Great is the Mystery of Faith 1:  Why Liturgy?

Welcome to the first sermon in our new series, where we look at our liturgy. 

What is liturgy? 

It literally means ‘the work of the people’, but in the church of England, we regard it as a generally a recommended pattern for worship, for a particular set service. 

So, in short, it’s whatever is written down in our service books, week by week.  Until around 50 years ago, the only liturgy used in the church of England was that prescribed in the Book of Common Prayer. Since then, we have a plethora of new liturgies to choose from, set out in Common Worship.   Although the words of the BCP are wonderful, resonant and, for some people, still very meaningful,our understanding of scripture, and our social context has changed so much, that the theological emphases of the BCP are ours no longer (the anti-Papist sentiments for instance, strike a jarring note. And if you want to see how our contexts have changed – just compare the prefaces to the marriage service in the BCP with that of common worship!) 

So, a joke current in clergy circles recently was – what is the difference between a liturgist and a terrorist? You can negotiate with a terrorist!

The Liturgical Commission of the Church of England has spent much time producing up to date orders of service, and we now have a great choice of different services – no longer do I use a service book – it’s all on line, which means that we can have services, like this one, tailor made for us.

If I asked many Anglicans why we have liturgy, I guess they would be stumped.  But for people from a free church or Pentecostal background, this question is a live one. 

They will ask two main questions, which I actually think are good ones, and worth exploring.

The first is: Why do we need to pray to God using other people’s words?

The second is: If we use the same words every week, doesn’t it get boring and meaningless?

Liturgy is Biblical

Firstly, our liturgy is very much based on words from the Bible. You will find, if you read the Bible, that it’s very much like the old joke about someone who went to see Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, and complained that it was ‘full of quotations’.

Lots of quotes and references

If we know our Bibles well, then just about every phrase we use, if not a direct quotation, will have echoes for us of a story, or words used.

For example – ‘O Lord, Open our lips – and our mouths will proclaim your praise –  comes as a direct quote from the Psalm: 51.15.  But it reminds me too of Romans 8.26: .. we do not even know how we ought to pray, but through our inarticulate groans, teh Spirit himself is pleading for us: And Jesus, in Matthew 10.19:  Do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say, 20 for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.

It also reminds us that in the words of the Catechism, that man’s chief end is to worship God and enjoy him forever... (scuse the non-inclusive language!)

And that’s all in two little phrases. 

Liturgy  concentrates our prayer – actually reduces the number of phrases we need.

Lots of examples of liturgy – Psalms etc

It is also Biblical in the sense the Bible itself contains lots of liturgy – the Psalms for example, but also in the NT, Colossians1.13-20, for example. 

Lots of examples of liturgical services in Bible

And also, lots of examples of the people of God, including Jesus, worshipping liturgically – the Passover, the temple worship for example.

Decently and in order  1Cor. 14.40

Just imagine – if we all came to church and sang our favourite hymn, all at the same time!

It means by saying and doing the same thing at the same time, we express our unity in Christ, and we can pray the same things.  It doesn’t stop God speaking to us through the liturgy in different ways:  For example, if I got you to discuss the question – what was the thing that spoke to you most through our Gospel reading this morning – you’d all come out with slightly different answers.  In the same
way, God works through the words of the liturgy, interacting with what’s going on in our lives and thoughts at that particular moment.

Tried and tested God is holy, so when we worship,we want to do so in the best way possible.  Liturgy has been tried and tested over the centuries (some of our words and patterns go back to the church fathers! – and some of our prayers, directly link into Jewish worship of the Bible – in fact, some of the words of the newer Holy Communion liturgies well predate Cranmer – which is why our liturgy is now very similar to that used by the RC church – the scholars had been using the same sources (that is until they changed it last month) 

For example, the Kyries – Lord, have mercy, come from the Hebrew Hosannah, the Gloria, from the Angels song to the Shepherds at the birth of Jesus, and an ancient Messianic prophetic song of the Jews.

Liturgy helps us to approach God:

Sometimes (a lot of the time really) we are stuck for what to say to God.  Having written down prayers that we can make our own can really help. 

Not only that, but sometimes we even find it difficult to approach God – for the right reasons – God is holy, and we are not: Through our liturgy, we become confident that we can come into God’s presence.

Liturgy – a balanced diet for body, mind and spirit

What part of the service (apart from coffee at the end!) do you look forward to most? Our Holy Communion liturgy is divided between ministry of the word and ministry of the sacrament – we actually need both. We worship with our whole bodies – through changing our posture.  We see, taste, feel, hear, and, in churches that use incense, smell.  Every part of us is engaged in worship.  And this too says something important about our relationship with God.  There is no part of us that God is not interested in – that God did not create in us and call Good.   Every part of us is important to God, even our creaky knees!   God came to us as a human baby, born, as we all are, in a messy, earthy way. 

Why do we use the same words every week, when our situation changes?  How can we keep it fresh? But, if we do and say the same thing every week, doesn’t it get monotonous, and maybe empty and meaningless? This is a serious danger.  But all churches, whether or not they have a ‘formal, written down’ liturgy, will have some kind of ritual.  There will be songs, announcements, a sermon, and some prayers – maybe extempore – but when I’ve been regularly to such churches, you can guarantee that Mr Smith will stand up and say the same prayer every week (usually long and rambling)

We can’t get away from it – we are created as people who form habits – including habits in worship.  Better to borrow others good, and tried and tested habits, than invent our own.

Liturgy as a vehicle to worship

There is another danger of liturgy – we might treat it as a kind of magic ritual or formula. – the words hocus pocus are a corruption of the Latin Ecce corpus Christi – Behold, the body of Christ.

Saying the words, coming to Church every week, does not guarantee us a living relationship with God, and his son Jesus.

Liturgy is to be used one stepping stone, a framework if you like, around which we can build our faith.  Other essentials are regular private prayer and Bible Study,  and having regular fellowship with other Christians (for example, in a home-group)

So, in summary:

Next time, we’ll start to look in detail at some of the prayers we use in our Holy Communion liturgy.