Worship & Ethics

"To be sure, worship can be used as a narcotic trip into another world to escape the ethical responsibilities of living a Christian life in this world...Most biblical scholars agree that the prophetic criticism of the cult was not an attack on sacrificial worship as such, but rather upon sacrificial worship that found no expression in social righteousness. The prophets remind us that our rituals can become a retreat from reality, crude attempts to compensate for our moral misdeeds through cultic deeds, and a means of avoiding the ethical cost of discipleship through the ersatz of discipleship of the cult."  

 - William Willimon, The Service of God - How Worship and Ethics Are Related, 41-42


"If we participate in the Eucharist and then walk out of the church and oppress our neighbor, then surely we do open ourselves to God's judgment, for we have not allowed oursleves to be changed by the encounter with the living Christ."  

- Martha Moore-Keish, A More Profound Alleluia, 124