Family Update December
Greetings, Saints of King's Church!
As December gets underway, the snow is falling, fires are blazing, songs are rising, and the celebrations begin! We hope the Lord's goodness is abundantly evident to you and your family, and that this Advent season is filled with anticipation of more and greater goodness than you know what to do with! Not just in the form of activity, but also in experiencing the grace and glory of Christ, holy infant who became the King of kings, for our welfare and his own glory. May blessings be heaped up all around you, and may you rejoice in all of them! May the Lord be with you all!
Ben, for the elders
Ben, for the elders
Devotion for Life and Joy
We are a liturgical congregation (can I get an “Amen!!”?). But have you ever wondered why? In the coming months, the elders will attempt to explain what we mean by “liturgical”, and why we’ve chosen the liturgy that we use, in a clear, brief, and helpful way. Our liturgy is not unique, especially within our CREC denomination, but that doesn’t mean we use it “because that’s what we do”. Very much, it reflects our deeply held convictions about how we think God’s people are meant to enjoy fellowship most beautifully and meaningfully with him in a corporate setting. In this month’s devotional, we’ll offer a few thoughts on the value of liturgy in general and hopefully set ourselves up for a more detailed explanation in the months to come of the particular liturgy that we use (known as “covenant renewal worship”). We hope you find this helpful as you grow in your appreciation of, and participation in, worship.
Much has been written about the value of liturgy (think of “routine” or “habit” as helpful synonyms). One of these helpful thoughts comes from a writer named Thomas Howard. No, he’s not Lewis, nor Chesterton, nor Calvin :). But in an essay titled “The Power of Wise Custom”, he writes with clarity and insight of some of the ways we very naturally expect and benefit from liturgy (or “ceremony”, as he calls it). He begins with comments on the occasional practice of writing one’s own wedding vows rather than of using the more traditional ones that have been preferred in the English-speaking world.
He writes,
“If we do not like Cranmer’s angelic English, that, of course, is a very great pity. God himself will not prevent our cobbling up our vows. But, one way or another, they have got to be cobbled up. It may indeed be the case that some wedding has occurred somewhere, in which the man and woman sauntered up to some random spot, accompanied by the ragtag and bobtail of the friends, and “chatted” their vows. Perhaps so. But such an event will not serve, we suspect, as any sort of paradigm for weddings.”
Howard continues,
“Through the imposed [traditional customs of a culture], we meet the natural. Through the prescribed, we meet the sincere. This is always and everywhere true. No tribe, culture, civilization, or society has ever operated on any other assumption. Birth rites, puberty rites, marriage rites, death rites; no one gives the back of his hand to these things. Huns, Florentines, Saxons, Watusi, and Athenians all agree here. If you are approaching something significant, or if you want to discern the significance of an event, you must submit to ceremony.
We do not, for example, hunt up the nearest dumpster when a death has occurred. That would be practical; the body, after all, is of no more use to its owner. The event calls loudly for elaboration, not so that we may all escape the awful meaning of it all, but, contrarily, so that we may all enter more fully into the awful meaning. Hence, slow processions, solemn music, hush, and courtesy.
Ceremony gives us something to do, when doing nothing would leave us frantic and awash, or else (and this is worse) as oblivious to the mystery before us as the animals.”
We’ve all been there: a moment of incredible significance, of either tragedy or triumph. And if, in those moments, we don’t have something to do or say, some deed or rite or words, even some place to which to direct our attention, the moment feels close to lost, maybe even wasted.
Another challenge to a lack of ceremony or liturgy might be the overwhelming, even cosmic, weight of the moment in which everyone feels like something of significance should be done or said but no one quite feels up to it. Even a bride and groom who compose their own vows do so beforehand rather than “wing it” improve-style in the moment.
In the next several devotionals, as we go into a bit more explanation of the particular aspects of our particular liturgy at King’s Church, we hope to grow your appreciation for them in such a way that each aspect of worship becomes more like your favorite part in a movie and less like the scene during which you run to the restroom ;). Not because it’s sinful to miss that part (yes, the restrooms remain open during the service), but because that part (and all of them) are so precious that you don’t want to miss it, and you grieve when you need to miss it.
King’s Church is liturgical. We know it, we love it, we glory in it. But if Mr. Howard is right, then as important as liturgy is, the liturgy is not the point; God is. Liturgy, in its place, serves a much more glorious goal: it gives us the words for the moment, it gives us the posture for the occasion, and it reveals to us, in words and roles and physical posture, the significance of what we’re doing. The responsive readings, the prayers, the songs, the Scripture, the sermon, the Creed and Catechism, even the benediction, either reveal and express the longing of our hearts, or the gap between where our hearts are and where we want them to be.
No liturgy is perfect, and we may we decide at some point to revise, amend, delete, or add to some portion of ours. But for now, let’s give thanks that something like ritual and rite exist, and that they so often work effectively to help us express the thoughts of our mind and the affections of our hearts.
In the coming months, we’ll explore the ways in which the five elements of our liturgy help us in these ways: the Call to Worship, Confession, Consecration, Communion, and Commission. Each plays an integral role in the life of our worship, and, when done by faith, offers blessing to you as you participate with one another in worship. May the Lord bless and keep us as we seek to give him the glad adoration that he deserves as we savor his word, sing his praise, and serve his world, for Christ’s sake
Much has been written about the value of liturgy (think of “routine” or “habit” as helpful synonyms). One of these helpful thoughts comes from a writer named Thomas Howard. No, he’s not Lewis, nor Chesterton, nor Calvin :). But in an essay titled “The Power of Wise Custom”, he writes with clarity and insight of some of the ways we very naturally expect and benefit from liturgy (or “ceremony”, as he calls it). He begins with comments on the occasional practice of writing one’s own wedding vows rather than of using the more traditional ones that have been preferred in the English-speaking world.
He writes,
“If we do not like Cranmer’s angelic English, that, of course, is a very great pity. God himself will not prevent our cobbling up our vows. But, one way or another, they have got to be cobbled up. It may indeed be the case that some wedding has occurred somewhere, in which the man and woman sauntered up to some random spot, accompanied by the ragtag and bobtail of the friends, and “chatted” their vows. Perhaps so. But such an event will not serve, we suspect, as any sort of paradigm for weddings.”
Howard continues,
“Through the imposed [traditional customs of a culture], we meet the natural. Through the prescribed, we meet the sincere. This is always and everywhere true. No tribe, culture, civilization, or society has ever operated on any other assumption. Birth rites, puberty rites, marriage rites, death rites; no one gives the back of his hand to these things. Huns, Florentines, Saxons, Watusi, and Athenians all agree here. If you are approaching something significant, or if you want to discern the significance of an event, you must submit to ceremony.
We do not, for example, hunt up the nearest dumpster when a death has occurred. That would be practical; the body, after all, is of no more use to its owner. The event calls loudly for elaboration, not so that we may all escape the awful meaning of it all, but, contrarily, so that we may all enter more fully into the awful meaning. Hence, slow processions, solemn music, hush, and courtesy.
Ceremony gives us something to do, when doing nothing would leave us frantic and awash, or else (and this is worse) as oblivious to the mystery before us as the animals.”
We’ve all been there: a moment of incredible significance, of either tragedy or triumph. And if, in those moments, we don’t have something to do or say, some deed or rite or words, even some place to which to direct our attention, the moment feels close to lost, maybe even wasted.
Another challenge to a lack of ceremony or liturgy might be the overwhelming, even cosmic, weight of the moment in which everyone feels like something of significance should be done or said but no one quite feels up to it. Even a bride and groom who compose their own vows do so beforehand rather than “wing it” improve-style in the moment.
In the next several devotionals, as we go into a bit more explanation of the particular aspects of our particular liturgy at King’s Church, we hope to grow your appreciation for them in such a way that each aspect of worship becomes more like your favorite part in a movie and less like the scene during which you run to the restroom ;). Not because it’s sinful to miss that part (yes, the restrooms remain open during the service), but because that part (and all of them) are so precious that you don’t want to miss it, and you grieve when you need to miss it.
King’s Church is liturgical. We know it, we love it, we glory in it. But if Mr. Howard is right, then as important as liturgy is, the liturgy is not the point; God is. Liturgy, in its place, serves a much more glorious goal: it gives us the words for the moment, it gives us the posture for the occasion, and it reveals to us, in words and roles and physical posture, the significance of what we’re doing. The responsive readings, the prayers, the songs, the Scripture, the sermon, the Creed and Catechism, even the benediction, either reveal and express the longing of our hearts, or the gap between where our hearts are and where we want them to be.
No liturgy is perfect, and we may we decide at some point to revise, amend, delete, or add to some portion of ours. But for now, let’s give thanks that something like ritual and rite exist, and that they so often work effectively to help us express the thoughts of our mind and the affections of our hearts.
In the coming months, we’ll explore the ways in which the five elements of our liturgy help us in these ways: the Call to Worship, Confession, Consecration, Communion, and Commission. Each plays an integral role in the life of our worship, and, when done by faith, offers blessing to you as you participate with one another in worship. May the Lord bless and keep us as we seek to give him the glad adoration that he deserves as we savor his word, sing his praise, and serve his world, for Christ’s sake
| Table Talk Question |
As you prepare to think about and learn more about our Sunday morning liturgy, talk as a family about which parts of the service each of you enjoys most and why. You can also think of the parts of the service that you don’t understand (i.e. why do we kneel, or raise our hands, or recite the creed, and why do we do those things at that point in the service?)
Hallelujah!
For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns...
On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written,
'King of kings and Lord of lords'.
~ Revelation 19
For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns...
On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written,
'King of kings and Lord of lords'.
~ Revelation 19
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