The foundational premise
The New Testament repeatedly witnesses to the life and ministry of Jesus Christ — especially his death and resurrection — as an entryway for the Age to Come to break into this present age, even if that in-breaking is not yet full and complete. The church exists in the tension between the present age and the future Kingdom, and worship is celebrated within that same tension.
Worship is porous to the future. As anyone can testify who has been swept up into the wonder of God’s presence in a worshiping congregation, worship can and does serve as a preliminary in-breaking of what our future in the Kingdom of God will be like. But the in-breaking is preliminary. We can be, as one early American Christian put it, in the “suburbs of heaven” — but not in the central business district itself.
Worship scholar Ron Rienstra captures this tension: “That is the truth about the Church and her duty: to hold fast in this tension between what she already has and what she still awaits, between what she already is and what she must become — without being made proud or idle by what she already has, or grieving or being discouraged as if she had nothing.” (Church at Church, 2019, pp. 53-4)
Probing questions for assessing worship
- How critical is the Resurrection — Christ’s historical one and our future one — in how the common good is portrayed as being accomplished?
- Does the worship service fail to maintain some tension and thus some separation between the present and the future? Is hope for the fulfillment of God’s activity excessively tied to the present time and institutions of the present time?
- If love as revealed in God is the defining quality of future human existence, how does worship today exemplify, anticipate, and participate in that existence in a preliminary way?
- Is there any humility in the worshipers about the limits of their human agency to implement the Kingdom right now?
- How is the tension between the present age and the Age to Come portrayed and negotiated?