Why worship using a liturgy?

 

There are a number of modern Christians who don’t understand praying using a liturgy. In many Protestant circles there is a leaning towards spontaneity and individuality. So, saying communal prayers together, and prayers that were written by someone else from a different time and culture, can seem very strange.   

First, what I would like to say to someone who feels that way is that we are surrounded by liturgy. Our lives are filled with ritual. Even for churches who consider themselves non-liturgical, they worship according to a pattern. For example, a pattern I often see when visiting churches is the following- the musicians play a number of songs, which is followed by a sermon, and then a prayer, and then an offering, and more songs. That is a kind of liturgy. The songs will include many that are familiar to those who are worshipping. The words are the same words, and the people often want their favourite songs. These songs are like a prayer written by someone else and sung (prayed) by the congregation. They read from the Bible. The songs and Bible readings aren’t considered any less meaningful for not being spontaneous.  So, even for those who would consider themselves non-liturgical, they still have these liturgical elements as a part of their worship.

The Christian Philosopher James K.A. Smith teaches that human beings are ritual animals. We usually have a very similar pattern to our day. We wake up at a similar time. We have a morning pattern that includes coffee, getting dressed, brushing teeth, etc. These patterns express what we value.

Smith believes that the rituals that we participate in actually have access to a part of us that goes beyond our surface consciousness. When we go to the mall, or spend time scrolling on our phone, we are shifting an internal part of us.  An addiction is like this. We might consciously know that smoking is bad for us, but there is a subconscious aspect of a person’s relationship to smoking that is often driven by a habitual pattern.

The rituals we participate in have access to our heart- to our emotional life. Our rational selves and our emotional selves aren’t always very integrated.  Some of our problems come from the inconsistency between our rational minds and our emotions. We might know something isn’t good for us, but we are emotionally drawn back to that thing we intellectually know isn’t good for us. Smith argues that the rituals we participate in have access to our hearts in a way that our rational minds don’t always have access.

Smith also teaches that the Protestant world has often treated people like they are “brains on sticks”. As if worship happens between the ears. As if the Christian life is about ascent to a set of ideas, rather than a bodily experience of sound, smell, sight, taste, bodily action, and relationship to other bodies.

When we look to our spiritual ancestors, in the Bible and throughout Church history, we see that worship included the whole person. There is singing, the lifting of hands, clapping, bowing, kneeling, and prostration. Incense is offered. The worship space is beautified. Those leading worship have special clothing. Offerings were made, and those making offerings often ate a portion of that offering alongside others.

We might think some of these practices are exclusively a part of the Old Testament, but we see the disciples of Jesus continue to attend Temple worship until it is destroyed in 70AD. The Early Church ate bread and drank wine as a part of worship, just as those in the temple ate portions of their offerings. The mysterious book of Revelation is full of worship actions that seem to have continuity with Temple worship, which suggests it was still valued in the early church.     

Making the sign of the cross is an ancient action that goes back to before Tertullian (160-225 AD), who mentions Christians drawing a cross on their foreheads. St. John Chrysostom (347-407 AD) said “never leave your house without making the sign of the cross.”   

The “prayers of the people” (a time of intercessory prayer) was mentioned as being a part of Christian worship (after the readings and sermon) as early as 155AD by Justin Martyr: “Then we all rise together and offer prayers for ourselves… and for others, wherever they may be, so that we may be found righteous by our life and actions, and faithful to the commandments, so as to obtain eternal salvation.”

The Early Church practiced confession. “Assemble on the Lord’s Day, and break bread and offer the Eucharist; but first make confession of your faults, so that your sacrifice may be a pure one.”  This is from the Didache (teaching of the Apostles), which was written in the 1st Century AD. 

The opening dialogue to the Eucharistic Prayer that starts, “The lord be with you…”, has been used since at least the time of Hippolytus, who recorded its use (215AD).

These are just a few examples of how old parts of the liturgy are. I’m trying to give a brief explanation for why we should value the liturgy, so I won’t be going into much depth, or speak about many aspects of the liturgy, but there are a number of books on the history and development of the liturgy that you could look at to learn more. Also, an instructed Eucharist led by a priest is a helpful way to start to understand liturgical worship, and can do more than this short introduction.

Much of the liturgy comes from Scripture. My bishop has said of the Book of Common Prayer (The Anglican Prayer Book) that it is the Bible arranged for prayer. That is a bit of an exaggeration. There are also prayers that are written by saints, and others. However, there is truth in what he is saying. Many portions of the liturgy are drawn from the Bible and as we use those portions of Scripture and make them our own prayer, we are connected to our spiritual ancestors who wrote and used those texts in worship.

The liturgical prayers of Sunday fit into a broader life of liturgy. The Daily Offices are prayer services of Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer. These have their own liturgy, as does Compline (which is said just before bed). These services have their own assigned readings based on the lectionary, which is a cycle of Bible readings that match the church seasons. These daily readings and prayers that match the seasons help us to stay in continuity with worship on Sunday. They help us to frame our life in the story of Jesus and the Church.

When I first started attending an Anglican Church I found that I was invited to participate by responding in the words of the liturgy, by the position of my body (standing, kneeling, sitting), and also by making my way to the Altar to receive the bread and wine of the Euchaist. I felt like I was more of a participant in the work of the liturgy, and less of an observer.

I also found that I was invited to consider the words I was saying, unless I was going to say them mindlessly. Saying the words with meaning meant that I was constantly meditation on the meaning of the words and considering how I aligned with the words being spoken. Do I mean what I’m saying? I found it to be quite a meditative experience that encouraged me into a deeper faith.  

As an Anglican priest, I want what we do to be in continuity with our spiritual ancestors. They are the one who made it possible for us to have Scripture.  It is their experience with Jesus Christ that we find in those pages. But, when Jesus ascended, he didn’t leave us a book. He left us a community who had been shaped by him for three years, and who we believe he continued to interact with through the Holy Spirit. Our ultimate desire is to draw towards God as the Church experienced God in Christ. So, I hope that something of our worship would be recognizable to those Christians who came before us 500, 1000, and 1500 years ago. I’m not interested in being frozen in time, but I am interested in continuity. I am interested in preserving the wisdom of the Christian Tradition that has been handed on to us. And I believe liturgy is a part of that wisdom.

I think there is a lot of wisdom to be gained from liturgical prayer. I find that these prayers draw me out of my small world. I am drawn to pray in a way that I might not have if left on my own. My worship is broader- I pray for more people and more issues. The prayers help me to think deeper. Sometimes they name issues I might be uncomfortable naming. I find that I focus more on God and less on myself.  As I pray these prayers, I find that I am being taught to pray. The repetition of these prayers, week after week and day after day, causes many of the prayers to be memorized. When they are sung, they are particularly easy to memorize. And when they are memorized, I find that they bubble up within me at different times in my day.  

When I pray these prayers, I feel like I am praying with others. Even if I’m alone, I am praying these words with those who have come before me, but I’m also aware of people around the world who are praying these prayers as well. I am a part of a global church, and I know that these same prayers are being prayed in many different places.       

  

Some books that I have found helpful on this topic:   

“Inwardly Digest” by Derek Olsen

“You are What you Love”- by James K.A. Smith

“Ancient-Future Worship” by Robert Webber

“For the life of the world” by Alexander Schmemann

Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church