We have come to the end of this study in New Testament worship vocabulary, but I cannot close without taking note of two common obstacles 
that frequently hamper leaders who wish to act on the theology we have discovered by putting our theological conclusions into practice. Perhaps you would like to review that theology in parts one, two, three and four.
The key theological issue at stake is the New Testament’s elimination of the Old Testament distinction between the sacred and the profane (recall, especially, part four in this series).
Jesus Christ has made the Old Testament/Covenant idea of special/sacred space (a temple), personnel (priests), and activities (ritual offerings)
obsolete. The New Testament even goes so far as never to identify baptism or the Lord’s Supper as acts of “liturgy” or “worship,” as surprising as that may be.
But, for some odd reason, many churchgoers prefer living in a quasi-Old Testament world. Here is where we encounter the first obstacle.
Perhaps many churchgoers secretly prefer the idea of living life day-to-day as a truly profane existence. After all, stepping in and out of God’s presence, spending the majority of our time free from the presence of God, seems preferable for those who don’t want to deal with Christ’s Lordship.
In any case, humanity’s predilection for an obsolete manner of religious thinking appears in our need to invent new ways of importing Old Testament structures into the New Testament church. It happens all the time in every tradition. Think of the many ways we reinstall the
sacred/profane distinction into the Christian life.
We create uniquely sacred people with ordination ceremonies. We even call them “priests,” as opposed to all of the other Christians who become the “laity.”
We Christianize sacred spaces via grand cathedral/church architecture, and we then refer to these places as “God’s house.”
We elaborate uniquely sacred acts through sacramental liturgies that may only be performed by the appropriately sacred personnel (i.e. the ordained) inside the proper sacred space.
All of this, every last bit of it, is absolutely wrong as far as the New Testament is concerned. All I can say is, thank God that the grace of Jesus Christ is so bloomin’ big that it extends even to wrong-headed people like us.
The second obstacle issues from the first. It becomes the rational justification for the ecclesiastical mistakes described above.
One of my former colleagues loved to repeat this standard rationale, imagining that he had slain his opponent (usually me) with a single thrust, “If everything is sacred, then nothing is sacred!” Have you heard that one?
In other words, by this logic we’ve got to create ‘special’ moments/places/personnel in order to preserve some sense of the divine majesty. Otherwise, familiarity will breed contempt, and it’s only a matter of time before any sense of awe before God is melted away into the mundane mix of inattentive daily living.
Right? If so, let’s reintroduce Old Covenant thought and its priestly structures from stage-right.
No. This is exactly the wrong thing to do. Let’s think about it for a moment.
The first flaw in my friend’s argument is a matter of simple logic.
Notice that my colleague’s objection to the New Testament perspective on worship must assume the continuing validity of the sacred/profane distinction in order to make its point.
In other words, it ignores the very assertion it pretends to refute. To put it another way, it tries to dismiss New Testament teaching (i.e. there is no more sacred/profane distinction for those who know Jesus) by keeping its feet firmly planted in the Old Testament framework (i.e. we must observe the sacred/profane distinction if we want to truly worship God).
The next time you hear someone using this invalid claim calmly inform them that you reject the premise of their conclusion. Ha! Not really. They probably won’t know what you mean.
At the end of the day, this “sophisticated” sounding refutation of New Testament teaching is really nothing more than a stubborn refusal to come
to grips with the newly redeemed creation awash with God’s unfettered grace now available through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
While I certainly understand the pragmatic concerns that lead people to cling to Old Covenant distinctions, I remain convinced that any practical decision contrary to biblical teaching, no matter how “helpful,” will ultimately prove crippling to God’s people.
It is better to wrestle with the difficult implications of sound theology than it is to ease the burden of church leadership by choosing expediency.
Yes, the innate limits of the human attention span may well require that we demarcate certain times and places for special events, i.e. a designated place…at a designated time…to gather together…for particular events and practices…as a community of faith.
BUT let’s never confuse the pragmatic needs born of human limitations with the proper theology of the New Covenant. We do such things to accommodate human weakness, NOT because there are any real differences between different times, special places, or specially ordained people.
Christian worship, New Testament worship, is an obedient lifestyle where every day is received as the gift of God’s holy presence, personally indwelling us through the Holy Spirit, conforming us to the perfect image of His one and only eternal Son as we sacrifice ourselves in following His call.
Live out THAT life and you will worship and glorify our holy God all day every day without fail.
thanks you happy new year