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Vol. 1, No. 6
Worship in the Reformed Tradition-Part II
Scripture calls us to direct all of our energies; to focus our attention on God as the primary audience for all that we do in our worship service. When the service is over, we should be asking ourselves, “was God honored in the prayers and the preaching; was God’s grace upheld in the music and the message; was God pleased with the attention I directed towards him, and the spirit and the truth that emerged in our time together.” In the Directory of Worship for the PCUSA, we read:
Christian worship joyfully ascribes all praise and honor, glory and power to the triune God. In worship, the people of God acknowledge God present in the world and in their lives. As they respond to God’s claim and redemptive action in Jesus Christ, believers are transformed and renewed. In worship, the faithful offer themselves to God and are equipped for God’s service in the world.”
Like so much in our lives that we take for granted, and do not give a lot of thought, so too with our worship. Those of us who have been Presbyterians for a considerable time are basically comfortable with the way our worship flows. Most of the churches which follow a traditional style of worship have an order that is remarkably similar to ours. Even when we are able to add a more contemporary flair to our worship, I am convinced that we can incorporate this more modern approach and still maintain the integrity of our Reformed approach to worship. You see, regardless of modern or traditional, there is the importance of the centrality of the Word of God; there is the importance of the centrality of the Communion Table; there is the importance of the centrality of the Cross – all of which are visual reminders of the God who calls us into this worship setting.
Worship is anchored within the Scriptures. From the emphasis which we place upon expository preaching, to the singing of the psalms, to the simplification of the liturgy, the motivation throughout the Reformed movement has been to keep people focused on Scripture as the fountain of faith. Therefore, our order of worship tends to fall into three basic sections which relate to the Holy Scriptures:
- We Gather Around the Word
- We Hear the Word
- We Respond to the Word
What really brought this home to me was the experience that Pam and I had on our first visit to Scotland in the early 90s. I was attending a summer institute of theology at St. Andrews over a three week span which gave us two Sundays to worship there at Hope Park Presbyterian Church adjacent to the University of St. Andrews. As we sat in the mostly full sanctuary, and as the organist played the prelude, a man came down the center aisle carrying a large Bible, he ascended into the elevated pulpit, placed the Bible on the pulpit, turned to the reading for the day, pulled the chain to turn on the pulpit light, then went down from the pulpit, and took his seat adjacent to the communion table. We came to learn that this man is called a “beadle.” This term refers to an assistant to the minister during the conducting of the worship service, providing more logistical assistance than liturgical assistance. When the prelude ended, the minister came forward and called us all to worship. When the Benediction was offered, the beadle arose and went up to the pulpit, closed the Bible, turned off the pulpit light, then he and the minister exited the sanctuary, carrying the Word of God before them. When the choir finished singing the response to the benediction, the congregation sat as the organist played the postlude. This time of sitting at the close of the service was an opportunity to reflect on how God had been honored during the service and how to respond to that Word over the coming week.
So, number one, we gather before the Word which has been intentionally and reverently placed before us. And in our Call to Worship, we use words of Scripture, often from the psalms, to call ourselves to worship. With prayer and music, we offer our praise to God. Praise songs, such as we had today from Angela and Chip, certainly keep us within our Reformed approach to worship. And as we acknowledge God’s presence among us, we find within a need to confess our unworthiness; to recognize our brokenness from God and from each other. Thus, we are called to confession with a biblical word that acknowledges both our sinfulness and the mercy of God who desires to forgive. This summons to offer our words of contrition and to receive the gift of forgiveness is God’s invitation, not mine. God desires that we return to a right relationship with him, so both in a corporate and in a private manner we offer our confession of our sins before God. This is followed by one of the more powerful moments in our worship experience – the words of assurance that God does abundantly pardon, and that he remembers our sin no more. Once again, we draw upon the words of Scripture to make this declaration of good news. As we have gathered ourselves around the Word of God, we continue to draw from that Word as we move through the service of worship.
The Gloria Patri is basically a doxology, or a short hymn, that reminds us of the Trinitarian nature of God we worship.
The moment for children is a fairly new addition to worship; we cannot say that it has roots in our Reformed tradition because it does not. What we trust happens in this time is that our children learn a point of Scripture, hopefully tied into what the sermon will be about that day. I personally have been blessed and taught by children’s messages. For those of you who have read my blog postings might remember the one from last Easter which gave me a new perspective on the resurrection.
But now we move to the second phase of our worship – that of hearing the Word. Often the preacher will offer a Prayer for Illumination – something to which I need to be more attuned; this is often seen as one of Calvin’s greatest contribution to the liturgy. Here we pray that the light of God will shine upon our spirits and that the Holy Spirit will be in the reading and the hearing of the Word, brining us out of darkness, thus changing the reading from simply a recitation of words to being an act of revelation. I try to draw Scripture readings from both the Old and New Testaments, but sometimes they may come from different sections of the same testament. The important thing is that the texts drive the sermon. For me, the worst thing I can do if I am serious about addressing God in worship, is to have the sermon in my head before I have the texts in my heart. When that happens to any pastor, then the preaching moment becomes more about him or her than it does about what God wants to say through the Word being preached by that pastor.
Where the sermon is placed in the service has often been debated. I grew up in a conservative Presbyterian church where the sermon was at the end of the service, and I have had discussions with elders who feel that the sermon should be the climax of the worship. But to me that violates the basic premise of the “Why” we do what we do in worship. Because after the reading and the proclamation of the Word, there must be the third phase of worship – that of responding to the Word.
After the pastoral prayer at the conclusion of the sermon, there is the offering. Now some of you may still call it a “collection,” however, the proper word – remembering that God is the focus of all that we do in worship – is “offering.” We offer our tithes, our gifts, our prayers, our time to God. Remember that into the offering plates there is often more than money which is received – prayer requests, officer nominations, mission responses, etc. -and what we are bringing forward to be blessed and dedicated are our offerings to God.
Our response to the Word continues through our Affirmation of Faith, often using the Apostles’ Creed, but not exclusively. A Brief Statement of Faith and a Declaration of Faith as well as other documents within our Book of Confessions provide ways for the worshipping body to say what they believe. Prayers of Thanksgiving, Intercession, and Supplication allow us to gather the prayers of the church for the very present and very real needs of the world around us, seeking God’s will, Christ’s peace, and the power of the Holy Spirit.
As Paul expressed it to the Philippian church (2:9-11):
In worship, the church is transformed and renewed, equipped and sent to serve God’s reign in the world…”
Vol. 1, No.5
Worship in the Reformed Tradition-Part I
The following is the essence of two sermons I will have preached on the subject of worship within our Reformed traditions. The sub-text of both sermons is “why we do what we do” in our worship services. This sermon was preached on September 20th and addressed the “why.” Next Sunday will deal with the “what.”
To begin, let us look at the word worship. It comes from the Old English, “worthshipe”–which means what one does to name, acknowledge and enact the worth of another to one’s self. In Christian worship we come before God in and through Jesus Christ to do just that–acknowledge, enact and praise God’s worth to ourselves. We do what we do – WHY? – to honor and praise the Lord our God. If God is not the audience in worship, then we as the community of believers are missing the point of the Christian worship experience. If we are being true to our Reformed traditions, we have all got to pay attention to who the audience is for what we do when we gather in a worship setting. When I stand up to read the scriptures and to preach the sermon, I need to be cognizant of the fact that my primary audience is not the congregation – God is. When the liturgist leads in prayers and invocations, it is not the congregation who is the primary audience of his or her endeavors; the liturgist is seeking to bring the congregation’s attention –head and heart – into a dialogical relationship with God; when the choir leads in the hymnody or the anthem, it is not the congregation to whom they are primarily singing, their gift of song is an oblation to the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords.
With this being the 500th anniversary of John Calvin’s birth, he is getting a lot of face time in Presbyterian and other Reformed churches, and deservedly so. Evelyn Underhill, in her seminal book entitled Worship, described John Calvin’s worship as an “austere Puritanism” that “utterly concentrated on the Eternal God in His unseen majesty” and “has a splendor and spiritual value of its own.” Reformed worship, Underhill continued, was “a powerful corrective of humanistic piety; driving home the abiding truth of God’s unique reality and total demand, and man’s poverty, dependence, and obligation.” This would appear to be a welcome corrective to the person-centered, therapeutic spirit that characterizes so many worship services today. As Christians first, and Presbyterians second, we are called through Scripture, and now I am referring to the 5th chapter of the Revelation of John, to proclaim “to him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever .…” Throughout Scripture, the emphasis in worship is about worshiping God and the Lamb; it is not about entertaining the sheep! So let me encourage you to change your perspective; I want to encourage you to remember that the congregation is not the primary audience in a worship service. Remember the words of our psalm for today:
“Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Know that the Lord is God; it is He who made us, and we are his …enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise, give thanks to him and praise his name.”
The questions we need to be asking ourselves is not “what did I get out of the service today?” Rather it is this one: “Was God honored in our worship service today?” When I take off my robe and hang the cross back on its hook, I should not think “Well, I really nailed that one today” or “That one really never got off the ground.” No, my question for myself is “Did my preaching honor God in its preparation, and in its delivery?” When the choir finishes up the Benediction Response, whatever else they may think about the choral presentations, they need to be asking themselves, “Did my/our singing honor God?” As you leave to drive home or to go out to Sunday dinner, the questions you need to be asking yourself and your family, “Was God honored; did we worship him today in spirit and in truth; did we feel his presence in this place, and perhaps more importantly, did God feel my presence, my connected-ness to his grace?”
And our Reformed understandings go well beyond the holy hours of Sunday morning to other aspects of worship: at memorial services or funerals and at weddings.
A wedding done in the church or the chapel is a worship service; in fact, any place where there is an invocation of God’s name and a solicitation of God’s blessing, that is a worship experience and should be handled as such. At weddings, I will not allow people to pop up and shoot flash pictures during the ceremony. At funerals and memorial services, our Reformed understanding of worship on these occasions is to thank God for the gift of the life of the person who has died; these services are to honor God for the grace and the memories which came from the life of the one departed.
When children participate in worship in their choirs and in their pageants, most of us feel the need to applaud their efforts. But I believe applause sends the wrong message to these children. The message that they were performing for us and for aunts and grandma and, therefore, should be applauded for their efforts, is not what we are about if we are true to our Reformed heritage. Instead of applause, let them know that God was honored by their efforts; that their music and words brought joy to the heart of God.
While I am on the subject of music in the church, whether it be from children, the choir, or the congregation, it was in Strasburg, while exiled from Geneva, that Calvin first heard a singing congregation. He was overwhelmed–quite literally moved to tears–over the beauty and power of congregational song in worship. When he later returned to Geneva, Calvin brought with him the tradition that would forever identify Reformed worship–a singing congregation. He would later say that beyond listening for God to speak in the scriptures or sermon, singing was the single most important thing worshipers did. He even called the singing of psalms, “speaking to God using God’s own words.” Ever after, a singing congregation has been one of the hallmarks of Reformed worship. In such worship, we are not spectators who come to be enlightened, inspired, edified or entertained by preacher, organist or choir. Rather, we gather as God’s people who come together to do something for God: to offer God our worship.
Why we do what we do in worship centers on the opportunity to praise and honor God with our whole selves. Without this opportunity, our work in this world would lack vision and power. True worship of God leads us out in service, and that service pulls us back again to worship. So we join with all the saints in proclaiming:
Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen (Rev. 7:12)
Vol. 1, No. 4
Sunday School Class: “The Theology of J.R.R Tolkien”
On September 13th, I will start a class during the Church School hour on the subject of the theology and Christology of Tolkien. I will use as my primary resources his epic work The Lord of the Rings and the Bible. I have done this class before and found it enriching to look into the mythic world that Tolkien has created in Middle Earth and to see the elements of the Christian faith being woven throughout his stories.
You do not have to have read TLOR to benefit from this class, but because of the complexity of the story, I would suggest that you become familiar with as much of this material as possible before September 13th. The class will continue for about six weeks — the reason for the “about” timeframe is because the end of the course depends on how much discussion and engagement comes from the participants. The course will begin with an overview of the relationship of Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. They were, indeed, close friends and colleagues at Oxford University, and were part of what we would now call a “support group” that met once a week at the Eagle and Child pub there in Oxford.
I am not sure just where we will meet for this class; it will probably be dictated by how many of you want to be involved. Please call me or the church office and leave your name if you are interested in this class. I will try to have a sign-up sheet in the Gathering Area (Narthex) in the next week or so. If you know of someone who has a passion for Tolkien and who is not a member of this church, please invite him/her to attend.
I do anticipate this to be an intergenerational class, since so many of our younger folk have had more exposure to Tolkien and to TLOR. That is to say, teenagers are expressly welcome to this interactive discussion, and I hope they will avail themselves of this opportunity.
If you do not have a copy of TLOR, you might try Half-Price Books up on 529 or used copies can be picked up on Amazon.com.
Vol. 1, No. 3
With The Lord’s Supper coming up this Sunday, August 2nd, I thought I should offer you my view of the sacraments, both the Lord’s Supper and Baptism. We have been blessed by having three members of the congregation step forward and volunteer to bake the bread that we will use each time we serve the elements at a communion service. So, in preparation for the coming Sunday, please take note of the following:
The Sacraments
On my first Sunday here at Heritage Presbyterian Church, I shared with you the imperative that Jesus gave to the disciples at the last meal he shared with them before his death; the imperative that we are to remember him whenever we take those things which equate to his life – the cup and the loaf – the elements of his life lived out among us.
Do this …In Remembrance of Me
For me, the Christian life is lived out sacramentally. Whatever you and I do as Presbyterians – as Christians – it is done in remembrance of the Lord who lived, and continues to live, as a servant among us. So when we are baptized or participate in a baptism; when we come to the table to share once again the elements in the context of worship, we reinforce what it is we remember about the ministry of Jesus Christ. Therefore, as your pastor, I believe that there should be clarity of how the sacraments will be honored in our worship services. Over the past year or so, you have had several different pastors who have had different ways of celebrating both baptisms and the Lord’s Supper. Now, for the foreseeable future, you will only have one pastor, and I want you to know how I believe both of our sacraments should be administered. What I am suggesting is not a perfect solution for either sacrament, but they are, from my considerable parish experience, a proper way for the congregation to participate.
The Lord’s Supper
At our next celebration of this sacrament, I will have the lay leader or liturgist (an elder) assist me in this service. The bread that will be used will be provided by a member of the church, and I will break it and place it on the trays for the officers to take to the congregation. It is this “broken bread” which should be shared among you for it is in keeping with what Jesus said when he shared that bread with the disciples – “this is my body, broken for you.” As I break the loaves at the table, so, too, do you break off a piece of that bread when it comes to you. Since our congregation, at present, is small, I would encourage you to hold the bread until all have been served. When I have served the officers up front, I will hold up my piece of the bread and encourage us all to eat of the Bread of Life now. When the cup is consecrated and the trays are passed to you, I would ask that you not wait for the trays to be passed to everyone, but that you drink your cup when the time is right for you.
Baptized children who have not been confirmed in the faith are to be welcomed to the Lord’s Table. However, they should be of age when they begin to grasp the significance of this sacrament, and the session should provide for a recognition and welcome of the child to the table.
Baptism
I make a big deal out of baptisms, whether it is an adult or a child. There are three ways that a pastor can administer baptism: by immersion, by pouring, or by sprinkling. I have done one immersion baptism in my ministry and that was done at MoRanch at a church-wide retreat weekend. However, immersions are not practical, and of course, they are not necessary. Baptism is a sign and symbol of our inclusion in God’s grace; a welcoming into the household of God. We differ from some of our sister churches who believe that baptism is necessary for salvation. It is not; but it is a key component of a person’s faith journey and confirmation within the faith. The important thing to remember about baptism is that it is done in the presence of the congregation. Presbyterians do not do private baptisms except in extraordinary situations, and then certain guidelines apply and a session member must be present. This is important because the congregation plays a vital role in the Christian nurture and welfare of the child as he or she grows in the faith. There is a special song called The Borning Cry which tells of God’s “being there” throughout the life journey of this child. It is a wonderful affirmation of the baptismal ritual, and I have used it at every infant baptism I have performed since 1989. It is my practice not to do baptisms on a Sunday in which the Lord’s Supper is already a part of the worship experience, and I do not do multiple baptisms. It is also my practice to take an infant in my arms to do the baptism and then present the child to the congregation by walking the aisles during the singing of The Borning Cry. If the person being baptized is no longer an infant, then I walk with the child into the nave and present him or her to the congregation.
There are also certain Sundays during the year when I call upon the congregants to remember their baptisms, not so much the critical moment of when it occurred but to remember the faith journey that started when some pastor in some Christian church brought you into the living fellowship of the Body of Christ. This is generally, but not exclusively, the Sunday we commemorate the Lord’s baptism in early January.
As Presbyterians, our doctrine instructs us not to re-baptize a person. As there is one body, there is one baptism (Eph. 4:4-6) The PCUSA recognizes all Baptisms with water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit administered by other Christian churches.
Vol. 1, No. 2
At the last session meeting, the elders approved the use of A Declaration of Faith in our Sunday morning worship service. This document is part of the PC(USA) resources for use in worship and in confirmation training. It will be used interchangeably with the creedal documents with which you are already familiar: The Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene Creed, and The Brief Statement of Faith.
What I like about A Declaration of Faith, and why I have used it extensively in the other parishes where I have served, is its specificity. Depending on the theme for the day or for the season, there are sections of A Declaration of Faith that can be extracted to address that theme. There are 10 chapters in this document: The Living God; The Maker and Ruler of All; God and the People of Israel; God in Christ; God The Holy Spirit; The Word of God; The Christian Church; The Christian Mission; Christian Discipleship; and Hope In God.
A Declaration of Faith was written in the mid-1970s to help the church address, in a confessional way, what was going on in both church and culture. It was a time when the Presbyterian Church was still divided into what was generally called the “Northern” church and the “Southern” church. The United Presbyterian Church (“Northern”) had already drafted and approved The Confession of 1967. Its intent was to address those areas where dissent and conflict needed to find a path back to reconciliation. The Presbyterian Church in the United States (“Southern”) worked to find its own confessional voice in this same time period of social unrest and an unpopular war finally ending. The result was A Declaration of Faith, which was approved by the General Assembly but was not ratified by the necessary ¾ vote of the presbyteries of the PCUS to afford it confessional status within the church. At a subsequent General Assembly, the document was approved for use by the churches in its liturgies and in training classes. Although it is not a part of our Book of Confessions, A Declaration of Faith does, in the opinion of many pastors and laypersons across our reunited denomination, accurately reflect the theology and the ecclesiology of our church. It is available for downloading from the PC(USA) website and I would encourage you to spend some time with this document. If you have questions or concerns, I would be happy to discuss this with you.
Vol. 1, No. 1
This link on our website gives me an opportunity to inform you about what the Session is doing to attract new folks to our church, to entice those who have been on the sidelines to become more involved, and to give our active members and friends more opportunities to be and to become the church of Lord Jesus the Christ. I have gotten permission from the Session to start a new worship service on Tuesday evenings at 7:00 pm in the Chapel. This service is called Evensong, a title borrowed from the Anglican Church for a vesper service or a worship service held in the early evening. Pam and I have actually attended such services in Ireland that were held in the late afternoon.
Essentially, an Evensong service for our purposes will be one of spiritual reflection, bible study, and prayer. It will follow a format generally known as Lectio Divina. The actual practice of lectio divina begins with a time of relaxation, making oneself comfortable and clearing the mind of mundane thoughts and cares. When we read the Bible passage, we will do so thoughtfully and slowly, using various translations. The passage itself is not as important as the savoring of each portion of the reading, constantly listening for the “still, small voice” of a word or phrase that somehow speaks to the worshiper. More often than not, the scripture readings will be the ones from which I will be preaching on the following Sunday. We will then reflect on the text of the passage and discuss how it applies to one’s own life. This is considered to be a very personal reading of the Scripture and very personal application. I will lead this service each Tuesday and music more often than not will be by means of CDs from my collection. As musicians participate in Evensong, I may ask them to add their talents to the Evensong experience. Once a month I will prepare the table for a celebration of the Lord’s Supper. This will happen on the Tuesday following the Sunday service where the Lord’s Supper is observed.
In the years that I have led and participated in Evensong services, I find that the participants develop a strong connection to one another. Because of the sharing that happens each week, deep and abiding relationships are formed and strengthened. Evensong is not the kind of worship service that will appeal to everyone, nor should it. But for those who can “be still and listen” for God’s word to them at that time and in that place, Evensong can be a real gift, both to God, and to themselves.
Evensong meets at 7:00 p.m. in the Chapel.
