Meditations on Worship by Matt and Heather Whitney – June 2013

I recently read a book by Austrian psychoanalyst Viktor Frankl called Man’s Search For Meaning. Drawing from his experiences as a prisoner for three years in Nazi concentration camps, Frankl developed a psychotherapy method that posited the human psyche’s primary motivator is not pleasure (Freud), nor seeking of power (Adler), but finding meaning in one’s life. Frankl found that if one could determine a meaning or purpose to one’s suffering, they were able to endure it with a much higher degree of dignity and purpose. Frankl suggests that there is not necessarily a universal meaning of life, but rather that each of us must ask what life demands of us individually, in our own contexts. That is meaning and purpose.

In my work (and what I define as work is all those tasks and actions that we incorporate as everyday life – be they job, employment, relationship, family), I strive to do all these things with purpose while seeking meaning. I do believe in a Creator God that made the material Earth and made from its materials us as humans, and that we are made (called) to co-create and flourish. Creation is the great purpose of each of our lives. Each of us individually is made to create in the singularity of our own circumstances and experiences, whether it be creating relationship, scientific inquiry, building houses, cooking, gardening. Whatever it is you do and whatever resources are at your disposal, you are made with purpose to observe the raw materials of your life and to make something of them.

I approach live painting in the context of meaning and purpose. The meaning – that being the image painted – stems from the places in which I’ve considered God and Creation in my life. Typically for me this manifests in walking. All my facilities and senses, mind and body, are at work, observing around me and noticing. Occasionally I bring a camera and document some of the things I notice – a crack in the sidewalk, a spiderweb on a fence, strange stickers on street signs, things left on the curb for freecycling. They have meaning to me because I saw them and found them interesting. A simple thing like a crack in the sidewalk can become one of the infinite glimpses of glory if one stops to consider such things.

The purpose of the live painting is simply one of creation. It is an action, a performance, a small gesticulation of creation in which the meanings we bring, the worship we offer, and our time together are worked out into materials of paint. My hope is that the painting acts as something of a signpost for worship – bringing our everyday meanings into the present purpose of worship, while pointing us outward back into the world, where I believe God seeks us as well. In everything I am doing, I am attempting to connect the experience of Sunday morning corporate worship with the worship that we perform in our everyday lives.

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. John 1:14 

The Word was there in the beginning, and God made this Word into the flesh of the being of Jesus. Doesn’t this mean that the Word is inherently material? We similarly seek the Word in the materials around us and in the things we create. I truly believe in this Word of God, as opposed to mere words about God. In all that I do I seek traces of the Word of God in things like the weeds growing through cracks in the sidewalk (the way Madeline L’Engle in her book Walking on Water understands the created world as cosmos as opposed to chaos). I bring these delicate, fragile readings and meaning of the Word with me to church on Sunday, where we offer thanks to God for them, and thus weave together a fuller sense of purpose for each of our lives.

Worship Through Music by Heather Whitney

It seems appropriate to quote Dallas Willard this month. In a 2005 interview with John Ortberg he said “Worship is the intentional turning of the mind to God and ascribing to God all of the greatness and goodness and glory that belongs to him. You can do that perfectly silently; you can do that dancing with joy; you can do that singing great hymns; you can do it sitting with a friend, holding a hand, praying about your life together.”

What a beautiful idea. Worship is a way of living; of constantly reorienting oneself to be present before God and acknowledge his presence with us. It’s about paying attention. I think we are so blessed to live in such a stunning corner of the world; mountains, water, spring sunshine, and cherry blossoms seem impossible to ignore, and God is present in all of these.

When we engage in corporate worship, we have the privilege of turning our minds to God together. Music is definitely one of the most powerful mediums through which I am able to personally reorient myself to God. I find that there is a dramatic difference between just singing, and singing with meaning. It’s easy to go through the motions and to be inattentive to the meaning of the words we sing. There can be so much depth in the music and the notes. But the beauty of the texts can lead us into a deeper experience with God if we pay attention; just as the beauty of the world can lead us into a deeper appreciation of God’s creation, and the beautiful hearts of the people in our community can lead us into a deeper understanding of God’s heart. And because each of us comes to church with a unique set of experiences, feelings, gifts, and ideas, our interpretations of the texts will be different and our corporate worship will be richer for it.

So, to me, worship is about being present. When I am present to the music we are singing; the text, the notes, the sound of our many voices rising together to glorify our God, my sense of wonder is increased. And it is that wonder that helps me enter the world with a mind and heart turned to the Word of God in the world.