Worship in Liturgy

 Growing up we had some family friends who were hispanic and Catholic. Every once and a while I’d go with them to mass. As a kid I enjoyed the beautiful architecture of the building, but I was bored at the service itself. Which was par for the course since anytime my parents would go to church, I would just curl up under a pew and fall asleep. 

But when I went to college, in one of our classes, we had to write about another Christian tradition that was not like out own, and we hadn’t experienced before. My wife and I chose Episcopalian. When we entered the building, it felt very similar to the Catholic mass. The garments, the rituals, all brought back memories of being six or seven years old and following my friend’s family into the large open room adorned with all sorts of images. The use of incense, the presentation of the elements for communion, the call and response of the priest, it was an experience that was both interesting and foreign. Since then, I have come to understand the meaning of the various rituals and procedures that go into these more traditional services. 

Recently God placed on my mind the idea communicating what we’re doing here. What I mean by that is, when we come together as believers from various traditions and backgrounds, we all might have different expectations of the worship service. Some of us come from more ritual based worship services, however most probably come from more non-ritualistic traditions. Yet we all have experienced a structured worship time, that we call a service. 

It’s this worship time that I want to discuss with you today.

As Jesus references in Matthew 18:20, “… where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them …,” the Church can meet in groups of as little as two. However, if they conduct a worship time, they actually enter into a worship service. That idea simply means, that when the Church meets, they serve or minister to God through their worship. 

The structure of this service is called a liturgy, and it comes from this Greek word (leitourgia [lay-toorg-eh’-o]) which means to serve or minister. We see this in Acts 13:2, where the Church at Antioch has come together. It reads in the English Standard Version, “While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting …” But a literal translation would be, “As they were ministering (lay-toorg-eh’-o) to the Lord …” 

The gathering of believers to perform liturgy has been an establish since the early days of the faith. An early Christian document called the Didache, or Teaching of the Twelve, was kind of an early “How to” Christian manual. In it’s fourteenth chapter it states, “But every Lord’s day gather yourselves together, and break bread, and give thanksgiving after having confessed your transgressions, that your sacrifice may be pure.”  

Our worship is a service, a ministry, and sacrifice to God. When we come together it is not for ourselves, but for the exaltation, or the evaluating of God in our lives. A worship service is a time to realign God where he is supposed to be, for he is God and we are not.

To do this, liturgies come in all sorts of styles. There are the high liturgies of the Orthodox, Catholic, and Anglican traditions. Then there are low liturgies like ours. The difference is the emphasis on ritualism in the liturgy. 

One of the most ancient liturgies is Saint Mark’s Liturgy. Mark is the writer of the Gospel of Mark a tradition states that he received the liturgy in Egypt in the first century. The order of the liturgy is:

The Preface, where there is a dialogue between the priest and the people. Within this dialogue, there are hymns sung to God, God is blessed, as are the people.

Following that is a praise of the Cherubim who minister to the Lord.

Next is the Institution, of the elements of communion, where the words of Jesus at the last supper about the bread and wine are recited.  

Then an Invocation, or calling upon, the Holy Spirit to bless the bread and wine occurs. 

After that, communion is given the the faithful believers.

Finally, prayers and perhaps hymns are given back to God.

Now if there isn’t an understanding of the why behind these things, they can feel like empty actions. Yet, if one understands the purposes, it can be a very rich experience.

Yet, because of how easily these rituals can loose their meaning, over time in low liturgy traditions, we have stripped away a lot of the ritual aspects to these high liturgies. Low meaning low in ritual, but not absent in ritual. 

I want to walk you through our low liturgy, so that you might see the intentionality behind it. 

Our liturgy starts when you enter the door. We create space for the Church, the people of God, to meet for fellowship. 

Then we begin with singing. These songs seek to focus on who God is. Psalm 100:1-2 state, “Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth! 2 Serve the Lord with gladness. Come into his presence with singing!”

We start off singing upbeat songs because God calls us into his service with gladness. Sometimes that’s hard to do when the world beats us down during. But again, the service is to restore God to his proper place in our lives. Singing his praises helps in that restoration. We also sing three songs, as a reference to the Triune God we worship. We worship the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; One God in three persons, co-equal in all aspects of the Godhead.

Then our liturgy moves to a welcome. We cannot fellowship with everyone, and because Quartzsite is transient in nature it’s easy to overlook people. The welcome is to connect with people we may overlook in our busy lives. In that we must be mindful of each other, some people enjoy a good hug, others a handshake is enough, still others might not be comfortable with embracing. The welcome time is to see each other as fellow believers. Maybe God will set someone in your mind in the greeting time and that might prompt you to pursue a deeper relationship with them. Paul calls us to this type of greeting when he writes in Romans 16:16, “Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ greet you.” A holy kiss isn’t necessary, because that is a cultural thing, but greeting and knowing each other is a part of the meeting of the Church for service.

We then do announcements, mainly because we have found there are things that need to be said, to keep everyone in the loop. We have found that just in the bulletin and on the screens doesn’t work, these things have to be said. There’s no Scriptural verse for this. Hence why we try to get through it quickly.

Next is the word. Psalm 119:128-131 states, “Therefore I consider all your precepts to be right; I hate every false way. 129 Your testimonies are wonderful; therefore my soul keeps them. 130 The unfolding of your words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple. 131 I open my mouth and pant, because I long for your commandments.”

Going through God’s word is extremely important. It is the basis for our faith, and the rule by which we should govern our lives. It guides us in conjunction with the Holy Spirit. It sets our minds on the good things of God, and directs us away for the temptations, and desires of the world, the flesh, and the enemy. A sermon might not pertain 100% to our lives, but I personally try to find one thing that I can apply from every sermon I preach or hear. This is why I give weekly challenges. No matter where we find ourselves we should be challenged in our faith to grow.

Out of the word, we continue singing and once a month we take communion. Both are to be a response to the word that we just heard. It’s the first opportunity of response to what God has brought to us during the opening of his word. Paul writes this in Colossians 3:16, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” This initial response is to help solidify the word in our lives that it my dwell in us.

Next, we receive an offering. This is not one we emphasize, nor is one we require. But we as a ministry need to make room for people to give to what they feel God is doing. We put this after the word, because it is also a response to what has happened. We used to not do this,  instead receiving an offering before the word. When we changed it the argument against such a change was, what if you do a bad job? That was the wrong mindset. The offering is a response to what God is doing, not what the speaker has done. So we want to put it in a place of response, not obligation. Paul writes in 2nd Corinthians 9:7 and 12, “7 Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver … 12 For the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints but is also overflowing in many thanksgivings to God.” Yes, the offering helps us to continue the ministry God has given to us here in Quartzsite, but it is an overflowing of thanksgiving to God himself.

Finally, we leave with a song on our lips. Psalm 96:1-2 reads, “Oh sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth! 2 Sing to the Lord, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day.” We leave with the blessing of God on us to bless his name throughout the world. The final thing is to remember that God is all we need. We sing it, we are blessed by it, and we head out to face this world. This world is going to beat us up during the week, but we leave here with God in his rightful place in our lives.

Our liturgy, though not big on ritual, is purposeful in design. It’s to take us out of the world for a moment, refocus us on Christ, and then send us back with holy intention to live out God’s calling. That is God’s intention, that we minister in our worship to him, and that our eyes remain on him.

My challenge for you then this week, is to take this next song and sing as a response. You are a minister unto God right now. God wants your eyes on him, that you may rest in his holy presence, not just now, but through our whole life. So sing as one in an eternal chorus of other ministers to the Lord.

God is great, and mighty, and holy. As the Church, called by the Father, saved by the Son, and empowered by the Spirit, we are to minister to him who is wonderful. And through that, he ministers to us, and we overflow in love to the people around us. So let us be a people of liturgy, of service, and ministry to our God. Amen.