Liturgy is the Greek word for people and work. “In English it now has two senses: (1) Of all the prescribed services of the church, such as canonical hours, as contrasted with private devotion; and (2), specifically as a title of the Eucharist as the chief act of public worship” as described in the Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church.
One of the biggest differences between mainline churches and the Evangelical churches is the liturgy. Anglicans follow a set pattern of worship. Liturgy is a public action, a ritual action, and a symbolic action. We participate in the action of the liturgy by responding, singing, listening and joining in the gestures. Liturgy is always in motion; it is something we do, it is not simply a text in a book. Liturgy is a multi-sensory event, involving taste, smell, touch, sight and sound to move and embody the liturgy.
The particular liturgy of the Anglican Church is a four-part drama that brings together a community of people. In a very simplistic form, there is a gathering, in which we greet each other; the word of God, the Holy Scriptures are heard; there is a response to what is heard as the central response is the Eucharist; then, better equipped and having encountered God’s grace in the meal, we are sent back into the world to be witnesses of the gospel.
Those four elements are extremely powerful in their simplicity and complexity, signifying the mysterious work of God’s Spirit and the church assembled. Part of the task for all Christians is, through the work of the Spirit, to find ourselves in the story of God, and to decide for ourselves ways in which we will faithfully respond.
In its sacramental signs and observances, the church takes part in marking the passage of time and events. Beginning with the anticipation and waiting in hope for the Messiah, through the ministry of Christ to his arrest, suffering, death, and finally to the Resurrection of life and glory, these disciplines are an act of worship with roots in millennia of history.
As Anglicans we gather to be re-membered into the community, we hear what God has done, and continues to do, in and through our lives as we engage the biblical story in this age. If liturgy is to live it must illumine our lives and give them meaning.
The embodiment of response to the anticipation of what God is doing, bears witness to our participation, which is then carried out into the world. This pattern is a way to mark time journeying through the seasons as a continuing spiral returning to a familiar place, yet a place where life has changed.
Time measures and gives order to our lives. The church certainly knowns chronos, if the service runs 15 minutes over, there is a good chance that the priest will know about it through the feedback of the parishioners. But the church also knows another kind of time, kairos — biblical time is filled with God’s gracious actions and presence. In the beginning of His ministry, Jesus proclaims that, “the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near.”
This is not just, “once upon a time” but perpetually. As Christians we trust the promise and anticipate that Christ, “will appear a second time… to save those who are eagerly waiting for Him” (Heb. 9:28).
So Christians not only mark the days on the calendar, but through liturgical observance we discover in the patterns of our biblical time and the rich meaning of time filled with God, and time fulfilment in Jesus. Keeping the church liturgical year in kairos time allows the service of the gospel to be in God’s hands. The worship traditions of the church provide help for re-ordering priorities and reclaiming time as a gift, not a burden.
Part of that obedience to the life of God is found in the practice of following the lectionary readings. The use of the lectionary serves the unity of the church as it joins Christians around the world in a common identity and a common purpose. We relinquish personal preferences for the greater goal of common practice.
The church is then both local and universal, it is local in that the sermon it is written for that congregation, the prayers are prayed for that congregation, hymns and music reflect the specific congregation’s time and place.
At other times, church worship speaks to the universality of the church, with Christians around the world, voices join to speak proclamations of faith in reciting the Apostles Creed, and the praying of the Lord’s Prayer. Together these ancient words value the unity in globalized worship.
Therefore, the liturgy is something that binds us, makes us of one mind and focuses our attention. It is not something that we can play fast and loose with; a much larger community of saints are involved when there are changes that are deemed to reflect the world we now inhabit.
Let us go in peace to love and serve the Lord; thanks be to God.
