The Meaning and Relevance of Worship

Worship is a symbolic representation of the ideal relationship between God and humans. God and our relation with God cannot be seen or experienced objectively. So the thoughts and concepts regarding these can be expressed only using metaphors and symbols.

A House of God (church, temple) in which we worship is a symbol of the ideal world. The ideal world is a house of God. However, the real world in which we live is not a house of God. Evil and hypocrisy rule here. Those who realize this want the world return to its ideal state. They imagine the ideal world to be a world which has no evil at all-- either as another world in space (heaven or paradise) or as another world in time (Garden of Eden, or the new heaven and new earth as in the Book of Revelation). 

The ideal world we imagine is actually a scale to measure our real world. Seeing it as a goal, our world can be transformed. In the absence of such a goal, our world’s process of change and development won’t have any clear orientation. Jesus presented the life in heaven as a model for the life on earth in the prayer he taught. (Let thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven).

Having an ideal world within our mind is the first step. Giving it a concrete symbolic form that is accessible to our senses is the next step. Only then can it influence our subconscious mind. That is why we make a building and call it the house of God. It is a visible representation of the invisible ideal world within our minds. It is really not a house of God in itself, but it is a representation of the real house of God, which is the ideal world in our imagination. That is why we see a house of God as heaven or as the Garden of Eden. The purpose of a man-made house of God is to convert our world into the house of God. 

The symbolic representation of the relationship between man and God takes varying forms according to the difference in time and space. The various religions and their subdivisions see this relationship and symbolizes it in various ways. It is similar to how the blind people saw the elephant. The claim that one’s own way of worship is the only true worship is fundamentalism. All houses of God built by the followers of all religions are symbols of the ideal world.

Only mature minds can see a house of God as a symbol of the ideal world. Regardless of whatever religion or church it belongs, they see it as a representation of the ideal world. Immature minds see a house of God literally as a special place with the presence of God. They see only the houses of God of their own religion in that way. They can’t even imagine that God is present in the houses of God of other religions. The photograph of Metropolitan Paulos Mar Gregorios standing with folded hands before the Sivasankara temple in Kaladi created some uproar in those days. His mature mind could honor a Hindu temple along with a Christian one. 

This was the difference between Jesus and the Samaritan woman. She gets confused about the two temples -- one in Jerusalem, and the one in Mount Gerisim. She wanted to know which one was the right one, where God dwells. Jesus probably viewed both of them as the symbols of the real temple, the ideal world. The immature mind of the Samaritan woman is characteristic of most of the religious believers of all times all over the world. The exclusivism of seeing one’s own house of God and one’s own religion as the true ones is the superficial perspective of the immature mind. The Islamic State, that keeps the entire world in fear, is the result of such superficial view. According to them, Islam is the only true religion. Their goal is to create a world that consists of Muslims only. The solution of Islamic fundamentalism is not Christian fundamentalism. The solution is to bring the followers of all religions into the mature view of Jesus that all man-made temples are the symbols of the real temple -- the ideal world.

We generally agree that worship is a ritual we perform in a house of God. But our understanding of the meaning of worship varies in the east and west of Christianity. What we have seen above is the view of the eastern Christian world. For the east, a house of God and the worship there are symbols of our relationship with God. Our worship represents the ideal life in friendly relationship with God, and a house of God represents the ideal world. All beings in the world constitute the true worshiping community. A worship in a house of God is not worship in itself, but it is a symbolic representation of the true worship in the true House of God. A priest is not a true priest, but a symbol of the true priest, Christ, standing before God representing the entire world. The bread and wine are symbols of Christ. Church, the community of Christians, is not a symbol of Christ, but the visible body of the invisible Christ.

Metropolitan Paulos mar Gregorios has explained the eastern view of worship in his book, the Joy of Freedom. He asserts that freedom for man is staying in friendly relationship with God. Worship is the expression of the joy that results from this freedom.

The western Christian world has an entirely different view of worship. Accordingly, a house of God is a true House of God in itself, and a worship in a house of God is true worship in itself. The priest in a house of God is a true priest, and the sacrifice he performs is the true sacrifice. When a priest utters a few words, the bread and wine magically turn to the body and blood of Christ. The pope of Rome rules the world as the visible representation of Christ. The cardinals and bishops represent the pope, and the priests represent the bishops. People cannot contact with Christ directly, but only through these mediators.

The reform movements in the west couldn’t adequately understand or correct the underlying literal view of worship. If they had known the eastern view of worship, they could have made the reformation more effective. The reformed churches also continue with their literal views like the catholic church.

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