My goal for this article is to give a brief summary of what
Trinitarian Worship is, and is not. I also hope to give some
practical points of application about how Trinitarian Worship
informs (or at least should inform) our Worship services.
Trinitarian Worship is not Unitarian Worship. Unitarian Worship is
the worship of those who believe they have a direct line to God the
Father. You might be Unitarian if you believe that worship is
primarily something that humans do. Or if you believe that you can
directly access God the Father, offer him a sacrifice of praise and
have him be pleased with it. If you believe that the burden of
creating an acceptable offering of praise to God is on you, you might
have a Unitarian view of worship.
Trinitarian Worship is not emotion driven. You might have an
emotionally driven view of worship if you’re only goal when you
come to worship is to experience an emotional high. Or perhaps your
view of worship is emotionally driven if you only sing things like “I
want to feel your presence.” If you are constantly seeking a moving
experience when you are in worship, you probably have an emotionally
driven view of it. Eugene Peterson says this about how we feel and
worship, “We can
act ourselves into a new way of feeling
much quicker than we can
feel ourselves into a new way of
acting. Worship is an
act that develops feelings for God, not
a
feeling for God that is expressed in an act of worship
(p.54,
A Long Obedience in the Same Direction).” We worship
because God commands us to worship, not because we want to experience
an emotional high.
So then what is Trinitarian Worship? James B. Torrance in the book
Worship, Community & The Triune God of Grace, says:
“Trinitarian Worship is when we the Church participate by the
Spirit in the incarnate Son’s communion with the Father.”
Trinitarian Worship is the Father’s downward movement through the
incarnation of the Son and by the Spirit’s work in us. We as
Calvinists believe that God has saved us through the Holy Spirit
quickening our hearts to accept Christ as our savior in order than we
may be right with the Father. Trinitarian worship is the reflection
of that very same process. We approach the Father as those who are in
Christ, through the Holy Spirit. Paul talks about it in Ephesians
2:18 “For through Him (Christ) we both have access to the Father by
one Spirit.” This Trinitarian theology of worship emphasizes the
idea that it is only by God’s volition that we are able to engage
with Him. God is the primary actor in worship.
Also, in Trinitarian Worship we are invited to participate in
Divine Community. The relationship between the Father, Son, and
Spirit has been described with the Greek word “
Perichoresis.”
In sum, this word describes the co-indwelling, same substance yet
distinct persons of the Trinity.
Perichoresis helps us to
understand the mutual submission and glorification of each member of
the Trinity. There is perfect unity, yet constant submission and
glorification going on between each person. I've had
perichoresis
illustrated to me with the image of a divine dance. In this dance
each member of the Three is distinct, and yet weaving between each
other in perfect rhythm working to glorify the next, all the while
submitting to each other in perfect love and unity displaying the
oneness of the Three. We see a great example of this mutual
submission and glorification in John 17:1 where Jesus prays “Father,
the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.”
The Spirit is not left out, in John 16:14 Jesus says of the Holy
Spirit; “He will glorify me because it is from me that he will
receive what he will make known to you.” It's this divine community
that we get to be enveloped into in Trinitarian Worship.
How does this change the way that we think about Worship on
Sundays?
It comforts us. We are relieved to find out that
there is nothing we can do to offer a perfect sacrifice of praise to
God so we lean more heavily on to Christ, who takes our sacrifice of
praise and makes it holy and pleasing to Him. We are comforted
because we know that even when we do not feel like worshiping it is
the Spirit that will move us, help us, and intercede for us. We are
comforted because we know that God is the primary actor in worship
and that even if things don't seem to go correctly, God will direct
worship as He pleases. We are comforted because we are invited into
the perfect community of the Trinity.
Lastly, Trinitarian Worship changes how we think about worship because it reminds
us that the primary reason for our worship is
Glory. Our eyes are
drawn away from ourselves, our own wants and needs, as we participate in the divine mutual submission and glorification constantly
occurring between the Three Persons. We are comforted as we are
reminded that even as we give glory to God, we have great hope
because we get to share in His glory.