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Word Gems
exploring self-realization, sacred personhood, and full humanity
Why God Does Not Want,
and even Disdains,
“Worship” Offered by the Churches
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"The Bible repeatedly states that you should praise God. This hardly means that you should tell him how wonderful he is. He has no ego with which to accept such praise." Course In Miracles
Much of the counseling efforts of a priest, minister, or rabbi – and I speak from personal work experience – devolve to making excuses for God.
God, it would seem, needs a public-relations specialist, a press secretary, to “spin” unfortunate occurrences which have caused suffering. These “acts of God,” a religious mind presumes, might have been prevented or, as the case may be, failed to materialize, when the Superintending Party has all power to make things better for us.
This seeming lack of concern on God’s part is embarrassing for those posturing as God’s agents and will ensue with stock answers serving as “excuses” for God and his apparently unfeeling, anti-humanistic behavior.
But we did not come to this world as a “fantasy island” wherein all wishes might come true – that’s for the next classroom. God is not a “genie in a lamp” to be summoned at our whim whenever we want three wishes. These errant concepts result from a materialistic, pagan, and egoic view of life and God.
the end of creedalism at a mother's knee
Almost everything we were told about God since childhood is wrong; either patently wrong or sufficiently laced with error to render it harmful for ingestion. It’s more than shocking to learn this, but one cannot advance until delusional concepts have been jettisoned from one’s life.
Among this “rogue’s gallery" of misinformation will be found common notions of “worship.”
But isn’t it strange? Most religious organizations will teach its party-faithful to conduct their lives on a basis found in the Boy Scout’s altruistic creed. I still remember a few words from 50 years ago: “… thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent.”
This is humanism at its best, and it’s still good advice and a good way to conduct one's life. Unless, that is, you happen to be God. Then, of course, it’s quite alright to be a Capricious Social Deviant in the Sky, demanding: human blood-sacrifice for even the smallest infraction; incessant flatteries and groveling, commonly known as prayer; eternal condemnation even with firy torture for as trivial an event as missing a Sunday meeting; belief in infallible doctrines, no matter how insulting to human sensibilities; a viewpoint that babies are evil, warranting unending separation from heaven for not having been sprinkled with water. We could go on, and all these idea are disgusting and have nothing to do with the real God. But I have already belabored these misrepresentative, "fake news" items of divinity in the “Jesus” article.
This view of God, like a petulant and intemperate Zeus, was created by churchmen to frighten you into submission. Is it hard to understand? This plastic-banana image of God represents how the egoic clergy would like to be treated; and, indeed, how many of them demand to be treated in their thespian pageantry, their arrogant "pomp and revenue" ways. They've created God in their own image.
Allow me to add to this barbarous picture of God by saying that common teachings regarding “worship” are wholly inappropriate. Is God some kind of Exalted Narcissist who needs our adulation in song and ceremony? What kind of an Off-Kilter Person would God have to be if s/he really did require our perpetual sychophancy, bootlicking, and applause? Despots of history who required this sort of psychotic massaging we spit upon and now we name our prize bulls or dogs after them -- the likes of Caligula, Nero, or some other deranged Eastern potentate. How truly sick it all is.
But wait. Here now come God’s “special agents on Earth,” his spin-meisters, to explain to the lowly laity why it's a good thing that God should be ever lavished with fawning praise and accolade:
“Worship is our proper response to God as he gave us life. We owe him a world of gratitude. And even if God does not need the praise, we are benefitted by offering it to him.”
There are many things wrong with this explanation. It’s carefully crafted to support an existing paradigm; a self-serving one.
Granted, as God gave us life, it is our proper response to offer gratefulness, but the question becomes, how should that gratefulness be expressed? - in a church-setting controlled by self-appointed blackrobes who collect money and personal power in the name of God? I think not.
And are we benefitted by offering gratitude? The answer is ‘yes,’ but it will be the gratitude of a fully mature son or daughter of God, “made in the image,” and not the product of some fearful and servile child-mentality. This latter view of helplessness and incompetence is encouraged by blackrobes who would attempt to keep you “paying and praying.”
as above, so below
The blackrobes turn this ancient dictum of truth on its head.
But how shall a fully mature son or daughter of God express gratitude? Not by “playing church” which is a buffoonery, a caricature of reality. "Church," even on the other side, is something we must grow out of in order to mature ourselves. We are “made in the image.” Our deepest humanistic soul-stirrings reflect the mind of God. No sane and balanced person would ever want another sentient being to grovel or to offer flattering praise. This is a checkered view of God. And it’s promoted by those who stand to gain from your servility and continued immaturity. As Bishop Spong wisely asserts, this is why they love to talk about being “born again,” that is, a focus on babyhood rather than growing up into the full stature of what it means to be a mature son or daughter of God.
But how shall we express our eternal gratitude to God? Well, ask yourself this, those of you who are sane parents: how would you want your kids to express gratitude to you for giving them life?
Would you want them to come to you each week offering groveling flattery and mechanical ceremonial adulation? We need not answer this idiocy. What does the sane and balanced parent want from an adult child as expression of gratitude?
We want the child’s success in life as a fully functioning, autonomous, service-minded, well educated, cultured, sophisticated, clear-eyed, creative, independent, and competent individual. With this, the sane parent is well “paid back” in spades for all services rendered. Account closed and in good standing.
And anyone who would promote the traditional, corrupted, and anti-humanistic views of “worship” is just trying to control you, to get something from you. Follow the tithe-money.
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Jesus speaks to the woman at the well (John 4)
19 “I see you are a prophet, sir,” the woman said.
20 “My Samaritan ancestors worshiped God on this mountain, but you Jews say that Jerusalem is the place where we should worship God.”
21 Jesus said to her, “Believe me, woman, the time will come when people will not worship the Father either on this mountain or in Jerusalem.
22 "You Samaritans do not really know whom you worship; but we Jews know whom we worship, because it is from the Jews that salvation comes.
23 "But the time is coming and is already here, when by the power of God's Spirit people will worship the Father as he really is, offering him the true worship that he wants.
24 "God is Spirit, and only by the power of his Spirit can people worship him as he really is.”
Good News Translation
Artist's depiction of Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem (c.1000 BC).
Nehemiah returned to Jerusalem in 445 BC from Babylonian captivity to rebuild a less
opulent version, known as "The Second Temple," existing at the time of Jesus.
Paul preaches in Athens (Acts 17)
16 While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was deeply troubled by all the idols he saw everywhere in the city.
17 He went to the synagogue to reason with the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles, and he spoke daily in the public square to all who happened to be there.
18 He also had a debate with some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers. When he told them about Jesus and his resurrection, they said, “What’s this babbler trying to say with these strange ideas he’s picked up?” Others said, “He seems to be preaching about some foreign gods.”
19 Then they took him to the high council of the city. “Come and tell us about this new teaching,” they said.
20 “You are saying some rather strange things, and we want to know what it’s all about.”
21 (It should be explained that all the Athenians as well as the foreigners in Athens seemed to spend all their time discussing the latest ideas.)
22 So Paul, standing before the council, addressed them as follows: “Men of Athens, I notice that you are very religious in every way,
23 for as I was walking along I saw your many shrines. And one of your altars had this inscription on it: ‘To an Unknown God.’ This God, whom you worship without knowing, is the one I’m telling you about.
24 “He is the God who made the world and everything in it. Since he is Lord of heaven and earth, he doesn’t live in man-made temples,
25 and human hands can’t serve his needs—for he has no needs. He himself gives life and breath to everything, and he satisfies every need.
26 From one man he created all the nations throughout the whole earth. He decided beforehand when they should rise and fall, and he determined their boundaries.
27 “His purpose was for the nations to seek after God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him—though he is not far from any one of us.
28 For in him we live and move and exist. As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’
29 And since this is true, we shouldn’t think of God as an idol designed by craftsmen from gold or silver or stone.
30 “God overlooked people’s ignorance about these things in earlier times, but now he commands everyone everywhere to repent of their sins and turn to him.”
New Living Translation
Paul Preaching at Athens (1515), Raphael
Editor's note: These purported testimonies of Jesus and Paul, written possibly a hundred or more years after the fact, contain elements of truth and may reflect an essence of original teachings.
Notice the emphasis, in each discourse, on the inappropriateness of attempting to "worship" God in terms of special building or any outward human contrivance. "God is spirit," said Jesus - that is, "God is consciousness," with Paul in rejoinder (quoting a Greek philosopher), "in him we live and move and have our being."
Yes, how ill-fitting, how poorly conceived, any attempt to "worship" God in "buildings made with hands" when that God created not only the universe but our own "made in the image" purified consciousness ("holy spirit") by which we are connected ("in whom we live and have our being") to Universal Being and Intelligence.
Consider carefully Jesus' response to the Samaritan woman (paraphrased):
"Your religious formularies and rituals here on Mount Gerizim are impressive. But none of it can hold a candle to the great teaching-pageantry of the Temple in Jerusalem. Even so, I will tell you this, the day of worshiping God in buildings has had its long run. A time is coming, and is already here, when the true worship of God will be done within the 'holy of holies' of one's own mind and consciousness. What else would you expect from a God who inhabits, not only the entire cosmos but, Consciousness itself?"
Special note: I recall from my studies of many years ago that in Paul's letters to the Corinthians, when he speaks of us as the "temple of the holy spirit," the Greek word for "temple" is not the entire system of Temple buildings but one little room -- the "holy of holies" wherein the High Priest "met" God.
We ourselves -- our own sanctified and godly minds, our "purified consciousness" -- constitute the end-of-the-ages fulfillment of what the grand Temple in Jerusalem could only point to in vague and impenetrable symbolism.
As an ancient Buddhist proverb warns us, "The finger that points to the Moon is not the Moon." Do not confuse the signpost for the destination.
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Editor's note: The following quotation, from an ancient being in Summerland, directs us to express our thankfulness by actions, by a service-oriented and consecrated life to 'the truth', not by offering churchified pageantry, portraying ourselves as serfs or disenfranchised, mere spectrators, but as rightful heirs in 'the Family'.
'If you are thankful, express it, not by words or gestures, but by actions', and this is how we are to pay honor to God
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Life In Two Spheres, or Scenes in the Summerland, by Hudson Tuttle, channeled testimony from the other side. One called 'The Ancient Sage', in Summerland for 3000 years, advises a new-comer who deprecates himself:
"Wretch! Wretch! Wretch,” he exclaimed in anguish. "Oh, that I had never been born!”
The Sage, taking him by the hand, raised him up, saying: "Self-accusing child, why blame yourself thus? Blame no one for their follies, but the circumstances in which you were placed. They were bad; popular opinion, before which you bent, was bad. All tended to make you what you were. You have a germ of native goodness in your being, or you would not thus accuse yourself. Arise! weep no more! The future is bright.” ...
"You have corrected me aright; I acknowledge your superior spiritual powers of perception reverentially."
'we acknowledge submission to no one, each is his own individual sovereign'
"Reverence not me; I am no more than the others. We acknowledge submission to no one. Each is his own individual sovereign, to think and act as best pleases himself, if he is regardful of the rights of others and is measured by his worth alone. If you are thankful, express it, not by words or gestures, but by actions. Reverence not me, but truth. You are still prejudiced on this and kindred subjects, and your prejudice must be overcome."
Editor's note: This individual sovereignty, a requirement and sacred duty to think one's own thoughts, extends especially in reference to holier-than-thou religious clergy who presume to "know better" than the so-called laity.
The ancient being of Summerland deflected with "reverence not me" - but the clergy adorn themselves profusely with the piously prevaricating titles of "reverend" and even grander labels. This is wholly inappropriate and self-aggrandizement, and sends the wrong message to everyone.
God has no favorite kids in the family, and each son or daughter harbors exactly the same ultimate potential.
READ MORE of sacred individual sovereignty in the "Emerson" writing
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Editor's last word:
"Worship" is just an Old English word meaning "worth-ship," that is, affording "worth" and respect. The question of how to properly "worth-ship" and display gratitude to God is an important one; however, I believe this issue will resolve itself in a very natural way.
Gratitude, in its highest expression, it seems to me, results in a loyalty and even a desire to be like the Giver. This will happen easily without any effort on our part.
I have spoken of the authentic romantic eternal love as a kind of salvation process. When you find your Sacred Beloved, she will bring to you such ecstatic levels of joy and fullness that a response of gratitude will issue effortlessly and naturally. And, in a natural way, with no need for ritualistic pageantry and special music - with donation requests in the midst - you will eternally be loyal and grateful to Mother-Father God for the overwhelming, the tremendous gift, of all that she is to you.
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