96 Worship and the God Words

I was right with Sally Morgenthaler as she wrote on the importance of worship at her web site Sacramentis.com:

“vertical worship in the Christian sense is the opposite of descending into the self to connect with one’s inner light, spiritual energy, or force. Rather, it means taking people beyond themselves and their own insights, potential, and self-reliance to the Person and Works of God. Vertical worship is an experience of the God Who Was, Is, and Is to Come (the only One worthy of our adoration), and our redeemed relationship to that God.”

But then I noticed the feminist, politically correct code words for the Trinity in the next paragraph:

“Vertical worship celebrates Truth in a Person: veritas embodied in Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer. As such, vertical worship leaves no doubt about the source of true transformation: the Triune God’s historical and imminent initiative in our lives.”

In order to avoid the patriarchal, personhood terms of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, many women and some of their male sympathizers have switched to task-descriptor-terms, defining God by what he did and does rather than who he is. This article from the archives is http://sacramentis.com/articles/worshipleader/screen/fall%202003.shtml.

But I didn’t want to be too hasty in judging her. Might be accused of being unkind or harsh. So I browsed through four more articles. No Jesus. No Father, Son or Holy Spirit. In fact, no “God words,” confusing or otherwise, appeared in any other articles I sampled written by Sally. Could be there--I just didn’t find them. Morgenthaler’s professional bio at her web site says she has published with Zondervan and is working on something for Inter-Varsity, both publishers I respect. She has consulted for a wide variety of main-line and evangelical churches, taught at seminaries and colleges and writes worship columns for magazines.

Still, wouldn’t it be nice to hear about WHO we are worshipping, instead of what and how.