Thought for Today
Exodus 20:8 Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor :and do all your work. 10 But the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God; you shall not do any work--
Psalm 96:9 Worship the LORD in holy splendor; tremble before him, all the earth.
John 4:20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem." . . . 23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth."
“liturgy (From Gr. leitourgia, ‘work of the people’) The service of God offered by the people of God in divine worship.” (Westminster Dictionary of Theological Terms, pg.163)
For several Sundays recently, our congregation has not been able to worship in our sanctuary. Instead, we have worshiped downstairs in our hall. That hall is used during the week by our preschool and is only used on Sunday for our Coffee Hour following our worship service. Rather than rearrange everything for worship and then restore it after Coffee Hour, we have adapted some of our liturgy and forgone other parts. Because of all of this, I have been thinking about liturgy quite a bit.
“In a Christian context, liturgy often includes structured prayers, readings from scripture, and rituals such as the Eucharist.” (Copilot Search) Across the spectrum of Christendom, liturgies and liturgical practices and elements vary greatly. The Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches have much more elaborate liturgies than do most Protestant churches. Even among Protestant churches there are wide variations. Simplification of liturgy was a part of the stimulus for the Protestant Reformation.
I have spent my life in faith traditions, denominations, that are part of the Reform Tradition. That same dictionary offers for that tradition, “The theological tradition that emerged from the work of John Calvin (1509-64) and other reformers such as Huldrych Zwingli (1484-1531) and Heinrich Bullinger (1504-75) in contrast to Lutheranism and Anabaptism in the 16th century.” (ibid, pg. 235) One of the characteristics of Reformed churches is the simplicity of their liturgy.
Within that tradition, some ministers wear clerical robes and stoles, others do not. Some churches have stained glass windows; some do not. Although there are similarities in the common Order of Worship within that tradition, there is variation and flexibility from church to church. The two most common elements in that and in most other faith traditions during worship are the unison recitation of the Lord’s Prayer and the presentation of tithes and offerings. Some ‘debt,’ some ‘transgress,’ and some ‘sin,’ but almost all Christian churches of which I am aware pray that prayer which Jesus gave his disciples.
Are liturgies important? Is one liturgy ‘better’ than all the others? I wrote about comparatives yesterday, so that question is still on my mind. Is the liturgy of the church I serve ‘better’ than all the rest? Are we the ones doing it right, while all of our Methodist, Catholic, Orthodox, Baptist, etc. brethren are doing it ‘wrong’?
The Pentateuch includes detailed, elaborate instructions for worship, for the construction and arrangement of the tabernacle. It includes detailed, elaborate instructions for how the priests are to be clad. There are details about every element of worship. Later in scripture there are details for the construction of the Temple in Jerusalem. But, Jesus told that Samaritan woman at the well, “the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him.”
I believe that the ‘right’ liturgy is the liturgy which most helps you “worship the Father in spirit and truth.” I personally find the common liturgies encountered in the Reform Tradition most helpful . . . for me. But, I have true Christian friends in almost every faith tradition I know. And, for what it’s worth, I have Jewish friends who worship the same God I worship and who are faithful to their Jewish liturgy, which was the liturgy Jesus knew and practiced.
Is our liturgy important? Only to the extent with which it facilitates our own worship of the Lord. Only to the extent to which it draws us closer to our Creator God.
Stay safe, worship in awe and thanksgiving, trust God,
Pastor Ray