Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name.  Hebrews 13:15

For the beauty of the earth,

for the beauty of the skies,

for the love which from our birth

over and around us lies

Christ our God, to you we raise,

This our sacrifice of praise.

Our hymns and liturgy contain references to the “sacrifice of praise” that we offer to God. Most often that is understood as referring to worship through music. But is there more to it? Recently, I read an interesting reflection in the book Common Prayer – a liturgy for ordinary radicals. It suggested that today worship does not come at great cost. It is something we do at church and which makes us feel good.

But is worship sometimes more costly? It suggests that when a song is not working for us, we should nevertheless praise God with it, because that probably means it is working for someone else who is very different from us. It suggests that we sing songs as a sacrifice, even if they are not our favourite style. Then indeed would we offer our worship as a sacrifice rather than requiring others to sacrifice to our pleasure.

It also suggests that through liturgy we are guided to worship God together and through that bring a sacrifice of praise. Yes, when we worship God we are also built up, we are refreshed and our faith is strengthened, but we also worship God as a sacrifice. By not putting our wants first, but rather considering others and putting God first, together we can praise God and be witnesses to the truth we believe in.

I thought that this is an interesting approach. As we come to Church may we not only consider what we like, but also how we can join others in praise.