The nature of worship? Religion often focuses on cultic activity. Biblical Judaism, at points in its history, exhibited this tendency. The history of the Christian Church is full of such focus. The Greco-Roman world referred to acts of religion (prayer, sacrifice, liturgy, etc.) as “cultus deorum” which can be translated as “care of the gods” (cf. Bart Ehrman’s The New Testament, vol. 4, pp. 26-27). [Note: Do not confuse cultus/cultic with the contemporary vernacular use of the word “cult” for what is thought of as a dangerous religious group. Here, cultus/cultic refers to the worship practices of a group.]
The Hebrew prophets of the Old Testament argued that such cultic activities were secondary to showing compassion and justice to others. Jesus taught that if you come to make an offering and remembered someone had something against you, go and be reconciled to that person before continuing the act of worship. Paul wrote that all the Torah (including the cultus) was fulfilled in loving your neighbor as yourself. James reminded us that true, undefiled religion is the care of widows and orphans. In other words, the true “care of God” is taking care of his children.
Without compassion and justice, liturgy is empty, void of meaning. While we should devote ourselves to praise and worship, we must remember that true praise and worship is in helping those who are suffering. Without that, everything else is putting on a show.
