Grant Norsworthy

Ian and I went along to the Tear Fund evening with Grant Norsworthy. What an unexpectedly fabulous evening. We had to make the most of having a babysitter and popped out to have sushi for dinner first. So we were even later than Vineyard Standard Time (which is usually about 15 mins late). We were there in good time for Grant's "talkie bit" and really enjoyed what he had to say. I will try to do it justice here.

Grant was talking about how the content of a lot of the songs we use to worship God contain a lot of good things about why we love God and enjoy him but not too much about the cost of discipleship. He emphasised the paradox that salvation is a free gift that comes at great cost. Our tendency in the western churches can be to relish the free gift of God's grace without taking upon ourselves the cost - surrendering our whole lives to Him- that means our will, our dreams, our money and our families - everything means EVERY THING.

Grant shared a personal word that God spoke to him some years ago (while he was playing in the band Sonic Flood) in which he felt Jesus saying to him "I didn't ask you to sing about me". It's true the Bible does not exhort us to sing about Jesus, we are told to be Jesus; to do what he did.

He went on to talk about our misuse of the word "worship". It has come to be used in our parlance as an adjective - "worship service", "worship leader", "worship song", etc etc. Note that these terms all have in common a reference to music. That is predominantly what we mean when we talk about worship. In our church at Vineyard West we have talked before about how worship is meant to be our whole lives. Grant expressed it really well I thought. He used the term "worth-ship". True worship in the biblical sense is what we do in every aspect of our lives that gives worth to God. That includes our daily grind, our talking to friends and neighbours and anything else that we do with the appropriate attitude of our hearts. Singing songs is just one of the ways in which we worship God. There are lots of bits in the Bible that talk about how singing and praising God corporately or individually brings him pleasure. However, Jesus tells us plainly through the gospel of Matthew (Chapter 25) that he shall sort out the sheep from the goats- the righteous from the unrighteous - on the grounds of how we treat the poor. Remember the paradox though - the grace that he offers us is a free gift, not determined by our behaviour or merit.

Another bible passage that Grant dwelt on was James 1:27 which reads as follows in the New Living translation:

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this : to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."

Grant told us that the Greek word translated as "religion" is better rendered as "worship":

"Worship that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."

The orphans and widows of biblical times were the oppressed of that society. This theme of social justice has been a recurring one for me recently. It was quite a shock for it to come again in what I thought was going to be a nice "worship service" where I would get to soak in God's presence and feel warm and fuzzy about all the wonderful things he has done for me. Always better to come away feeling challenged!