9. Amen!

We have so far discussed important questions such as what is worship, why we worship, how we may worship, and where we worship. Now we shall discuss another important question: Who does the worship?  

When we participate in worship inside a church, it may look like to us that we worship, while a lot of people outside the church don’t worship. Thus we tend to classify all people in the world into those who worship and those who don’t. But this is a very superficial view.

According to the Biblical tradition, the entire creation worships God. The worshiping community include beings from the angels in heaven to the inanimate beings on earth. Whenever we approach God, we do so representing the entire creation. Humankind was created as the crown of creation representing the entire creation. We understand that the ones who have passed away are also with us in the worship.

When a small Group of people assemble in a church, they assign one person to lead them in worship. It is like a group of people conducting a meeting choose a chairperson or a master of ceremony for the smooth functioning of the meeting. This person, often called a priest or a pastor, does not have any special status before God. A priest/pastor prays representing the community. He has a representative role. After he prays, the people say Amen, which is what makes it the prayer of the people. Without this amen from people, a priest’s prayer is an individual’s prayer. It is like the humanity standing before God representing the entire creation. Hence humanity is often called the priest of the creation.

A group of people may begin without a leader, but slowly an informal leader arises. Later this leader gains more training and formality as the liturgy becomes more and more complex. Then the leader is called a priest or a pastor. Sometimes a leader may take advantage of his knowledge and position as well as the ignorance of the people, and exploit them. Thus instead of being a true leader like a good shepherd, he becomes a wolf in shepherd’s clothing. In such situations, people revolt against the leadership, which results in a reformation. Jesus revolted against Jewish leadership. Martin Luther revolted against the Roman catholic leadership.

Amen has the power of a signature, without which a document has no value. The priest/pastor reads a long prayer, and it becomes the prayer of the entire congregation, in fact the prayer of the whole creation, with this one word, Amen. Although it is a small word of only two syllables, it is a very powerful word. This little word reminds us that a priest/pastor is a representative of a congregation, a congregation is a representative of the humanity, and the humanity is a representative of the entire creation.  

In short, the entire creation is the worshiping community. Humanity was given the charge of the rest of the creation. A priest/pastor does not have any special status before God. He merely represents the congregation. Without an Amen from the congregation, his prayer is merely an individual’s prayer. 

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