This week begins a blog series called "Who We Are." It is, predictably enough, about who we are as a church, a part of the Kingdom of God, and a community of believers. We will be talking about our role in San Francisco, our programs, our history, and much more, so stay tuned. This week, we kick off with Worship Arts director Karl Digerness talking about the role liturgy plays at City Church.
"A rhythm is how we reinforce a desire."
—Glenn Packiam
The liturgy does not target any age or cultural sub-group. It does not even target this century."
—Mark Galli, Beyond Smells and Bells
It's hard to understand exactly what liturgy is. Is it the role of the service, the words we say, or something else entirely? Can you give us a framework for what liturgy is?
"Liturgy" is derived from the Greek word leitourgos and it means "the work of the people." It's what we do when we gather to worship. It is something the community participates in together. Most people have a certain thing in mind when they use the word, but the fact is every Christian church, every religious gathering, has a liturgy--a Passover celebration, a Buddhist prayer service, a Muslim call to prayer. There are things that you do, an order you follow, even if it's as simple as sing, and hear a sermon.
The question then isn't why liturgy, because liturgy is just the structure on which our story hangs, but why do we do what we do?
Why is liturgy important for us today?
The main reason is that worship is formative. So much of the North American church over the last 50 years or so has focused on worship as only an expression of our faith, love, and devotion to God, and it is. But the way we worship shapes our faith. Liturgy is formative. It forms our loves and our desires, whether we know it or not. Worship is primary in our discipleship as followers of Jesus. As author and professor, Jamie Smith, describes "We evangelicals tend to think of worship as only an expressive activity. Because of that, we've lost the downward, God-initiated, formative aspect of worship. Whereas if you recover the sense that God's initiative is at work, then the rituals and the disciplines are invitations to live into God's power, not ways for us to spiritually show off."
Liturgy is also important because it's a story, our story. The elements we use on a Sunday morning are important because the good news is not a list of rules, but a story--this grand narrative restoring us, reuniting us to God through Jesus. We go to church every week to be reminded of this and, as Jamie Smith says, to be "re-storied." The liturgy works on three levels here: in the church calendar, in the weekly service, and in the Eucharist. We re-tell the story simultaneously through all of these liturgies.
Finally, the liturgy is significant because it reminds us that we are not alone. It tells us that we are part of an ancient-future faith. In worship, Lesslie Newbigin reminds us, it is "not only the congregation present that is involved, but is the act of the whole universal church, in earth and in heaven." Liturgy reminds us that we are not rootless, we're connected to the rest of the church through time and space, and in the room around us.
Why do we use liturgy at City Church?
If it's true that liturgy is formative, then what we do must be ultimately informed by something deeper than preference, style, or current trends. Thankfully, we have Scripture and a rich heritage to guide us.
"The orthodox Christian tradition was launched with the Incarnation of God in Christ, the apostolic witness, and the Scriptures. But we inherit that rule of faith in two ways: first, in the creeds and confessions of the church (the articulated, explicit aspects of the faith), and second, in the liturgical heritage that hands down the know-how of the faith—our practices, our disciplines, our liturgical forms. Ideally, there's a feedback loop between those two things. If you had just the creeds and confessions without the practices of Christian worship, you would never get the full inheritance of what the Spirit has passed on to us. That inheritance is not owned by Constantinople or Rome or Canterbury. Rather, it is a common universal heritage of the body of Christ that can be renewed for any who call themselves Christians." (Jamie Smith)
Liturgy allows us to enter in to this ancient-future faith in ways that are hard to accomplish otherwise. It gives us a very real connection to the past as we engage in centuries old practices, but it also reminds us of God's presence with us now and gives us a glimpse of the future when all things will be made new. As we say together every week "Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again."
Our liturgy is shaped by the wisdom of the church throughout the centuries, rooted in Scripture and focused on Jesus. Throughout the entire service, it is discipling us in the things that were important to Jesus: praise, prayer, repentance/confession, giving, offering our lives, communion with one another, listening to the Word, praying for others, and being reminded that we are the called out ones to be sent back into the world as the very presence of Christ.
If worship is only an expression of our love and belief at any point in time, it's wildly deficient because we are wildly erratic, and doubt is a part of our journey--and if it hasn't been yet, it will be. The beauty of the liturgy is the space it creates to experience, express, and be formed by the love of God.
For more on this topic:
Check out Glenn Packiam's great blog post on liturgy
Read More at Who We Are Blog Series