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Have you ever heard things like this: I do not have to go to church; I can worship just as well at home? Possibly, the person is right. We can worship just as well at home, on a river, on a mountain, in the wood, in the backyard, or in a recliner, … as in a public Worship Service.
However, worship is not just an “alone” experience. Worship includes private devotion and public devotion. That I can worship just as well by myself as with a group is not the point. The point is that we receive a quality of worship when alone and another quality of worship when with other persons. I need the experience of private worship; I need the experience of communal worship.
Margaret Guenther, in Holy Listening, writes, “To know in truth … is to allow one’s self to be known. This is the truth that became incarnate in Jesus Christ, a truth known not in abstraction, but in relationship.” Truth is relational, not simply an abstraction, an idea, a concept, or a theory. In Truth, I come to be known and to know myself. Therefore, communal worship is a central locus of this being known and knowing.
The Christian Gospel puts Truth in a relational context. The St. John Gospel 1.16-18 reads: Because of all that the Son is, we have been given one blessing after another. The Law was given by Moses, but Jesus Christ brought us undeserved kindness and truth. No one has ever seen God. The only Son, who is truly God and is closest to the Father, has shown us what God is like. (CEV) Likewise, the St. John Gospel 14.6 reads: "I am the way, the truth, and the life!" (CEV) That the fullness of God is manifested in the incarnation of the Word, of Christ, indicates that Truth is incarnationally relational, or embodied in relationship to and with others.
We cannot experience Truth in its fullness, which entails reciprocity and relationship, as only a private experience. Put simply, we cannot be faithful to Truth, or Truth-Full, alone, apart from spiritual community. And what we desperately need is not a relationship with theory and abstraction, regardless of how these fascinate us and pleasure our reason. We need a Truth wherein we know and allow ourselves to be known.
Spiritual Exercise
1. Which do you find the greater challenge, private devotion or public devotion? Explain.
2. Are you in a spiritual community whereby you are becoming known by other persons? Why? Why not?
3. Is the spiritual community you participate in a safe place for persons to explore, ask questions, share answers, grow to know others intimately, and become known intimately? Explain your answer.
Prayer
Thank you for those persons in my life whom I can open my mind and heart to, knowing that, as with me, Truth is a journey, not simply an affirmation. Amen.
Brian's book of mystical love poetry, An Ache for Union, can be ordered through major bookdealers.
Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors
The People of the
United Methodist Church
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