Over the past couple of weeks I have encountered thoughts about the church and worship. These are two things that I have found to be incredibly misunderstood among many people. I thought about making up a statistic there but it doesn't seem worth it. I thought I would share a few things that I have both experience and thought about concerning these two topics.
First, let's talk about the church. I just wrote a paper on a sacramental ecclesiology in process thought. I don't know if it was much of a paper, but it made me think a little bit. I typically have had a pretty low view of the church (btw ecclesiology=doctrine of the church). I felt like it was too much of an institution, which doesn't resonate well with me. So I have always discounted the church while participating in the sacraments of the church, typically seen as Communion and Baptism. A sacrament is a symbol that points us towards God and the work that God has done/is doing for us. Thus, communion is the symbol which reminds us Christ's action through the death and resurrection, which then spurs us to live more fully into God's call for our lives. The tendency is to look at it from an individual point of view. But this is not the true meaning of Holy Communion--that second work should be an indicator of something here.
As an institution the church has always preserved these sacraments of baptism and Eucharist (Holy Communion), and a whole host of others if you are Roman Catholic or Eastern Orthodox. What then is a sacramental church, I hear you ask? Well, here it is in a nutshell. A sacrament is a symbol, which points a deeper reality (which is how symbols work generally). That deeper reality is the work that God is doing for us. God does the work of life giving. Therefore, sacraments should be seen as anything that brings about a fuller life. He is the thing that makes the church a sacrament, at least it should, we can only have new and fuller life we participate communally in life. This means to use the words of Robert Martin, that we have to give, receive and share life. We have to pour out our lives to other, who do the same to us, which means that we come to share a common life in and through Christ. This is living a sacramental life, which is exactly what the church is called to do. The church is the body of Christ, which is supposed to embody or make manifest Christ to the world, thus becoming Eucharist for the world. Are we truly doing this in the Church?
Finally, I will write a little bit about worship. Worship has become empty ritual in many churches. I used to call this liturgy, but that is not the case at all. Liturgy is just the framework for worshiping. It is the physical expression of worship. It is the organizing principle of worship. In light of what the church is, you may be able to see where this is going. Worship should be the act by which we come to know God's life-giving love in communion with God and people (and perhaps the world). Therefore, in every action taking during worship each individual should allow his/her self to be swallow up in the communion of God and God's people. In the acts of worship the I should become a We. We move from the I-Thou dialogical relationship to a relationship where the church is a we in communion. There is still an I and Thou but our lives are so taken up within each other that it is impossible to separate them. I lives more fully when when sharing life with Thou, thus becoming a We.
That was probably really hard to follow, but the point is that in worship through liturgy each person needs to allow her/his self to be caught up in everyone else, mutually filling each other with life--a life lived in and through the Holy Trinity. Next time you worship let go of your fears and insecurities and live in and through God. Give up yourself and you will allow yourself to worship in a way that is life giving and fills you with life.
Peace
mark
P.S. I would like to cite a few people's thoughts that have contributed to this post. Robert Martin, Kallistos Ware, Andrew Blume and Leonardo Boff (of course there are others but those are some people who have recently influenced my thinking).
