What is worship? Have you ever asked yourself that question? Often people equate worship with a particular form or ritual. I once spoke to a man who told me that the reason why he began attending his present church is that he looked in the door while a service was in progress and saw people with both hands in the air. In this gentleman’s estimation, two hands in the air was “real worship.” It seems that real worship can be effected in very different ways according to the cultural understandings of the worshipers. With so many different worship styles, what then is “real worship?”

The subject of “real worship” came up in a conversation that Jesus had with the adulterous Samaritan woman. ( See John chapter 4) After perceiving Jesus to be a “prophet” the woman points out that the Jewish people – Jesus was Jewish - worshiped in Jerusalem but that the Samaritans worshiped in their home area of Samaria. The woman’s statement also implied the different understandings of God and His word which existed between the Jews and the Samaritans.  Jesus teaches her (and us) that it is not this place or that place – not in where we worship, but in how we worship. Worship may be expressed in forms and rituals, but those forms must be expressions of the actual relationship with God that is living within us. Worship is the total giving of ourselves to God. Worship is the complete dependence on God for our physical, emotional, and spiritual means. The forms of worship are simply expressions of that dependence.