Evolving Worship as Spiritual Creativity
“Dance the Cosmic Dance” – image by Dalmo Mendonça
Part Three: WeCreating the Future of Christianity and the World
As we overcome our transcendency bias in our understanding of God and practice of faith, we are invited into a new, evolving way of worship with a God who is always among and within us.
There are many ways we can express praise and devotion to God. Forms of corporate worship in a church setting are but one of them (many of which are rooted in forms taken from medieval royal courts rather than houses of prayer–see this fantastic article from Paul Smith).
In truth, we worship with our lives. How we live in every moment shows what we value, what we give our time to, what we consider worthy. Worship is about our adoration and reverence for something greater than ourselves. As a single human being on a planet of eight billion, it is a vital spiritual practice to humbly give ourselves to something greater than ourselves.
Some expressions of worship go too far in this regard and have exchanged humility for denigration. They turn spiritual devotion into an act of self-abnegation. This is not unique to Christianity, as sacrifice and surrender are vital parts of every religion—many of which either reinforce our self-orientation through negation or seek to dissolve our personhood . Of course, there are certainly important spiritual paths of renunciation and self-surrender. However, if our primary expressions of worship constantly and solely reinforce an assumed ultimate distance and separation from God–and our small unworthiness in response–then we are missing the boat.
For we are not simply passengers on the vessel. We are the crew. We are the ship. (And we are the ocean too). As we ride the winds and the currents leading us into the future, we are all vital and necessary—as the nature of God is to incarnate and express among and through us.
We not only worship a God-Beyond-Us or are devoted to a God-Beside-Us. We are called to live into God-Being-Us as an act of worship.
What does it look like to worship the divine in us?
Called to Be Creators
In the days of old, the people had no power to change anything. Or, at least, that’s how they felt. It was up to the king, the ruler, the deity, to grant authority or permission. Subjects would approach with trepidation to bring their requests, offering sacrifices or gifts in tribute. Sometimes, our prayers and worship can still feel like this.
Yet we are not powerless. We have been gifted and granted divine authority from the very Source. It is bestowed not in titles or degrees, but from the inner gift of spirit–the living force and consciousness of God which becomes more present and more potent the more we live into our divine becoming, which is our growing embodiment inhabiting and expressing (abiding and attending) through new ways of being.
Or, in other words, God shows up in the world through those who live from the consciousness of God.
How does this manifest in our lives? Certainly, we find a greater degree of wisdom, love, and other qualities of being that change who we are. And, we also begin to experience a growing inner power, compelling us to become more and more a part of making all things new, which is the creative work of God in the world.
“To worship is now becoming to devote oneself body and soul to the creative act.”
— Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
We are empowered to be co-creators with God in the world. Rather than praising a distant power, through the embodiment of the divine power at the root of our being—from the inner Source flowing into our lives, we become the creative expression of God in the world today.
This is how we worship God-Being-Us, by becoming the divine force bringing forth acts of creative manifestation in the world.
Creative Acts of God – Divine Self-Expression
When we think of creativity, we often think of works of art and ways of expressing beauty. Often, we conflate being creative with being artistic. Relegating creative acts to the realm of the arts is an act of disempowerment. This work is not confined to studios—nor is it only for those “artistic” types of folks.
As part of this conflation with the arts, we also can tend to think of creativity as primarily an act of self-expression. Of course, self-expression through artistic and creative forms is a beautiful thing, and a gift to the world in and of itself.
In WeCreating, we don’t have to be artistic. And we are seeking to express that which is coming forth from our divine being—which is both inside us in the uniqueness of our inner being and in the collective, communal intrabeing of the body of Christ.
What is it that I am compelled to make from the inner depths of my most authentic, divine personhood?
What is it that we yearn to express from God and see come to form, to be made manifest in the world?
How do we all discover what our worshipful expression is that will come forth in loving, tangible, evolving forms?
To use an artistic metaphor, the blank canvas can be experienced both as a world of open possibility—and as a void or block to knowing where to even begin.
Next week, we’ll offer a practice of becoming to help tap into the flow of our divine self-expression as an act of worship, both personally and collectively.
“The conscious-force and the active delight of the divine being in its all-blissful possession of the outpouring of its powers, qualities, self-creations is an absolute and an infinite.”
— Sri Aurobindo
Evolutionary Intention
What makes these creative expressions, in whatever shape and form they take, acts of worship is the intention from which they flow. They are not out of a desire to be seen, appreciated, or admired. Yes, there will be beauty in the creativity, but they are not for beauty’s sake.
Our intention in creative acts of worship is become enactive participants in the divine self-expression of evolutionary becoming.
Loving evolution is the way God is at work in the world to bring about the transformation and generation of a new world—a new heaven and new earth, which are not separate realms but an ever-emerging integrated reality.
The divine is always expressing in the world in new ways, revealing and transforming anew in the process of loving evolution. We can participate in this evolution through entering into the creative process with God, in forms felt and offered for the I, the We, and the All. Ourselves, our communities, and the world.
Not only is this within our capacity, it is our divine calling. It is our great act of worship, revering the precious potency of our lives when we become charged with the power and passion to be makers of heaven on earth. We live in adoration of all that God is doing in the world, not as passive onlookers, but as evolutionary change-agents co-generating the work of making all things new.
From our deep abiding, restful presence with God among us, we come into our rising impulse to attend to a world crying out for this evolution in new, transformative, loving ways—stepping into God before us, in all that is yet to come.
Through a new way of worship that is living in divine creativity, our attending becomes an act of generative impact, actively taking part and making a difference in the divine work of transformative evolution.
That sounds like a worship rally I want to go to!
“Praise Together” – image by Dalmo Mendonça
Not Alone
If this creative expression of worship is beyond the confines of the individuality of our singular personhood, then it is an act we necessarily must do together.
As we step into our empowered, participatory enactment creatively, we are co-creating from the place of our divine interbeing. This is the mystical body of Christ expressing, not just as a collection of singular offerings, but through collaborative creations that only come about because they are discovered together.
Again, we’re moving beyond our individualism into the We, not just pooling our personal expressions and efforts but experiencing the transformative emergence that happens only when we engage in the process together.
This is the way of WeCreating in community, which we are seeking to grow into more and more in ICN. Like any creative process, it will take focus, dedication, experimentation, playfulness, joy, struggle, and much more!
We won’t create “content,” but rather we will express the substance of the real—the evolutionary unfolding of divine becoming in the world today. Its shapes and forms may surprise us.
Are we prepared to be delighted?
Are we prepared to offer our best, knowing many times along the way we may “fail” and fall short of what we are striving to create?
And if we keep going, can we ever really fail?
Why would we settle for anything else?
And from the authentic truth of our being, the divine creative force will spring forth in the creation of new worlds.
“Hosanna” – image by Dalmo Mendonça
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