Moments after the birth of their first child, a young couple excitedly began to rehearse the events leading up to the birth process: the Lamaze classes, the hours of practice, the hurried trip to the hospital, the birth itself. Finally, words fail and they embrace.
A young man throws his mortarboard high into the air and begins to recount with his friends the trials and tribulations of becoming a high school graduate. The boisterous conversation masks a deep sense of satisfaction. Talking incessantly, he and his friends make their way to the graduation party at the high school gym.
Amid showers of rice and tears mixed with laughter, the young, newly-married people reach the car and drive off toward their new life together. They review and evaluate the service and the wedding reception for over two hours. As they continue to drive a peaceful silence ensues. With eyes fixed on the highway, the young man reaches for his wife’s hand.
After the appropriate amount of backslapping and tale telling, the young executive’s boss holds high a glass and toasts the newly promoted vice president.
Following thirteen replays of the “incredible” and awesome” touchdown pass that won the game in the last thirty seconds, the exhaustedly joyous quarterback is doused with champagne by jubilant teammates.
Following the wake and funeral, the emotionally drained members of the family return to their mother’s house. Allis said and done. It is now time to eat together.
What do these varied events have to do with worship? Everything–for they are all acts of worship. These brief snippets of human existence are occasions of celebration:
Celebrations of new life, the rite of passage to adulthood, love, success, victory and a life spent and lived.
Celebrations which focus on a crisis, a life crisis that is either predictable or accidental,
Celebrations which contain certain common elements: the event itself, the retelling of the event and finally the sacramental action—the embrace, the wedding reception toasts, the partying, the toast of success, the toast of victory, the eating that accompanies the post-funeral dinner.
Normally we do not think of birth, high school graduation, a job promotion or a locker room celebration of victory as worship. Marriage and the funeral better fit our sensibilities, but not when we attend the post-marriage or funeral celebrations.
Rather the word “worship” normally conjures up church buildings, one hour on Sunday morning, the refracted light of stained glass windows, organ and choral music, colorful vestments and banners, the posture of kneeling, the smell of candle wax and incense.
Worship as a celebration after a football game? Such a comparison is a bit unsettling if not blatantly irreverent,
We glimpse a somewhat humorous parallel if we reflect for a moment — the sacredness of Sunday afternoon, the sacramental food of T.V. snacks and beer, the chanting of disgust at the fumble or shout of praise for the impossible reception, the posture and liturgical movements of the armchair quarterback, the offertory of the five-dollar bet to include the assurance of a salvific seven point spread, the sermonic commentary complete with play by play exegesis. But how could we seriously equate this with worship? Not only a bit unsettling but distasteful and offensive.
What then is worship? The word itself provides some valuable, if not often overlooked, clues. Worship’’ derives from two words, weorth and scipe which roughly translate as “worth” + “to shape” Taken together, the compound “worship” could be literally translated as an act or action that shapes worth. If we think about liturgy (which means work of the people), the worship as an action or work which shapes worth, our typifications and stereotypes of worship are shattered with the possibility of a new and deeper meaning.
The ‘‘worth” of worship is not a thing or reality that we create but a gilt that is given freely by a loving God in an act of conveyance that we call Grace. Such worth is embodied in God’s gift of His Son, Jesus of Nazareth. Such an embodied gift—the Incarnate Son—is a gift beyond our deserving or merit. It is a gift of perfect love that we call agape and absolute faithfulness that we term hesed.
It is at God’s instigation, His initiative that such worth and worthiness is given. It is the gift conveyed at Baptism when we are marked as His own forever.
The awareness of this simple fact and exceedingly complex truth could, if we would but acknowledge it, free us from the self-imposed slavery of having to prove our worth to ourselves, others and God.
The shaping of a response to this freely given worth by God is the recognition and response to the Gift Giver in the act of thanksgiving that we call liturgy or the work of the people. Said differently, we shape a response to the gift of worth through the act of worship.
How do we shape a response or more accurately, what is the shape of the liturgy? It is best exemplified in the central sacrament of the Holy Eucharist (Eucharist meaning thanksgiving). The basic shape of the Holy Communion (communication with God) consists of two types of work: the liturgy of the Word and the liturgy of the Table.
For a further elaboration of the shape of the Eucharist, refer to the above incidents with which we began these musings, in each crisis or experience of our humanity, the shape of worship and communion are revealed. The young parents retell the story of the birth (we are by nature story tellers) in the same way that we hear the story, our salvation history, told every Sunday as we listen to the story in the scriptures.
But note that words do not fully obtain. The young parents embrace: the kiss or exchange of the peace of God which surpasses all human understanding and words.
The party, feast and varied toasts represent a movement to the liturgy of the table. it is appropriate to celebrate a gift (worth) with a celebration, and celebration means food—bread and wine. We are closest, most vulnerable, most intimate when we eat together. Such closeness we call communion.
The commonplace but often overlooked worship services described above call our attention to a fact about ourselves. Human beings are incurably religious and they express their religion through worship. Saint Irenaeus stated it succinctly: ‘The glory of God is a living man; and the life of man consists in beholding God,” ‘Beholding God” is worship, which is the chief end of all human beings,
A more contemporary saint, Thomas Merton, makes the same point, “It is the law of man’s nature, written into his very essence, and just as much a part of him as the desire to build houses and cultivate the land and marry and have children and read books and sing songs, that he should want to stand together with other men in order to acknowledge their common dependence on God, their Father and Creator.’’
In acknowledging ourselves as worshippers, we begin to seethe relationship of worship to the other activities, work or liturgies of SWEEPS.
Regarding Service, James Crichton writes, ‘if liturgy is to become a reality in the life of the Church it will have to be taken outside the Church precincts and become a formative element in the lives of Christians,’’
Reflecting on the relationship of worship to Education we might begin to see that the best Christian education is good liturgy.
As Episcopalians we recognize that our best Evangelistic ‘tool’’ is good liturgy. It is a commonplace response, ‘I joined the Episcopal Church because of the beautiful liturgy.’’
Turning to Pastoral Care, William Willimon has written a book entitled, Worship as Pastoral Care in which he claims that worship heals, sustains, guides and reconciles—the basic functions of pastoral care.
Finally. Stewardship is our disciplined response of thanksgiving to God’s gift of worth that we call Grace. Note the place of the offertory in the shape of our worship. It is the culmination of the liturgy of the Word and the beginning of the Eucharistic Feast. It is thanksgiving for the living Word and an offer of ourselves. our souls, our bodies as a living sacrifice of praise.
Recognizing that we are, by nature, worshippers, I have asked the Liturgical Commission to begin work on a Diocesan Customary for worship within the Diocese, The purpose of the “customary” is to help define the principles and practices of Christian worship within the Episcopal Church in this Diocese—to articulate our customs of worship as found in the Book of Common Prayer.
The intent of the customary is education: Education of, not simply about, worship and liturgy. Education that will transfigure, convert, inspire and shape us as being made worthy by a loving God who values us beyond our imagining. Education that will reveal that good liturgy is holy work; the most noble work that we can do as human beings. Education that will help us in loving and living our Tradition, for we are a people of two great and inspired books: an inspired story called the Bible and a prayer book. The first book is a book of revelation. The second is a manual of response to that revelation. Taken together, these two books encapsulate and symbolize our Tradition—a living and growing tradition made up of living words and living sacraments.
Your Servant In Christ Jesus,