This fostered in us the beginnings of understanding…

What follows is an excerpt from a course integration paper I wrote for my History & Theology of Christian Worship class this past quarter.  It is valuable if only because it recounts in a very cursory way the larger themes of the course.

We began the quarter considering Rudolf Otto’s Das Heilege—the Idea of the Holy.  We discussed the concept in conjunction with Isaiah chapter 6, and explored the notion that there is something profound about true worship.  If worship is by its nature an act that occurs before the throne of God, then two things happen.  Number one, we are overcome by a sense of unworthiness—this demonstrates the penitent nature of worship.  But that is only half of the story.  Secondly, we are overcome by the reality that, as in Isaiah 6, God demonstrates a desire for union.  This emphasizes the celebratory nature of worship.  Our very first class period together began with the prayer, “God, forbid that we may trifle with you in worship.” This fostered in us the beginnings of understanding that Christian worship is a sacred act, and one that must, paradoxically, be approached with both joy and mirth, and fear and trembling.

From this point, we moved forward to speak of the various languages associated with Christian worship.  From its beginning, our faith tradition has taken seriously the two associated concepts of time and space.  In Christian worship, there is a language of time that reflects the meta-narrative of the Christian story.  In Christian worship there is a language of space that understands deeply the significance of movement and location. This fostered in us the beginnings of understanding that Christian worship is something that takes place in the present situations in which we find ourselves.

As we ventured onward through the quarter, we explored the nature of early Christian practice during the apostolic period and we noted the parallel forms of Christian communication; of spoken word and acted sign.  This fostered in us the beginnings of understanding that Christian worship is something both said and done.

Our next significant block of time was spent discussing sacramentality and the idea that the ordinary is capable of acting as a conduit of the extraordinary.  We recalled the poetry of G. Manly Hopkins, and discussed the sheer multiplicity of creation and the diversity of God.  We came to a point of hope that we develop a vision to be transformed such that everything we see, we see as a conduit of the divine.   We discussed that in addition to the seven or two official sacraments, there are hundreds more, waiting to be discovered, all around us every day. This fostered in us the beginnings of understanding that Christian worship is something that can happen all day, every day, in all things and through all things.

We next asked the question, “How do you stage manage worship such that God gets a voice?”  Perhaps the notion of managing worship borders on crass and offensive to some, but the point is worth considering.  How, as worship leaders, do we negotiate the responsibility of leading God’s people in worship while recognizing that in worship, we are only able to control half of what happens?  It was stated in class, “the temptation as liturgists is to contrive worship that touches people’s souls.”  This is manipulation and clever stage management.  This is almost always a way to guarantee false worship—to evoke deep emotion, but not deep disposition. This fostered in us the beginnings of understanding that Christian worship involves a mysterious dialogue between Divine and human ethos.

Hope as basis for the eschatological character of worship was our next topic.  The idea was explored that it is a future-orientation of the Christian life and Christian worship that gives it great significance.  Worship in a very real and tangible way is full of eschatological yearning—an epiklesis, or calling down of God’s glory.  We acknowledged the parallel dangers of despair and presumption; the first indicating a lack of hope and the second indicating a belief that the future corresponds to our personal wishes. This fostered in us the beginnings of understanding that Christian worship is something that draws us out of and beyond our own selfhood.

We then began to explore in more depth the writings of Alexander Schmemann and Sally Morgenthaler, and we discussed the idea that in worship, gratitude is formed and expressed through ritual actions performed in a community.  We also explored Schmemann’s idea that original sin is a failure to see things the way they are.  From this, it is possible to contend that ministry is helping people see what is plain as a pikestaff. This fostered in us the beginnings of understanding that Christian worship is about catechesis.

In addition to classroom learning, we took the opportunity to visit several churches of different Christian traditions.  In worshipping with those who come from different backgrounds and traditions, we began to discover that there is no “right” way to worship.  Moreover, there is a wealth of tradition and practice that constitutes the rich tapestry of Christian worship. This fostered in us the beginnings of understanding that Christian worship is something that extends far beyond our own experience and spheres of knowledge.

When considering the question of change in one’s understanding of Christian worship, it is hard to determine where even to begin.  There is no question that matters such as those presented above prove formative and foundational to one’s experience of Christian worship.  There is no way to confront such understandings and not come away changed in a significant way.

With these points tendered, there are several themes that seem quite pronounced in this author’s recollective memory.  

First, we spoke at great length about sacramentality.  The notion that there are opportunities all around us, every day, to encounter the Holy is one that should prove awesome, in a literal sense, to any Christian.  A worship planner would do well to consider the fact that much of common sacramentality is a matter of having eyes to see and ears to hear what is happening all around us, every day.

Secondly, we would do well to consider seriously the prayer that began the quarter.  “God, forbid that we may trifle with you in worship.”  It seems evident that in contemporary Christianity in the United States, we are becoming increasingly good at the second of two points—that of celebration.  What we seem to have ever-increasing difficulty in doing is that act which precedes celebration—penetence.  There is something about falling awestruck before the throne and understanding the true nature of fear and trembling that would prove valuable to recapture in our worship.

By simply enrolling in a course on the history and theology of Christian worship, our very disposition as class members is generally more inclined toward theological consideration of the topic.  We are, as a group, probably much more likely to have already thought deeply about the nature of Christian worship.  Whether we are the coordinator of a campus ministry, a member of a touring music ministry, a volunteer or staff member of our local congregation, we are a peculiar group.  Considering this, when we ask ourselves “what has changed?” we might not immediately be able to compile a laundry list of revelations.  If, however, we begin to ask “What has been affirmed?”, we might very well find that the last ten weeks were among the most fruitful of our college career. 

Christian worship is by its nature mysterious and awesome, and beyond explicit definition.  But Christian worship is also something familiar, something knowable, and, God willing, something that we may hope, over time, will become increasingly natural in the most literal sense of the statement.