What means "Worship"?
Reading this morning in Alma 22, I meditated for a few minutes on the word "worship" in verse 7. It felt weird. It sounded obsequious. It sounded like fawning and groveling, neither of which seemed like the proper way to address a Heavenly Father.
We still use the word "worship" and I'm not sure I know what we really mean by that. The Oxford English Dictionary gives some insight into what it might have meant to Joseph Smith as he translated. As a transitive verb, its most common definition is "To honor or revere as a supernatural being or power, or as a holy thing; to regard or approach with religious veneration." The quotation closest to Joseph Smith's time was 1847: "Men have worshipped some fantastic being for living alone in a wilderness" (Arthur Helps, Friends in Council).
"Honor and revere" and "regard [. . .] with religious veneration" both still sound like fawning and groveling, respectively. Even though he takes the title of "Father," we do not entirely model our attitude toward him on our relationship with our earthly male parent, provided we have one. Heavenly Father is essentially different, and not just because we act on the revelation that He is perfect in some literal sense of being incapable of error, where our earthly parents are as full of error as we are ourselves. In a three-dimensional model, which I shan't illustrate just now, we may find ourselves in some sense equal to our earthly parents in the eternities, as we are all perpetually subordinate to God. Heavenly Father is also the author of the Plan which includes the Fall, mortality, and the various afterlives, whereas our earthly parents seem to function very differently in the part of our existence they control, and in the amount of our existence that they control.
We also worship a godhead consisting of three "personages:" Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost, although I rarely hear anyone speaking of the Holy Ghost in terms of worship, perhaps because of 1) his unembodiment, and 2) his presence among us. There are a list of people who take the title "father," and Jesus is among them (the Holy Ghost is normally not, though. I do not know why). But so are bishops, prophets, etc. and we do NOT worship anyone outside of the godhead, and so the act or attitude of worship does not belong to the title "father," although respect does, until it that respect is betrayed.
A trio of more sincere synonyms might be "praise," "gratitude," and "petition." We can raise our voices in florid expressions of admiration, expounding God's hypothetical perfections, or we can affirm our confidence in the Lord's character, presence, and Plan for all his children. We can mound up the flatteries based on doctrine and hope, or we can tell God how we have felt his hand in our lives and in the world, and how we love to know that he cares. We can list all the ways we wish the world were different and ask God to change them, or we can speak to God of our difficulties, as we see them, and ask for divine guidance and counsel. The contrast that I see in these different ways of approaching Heavenly Father is not because way of worship is necessarily less valid. Many people worship Jesus with fervor and devotion through the former examples. God does not love them less, or reject their offering! He does not even accept their offering with any grudge or reluctance, if it is sincere.
The difference is me. I worship in a way that is unique to me and to the unique relationship that I have made with my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. He/they and I have built that relationship one experience at a time, partly based on my needs, and partly based on His desire to be near to each of His children. For many believers, Christian and otherwise, this form of worship, this familiarity, may be blasphemous, presumptuous, and heretical. But I invite anyone to try it anyway, experiment and discover how near God is.
We still use the word "worship" and I'm not sure I know what we really mean by that. The Oxford English Dictionary gives some insight into what it might have meant to Joseph Smith as he translated. As a transitive verb, its most common definition is "To honor or revere as a supernatural being or power, or as a holy thing; to regard or approach with religious veneration." The quotation closest to Joseph Smith's time was 1847: "Men have worshipped some fantastic being for living alone in a wilderness" (Arthur Helps, Friends in Council).
"Honor and revere" and "regard [. . .] with religious veneration" both still sound like fawning and groveling, respectively. Even though he takes the title of "Father," we do not entirely model our attitude toward him on our relationship with our earthly male parent, provided we have one. Heavenly Father is essentially different, and not just because we act on the revelation that He is perfect in some literal sense of being incapable of error, where our earthly parents are as full of error as we are ourselves. In a three-dimensional model, which I shan't illustrate just now, we may find ourselves in some sense equal to our earthly parents in the eternities, as we are all perpetually subordinate to God. Heavenly Father is also the author of the Plan which includes the Fall, mortality, and the various afterlives, whereas our earthly parents seem to function very differently in the part of our existence they control, and in the amount of our existence that they control.
We also worship a godhead consisting of three "personages:" Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost, although I rarely hear anyone speaking of the Holy Ghost in terms of worship, perhaps because of 1) his unembodiment, and 2) his presence among us. There are a list of people who take the title "father," and Jesus is among them (the Holy Ghost is normally not, though. I do not know why). But so are bishops, prophets, etc. and we do NOT worship anyone outside of the godhead, and so the act or attitude of worship does not belong to the title "father," although respect does, until it that respect is betrayed.
A trio of more sincere synonyms might be "praise," "gratitude," and "petition." We can raise our voices in florid expressions of admiration, expounding God's hypothetical perfections, or we can affirm our confidence in the Lord's character, presence, and Plan for all his children. We can mound up the flatteries based on doctrine and hope, or we can tell God how we have felt his hand in our lives and in the world, and how we love to know that he cares. We can list all the ways we wish the world were different and ask God to change them, or we can speak to God of our difficulties, as we see them, and ask for divine guidance and counsel. The contrast that I see in these different ways of approaching Heavenly Father is not because way of worship is necessarily less valid. Many people worship Jesus with fervor and devotion through the former examples. God does not love them less, or reject their offering! He does not even accept their offering with any grudge or reluctance, if it is sincere.
The difference is me. I worship in a way that is unique to me and to the unique relationship that I have made with my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. He/they and I have built that relationship one experience at a time, partly based on my needs, and partly based on His desire to be near to each of His children. For many believers, Christian and otherwise, this form of worship, this familiarity, may be blasphemous, presumptuous, and heretical. But I invite anyone to try it anyway, experiment and discover how near God is.
Comments
Post a Comment