Spiritual Temperaments: Part 1
From the Series—The Heart of Worship
March 27, 2002One of the greatest mistakes we can make is to think that God wants all of us to worship him the same way. The truth is that your personality and your past affect the way you worship. Gary Thomas says, “People have different spiritual temperaments.” The problem, according to Thomas, is that “we prescribe the same spirituality for the farmer in Iowa and the lawyer in Washington, DC.”
I Corinthians 12:4 says, “There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men.” Worship was never meant to be “one size fits all.” Just as there are different kinds of gifts, different kinds of service, and different kinds of working, there are different kinds of worship. Spiritual maturity should not result in conformity! Spiritual maturity should result in diversity--different expressions of worship.
Paul uses a musical metaphor in Romans 12:16 to make the point. It simply says, “Live in harmony.” What’s harmony? It’s not everybody singing the same note. It’s different people singing different notes. The bottom line is that you can’t have harmony without diversity! Leonard Sweet says, “God created you to be an irreplaceable, unrepeatable song.” No one can take your place. No one can sing your part.
The 5 Spiritual Temperaments
The field of spiritual temperaments is “soft” science. This is not intended to be an exhaustive study of every type of temperament. It’s an introduction to five types of temperaments: sensual, intellectual, natural, mystical, and ritual. This evotional will focus on two temperaments: natural and ritual.
The goal of this study is not just to help you discover your spiritual temperament. It will expose you to different expressions of worship that are outside your temperament and your tradition. But as Gary Thomas says, “Just stepping out of our tradition will help us understand the familiar parts of our faith in a new way.”
One of my most memorable worship experiences happened two years ago at a church in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. That worship service was one of the best cardiovascular workouts I’ve ever had. We did a three step sway during the slow songs and jumped during the fast songs. I had no idea what we were singing because the service was in Amharic, but I felt like I worshipped God with “all my might” for the first time in my life. It reminded me of II Samuel 6 when the Ark of the Covenant was brought back to Jerusalem. It says that they were “celebrating with all their might before the Lord.” David was “leaping and dancing.” By stepping outside my temperament and tradition I worshipped God in a new way.
The Psalms endorse all kinds of different expressions and postures of worship. Psalm 95:6 talks about “kneeling.” It is a posture of humility and dependence. Psalm 63:4 talks about “lifting our hands.” It’s an expression of surrender and exaltation. Psalm 33:3 says, “Play skillfully.” Psalm 47:1 says, “Clap your hands.” Fourteen times the Psalms say, “Shout to the Lord.” And for what it’s worth, Psalm 98:6 says, “Blast the ram’s horn.”
The “Natural” Type
It was an early morning flight. As we ascended through the clouds at 30,000 feet, the sun was beginning to peek over the horizon. The pink and purple hues that filled the canvas sky were absolutely breathtaking. I couldn’t help but worship.
That sunrise reminded me of Thomas Carlyle’s famous caveman analogy. Carlyle said imagine a man who lived his entire life in a cave and never stepped foot outside his darkened domain. Then, as a grown adult, the caveman steps outside to watch the sun rise for the first time in his life. Carlyle said the caveman would watch “with rapt astonishment the sight we daily witness with indifference.”
G.K. Chesterton once said, “Grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. Is it possible that God says every morning, “Do it again” to the sun; and every evening, “Do it again” to the moon? The repetition in nature may not be a mere recurrence; it may be a theatrical encore.” That’s the point of Psalm 29:1,
“Bravo, God, bravo. All the angels shout ‘encore’!”
Thomas Carlyle said, “Worship is transcendent wonder. Wonder for which there is no limit or measure; that is worship.” Worship is wonder and wonder is worship. Gary Thomas says, “If we don’t appreciate the out-of-doors, then maybe we don’t appreciate the Creator.” Creation is God’s cathedral. The problem is that we’ve turned spirituality into an “indoor” sport. Brian McLaren says, “Modern men and women have lost their connection with creation. We’re always insulated from it by shoe leather, cotton-polyester, glass, metal, plastic, HVAC, and screens of many kinds.” We overlook the fact that Jesus spent much, if not most, of his time outside. He prayed on the Mount of Olives and by the Sea of Galilee.
Maybe we need more “field trips”? That’s about all I remember from grade school days! It’s amazing how getting outside can heighten sensibilities. Some of my most worshipful moments have been under the canopy of a star-filled sky or to the sound of crashing waves. The heavens declare His glory (Psalm 19). Nature reveals God’s invisible qualities (Romans 1:20). A prayer walk on the beach, an autumn afternoon at the arboretum, or a personal “sunrise service” can restore spiritual rhythm.
The “Ritual” Type
A.W. Tozer said that the greatest enemy facing the church is “the dictatorship of the routine.” He says, “When we come to a place where everything can be predicted and nobody expects anything unusual from God, we are in a rut.” It’s easy to learn “how” and forget “why.” A relationship with God is reduced to empty ritual. We simply “go through the motions.” That’s the danger of rituals. But rituals can serve as powerful reminders. They can mark rites of passage. They can give structure and significance to our spiritual lives.
Robert Fulgrum says, “Everyone leads a ritualized life: Rituals are repeated patterns of meaningful acts.” We need to be intentional about ritual.
Mezuzahs
Every time a Jewish person walked in or out of their home, they passed the mezuzah--a small box containing a piece of parchment with the twenty-two lines of the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4-9; 11:13-21) written on it. It was a ritual reminder “to love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your strength.”
We tend to remember what we should forget and forget what we should remember, so throughout Biblical history God has used rituals to remind us of what he doesn’t want us to forget. Communion is the ultimate example. It’s a ritual reminder of what Jesus accomplished on the cross.
I don’t come from a church tradition where we “cross” ourselves, but the practice traces all the way back to the second-century. Tertullian said, “In all our travels and movements, in all our coming in and going out, in putting off shoes, at the bath, at the table, in lighting our candles, in lying down, in sitting down, whatever employment occupieth us, we mark our foreheads with the sign of the cross.” It was their “mezuzah"--a ritual reminder of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
WWJD is a modern-day mezuzah. In 1998, 15 million WWJD bracelets sold. It’s a ritual reminder to ask the question: what would Jesus do?
Leonard Sweet says, “To mezuzah our universe is to create sacred space and sacred rituals wherever we go.” Susanna Wesley raised 17 children, including John and Charles who started the Methodist movement. There is no “getting away to pray” with 17 kids, but where there’s a will there’s a way! Susanna would sit in her rocking chair in the middle of the living room and put a blanket over herself. You can turn anyplace in sacred space. Why not turn your commute to work into communion with God? Create sacred space and sacred rituals to keep God front and center in your life.
Ebenezers
Mezuzahs are ritual reminders. Ebenezers mark rites of passage. I Samuel 7 records Israel’s victory over the Philistines. Verse 12 says, “Then Samuel took a stone, and set it between mizpah and shen, and called the name of it Ebenezer, saying, hitherto the Lord has helped us.”
On March 9, 2002, NCC held a “Tear Down The For Sale Sign Celebration” at its newly purchased property one block from Union Station. It took years of negotiations and a few miracles to secure the property. The celebration was an opportunity to say like Samuel, “Hitherto the Lord has helped us.” It’ll take a few years and a few more miracles to get the property rezoned and the coffeehouse built, but March 9, 2002 was an “Ebenezer moment.” Life is about celebrating “rites of passage” and “threshold moments.” The Old Testament is full of altars and monuments that mark important moments.
Robert Fulgrum says, “Rituals are often silent, solitary, and self-contained. The most powerful rites of passage are reflective--when you look back on your life again and again, paying attention to the rivers you have crossed and the gates you have opened and walked on through, the thresholds you have passed.”
Once a month I print out my journal and spend half a day reading, reflecting and reprioritizing. That reflective ritual is an important part of my spiritual rhythm. There is no question that we need to leave from for surprise and spontaneity, but rituals can give structure to spirituality. Mezuzahs and Ebenezers can add an important element to our worship experience. Let’s resurrect some ancient rituals!