Bowling without knowing the rules: What’s up with liturgical worship?

Why do many churches worship in they way they do? Why do they follow an order of worship that was conceived long before their church was even built? What’s up with liturgical worship?

Sometimes it’s ok to do things without fully understanding them (I know how to walk, while at the same time I am not fully knowledgeable about the exact physics and rules of motion behind it), but other times if we don’t understand what we are doing it ends up being like “bowling competitively without even knowing the rules.”

A few weeks ago I was at a birthday party with my son who valiantly attempted to roll a seven pound ball down a wooden path to knock over some odd-shaped, red collared, round bellied objects. While at the party, I got into a conversation with a mother whose high school son’s team was bowling in a match at the other end of the ally. During our conversation, visibly frustrated with the outcome of the match, she lamented:

How could they possibly win? They don’t even know the rules… They have never been taught how to score bowling so they didn’t even know they could still win the match. If they knew the rules they would have known they could still win and they would have kept trying. They don’t realize how important it is to pick up their spares. All they want is strikes and if they don’t get a strike they don’t focus on their spares. They are competing in a game  in which they don’t even understand the basic rules… They would appreciate it more and bowl better if they knew more about the game.”

The very next day, as I sat with my family in worship, as I looked at the people sitting around me those bowling mom’s words about “bowling competitively without knowing the rules” came back to me… and convicted me.

I was convicted, not because I felt an urge to rush out that afternoon and teach my son how to score bowling. I was convicted, because as I looked at those worshipers, I was reminded that I like those high school bowling coaches have often not spent time amply time educating them about liturgical worship. I wonder if they understood: Why they were doing what they were doing? I wondered: How many of them were wondering: “What’s up with the liturgy?” I wondered: How many of them even know what the words liturgy or liturgical are to even ask the question?

Were they “bowling competitively without even knowing the rules?”

In my primary worship class at seminary the professor had four principles for worship that helped guide our discussions.

1. Honor the Experience of the Church
2. Let the People Participate
3. Let the Gospel Predominate
4. Let All the Best Gifts Be Used in the Service of the Gospel

I appreciate those principles and have discussed them at length both in seminary and in the parish with other pastors, but must admit that I am among the many who has not gone out of my way to foster a full understanding of why we do things the way we do in worship.

To that end over the next week and then spread out over of the next several months, Bread for Beggars is going to be tackling the topic of liturgical worship.

Note upfront however this will not be an attempt to prove that liturgical worship is superior to or better than any other form of public worship, but in an attempt to make sure that we are not leading people into a practice of “bowling competitively without knowing the rules.”

If churches are going to be using something and expect their members to appreciate it and understand the gift that it is…a little bit of continual education might be well suited both for those who have been worshiping liturgically for years and those who have recently joined a liturgical church.

The plan then is to start with a general overview of what liturgical worship is and does and then we will begin taking a look at individuals aspects of the liturgical rites (confession/absolution, creeds, prayers, etc…) and finally we will attempt to provide detailed summaries of the church year seasons as they approach and are entered into each year. As you may have noticed already in the “How Great Thou Art” blog category Bread for Beggars will also be sharing artwork each week that fits in theme with the upcoming week in the church year.

How does this all fit into the purpose and mission of Bread for Beggars? you might ask. To that note I will let John W. Kleinig explain.

In his book Grace Upon Grace—Spirituality for Today, John W. Kleinig describes what it means to be a spiritual beggar and explains how liturgical worship teaches us poor beggars how to receive from the gracious hand of our ever giving God.

Because our spiritual life and health depends on receiving from Christ, we exercise our faith by becoming beggars before God. And that’s not easy for us who fancy that we are producers of spiritual goods and owners of spiritual gifts. The place to begin learning to receive is our regular involvement in the Divine Service. The classical order for the Service of Word and Sacrament puts us and keeps us in the position of beggars before God. It invites us to join the company of holy beggars in four important places.

• In the Kyrie (Lord Have Mercy), we begin our worship by approaching the risen Lord Jesus and crying, “Lord, have mercy!”
• In the Gloria in Excelsis (Glory to God in the Highest), we stand before God the Father, together with angels in the heavenly realm, and ask for Jesus to intercede for us with Him there.
• In the Prayer of the Church, we beg for help from God the Father for the entire Church, the entire world, and all people in need in the name of Jesus.
• But, most significantly, in the Agnus Dei (Lamb of God), we come as beggars to Jesus, the host of our Holy Meal, to receive His peacemaking body and blood as food for our journey to heaven.

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We best learn the art of begging from God, quite practically, by bringing ourselves and others, our needs and theirs, each week to Him in the Divine Service. That then colors our attitude to God and our witness to the people around us. In relation to God we become people of prayer. In our witness to associates we do not come across as spiritual millionaires, but as beggars telling other beggars where to find bread.

[Grace Upon Grace: Spirituality for Today by John W. Kleinig, Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis, 2008 A.D., page 55. Bullet points added].

Check out the series “Lessons in the Liturgy”.

Lessons in the Liturgy: Part 1–It Helps Get to the Great Sunday