The ontology of God and Human Worship

Everything in the world has a connection. Even words need to be explained by the other words, it is indispensable that everything relate to other things, systemically speaking (Language-Game). Although not every related things are the same in essence. One religious scholar by the name Ninian Smart once asked a very provocative question that deserve our attention. If God is relational being and in relation to the act of Human worship, God then is God. Should then we say that one of the ontology of God is grounded in term of worship? If God is a being a proper object of worship and not being worshipped, Does God still be God? 

In our Christian liturgy and theology, we have this clear sense that God is worthy of Worship. Even as Christian we know that worshipping God is the whole thing that we do, our life is a life of worship since we are been created! The term worship itself means an act of reverence to divine and act of acknowledgement of the qualitative differences of that ultimate numinous being. Thus, when we worship God, we know ourselves better! (We are only creation not creator). 

From Scripture we know that worship entails heart, mind and soul. Or at least, certain degree of consciousness and awareness are needed to worship God. But perhaps, I venture to think that having existence is enough to be said as a necessary condition to perform an act of worship, as long as the existence itself project reverence to God although we cannot say it as a sufficient condition for worship to be celebrated. And even probably, animal included as well in the act of worship. Therefore It is not strange and metaphoric when the Hymn said, let the all earth rejoice and worship the Lord or when the Sacred Scripture tell us in Psalms 148 & 150, to command all creation and everything that "breathe" to worship the Lord. This is a quite good indication that creation could also worship God and if the answer is yes, at least we know that still, the way we worship God is very different from the rest of other creation, as far we can infer. Now, the question once again ring, what if there was no creation to worship Him at the beginning of time, Does God still be God? or to phrase it differently, does God need creation so that He become God, in relation to the ontology God as the worthy of Worship? 

Apparently, it is difficult enough to separate the ontology of God in relation of worship. Even in Biblical scholarship, Larry Hurtado has been proposed how Jesus is venerated as the proof of His sharing of Father's Glory. The inclusion of Jesus through Worship was the prime evidence of claiming Jesus as God. The High Christology of Jesus formed from the Worship and the experience of devoted community in Jesus and Paul time that "forced" a some kind of mutation to what he called the phenomena as "biniarian mutation of monotheism." Hurtado redefined monotheism in the scope of ultimate worship to God's uniqueness among other spiritual being not the belief that there is only one heavenly being and hence deny the other existence and spiritual realities, although we all know, all those are derived and created. Jesus, was not seen as the second deity but was worshipped along with YHWH but at the same time, devoted to a belief of One God. This is what distinctive of Jewish monotheism compare to pagan monotheism.

Back to square one, when we see a very close concept of God and the ontology of God that seems inseparable, dare we say God is God only when He is worshipped? And hence, as implication God need a creation so that so, He can become God in a full sense (Worthy of Worship). To answer this is surely not easy. Ninian Smart present the dilemma in his book, "Does God then depend on us? if God is conceptually related in the way I have described to ritual, then cessation of ritual might be thought to destroy God. Is God depend on us, just as colours are mind-dependent? Of course it would be absorb to suppose that God ceases when our prayer do, this would in any case be inconsistent with the spirit of what is said in the prayers themselves." To answer this shortly, we can say that God does not need human, animals or creation to worship Him so that so, He became God that is ontologically worthy of worship. Psalm 90:2 said this clearly, "before the mountains were born or You gave birth to the earth and the world, even from the everlasting to everlasting, You are God." Fair enough, however, how about the angelic being that were created before man and earth? Should God necessarily exist with them, so that God become God in relation with the other heavenly being that worshipped Him?

From the case above,  I can only give some thought that perhaps could help but maybe far from answering this dilemma. Philosophically, Trinity as sufficient being whereby each persons in active relations from eternity to eternity make them are not depend on any creation or any heavenly beings. This is consistent with the testimony from the Bible for instance, "I AM WHO I AM" (God is self-existent, he define himself). God can exits apart from any other being and can still be said as God in relation. Trinity in their communal unity define each other in and through their eternal relationship. Colin Gunton wrote, "The three persons of the Trinity exists only in reciprocal eternal relatedness. God is not God apart from the way in which Father, Son and Spirit in eternity give to and receive from each other what they essentially are." The last word is vital, "receive from each other what they are essentially are" and by this, if God is ontologically speaking is to be worshipped/worthy of Worship, then does it safe to say that God of Trinity in their eternal being worship each other from eternity end? I dare not to conclude that way. Maybe the word worship in that context is not quite proper and could be misleading but love may the best said. What we know that God of Trinity are in constant love with each other (shared & reciprocated) and as writer once wrote, "to love is worship."