Question: Reenacting or Responding?

Worship is a verb. Worship is an exclamation point. Worship in an attitude. Worship can be a question?

Recently I found myself rehearsing a particular worship song over and over for an event. The song, entitled “Healer” is one of my favorites, and yet as I sang it, I found myself asking each line as a question rather than making a bunch of statements. Here are the lyrics with the commas replaced by question marks. 

You hold my every moment? You calm my raging seas? You walk with me through fire? You heal all my disease?

Ever feel that way? I think even faith expressed in questions points to the idea that “God is.” My motive is to always sing, pray, confess, and worship… with honesty to God. There’s often benefit in questioning what we do and say in worship, and why. As we move towards Palm Sunday, the tradition is, in many churches, to wave a little palm branch around, sorta re-enacting the biblical story of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. I’m always behind the piano when this takes place, and besides the cuteness of kids waving their branches, the sight of a few adults halfheartedly waving a small branch seemed more weird than worshipful. Especially given the fact that scripture tells us that before that same crowd could tweet #guesswhoIseeonadonkey #hosanna, the same people are screaming at the top of their lungs “Crucify Him!”

What if we celebrated Easter without the dazzle of pageantry and spectacle but rich in authentic response to the Resurrection? What if we started a new tradition and instead of one Sunday of raised hands holding palm branches, we had 51 Sundays with arms raised in new expressions of worship and surrender? What if we added to our bold proclamations of “How Great is Our God,” humble questions asking “How Great is Our God?” What if we transformed our 40 Lenten days of “Giving up Something” for an entire new lifestyle of denying ourselves, taking up our cross and following Him all 356 days of the year?

I pray that this Easter season your questions lead you to reflect on Jesus, and the cross leads you to respond past Hosannas to Hallelujahs!

There’s no place like HOPE,

Stefan