It seems every time I turn
around I see another
church advertising for a
musician for a praise
band. Now, I'm an
electric blues musician
and I love to play in
bands, but it always
brings to mind
comments I've heard for
years from people who
say worship should be
"relevant," that it should
"meet their needs."
Fr. John Matusiak of the Orthodox Church in
America has a great response for those
statements. He calls such worship "man-centered"
worship. Fr. John suggests the focus
here is on how God affects "my life" and what "I
get out of worship." I believe he's right, because
I've heard these comments too many times to
discount their relationship to where the person
puts the real focus of worship. Here their focus is
on "ME”… what "I" want...fitting "MY"
expectations…”ME, ME, ME”. The script here is
that, "I'm so important that worshipping God has
to fit in with the way 'I' want to do it."
As with many facets of our society today, the
person becomes the most important factor here
and God has to take a back seat. This is self-focused,
not God-focused.
In the Anglican tradition, we take a view very
similar to that expressed by Fr. John in
describing Orthodox worship. Anglican worship is
not a matter of personal taste. When Archbishop
Cranmer was compiling the first Book of
Common Prayer in the 16th century, he wasn't really concerned with
making the worship relevant for the people of the
16th century. He was concerned that the worship
was scriptural and God-centered.
Fr. John says that God is the only one we should
be concerned with pleasing in our worship and I
think he's spot on. "Entertainment" worship might
be amusing, but it only lets us experience worship
from our own limited, narrow view. It comes from
the "ME" and not from God. Let's face it: our view
is not always correct. In fact, as Jesus often points
out, our views can be quite flawed.
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| Popular Facebook Meme- What can we say? |
Entertainment worship does not necessarily force
us to confront our sin, our fallenness, and those
things which make us uncomfortable. Instead of
centering on God, it substitutes "Top 40" music
and a motivational speech....it gives us something
that isn't too difficult to swallow.
The fact is that worship is not designed for us,
but for God. It is our Lord whom we worship and
not ourselves. We should care less about what
pleases us and more about what pleases Him. Fr.
Matusiak put it well when he says,
"...we are
called to worship 'in Spirit and Truth,' as we read
in Scripture; that we are called to partake of the
Body and Blood of Christ 'as often as you come
together' lest, as we read in the words of Our
Lord Himself in the Gospel of Saint John, we have
no life in us; that we are to 'lay aside all earthly
cares'....that we are called to transform our fallen
human existence and unworthiness by bringing it
into the very presence of God Himself--in His
Kingdom, not ours--and meeting God 'where He
is,' rather than where we are or where we would
like Him to be."
Our worship is God-focused. Just read the
Eucharistic rite in the
1928 Book of CommonPrayer. Everything we do is grounded in
scripture. Everything we say has a focus on God.
When the focus is on us, it speaks to our fallen
nature and need for God's love and forgiveness,
as well as our need for salvation-- forgiveness
and salvation He provides through the sacrifice of
His Son. Rather than a weekly shuffling of "off the-cuff"
service pieces and parts, our Eucharist
is the same every Sunday, completely grounded
in scripture and focused on the creator, not His
creation. Paul tells us that Christ is the same
"...yesterday, today, and tomorrow." The Trinity is
unchanging and the key is to understand that our
liturgy must reflect that truth.
There are a variety of liturgies today in the
church. The Roman Catholics have their rites; the
Orthodox have the Liturgies of St. Basil and St.
John Chrysostom; and we traditional American
Anglicans have the
1928 Book of CommonPrayer, the Anglican Missal, and the Anglican
Service Book. What do these liturgies share?
They are God-focused, they reflect the
unchanging nature of the Trinity, aligning with the
ageless faith of two millennia. They don't move
and shift as contemporary tastes change and it's
“If you want a
religion to
make you feel
comfortable,
I certainly
don’t
recommend
Christianity”
~ C.S.Lewis
a good thing because we can see that
contemporary tastes aren't always God-centered.
Contemporary tastes don't reflect God, but they
do reflect selfish humans. Anglicans have
witnessed this trend most recently with changes
to liturgy that ignore and diminish the nature of
the Trinity.
Liturgy is an external event that focuses on
internal faith. The Eucharist is an outward and
visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace. We
learned that in our catechism. It is the experience
of Christ's sacrifice and promise of His
resurrection and our salvation. Maybe that's
where the differences lie.
In some other churches there is no continuity with
respect to what is preached when and how.
There is no continuity to "liturgy" so it can change
a little every week. Some of the current
vernacular among the folks who are involved with
this type of worship includes calling worship
"doing church." They'll say, "there are several
ways to do church..." I find that phrase odd. It
suggests that worship is something we "do" as
though it's a flexible experience that needs to
bend to the interests and desires of humans. We
traditional Anglicans, don't "do" church. We
aren't flexible with our Sunday worship. We
follow a liturgical calendar to teach doctrine and
glorify God through the scripture and
sacraments. Each season of the church calendar
is important because it teaches us something
about our faith. It's the same every year. If you
pray Morning and Evening prayer and attend
Mass on Sunday, you will have read the entire
Bible in one year and will have gone through a
focused
"lesson plan" on the Christian faith, a
lesson plan that is God-focused.
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COME unto me, all ye that travail
and are heavy laden, and I will
refresh you. St. Matt. xi. 28. |
Despite what society might think today,
enjoyment is not the sole purpose of worship.
Knowing and understanding God brings joy, not
our personal likes and dislikes about worship. As
Fr. John says, "Ultimately, those...who define
'good worship' by their personal tastes or
interests are not in a position to fully understand
the Liturgy, even though they may 'enjoy' the
experience." To understand the liturgy is to move
away from yourself and focus on God.
Understand what He wants from you and how He
wants you to worship Him. To ensure the act of
worship reflects the inward and spiritual... and
God.
We have the constancy of the Prayer Book which
not only guides our worship, but ensures its
continuity and orthodoxy. It focuses on what is
truly important: God, versus how WE want things
and our selfish enjoyment. Linking us to catholic
Christians of the ages, it is beautiful, reverential,
dignified-- ensuring we are on the right path in
our faith. It doesn't let us get distracted by
worldly desires and thoughts, but brings us to
God and the salvation His Son has given us
through His passion and death on the cross. In
fact, in the experience of the Holy Communion
we might just find ourselves asking whether we're
on earth or in heaven and that is the most
relevant thing of all.
Adapted from a circular - unknown author.
