What is worship?

worship
noun
1.
reverent honor and homage paid to God...

Unfortunately, my faithful friend dictionary.com holds a definition of worship that seems, in that word paid, to rather promote an "economy of exchange" that I so recently railed against. And perhaps it really comes down to a matter of semantics. But the way I understand it, we're in no way forced into worshiping God--he lets us come of our own free will and pay homage to him. And like I've said before, I'm no theology major. But that's what I've come to understand.

Back to the question, though. What is worship? Reverent honor and homage. Focusing adoration on the Creator of my soul. "Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God--this is your true and proper worship."

So I really think worship can look crazy different.

Walking the dog and worshiping.
Cleaning my room and worshiping.
Sitting in class and worshiping.
Spending time with friends and worshiping.
Drinking coffee and worshiping.
Acting on stage and worshiping.
Writing a blog post and worshiping.
Singing and worshiping.
This morning I read from the Book of Common Prayer and celebrated Holy Communion at the Episcopal Church in Marion and worshiped.

It wasn't the first time I've been to High Church, but it was one of the first. A professor invited me several weeks ago, and this week I asked if I could go with her.

It was a little hard to keep up--it would take several times before I got accustomed to it. But overall it was a pretty neat experience. Especially after spending some time in Symbols and Imaging class for the last couple weeks--I had a little bit of a semiotic context that made it even more interesting. The symbols, the liturgy and ritual, the language and the words. Worship. Just a little different from what I'm used to. And wonder-full (wonder: "to think or speculate curiously") because of the difference.

This week in Symbols and Imaging, we had a symbolic Jewish Seder meal that kept some Jewish tradition but that also had a decidedly Christian element to it. To have a Passover meal on Thursday and then to have Holy Communion at an Episcopal Church on Sunday has been a memorable juxtaposition.

I went back and looked for my reflection paper on the Seder meal that I had to write the first time took the class, and found this, which I wrote a little over a year ago at this point-

In any good literary work of fiction, themes and motifs crop up throughout the book. In the history of the Jews and now Christians, food and ceremonial feasts and meals are a recurring motif of life.This recurring motif of food says something very specific to me. The fact that we constantly have to eat to keep ourselves healthy reminds us that we are mortal, that we are human. Somehow I think that is one of the most important things we are supposed to remember. 

Remembering that I am human while giving reverent honor and homage to God in new places and in new ways has made for a wonder-full and worship-full week.