Living On The Altar: Worship In Community

Psalm 133:1 encourages, “how good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!” What a beautiful thing – something we were created for – to worship the One we love as the body and bride of Christ. When I consider “worship in community”, I picture moments of freedom where dancing, singing, and shouting break out in a room as praise erupts and sweet incense rises – when Jesus chooses to meet us with His manifest presence and encounter us as we allow the expression of our adoration to come out in song, in dance, in joy erupting.  

These moments are so precious. 

An invitation: “Press deeper, Hope.” Different memories flood my head – difficult conversations with ones I love, tearful confessions to a friend or mentor when I have fallen short again and again, moments where anger or bitterness have risen up and I’ve surrendered to the Spirit’s prompting to lay it down. Deeper: a night I really needed rest, but knew a friend in the hospital needed a visit, hosting friends for a meal when money is tight and food is short, being vulnerable with my own needs and wounds, letting someone in even when it’s hard, asking for help when it’s embarrassing, waiting on Him and choosing to love hard and real in a world that wants to isolate and hide us away. 

A life laid down, a living sacrifice, a broken and contrite spirit – THIS is my worship. He isn’t only after my song – He is after my heart; He wants my everything. 

The very first time the word worship appears in Scripture is not to describe song or music; rather when a father is asked to lay down his son – the very promise he had waited for his whole life. God asked for everything – a son laid out on the altar, and a father’s heart completely surrendered – a surrender that could come only from a knowing, a trust, and a love for the One who asks for it all. 

Oh, is it ever beautiful when we gather as a city and sing Him our praises. How pleasing and delightful it is to gather with the Bride of Christ and lift His name, honour Him in song, in dance, in unity. Let us not leave these spaces unchanged and let not our songs be the confines of our worship. As we behold Him, we become more like Him. Let these times of beholding be in spirit and in truth – radically transformative. Let our lives be laid out on the altar “as living sacrifice[s], pleasing and acceptable to Him.” Let sin not have a hold; where there has been hiddenness, let there be light! Let us worship with our lives just as we do with our words and song. Let us not be among those addressed in Isaiah 1 – with worship and festivals that are detestable to Him. Let rather our songs spring from hearts fully surrendered, formed in the Secret Place by a deep knowing of our lover, and be lifted to join in the song of the Bride, the praises of His body.

Let our worship also be known in our relationships, in our interactions, in our service, in our unreserved YES to Jesus. This YES – a life laid down, the surrendering of the very promise we have waited our entire lives for on the altar, a broken and contrite spirit, sin being brought to the light -can only come from a true knowing of Jesus – a silent devotion, a deep adoration, a covenant between lovers. From this place alone can we give our full yes to Him and a full yes to community. How beautiful it is to join together in song, and how beautiful it is to join together in carrying one another’s burdens, in lifting one another in prayer just as we lift our voices in song, in laying our lives down for one another. Let this be our worship – pleasing and acceptable to the One we adore. Let us be known by our love – for Him, for one another. To me, THIS is true worship in community. Does He have your yes? I promise you He’s worth it.