What is worship about?

I am going to wander about once more on my sabbatical and attend a church I do not serve. I have a couple in mind and will make the choice tomorrow. But there is an observation that has stuck with me in each of the services I have attended. I use the word stuck because that is how it feels. It sticks in my mind and soul.

This thought, this observation is that our current worship does not really need God.

In the churches that I have been to, we sing well, the Bible is read, and Jesus is referenced, and we pray. And then there is the sermon, which is well crafted, and is creative and effectively presented. This message calls me to do something, to behave in way that is better than my current pattern. It is a morality call. Ethical and beneficial. I have been called to a better husband and father, to be a better Christian by reading my Bible, to be more caring toward my neighbor. All biblical themes, and all correct. But we didn't need God to do this. He could have been far away and we would not have noticed.

Now understand that I am not pointing fingers at the churches I have been to, I am wondering if we are any different at my church? Do we in worship pull the curtain back and show those who are there that Yahweh is present and active in our midst. Do we show them that this is not a presentation but an encounter with the living God? We are not called to be moral, we are called to be holy. We have a mandate to be righteous, which is at times a slippery term. We are to surrender and follow Jesus.

I am going to once again lead my congregation in worship in a few weeks. How will I do this? How will I pull back the curtain, how will I lead them into the presence of Yahweh? Prayerfully, humbly and with a sense of my own failings. All the churches I have attended have been good, if not great churches with great pastors. There is no sense that I have the upper hand here. I just have a deep feeling that will not go away.