The Tribune. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1951-19??, 1951-11-24


be q church or
chapel or meeting M
house, where like. $500 s. sx
minded pacpls meet n, eo,or,,,
to worship the One
God.
Variety
IT is amazing. the confusing vari-
- ely of ways in which God is pub
licly worshipped Some churches
arc liturgical; that is, the form of
the service is prescribed. printed in
book. used with little change from
generation to generation. Roman
Catholic churches are of this kind
though there is wide range of de-
tail in the procedures of different
Catholic churches; so are the Luz
theran, the Reformed and the Epis-
copal churches, among others.
Other churches are non-liturgical,
or free. in their mode of worship,
varying all the way from churches
with optional forms Of worship on
out to understanding sects like the
Church of God with Signs Follow
ing" where you never know one
minute what is going TO happen
next
The liturgical churches, too,
are different as can be. Some
liturgies are filled with chant
ing, incense, long and not easy
for a stranger to follow. Other
liturgies are brief and simple.
The insides of these various
kinds Of churches are just as
different as the interiors of
hotels--all the way from the
elegant Waldorf-Astoria down to
the ramshackle boarding house
OF a frontier town. The leader
OF the worship may be clad I'm
vestments gorgeous in the ex-
treme, or I'm n plain black gown,
or dressed in shirt-sieeves.
The man from Mars" would be
so bewildered by H this that he
would ask: Is there anything at all
that these different kinds If worship
have in common?
Communion
TsOR an answer, we can go back
= more than 5000 years to the
time when Moses was organizing his
peoples worship as he organized
the rest of their lives. You would
hardly have recognized that little
tabernacle" in the wilderness as a
place Of worship at all; it looked
like neither church nor synagogue.
And what went on in the taber-
nacle would look strange to a Jew
of today. stranger still to Roman
Catholic, strangest OF all to a mon
1iturgical" Protestant. And yet,
what went on to make that taber-
nacle possible in the first place,
and what went on in it afterwards.
give us the answer to the question:
What do all the innumerable forms
Of worship have in common?
First Of all Is communion with
God. In true worship we become
aware Of. Him; in the New
Testament phrase, we zap
proach with holiness the throne
Of Grace" Worship is right
when 1t actually brings the wor-
shipper into cleansing con-
seriousness OF the nearness Of
God, when, indeed, he feels
and knows that Il is Sin Him
we live and move and have our
being"
Not every one reaches this divine
awareness in the same way.
Conservation
RUT there is another sire to wor-
- ship: Conservation. However
varied the order Of worship may
be, one part of it will be found
nearly everywhere: the offering.
This Is actually one of the
most important parts OF the
service, though II is often neg
Iected and Skinned" For the
offering Is not only important In
itself, but IL Is a great symbol OF
what worship ought always to
be, call to dedication.
Into the offering plate 60 bits OF
silver, green paper, checks Il
money? Yes, and more. This repre-
sents something Of the life and work
Of the worshippers. Every man has
some better moments when he
would generously like to do some
thing to help the world. On Sunday
the church harnesses his vague good
viii. 1t gives him a channel for his
generosity.
What a man gives ought never to
be TO the church but THROUGH
the church; it would be an express
sion Of gratitude to God from one
who knows that his whole life is
Gods git.
Copyright 1851 by the Division Of
Education, National Council
IF the Churches OF Christ I'm the United
States OF America, Released By wNU
Featuros.)
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