Voices In My Head Podcast Episode #272: A History of Christian Worship Part One - Jewish Roots

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Welcome to Voices in My Head, the official podcast of me, Rick Lee James. I'm a recording artist, a singer-songwriter, an author, a worship leader, and an ordained minister in the Church of the Nazarene. The Voices in My Head podcast is your source for discussions on music, literature, movies, pop culture, theology, and more. Now sit back, relax, and listen to the latest episode of the Voices in My Head podcast. And don't forget to let the voices voices in your head be heard by following me on Twitter @RickLeeJames and sharing your thoughts about today's show.

Welcome back to Voices in My Head. As always, I am your host, Rick Lee James, and I'm excited about this week's episode and some upcoming episodes that are connected to it. This is the first of what I believe is going to be a 10-part study on the history of Christian worship. I don't know if many of you had been listening around the time I was doing the work, but for the better part of I don't know, the end of last year and the first part of this year, I was super busy, super stressed out, super tired, but it was in a good way because I had been hired by the Church of the Nazarene for a site that they have called the Discipleship Place, which helps to train pastors and lay leaders and people who are doing the work of ministry but haven't been able to go to a full regular university. To study. And so it's for the enrichment and study of others. And I was asked to write a history of Christian worship, which was a huge, daunting, but a welcome challenge. In the midst of doing that, I was recording an album, I was finishing writing songs for the new album, I was traveling, still doing a lot of touring, I was still doing my job at church. I was— I just had a lot of things going on. And so I thought eventually when I finish the work, I would try to make the research that I had done into a series of podcasts for those of you who would be interested. And I know I have a lot of worship pastors and pastors and people who are in various kinds of ministry that listen to the show. And so for those of you who are interested in this, I hope that this will be something very beneficial. And for those of you that may not even think you have an interest, you may find this very enlightening, I hope. I did a lot of research. I went and leaned heavily on the work of Dr. William Willimon, who has been a guest on this show and a friend of the show. And he has just some wonderful books. And so many people that have, have written incredible histories of Christian worship, and I used the wisdom of people much wiser than I am to try to compile a somewhat thorough but not completely thorough, obviously, history of Christian worship. I think you're going to be surprised along the way as we dive into this that it's not really about music. And one of the great dangers that we've fallen into is that we have made worship into a word meaning music.

And we're—

and I'm going to get into that right in the beginning of this show. So if you're wondering about it, um, that's where this all came from. And so I'm delighted to be able to share sort of a podcast version of the research that I did for The Discipleship Place, which is a wonderful site if you're looking for more training. I am actually quite honored to have been asked to do this, and I want to thank them. John Comstock, who was the one that asked me, who runs the site and sort of manages and directs everything, I want to thank him for giving me the opportunity. It was one of the hardest challenges that I've ever had, but it was a worthy challenge, I think, and I'm very grateful for the task. So with that being said, let's dive into this. Session 1, Week 1: The History of Christian Worship. And we're going to get into that, and we're going to start with a history of Christian worship and its Jewish roots. So if you were to ask 50 different worship leaders to give you a definition of worship, it is likely that you would get 50 different definitions of what worship is. Some might say that worship is to acknowledge the worthship of God, to acknowledge God's worthiness. Some might say that worship is about declaring the praises of God Almighty. Some might say that worship is singing to the Lord. And still others might say that worship is lifting our hearts to God in prayer. And the fact is that none of these answers are wrong, and really all of these answers are correct, but none of them fully expresses the depth of what worship is. Maybe human words can't adequately do that. I don't know. But what we can do is take a look at the ways that Christianity has tried to express what worship is over the centuries. When we talk about worship, and when I talk about worship throughout this series of podcasts, I want to be very specific about what the word worship means. When I talk about worship in these lessons, I'm talking about Christian corporate worship. So by Christian worship— and excuse me if this is too elementary for some of you, but I just need to lay the groundwork— by Christian worship, I mean worship that is focused on God the Father, revealed to us in Jesus Christ the Son by the power of the Holy Spirit. That's what makes it Christian. By corporate worship, I mean worship that is shared by members of a group. Christian worship is intensely personal, but it is by no means private. So when we participate in corporate worship, Christian worship, we are doing so together with the entire body of Christ. Christian worship is a corporate activity. Now, the Book of Common Prayer tells us that in corporate worship we unite ourselves with others to acknowledge the holiness of God to hear God's Word, to offer prayer, and to celebrate the sacraments. So with this in mind, we're gonna begin this study of the history of corporate Christian worship. And I want to read that to you again. That's from the Book of Common Prayer's Catechism. It says, in corporate worship, we unite ourselves with others to acknowledge the holiness of God, to hear God's Word, to offer prayer, and to celebrate the sacraments. That is the Book of Common Prayer's definition of corporate worship. So let's begin with the Jewish heritage of worship. Jesus was a Jew. I don't think that's a surprise to any of us. The Jewish faith came into the world through 2,000 years of nomadic wandering, slavery, exile, and occupation by a foreign empire. This was the Jewish faith that Jesus was born into. While Christianity dramatically transformed the meanings behind many of the rituals of Judaism, Christian worship was to a great extent built upon the foundation of Jewish worship. So it's important that we study some of the aspects of Jewish worship. Let's start with the tabernacle. Because the nomadic origins of the faith, Moses— excuse me, because of the nomadic origins of the faith, Moses was instructed by Yahweh to erect a portable sanctuary in the wilderness. This sanctuary was called a Tabernacle, a portable sanctuary. The Tabernacle contained the Ark of the Covenant and the throne of God, also known as the Mercy Seat. This is where Yahweh tabernacled. Another word for tabernacled is tented. It is where Yahweh tented or tabernacled with Israel in the wilderness. The interior of this Tabernacle, this tent, it reflected different degrees of access to the Holy One. The mercy seat sat above the ark in the center of the Holy of Holies. A veil separated the Holy of Holies from the Most Holy Place, and then came the court where public sacrifices were offered, then the priestly dwellings, and then the main encampment. The people were able to access the court, but only the priests could enter the Holy Place. Only the high priest could enter the Holy of Holies. And then only once a year. From the very beginning, Judaism was serious about its worship, and we should be too. Next, we have the Temple, because eventually, as the Jewish nation was established, a more permanent location of worship was erected. This place, this more permanent tabernacle, was the Temple. The Temple was based on the architectural space of the tabernacle, and it became the place where Israel drew near for encounters with with the divine. This place became so identified with the worship of God that 3 successive temples were built on the exact same site in Jerusalem. There was Solomon's Temple, Zerubbabel's Temple, and the temple Jesus would have known, Herod's Temple, from the Herod family. You can learn more about them in J.R. Forasteris' excellent book Empathy for the Devil. By the way, J.R. is a good buddy and is a great author, and that book is amazing, so check that book out. That's just a side note. There's lot in there about the Herod family, uh, not just one person, but there was several, several Herods. We wouldn't know that just by reading the New Testament alone. Anyway, let's move on. That's the temple that Jesus would have known. Now the prophet Isaiah gives us an idea of what worship in the temple was like, and we see that in Isaiah 6:1-8. We can get a feel for the experience of worship as a Jew within the temple. In that passage, it's a very Well-known passage to many of us. It says, in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord high and exalted, seated on a throne, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphim, each with six wings. With two wings they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty! The whole earth is full of His glory. At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook, and the temple was filled with smoke. "Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips! And my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty!" Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for." Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I; send me." While it is questionable that this was the pattern for full Christian worship, the pattern we see here became known as the Isaiah motif. For Christian worship. The progression of this motif is as follows: 5 different progressions. The first, number 1, adoration: Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. That's a hymn that we still sing today. Page number 2 in the Church of the Nazarene hymnal, Sing to the Lord, I believe, just off the top of my head.

2.

Confession. "Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined, for I am a man of unclean lips." That is an essential part, but often neglected part of our worship, by the way—confession. 3. Forgiveness. Your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for. The proclamation of forgiveness is something that is so desperately needed, as needed as confession. The fourth progression: proclamation, "I heard the voice of the Lord saying..." And the fifth progression: dedication, "Here am I, send me." Adoration, confession, forgiveness, proclamation, and dedication. If we had those in our worship, well, I don't know if it's complete, but it's much more complete than I think a lot of our worship is. When sacrifices were offered in the Jerusalem Temple, priests presided over them. Before the sacrifices were made, the worshipers would cleanse themselves and prepare a perfect animal to be slaughtered. This animal was the people's freely given gift to the God who is the giver of all gifts. The animal was then butchered and certain parts were burned upon the altar of sacrifice. Lastly, the priests and the people shared together in a feast upon the animal's flesh. This feast was the central act of worship, a meal shared together by humans and God. Well, next we have the synagogue. With the destruction of the temple in 587 BC and the dispersal of the Jewish people, there was a need for a new form of community life and worship. Although it's not mentioned in the Old Testament, the most common hypothesis is that the synagogue gatherings began as a way of meeting this need for community and worship. The synagogue comes from the Greek word sunagogue, which means gathering place, congregation, or meeting. So the synagogue was a gathering place. The synagogue was also a school for the study of scripture, as well as a house of worship on the Sabbath day. So worship and education went together in this school, this gathering, this congregation. In the synagogue, Jews began to see the study of scripture and the offering of prayer as the heart of worship, as opposed to the offering of animals for sacrifice. So in the synagogue, both education and worship became tightly linked together, and when the last temple was destroyed in AD 70, the synagogue became the main religious institution. In contrast to worship in both the Tabernacle and the Temple, services in the synagogue were mostly led by laymen, not priests. The Gospels show us that Jesus frequented the synagogue. The Mishnah lists 5 liturgical actions which would take place in the synagogue as long as a quorum of 10 male adults was present. First, there was the recitation of the Shema, the Shema being, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength." You can find that in Deuteronomy 6:4-9 if you want to read more. The second, the tefillah prayer. These prayers were prayed 3 times a day You can find them in Psalm 55:17, Daniel 6:10, and Acts 3:1 and Acts 10:3 and verse 30. Then there was the priestly blessing. You can find this in Numbers 6:24-26. "The Lord bless you and keep you." Then there were readings from the Torah and the prophets. The Lectio Continua, the entire Torah, was read once every 3 years. So it was sort of the beginnings of the Revised Common Lectionary that we use today. And then And any visiting rabbi could be invited to interpret the Torah, which is what we see when Jesus visits the temple. And then Luke records the uproar that Jesus caused in the synagogue with his sermon. We find this in Luke chapter 4:16-27, thus proving that preaching has always been a risky activity. And the Kaddish, which is a prayer of praise to God, It's read at the end of the readings to praise God who had just spoken to them. Similarities to the Lord's Prayer are obvious in many Kaddish prayers, and Jesus would have been very familiar with them. And the Psalms were also a vital part of worship in the synagogue, but there is some dispute as to how early they began being used. Many scholars believe that the Psalms were sung in Israel's worship from very early on, while others believe that the Psalms were added to the liturgy much later, maybe even after Christian began using them. And by the way, in case you were interested, you can find my concert video on Amazon Prime called Basement Psalms Live. If you're a subscriber to Amazon Prime, you can watch the whole concert for free. Those are my interpretations of 10 of the Psalms from the Book of Psalms with my own musical interpretation. Basement Psalms Live, you can also buy the CD, you can listen to it on Amazon Music, iTunes Music, anywhere. Just a side note. Anyway, whatever the case, the Psalms became the hymn book not only for Israel, but for the Christian church as well. Jesus and the disciples were absolutely bathed in the Psalms, as is evidenced by Jesus quoting from Psalm 22 while he was dying on the cross, where he prayed, or maybe even sang, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" A person who can pray the Psalms by heart in their greatest moments of distress is a person who has lived with them on a regular basis. And I totally believe Jesus lived with them. In the Gospels, we see that Jesus frequently visited both the synagogues and the Temple of Herod. As an infant, Jesus was brought to the Temple to be consecrated to the Lord. As a boy, he was brought to the temple during Passover. Jesus was also there for the Feast of Tabernacles and for Hanukkah. Even his prophetic enactment of driving out the money changers took place in the context of the temple. We also see Peter, Paul, John, and the early Christians in the temple and the synagogue throughout the book of Acts. Eventually Christians abandoned worship in the temple and the synagogue, but the synagogue patterns would have a lasting effect on our worship. By the end of its first century, the Christians had a liturgy called the Synaxis, which was derived directly from synagogue worship. The Synaxis, or service of the word, was the earliest form of Christian worship, and it had the following elements. The Synaxis, which was in AD 150-200, it had a greeting by the president first, second readings and psalms, 3rd, a sermon. 4th, the dismissal of the unbaptized, because those who were not baptized could not stay for the rest of the service. 5th, there were prayers of the church. 6th, the peace. And 7th, the dismissal. See, the early church had no concept of evangelism like we have, giving an altar call during the service. Evangelism was something that was done outside of the church. Worship was for those who were followers of Jesus. Interesting side fact. Then we have the dinner table. The final place of Jewish worship was the dinner table. For the Jews, every meal had a religious significance. It is at the table where enemies are made into friends. We can see allusions to this friend-making in Psalm 23: "You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies." In the Gospels, we see Jesus often at the table with tax collectors and the ritually unclean. And by the way, the ritually unclean people were known as sinners. In Jesus' day, this would have been a public declaration of solidarity with those who were outcasts. This would have been a scandalous activity. I want to— I want you to hear that again. In the Gospels, we see Jesus at the table with sinners as a declaration of solidarity. He's at the table with the outcasts. He's at the table with the enemy. To this day, in feasts like the Passover—the most important Jewish feast, by the way—and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, participants reenact, celebrate, and remember God's mighty acts of deliverance. At every Sabbath meal, candles are lit All are seated, a cup of wine is poured, and a kedush like the one below is recited: "Blessed art thou, Lord our God, King of the universe, who creates the fruit of the vine." Luke may have very well had a kedush blessing in mind when he says of Jesus: "After taking the cup, he gave thanks, and said, 'Take this and divide it among you.'" For I tell you, I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes. In Jesus' day, small family-like domestic fellowship groups of family and friends would meet for meals and share religious conversations. These meals were called Shabbat. At the close of Shabbat, a prayer would be said over a final cup of wine. We believe this is what Paul called the cup of blessing. During this final prayer, the Father holds the cup in both hands and lifts it. This is probably the source of what would become the Eucharistic prayer of thanksgiving in Christian worship. While Christians broke with their Jewish roots and radically reinterpreted the purpose and theology of Jewish worship, all early believers still held closely to their inherited forms of worship. 1. The Christian service of the word, the Synaxis, came directly from the synagogue. 2. The church year around which we order our time from Advent to Pentecost came from the Jewish calendar. 3. The Book of Psalms was the Christian hymn book. 4. The use of water, oil, bread, and wine in our rituals are obviously taken from Jewish rites. Even the Lord's Supper, the Eucharist, the great Thanksgiving, was directly adapted from Jewish table fellowship. If the God we worship is truly the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, then these rich expressions of our Jewish past should have a welcome place in our worship today. For the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is the God we see revealed in our Lord Rabbi Jesus. Well, that's the end of Part 1. I want you to think about this week: what are some of the ways that you can see the early Jewish and Christian influences in your church's worship today? Of these things that I've listed tonight, as I've described early Jewish and early Christian worship, actually, I should say later Jewish and early Christian worship. But I want you to think about maybe what things are missing today. Are there things in your service that you heard about here that the early Christians made an essential part of their worship that we don't see in our worship today? Are there parts that we do that maybe we need to emphasize more? Are there parts that we do that maybe we need to emphasize less? Well, interesting questions to ponder, and I hope you'll stick with me for the next 9 sessions as we get together to study. It may not be in order on the podcast. I may not go consecutive because I am gonna have some guests in between, and I want to continue those good conversations that we're having with guests here on Voices in My Head. Also, the new album is hopefully going to be out soon, and so I know I'll have an episode dedicated to that in the coming days, but the plan is to do this 10-part study of the history of Christian worship. I hope you find it beneficial. I hope it can create some conversation together in this community. As always, feel fee— feel free— feel fee, I said, as though I was a giant fee-fi-fo-fum. Anyway, feel free to reach out to me on Twitter @RickLeeJames or to reach out to me on Facebook, facebook.com/RickLeeJames. Just look up Rick Lee James, go to my artist page, click like. That helps a lot. Go to Voices in My Head podcast cast. You'll find that on Facebook as well. Click join the community. Let's have good conversations together. I'd love to be in communication. And I think that's about all I have this week. Usually I say thank you for being the voices in my head to whichever guest I have, but I guess I was the guest this week. And the topic was the history of Christian worship, part 1, the Christian worship and its Jewish roots. Hope you enjoyed it. Talk to you next time. Thanks for listening to Voices in My Head.

Thank you for joining me here this week on the Voices in My Head podcast. I hope you'll visit me on my website at rickleejames.com, follow me on Twitter @RickLeeJames, like my artist page on Facebook at facebook.com/rickleejames, and keep up to date on what I'm writing at my author page on amazon.com. Make sure to follow my calendar on the website, and if you would like to have me come to your town to do a concert, a speaking engagement, or a book event, you can book me through my website by clicking on the link for Pare Booking Agency. That's P-A-R-E Booking. And finally, it would mean the world to me if you were to leave me a review of this podcast on iTunes. The more positive reviews that we receive, the more visible this podcast is on the internet. And now the benediction.

May the God of peace, who raised Christ from the dead, strengthen your inner being for every good work.

And may the blessing of God Almighty, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, rest upon you and dwell within you this day and forevermore. Amen.