The Blog Of Dysfunction

From Ben Meyers here.

Some quotes.

Worship is a holy tautology.

Does worship make God present? No, worship presupposes God’s presence. But God’s presence is unlike any other. “God does not exist,” said Kierkegaard, “he is eternal.” Compared to all existents, God’s presence is an absence. The Holy of Holies is empty. If worship is fundamentally eucharist, you could say that it is “thanks for nothing”. Without this apophatic point of departure, worship inevitably becomes idolatrous.

Worship pleases God when we wash our hands before we raise and fold them, that is, when our praise begins in penitence – and then issues in the politics of peace.

Read Amos 5 (ESV)

21″I hate, I despise your feasts,
and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.
22Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings,
I will not accept them;
and the peace offerings of your fattened animals,
I will not look upon them.
23Take away from me the noise of your songs;
to the melody of your harps I will not listen.
24But let justice roll down like waters,
and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream

Justice is not a word we commonly associate with worship eh? He rejects his own law if the hands that offer the sacrifice are not clean. Not ceremonial cleansing, for he looks far beyond the skin. Clean attitude, correct attitude. Clean hands, innocence. A blameless track record.

While I go spiraling down to depression over the impending wrath of God, for i am guilty as i can be of injustice as can be, I remember this hymn.

How deep the Father’s love for us
how vast beyond all measure
that he should give his only Son
to make a wretch His treasure.
How great the pain of searing loss,
the Father turns His face away
as wounds which mar the Chosen One
bring many sons to glory.

Can I know any better thing than this?

Resolve this new year to examine and renew my worship; the words, the music, the actions, the intent.

Ciao

schizo