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[This is an excerpt from the first in my three-week Sunday School series on the topic of worship. Taught on 12/23/07. Click here for part one: Worship Is Worthship]

God’s Presence And God’s Glory

The Psalmist calls us to worship in Psalm 100, saying “come before Him,” “enter His gates,” and “[enter] His courts.” In worship, we come before God, into His presence.

And the worshiper comes into God’s presence longing to see God’s glory. Look at Moses’ example: Moses walked in God’s presence (speaking with God face to face as a friend, Ex. 33:11), and he desired to see God’s glory (Ex. 33:18). To tie this in with part one, to be glorious is to have exceedingly great worth, and God’s glory is the fullness of His magnificence, splendor, beauty, wonder, brilliance, and majesty.

The popular song by Third Day, Show Me Your Glory, puts it well: “Show me Your glory / Shine down Your presence / I want to see Your face.” This is our desire in worship; to experience God’s presence and to behold His glory. In fact, worship has always been and always will be about God’s glory and God’s presence.

We will trace this through Scripture in two subpoints:

1. God’s Glorious Presence Represented in the Old Testament Through Sacred Spaces
2. God’s Glorious Presence Revealed in the New Testament Through Jesus Christ

God’s Glorious Presence Represented in the Old Testament Through Sacred Spaces

[To first give credit where due, the term "sacred spaces" and the material within this first subpoint are largely derived from Tremper Longman III's Immanuel In Our Place: Seeing Christ In Israel's Worship, P&R Publishing 2001.]

There are two places in Scripture of perfect worship: the Garden of Eden and Heaven. These two bookends of human history are the places of perfect worship because they are the places where we find perfect communion with God and perfect, sinless, guiltless entry into God’s glorious presence.

The Garden Of Eden

We begin in paradise, with perfection. In the Garden of Eden, Adam had a special relationship with God, a direct connection in which God walked in the garden and communicated with man directly. Eden was perfect in its relationship between God and man; it was harmonious, personal, and intimate.

But then man sinned. Sinful man could not bear to commune with God, and so he hid. Then Adam and Eve were cast out of the Garden of Eden – that is, sin exiled them from perfect harmony with God – and sin became the rift between God and man. Sinful man could not bear to be in the presence of the perfect God, and as Rom. 3:23 says, sin is the rift between us and God’s glory.

The Patriarchal Altars

What became of worship after the fall? The next significant places of Old Testament worship were altars. The patriarchal altars built by Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, etc. were often erected at sites where they experienced God’s presence (e.g. Abraham (Gen. 12), Isaac (Gen. 26), Jacob (Gen. 35), Moses (Ex. 17)). The altar was a holy place because here God met with man and blessed him. When God made His presence known, He commanded an altar be built there (Ex. 20:24-26). Thus altars were built all over the land as places of God’s meeting and symbolic reminders of God’s presence.

The Tabernacle

After the Exodus, the places of worship were still always about God’s presence. Consider Mount Sinai, the mountain of God’s special presence. No one could approach the foot of the mountain, not even livestock, lest they die (Ex. 19: 21-25). They worshiped at the foot of the mountain, and Moses worshiped on the mountain. They worshiped there because it was the place of God’s presence.

Then God commanded the tabernacle be built. This portable structure was Israel’s place of worship because it was where God’s presence resided on the mercy seat (the lid of the ark of the covenant), in the Holy of Holies, in the Holy Place. Exodus 25:8 says that God’s tabernacle was the place of His presence (dwelling) among Israel.

The Temple

The tabernacle was the precursor to the temple in Jerusalem. The temple, built by King Solomon and later rebuilt after the exile, was God’s house, and it remained Israel’s place of worship for years to come.

See the trend? Even as the times, locations, and people changed, the underlying truth is that worship was always centered on the glorious presence of God.

God’s Glorious Presence Revealed in the New Testament Through Jesus Christ

But worship was transformed from the Old Testament to New Testament, through Jesus Christ. Let us take a look at Christ and his relationship to the temple, which was the standing place of worship at the time of Christ’s birth.

The Presence Of Christ Is The Presence Of God

When John 1:4 speaks of Jesus Christ, saying “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us,” the term used is actually the noun tabernacle turned into a verb: “The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us.” That is, Christ brought God’s presence to mankind in bodily form (as the tabernacle was God’s presence dwelling among Israel). In fact, his name, Immanuel, means “God with us.”

Christ’s Love For The Temple

As a child, the young Jesus loved the temple, recognizing it as his Father’s house (asking his worried parents in Luke 2, “Did you not know that I must be at my Father’s house [or about my Father's business]?”) Then, nearly the first (John 2) and nearly the last (Matthew 21) acts of Jesus’ earthly ministry were to cleanse the temple with a righteous zeal for God’s house.

Christ As The Temple

Christ made some claims about the temple that ultimately caused him to be reviled as a blasphemer. In Matt. 12:6, saying, “something greater than the temple is here,” Christ revealed that he was indeed God’s incarnate presence among men. In John 2, saying, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up,” Christ spoke of His own body, connecting Himself with the temple.

The Transformation Of The Temple

Upon Christ’s death on the cross, the curtain of the temple was torn in two (Matt. 27:51). This curtain had previously separated the Holy of Holies from the Holy Place. Because of Christ, there is no longer a separation or distinction there, no need for a high priest to atone for sin on man’s behalf (apart from Christ himself), and through Christ God was made accessible to man.

Implications on Worship

As we have been studying in Sunday School through the gospel of Luke, we know that the Kingdom of God has come with the coming of the King (Jesus Christ). In the presence of the King we may now worship, through Christ, without the need for the “sacred spaces” of the Old Testament. And we eagerly await Heaven, the eternal place of perfect worship, where we will see God as fully worthy and valuable, and we will be in His perfect presence, beholding the fullness of His glory.

Thus far we have seen that 1) worship is about worth, and 2) worship is about God’s glorious presence. To combine these ideas together, let us consider how much we value and treasure God’s glory and God’s presence. Let us, in our worship, be like Moses, appealing to the Lord crying “show me your glory!” Do we strive to walk with God as Moses did, or yearn for the perfect communion of Eden and long for the perfect worship of Heaven? Until then, on this side of the cross, as we even now remember the birth of Christ in this holiday season, how much should we value and treasure, wonder and marvel at the glorious supreme worth of the King, Jesus Christ, Immanuel, God with Us!

Next: How must we worship?

Late last year, the system of Huntington Beach modernized its sanitation system by issuing new standardized garbage cans which would:

1. Allow the garbage collection vehicles to automatically (mechanically) handle the garbage cans, and
2. Require trash to be pre-sorted by households into trash, recyclables, and yard vegetation

An added bonus to this system is that our neighborhood on trash day, because of its rows of multi-colored bins diligently arrayed along the curbside, looks to me like some utopian Whoville out of the little-known Dr. Seuss book Oh, the Things We Can Trash!

(not a real book.)

The Sum sisters would jump for joy, who for years have nagged at me to recycle. But before, we did recycle. You see, Huntington Beach was awesome because, unlike the other cities, we had people who sorted out our recyclables at the trash collection site!

So actually the city is just getting lazier. Now we have to sort our own trash instead of having it done for us, and the trashmen don’t even have to get out of the driver’s seat to dump our cans!

But my real complaint lies in the design of the standardized trash cans. Look at this:

As you can see, the wheels and handle are on the same side, the hind side. This design is frustratingly inefficient, as it:

1. Requires unnecessary effort to move (to get the original leverage to tilt it back on its hind wheels), and
2. Does not hold maximal volume due to its designed mobility method.

Actually, it wouldn’t be so frustrating if the solution weren’t as simple as moving the handle to the other side. Observe:

To tilt the trash can back, you need to apply that much torque to get it on its rear wheel far enough that you can push the can forward. Why not put the handle in the front, opposite the wheels?

Now, if you simply pull up from the handle the front side, you only need to get the front about 1 cm. off the ground and the trash can will be on its wheel. And you’ll be in the front, so you can pull it. In fact, you don’t have to pull it; it rolls naturally. As soon as the front side is off the ground, the rear wheel slides forward to compensate, and the trash can practically rolls forward itself! All you need to do is guide it.

Secondly, look at the effect on volume:

You can’t fill the can completely, or else upon tilting back, it will overflow… onto you!! You fool! You are the victim of bad design! You should have done this:

Good job! Now, since you don’t have to tilt the trash can more than 3 degrees in order to pull it, you can fill it to maximum capacity!

Huntington Beach, you have failed me! You can go take your new and “improved” trash cans and shove them in your landfill.

Happy New Year’s Day, everybody! I can’t believe it’s 2008. Last year seemed to fly by so quickly; I guess being out of school does that to you.

Lately I’ve been looking back to see what happened over the course of the last year, and it’s interesting to see what became of things. Here’s my year in review:

Spiritual Life

Worship and Music

We started an acappella group, Overflow, in January. We prepared two songs and performed twice, but then disbanded due to wavering commitment levels. I started a class for the younger students interested in guitar and worship leading, but scheduling difficulties and decreasing interest caused it to stop. Steph and I had the idea to start the FCBC Hymns Project, a home-brewed musical compilation CD, but that never came to fruition.

Despite all these failed plans, there were other major developments in this area. In 2007 I served extensively on the Sunday worship team, and in September by God’s grace was unofficially appointed as the worship coordinator for the English service. I also had the opportunity in June to lead all the bilingual worship sessions at Family Camp, which was an amazing and blessed experience. And despite the discontinued Worship Leading Class, I’ve been able to continue encouraging Steph and mentoring Jonathan individually, helping and watching them grow, which has been a huge blessing.

College Fellowship

ROCK started reading through the Bible together in January, but the commitment gradually faded out and stopped a few months later. But our ROCK-in (spring lock-in retreat) at Big Bear and our recent Winter Camp really served to grow us together as a family. This fall we also began meeting during the week in local, gender-specific accountability groups, which I think has been strengthening ROCK spiritually as well.

Personal Walk

God has been teaching me a lot. Last year my eyes have been open to see more of the greatness and fullness of the gospel on a daily basis, and to more fully recognize and enjoy and the glory of God in Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit. In October, I made the commitment to read through the entire Bible by the end of the year. I finished last night… the entire Bible in one quarter. I may blog about it later. My teaching responsibilities in ROCK and in Sunday School have helped develop diligence and discipline in my own personal Bible study. My prayer life has been slowly developing in depth and consistency, for which I praise God. Going to prayer meeting regularly has been a blessing, allowing me to see the heart of our pastors, particularly Dr. Lum.

Work Life

Programming

I got a couple new clients this year, and I am really thankful for the abundance of work the Lord has provided for me. I enjoy it most of the time, especially the freedom it provides to immerse myself in ministry part-time (and during the day). But despite that am still awaiting either a solid transition into photography or the call to seminary or full-time ministry, as the Lord wills.

Photography

Early last year I assisted shooting my first wedding, which was a great experience. It built in me a greater confidence that I can do this, and I do enjoy it. Since then, I have been secondary photographer at another wedding, shot two engagement sessions, a couple of business events, senior portraits, two birthday parties, two sets of family portraits, and other random things. The opportunities have been increasing as well, and I have some stuff lined up for me in 2008 I’m excited about! In 2007 I’ve been more diligently studying photography (although not in the classroom setting), and I’d like to thank Tim, Scott, and Matthew for their encouragement and inspiration.

Personal Life

Friends

Much of my social life is now just among church friends, mainly ROCKers since I work extensively with the college group. It’s been difficult to keep up with college friends outside of the Row. The Row has gathered a few times, to go to Knott’s Berry Farm, the O.C. Fair, hiking in Malibu, and other events. My departure from using AIM in the last 2 months has really killed the rest of my contact with old college friends. But there are others I’ve drawn closer to in the last year who I’m really thankful for: my accountability group, because it’s always encouraging to have fellowship with them; Pastor Tony, because I’m able to serve alongside him, learn from his example, and also meet and share anything personal or church-related with him; and also Steph (such an unlikely friend, seeing as I’ve known her since she was 3), for our like-mindedness and passion for the centrality of the gospel, the role of worship, love and care for FCBC, and mutual encouragement.

Family

Living back at home for a full year now has been great. The rent, room and board are the best deals. I’m really thankful for my parents and Doreen. I’m definitely closer to my parents now than I was in high school. The highlight of this year was, by far, the family reunion last September in Vancouver, Canada. Seeing my grandparents and all my aunts and uncles and cousins was a blast, but the best part was seeing Camille again (my favourite cousin from London) and sharing late nights and walks and talks together about life and faith and Christianity. Please pray for her salvation.

Well, 2007 was a blast. Since the end of high school, each year has honestly been better than the last. And at the end of each year, I’ve looked back and said to myself, “Well, you can’t beat that!”… but God has kept proving otherwise.

So let’s do it. 2008, here we come!

It’s a busy Christmas for the Szeto family. We’ve either had guests over or been guests elsewhere (or had other events to attend) for 6 evenings in a row. And for the next 4 days I’ll be at a retreat.

One of the new things we tried this year was to host an evening of Messiah Sing, in which friends and family came over to sing through selected passages of Handel’s Messiah, accompanied by live piano.

It was actually pretty fun to participate in, but I think to anyone listening it would have been pure torture. As mostly amateurs (with rusty sight-singing), we were all over the place and constantly getting lost. Never have the lyrics “all we like sheep have gone astray… have gone astray, have gone astray, gone astray” been more meaningfully sung. The neighbors probably thought we were slaughtering the Christmas goose. (Christmas goose? Who really has a Christmas goose these days?! With what foreign holiday lore hath I been so indoctrinated?)

Anyways, Handel was probably turning in his grave. Our rendition of his masterpiece would more appropriately be titled Handel’s Mess: Aiyah!!

Have a safe and blessed Christmas!

[This is an excerpt from the first in my three-week Sunday School series on the topic of worship. Taught on 12/23/07.]

As we will see over the course of this series, worship describes the entirety of the Christian’s relationship with God. Worship describes the way he views God, the way he interacts with God, the way he lives for God’s glory. Worship is the center of the Christian’s walk. So we must begin by asking the question: What is worship?

More Than Mere Respect

The dictionary does a terrible job defining worship: “to honor, revere, regard with great respect.”

But I honor my parents. I respect my pastor. Worship must mean more than just honor and respect. Let’s look at worship as defined (literally) by Scripture.

In Hebrew there are at least 7 different words for praise and at least 4 words for worship, each reflecting a different form of worship or having a different connotation. These are translated into English in many variations: to bless, to bow down, to sing praises, to shout, to kneel, to praise, to give thanks, etc.

But the word most frequently translated into worship in the English Bible is shachah. Shachah literally means “to depress,” or “to bow/prostrate oneself.” In fact, 1/3 of the time the Hebrew word is translated as bowed down and 2/3 of the time as worship. But there must be more to worship than just the literal act of bowing down and lowering oneself, right? Consider Psalm 95:6, “Come, let us worship (shachah) and bow down (karah).” Is that redundantly saying let us bow down and bow down?

So what are we missing from shachah? Connotation. Shachah, to worship, is a prostration… to render homage. And what is homage? It is to recognize or attest to something’s worth.

Worship Is About Worth

Worth! That’s the key. In fact, our word worship comes from old English weorðscipe, modernly worth-ship. As you know, the suffix -ship means something like “the condition of;” friendship is the condition of being friends, fellowship is the condition of being fellows (that is, being likeminded, as in The Fellowship of the Ring). In the same way, worthship then means “the condition of having worth (or the condition being worthy).” Therefore, to worship means to ascribe worth to something that is conditionally worthy.

Religion and God aside, this is the general definition of worship.

What Is It That You Value?

You are already a worshiper. God has wired us as humans to worship. But what we worship is the question.

Worship is about what we value, cherish, and treasure. “Worship is my response to what matters most to me.” (Rick Gamache) You see, worship happens naturally. Whatever matters to you (whether it is God, money, your job, your family, yourself, or something else), you have placed worth in that, ascribing to it worth… in worth-ship.

A revealing personal question: What brings you the most joy and pleasure? “Pleasure is the measure of our treasure.” (Jon Bloom) What gives you the most pleasure, what you strive after and seek, is what you value most, and what you consider worthy.

Rick Gamache delivered a sermon in which he challenges the listener thusly: follow the pathway of where you spend your energy, money, resources, time, and affections, to a throne. What’s the god on that throne?

We Must Worship That Which Is Truly Worthy

Now, how worthy is that god, really? You see, we can only worship something that has intrinsic worth. If we worship anything that does not have true eternal worth (animals, rocks, trees, idols, grades, jobs, money, loved ones, ourselves), then our worship is false, vain, futile. If I place value/worth in a piece of trash, that’s foolish. We must be careful to ascribe worth only to that which is worthy. On the flip side, to say a bar of gold is worth $0.02 would also be foolish. We must take care to correctly ascribe worth to and worship that which is truly worthy.

And we bring it back to God here. The only thing with true worth, the only Being intrinsically and eternally worthy, is God. God is the only appropriate object of worship because He has supreme infinite worth. In my opinion, the central, pivotal line of Tim Hughes’ contemporary worship hit, “Here I Am to Worship,” is the line “You’re altogether worthy.” Because God is worthy, because He has true worth, he deserves all worship.

Worshiping God as worthy places Him rightly on the throne He deserves. When we say that we exist to worship, we mean that we exist to ascribe worth to God’s glory. Worship is primarily and necessarily about worth. Worship is worthship.

Next: Worship Is About God’s Glorious Presence

1) Christian thoughts

One reason I wanted to start the blog up again is because I wanted a place to lay out my thoughts and just to share what I’ve been thinking about spiritually. For those of you who don’t know, I work with the college group (ROCK) at my church, in the teaching rotations for both at Friday night Bible studies and in Sunday school. Many times I’ve considered posting my lessons or outlines online, hoping that they’d be good resources as well as encouragements to those who read it. And now, I will. I also take care of the musical aspect of our English worship service on Sundays, so I’ll probably frequently post thoughts about Christian worship as well.

2) Creative stuff

I’ll post some of my photography here for sure. And maybe other creative things akin to what my old friends know about… like original music/compositions, or the average face experiment.

3) Crazy ideas

I’m full of random zany ideas and stuff, like… the infamous DTR scale. Or my old college pet, Billy George the overgrown onion (who I eventually consumed). If you don’t think I’m weird yet, you’ll know it for sure within a few weeks.

You will also find that I usually like to try to alliterate my points.

Year 2008: I’m bringing the blog back!

In high school, I kept a small insignificant weblog in my extended AIM subprofile. During college, I began a blog about my undergrad adventures, which was full of my crazy (usually), witty (sometimes), and intellectual (rarely) ideas and opinions about everything. People would always let me know it was pretty entertaining, which encouraged me to keep writing.

After graduation, the blog died away, as I no longer had as much of a life as I had had in school (not that I really had a life there, either). What took its place, during the beginnings of my ongoing venture into photography as a hobby and potential career, were my Xanga and my photoblog. Yeah, I’ve stopped posting there for a few months now (mainly out of laziness), but I think part of the reason is that I do miss all of the writing and thinking and debating and analyzing and entertaining and humor and all the good stuff of my former blog.

It’s still fun to go back and read some of those old posts… I’d link to them now, but that long-abandoned site is now overgrown with the suffocating vines of blogspam and the rusting decay of inefficient database structures (evidence of my inexperience in my early days of programming). But maybe we’ll revisit those posts sometime soon.

Anyhow, welcome to the beginning of a new era. Hopefully I’ll keep this consistent. And I’ll post more photos again. Prepare for fun times!

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- James