nation, under God, ought to be protected, right? Unless we do not turn to God.

And maybe one way we need to do that, to show God that we have turned to Him, is to worship Him—in church on the Sabbath.

But, what about those who say they don’t get anything from Church? President Oaks talks about that:

Some say that attending church meetings is not helping them. Some say, “I didn’t learn anything today”; or “No one was friendly to me”; or “I was offended.” Personal disappointment should never keep us from the doctrine of Christ, who taught us to serve, not to be served.

With this in mind, another member described the focus of his church attendance: “Years ago I changed my attitude about going to church. No longer do I go to church for my sake, but to think of others. I make a point of saying hello to people who sit alone, to welcome visitors, to volunteer for an assignment. In short, I go to church each week with the intent of being active, not passive, and making a positive difference in people’s lives.”

I think that emphasis on taking action is important. President Oaks quoted the prophet of my youth, President Spencer W. Kimball, who taught this:

We do not go to sabbath meetings to be entertained or even simply to be instructed. We go to worship the Lord. It is an individual responsibility. If the service is a failure to you, you have failed. No one can worship for you. You must do your own waiting upon the Lord.

I’ve been thinking about that word worship. It has been confusing sometimes, here in the South, where I learned the word is used for church “singing time.” You can of course worship by singing hymns of praise; in fact, I love to do that. But I think of the word as something much larger than that.

Here’s the dictionary definition of the verb, to start us off:

1.     To show religious devotion or reverence for; adore or venerate as a deity

2.     To have intense love or admiration for; adore or idolize

3.     To engage in worship, or perform an act of religious devotion; specifically, to offer prayers, attend church service, etc.1.

from Webster's New World Dictionary, ed. 1982

Jordan Peterson, who thinks about everything deeply, including things that have been so natural to me since childhood that I may not have thought about them that deeply. He has talked about what the word worship means. He starts with what it is not: 

Now, if you’re like me, or if you’re like me when I was a kid, because I haven’t thought about this for a long time, it was never really obvious to me why God would want to be worshipped. You know, you go to church, and you offer up your praise and thanks to God, and think, “Really, does that make a lot of sense?” It’s like, “Why in the world is that what He wants?” It’s almost like you’re kneeling down in front of an ancient Middle Eastern tyrannical emperor and vowing your submission. And that never sat well with me, and I suppose it doesn’t sit well with many people. And I think that’s because it’s not the proper way of conceptualizing it.

So what does it mean to worship? Peterson, in that clip, had been talking about Abraham, and how he changed, or reconstituted himself, becoming a new person. In Abraham’s case, that even included changing his name from Abram, meaning “exalted Father,” to Abraham, meaning “Father of a multitude,” which must have been somewhat frustrating to him as he and his wife neared the end of their first century childless before miraculously having a son. Anyway, Peterson says,

The worship is something like, you know, this is alluding back to my original proposition that it’s how you act that’s the issue. And the worship is the decision to enact the good in whatever form it is that you can conceptualize it, as well as trying to continually re-conceptualize the good in a manner that makes the good that you’re conceptualizing even that much better. Right? Because, when you start aiming, the probability that you’re going to be aiming in the right direction is very low. But hypothetically, as you aim, and as you practice, and as you learn, the target is going to shift in front of your eyes, and you’re going to be able to follow it every more clearly.

To enact the good—that’s an apt definition of worship—assuming you know what the good is. I believe he means ultimate good. I’ve heard him say elsewhere that what we conceptualize as ultimate good is what our God (or god) is to us.

There’s another place where Dr. Peterson talks about the word “sin.” It has an original meaning of something like “missing the mark,” using that archery aiming idea again.

What is it we’re aiming at? And missing, and learning with practice to aim at more accurately? Dr. Peterson goes on here to say,

I suppose it’s akin to the later Christian idea that it’s the imitation of Christ that’s the sacred duty of every Christian. And every human being, I suppose, insofar as that’s an archetypal idea. And the idea is something like, well, it’s the embodiment of the good that’s the issue. And it’s not your stated belief in the good.

We worship Christ by imitating the way He lived His life. If the whole world did that, we’d have people who are (this is Paul’s list from his letter to the I Corinthians 13):

·         Charitable.

·         Long-suffering.

·         Well behaved.

·         Selfless—thinking of others first.

·         Not easily provoked.

·         Thinking good thoughts.

·         Truthful.

·         Hopeful.

·         Believing (not cynical).

·         Enduring and faithful.

·      That’s in addition to the Ten Commandments, which lead us to honor God, family, life, property ownership, and truth. These are all very civilizing things worth aiming at.

We get something out of our worship of God; it transforms us into better human beings. Also, when we do that at church, instead of some vague and not very spiritually intensive nature hike or boat outing, we connect with others who are attempting the same aim. President Oaks said,

Church attendance can open our hearts and sanctify our souls. In a church we don’t just serve alone, or at our own choice or convenience. We usually serve in a team. In service we find heaven-sent opportunities to rise above the individualism of our age. Church-directed service helps us overcome the personal selfishness that can retard our spiritual growth.

One of the problems we have, after a generation or so of decreasing church attendance—i.e., decreasing worship at church—is an upcoming generation that doesn’t understand community service. Some do. But there’s a definite shortage of volunteers for PTOs, or for Scout troop leadership, or even professional society leadership. Why put work into something you’re not getting paid for? Because service to others is a form of worshipping God. We will worship something. And if it isn’t God, it will be something aimed much lower.

There are advantages for us in attending church as well. President Oaks says,

In church we associate with wonderful people striving to serve God. This reminds us that we are not alone in our religious activities. We all need associations with others. And church associations are some of the best we can experience, for us and our companions and children. Without those associations, especially between children and faithful parents, research shows increasing difficulty for parents to raise children in their faith.

At such a time as this, we are greatly in need of children raised with faith. Civilization depends on it. It may be that our liberty here in America depends on it. And I hope we’re not too late.

Bonus: I saw this on a friend’s Facebook post (originally attributed to Sharon Martin), shortly after I’d heard President Oaks’ talk. It’s a message coming to many minds today.