Thursday, May 05, 2005
The Value Of Liturgy
Voyage of the Dawn Treader tells a wonderful tale of shared liturgical prayer before a meal with friends.
I am currently reading Brothers Karamazov and yesterday at lunch read a passaage where a character describes finding understanding of the liturgy for the first time. Though it is a truth I have known for some time, I was stuck while reading the passage that liturgy has meaning when we allow it to, and it is "perfunctory," when we are perfunctory.
Now, I have heard many people use that truth in defense of jettisoning liturgy from worship - since we assign it its meaning, we can do what we want for the sake of making our church more inviting. But here is the thing, that momentary awkwardness forces us to react, true sometimes negatively, but react we must. When we make church comfortable and inviting, people are free to come, and free to not react.
Do we really want to operate our churches in a fashion that allows people not to the react to the gospel? I don't.
Though the little liturgical moment created some momentary awkwardness, I really liked it. I tend to associate liturgy with perfunctory worship. This family's natural blending of liturgy into family tradition was special. Creeds and liturgy are really the reciting of truth ? uttered together down through the centuries by God's people. It is cool when you think about it. It connects us with the faithful of the ages and reminds us of God's faithfulness as the keeper of covenant promises.Liturgy is under attack these days. More and more congregations are jettisoning liturgy to help "seekers" avoid the "momentary awkwardness" my friend at Dawn Treader describes.
I am currently reading Brothers Karamazov and yesterday at lunch read a passaage where a character describes finding understanding of the liturgy for the first time. Though it is a truth I have known for some time, I was stuck while reading the passage that liturgy has meaning when we allow it to, and it is "perfunctory," when we are perfunctory.
Now, I have heard many people use that truth in defense of jettisoning liturgy from worship - since we assign it its meaning, we can do what we want for the sake of making our church more inviting. But here is the thing, that momentary awkwardness forces us to react, true sometimes negatively, but react we must. When we make church comfortable and inviting, people are free to come, and free to not react.
Do we really want to operate our churches in a fashion that allows people not to the react to the gospel? I don't.
