Worship at the well: From Dogmatics to doxology (and back again)

Trinity Journal, Spring 2002 by Vanhoozer, Kevin J

Jesus' teaching about "spirit" and "truth" addresses the two endemic problems of worship, namely, hypocrisy and idolatry. These two toxins poison the well and rob it of its life-giving effects. Worship in truth is the antidote to idolatry, while worship in spirit is the antidote to hypocrisy. Real worshipers both know the truth and are related to it correctly, holding on to it for dear, that is, eternal life.

D. The Rationale Of Worship (And Of Theology): "God Is Spirit" (V. 24)

Whereas v. 22 concerns the object of worship and v. 23 its manner, v. 24 pertains to the rationale behind worship. We must worship in spirit and truth because God is spirit and truth. Recall the principle I stated in my brief transition above: the object dictates the manner of worship.

"For God is spirit." As a piece of metaphysics, the statement is no doubt true. God is free from all limitations of space (and hence place), and from all limitations of time. He is free from the limitations that accompany all other forms of physical existence, namely, depletion and decay. "The Father has life in himself" (John 5:26).

Jesus, however, is not giving a lesson on metaphysics but on right worship. We should probably hear in this identity statement a reference back to Jesus' earlier identification of the Spirit with living water: precisely as Spirit, God is the fount of every blessing, the fount of eternal life. The point is to emphasize God's activity, not to contrast him with some material thing. As Spirit, God is the breath-living air!-that animates the dust and mud, creating living creatures; he is the breath that bears the prophets and God's Word. As Holy Spirit, God springs from Christ's life, death, and resurrection to make all things permanently new.

We must also take note of the fact that it is God who seeks true worshipers. In most religions, the worshipers seek God. The Bible, however, depicts God as on a mission to humanity: a Trinitarian mission that involves God's twofold pouring out of himself for others: in Son and Spirit. Jesus laid down his life in order to bestow his life-his spirit-to us. Accordingly, the Father does not simply seek but also creates those who worship in spirit and in truth. Now Jesus is the truth (John 14:6); and the Spirit is the one who relates us to the truth (John 14:17). God is Spirit because through the Spirit he begets true worshipers. God is thus not only the object of worship, but also its active subject.

Right worship thus corresponds to God in two ways: we come with the right objectivity, oriented to reality ("truth"); we come with the right subjectivity, appropriating truth ("spirit"). What we have in Jesus' teaching is nothing less than what we might call the "correspondence theory" of worship. Real worship is in spirit and truth because God is spirit and truth.

IV. FROM DOXOLOGY TO DOGMATICS (AND BACK AGAIN)

How does Jesus' teaching apply to the relation of theology to corporate worship? Let me make a general, then a specific, application.