Life Lessons from Jesus
Ep5 The Purpose of Worship
Father Len explores the history of worship and reveals that all worship and its purpose come from the Bible.
Highlights, Ideas, and Wisdom
- The word liturgy means worship or how to worship.
- We worship not to get something, but to become aware of something.
- We worship and go to church to remember many things. The past, the present as it truly is, who we’re meant to be and what we’re supposed to become.
- God tells us in the book of Genesis to keep the Sabbath, gather together as a community, and remember what it means to be a true human being.
- Worship is not about keeping the status quo, but about remembering to become something.
- Liturgy is a judge and a criterion on how we’re supposed to order our lives.
- We go to Mass to see the future. The whole Mass is a liturgy of heaven and getting us ready for heaven.
- “Today, more than ever, we need a framework for our lives. A pattern of holidays and rotating seasons. Without it, we’re like somebody in a speedboat over a trackless sea with nothing to indicate where we are. You’re moving fast, but you have no way of noticing what the changes are.” – Alan Toffler, author of “Future Shock”
- God gives us symbols in the Bible as a way to study and understand the Bible and to use in worship and prayer to help us drink in wisdom and put the Bible into action.
- We don’t worship symbols. We use symbols to worship God.
- All worship comes from the Bible.
- The Eucharist began before any of the Bible was written. The Eucharist didn’t rise in the Bible, the Bible rose from the Eucharist.
- There’s a difference between being a spectator and biblical worship. Worship is not supposed to be entertaining.
- The Eucharist is not about entertainment. It’s about conversion.
- Liturgy is supposed to subvert the way the world works. Liturgy is supposed to subvert the way we think. Liturgy is about how we conquer the world by sacrificing ourselves in love for other people.
- Many people in the United States confuse worship and entertainment. Worship is supposed to give us a vision of the kingdom of God, the order of heaven.
- Liturgies are commitment ceremonies. The Eucharist is us making a commitment to be like Christ and sacrifice ourselves in love for other people.
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