Photo credits

The Embalse de Riano in northern Spain. The picture was taken by .... me!

Monday, November 13

Last Year's Christmas

Sunday was a little different this week - I had to go to a rememberance service in the next town becasue my son had to put on his cadet uniform and march about as part of it. Last year I found this dreadfully dull. This year was better, so either:

1 It was better than last year
2 Anything seems good compared to my parish placement
or
3 I have become more aware of what is going on through my training.

I hope 3, but suspect 2.

In the evening I went to the evening prayer at the placement. I had no formal role and sat in tye congregation. That is to say i was 20% of the congregation. The service was lead by their ordinand. She did very well, making a similar number of mistakes to me, which I found comforting. I tip I will pick up from er is to make pencil notes in the service book rather han relying on a separate list which is never n your feild of vision.

I still can't really come to terms with liturgy as a form of worship. I undertsand that congregational participation is good. Iunderstand that shared liturgy keeps you in communion with other churches in the present, past and future. But fundamentally it is like giving to my wife the same Christmas Card that I gave her last year. In fact, imagine the scene....

I invite my wife into the lounge, where I have arranged my children in rows.
They are kneeling on the floor, trying to think of all the things they have done wrong this week.
After a while, when I think they are sufficiently penitent and feel 'right with mother', I reach out and pick up the Offical Christmas Card 1661.

Solemnly, slowly and quietly with many pauses for reflection, I intone the words:

"Dear Mother, We thank you for coming to us tonight."

The children respond flatly in unison -
"And blessing us with your presence"
Me -
"We bring you our thanks for your kindness this year"

Children -

"And for feeding us at each meal"....

eventually, after more of this, I get to -
"We wish thee a Merry Christmas"

Children -

"And a Happy New Year"

We sit for a long pause. Then I get up, blow out the candles, and walk out. A little while later, the children walk out too, shaking my hand on the way.

OK, yes, I am being a bit ridiculous here, and am probably guilty of excessive sarcasm and am probably spoiling my point. But I just don't really buy the idea that ancient words rattled off (or occasionally spoken with a bit more thought) are a better way of worhipping than telling God how much i love him TODAY and how grateful I am for his love to me TODAY. The Israelites had to collect manna each day - yesterday's had gone mouldy.

Changing the subject: I still haven't been paid under the new work arrangements. Perhaps I shold have given them the correct bank account number.......

Also, there is just the slimmest of possibilities that we might be pregnant.


2 comments:

  1. Hmm. Liturgy is no different to repeating the phrase 'I love you' to your wife. Repetition is not the evacuation of meaning but its expression. Or, differently, it's about focussing on the communication not on the words; it's about not being 'text bound'. You must know the CS Lewis quote?

    I think this is a deeply rooted difference between worshippers - and I'm definitely on the other side of the fence to you!!

    It's really about not putting the self in first place - ie, it's not about how we feel or think at any given moment. It's about articulating what lies more deeply within us than those things. Think of it like this - a bird doesn't need to be taught how to sing, and when it sings it is both being itself and praising God. We, who have sinned, need to be taught how to sing again. We do that through being formed by the worship (which is, especially with the BCP, largely a matter of immersing ourselves in Scripture) - in other words, through allowing the church to speak THROUGH us, we learn how to become the people God is leading us to be. So the impetus comes from both outside ourselves and from more deeply within ourselves than we are aware of.

    Make sense?

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  2. hi Sam

    Thanks for your comments. I hope you are much better now after your recent illness.

    If people prefer a liturgical worship, I don't want to stand in their way or impose my preference on them.

    I do know thw CS Lewis quote, and the preface to Common Worship. i accept the point of 'getting beyond the text', but I feel that in most cases familiarity with the text breeds a greater difficulty in speaking the words with conviction. Jesus (who obviously translated the King James version of the Bible himself (?)) says in Matthew 6 v 7 "Do not use vain repetitions". It is ironic that the passage in which he says this is the one that is reopeated most often, most insencerely, most emptily, most etc than any other passage of the Bible.

    On the other hand, we have Paul's instructions for worship - 1 Cor 14 v 26 (and the whole chapter) - which suggest a much less pre-prepared servie, in which each person would bring a contribution for the common good. The existing pattern was a little too chaotic, with people vying for attention and shouting over each other. Paul tells them to have more respect one for another and patience and to do things in a more seemly way, but the basic structure of the service was what he wanted. There is no suggestion of liturgy. It was different at each meeting as peopple brought what they had in mind. It was not too leadership-focussed or front-lead, but a sequence of congregational contributions.

    The trend towards a more formal liturgical approach, possibly inherited in part from synagogue traditions, came later, but were not part of the canonical instruction for worship. It's not wrong as such, but we need to keep in mind that it's not the way our father God originally intended.

    As too feelings - I accept that a fault of Evangelicals is to get to fixated on feeling states. Yet God is still the same God regardless of our moods and hormones. For this reason, in the crises of my life, I have made it a principal to still attend church and still sing, though on occasion this has been through gritted teeth and tear-stained face.

    But I also believe that God made the whole man, including the feeelings. You can't read the psalms and conclude that this form of worship excluded emotion! And the psalms should be our pattern for worship - an honest conversation with God, which is true both to our fickle emotions and to the unchangingness of God.

    And as I have said elsewhere, I believe the whole church, including different denonminations with teir different practices and styles, is necessary to reflect the breadth of God.

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