Κ Δ Π

Last past Sunday was the third sermon in a series we called Κ Δ Π. The subtitle of the series was God’s Frat Party. You could really go overboard with a title like that. K or Kappa was for Koinonia, fellowship. Δ. Delta was Doulos the idea of being a slave. This past week was Π, Pi for Proskuneo or worship. The word actually means more like bending low, or bowing the knee or even to kiss in a holy or reverent manner. It was a great series. One that I believe we should include at least once a year in some manner.
While the first two words are nouns, the last word Proskuneo is a verb. Worship is a verb. Now where have I heard that before? Oh yea, now I remember, it’s the title of a book by Robert Webber. If you are interested in worship in any way and you’ve not read any of Dr. Webber’s books or articles you just have to! We lost a great teacher recently, but we have the wealth of his knowledge contained in his books.
Even though Koinonia is a noun, you really can’t Koinonia without doing it in fellowship. Yes, you can have fellowship with God, one on one. Or should that be three on one? That’s your private Koinonia. That’s what you do in private during the week. There might even be Koinonia that happens with a small group sometime during the week. But then there is the Koinonia that happens on the weekends. Both of these happen when you are doing fellowship. You can’t fellowship by yourself.
The same with Doulos, it’s also a noun. But you can’t be a slave by yourself. Well, maybe you can. If you just do things for yourself and no one else. Then you become a slave to yourself. A term we have heard used about others, but never ourselves. Here again, you can’t Doulos without DOING Doulos, being a slave or serving someone else. In fact with this word you put yourself somewhat (really completely) in another persons control. Very few people really want to live a life like that. Well, I guess you can go off and live in some monastery somewhere and just live a life of solitude and work. But I’m not sure that is what Jesus really wants out of our lives. We need to be in the world, not of. By living in a monastery we take ourselves out of the world.
I’m going to chase a rabbit right now, so stay with me if you would. Take a step back right now. Take a bigger look at the world you live in, and the world you work in. What radio station do you listen to most of the day? What station is on in your car? What CD is in your CD player? What album is on your iPod, or mp3 player? Okay, I know I’m gonna get hammered on this next thought, but here it goes. They called it a Christian Book store. Next time you go in one, how many books are there compared to all the other stuff they sell. Can’t you buy mints in other stores? Well, maybe not Test-a-mints but a mint is a mint. “But it has a Bible verse on it”, you say. But it goes in your mouth, you might let it dissolve slowly, you might chew it up fast (depending how bad your breath is). It’s gone. It’s a mint! All the nick-naks, khochkies, the figurines, the jewelry, the music… Let’s face it we have created a Christian subculture. Our own little culture within a bigger culture. This exists so we can say, “we in the world but not of it.” Really? Is that really being ‘in’ the world? Okay, I’m gonna stop now.
Back to Κ Δ Π. For me, it kind of all fits together into what worship is. The fellowship, the serving, all of that, which happens during the week, all comes together on the weekend in one big Proskuneo, what we would call our worship service. Ben has said this about what we do on Sunday, worship is our “Cooperate celebration of what we are doing all week long.” I have been teaching this concept for about 7 years now. For me I have simplified this just a bit more, Worship is service is worship. The first worship and service is what happens during the week. The last worship is our cooperate worship. I just wish I could have understood this about 40 years ago! What I have learned in these past few years, is that in the different countries I have taught in, in Eastern Europe, not one of them translate the word Proskuneo like we do. In English we translate for the most part as worship. In Russian, Bulgarian, Estonian, Polish, Czech, Ukrainian, Hungarian and Romanian that word gets translated as bending the knee, or bowing down, or kissing. They understand these terms as worship, but not as our English word worship. We have translated several different Greek words into one our one word worship. Kerygma, Koinonia, and Leitourgia are three Greek terms that get translated worship in our bibles. No Greek lessons for now, sorry.
To bring this to a close.
During the week DO Koinonia, DO Doulos, DO Proskuneo. Let your next cooperate experience be a culmination of what you have been doing all week long. Give to the Lord this Sunday. Give without expecting and see what He will give back to you!
John