Letter in inbox: Hi.....I just found your blog... I'm an Eastern Orthodox (former non-denominational Christian). I've never heard a Non-denominational church use the word "liturgy." We use the word in our Church all the time, but I'm wondering what you're meaning by the word....Please don't be offended...just got my interest [and I'm asking] out of curiosity.
A Homeschool Mom of 4 in CA.
Kind Friend... I am grateful for your note (a curious mind is kin!)... privileged to listen to your story... to share here, too...
Yes, our family attends what may be deemed a "non-liturgical" church... or a "low church," that is to say, in our fellowship we do not make use of developed ritual, ceremony, or worship accouterments like vestments. (Though, even the wordless, waiting worship of our communion service could be considered liturgical, since the waiting itself, until the Holy Spirit moves men to speak, could be considered "the liturgy of silence.")
Yet perhaps even the distinction between "liturgical" and "non-liturgical" churches veils how believers in either tradition live the whole of their lives worshipping in very public, ceremonial ways.
While perhaps not commonly coined in Protestant, evangelical faith communities, when I speak of liturgy, I guess I am speaking of the whole of my life as liturgy. An everyday liturgy.
With its roots in λειτουργία (leitourgia), liturgy means "public work" or "public servant." Thus all that we do, think, say before others... others in our homes, in our places of work, in our communities.... I humbly offer that this is our liturgy, our public service, before people, and before our all encompassing God. In no way is liturgy to mean rote, empty ritual, but rather
Liturgy is our daily, vibrant dance with God Himself... through the reading, memorization, and meditating on Scripture, the singing of hymns, the lighting of a candle, through the signs of the cup and the bread... Liturgy is our pressing into the heart of God and moving with Him. Days, wild and crazy days of family life, need order, scaffolding, sacred rhythms. If we say God is at the center, so we order the tangle of our days around Him: we commune with Him through the liturgical, sacred everyday rhythms of our public work, our daily service, our vocation. And He untangles us....liturgy is a school where through sign and symbol, word and music, our minds and hearts are formed to be in union with the movement of God, with God Himself. ~Fr. M. Basil Pennington
As liturgy refers to a public and deliberate, well-defined ceremony, so we are intentional and deliberate in our rhythms, seeking equilibrium amidst all that sets us off kilter:
- set times of prayer, following the way of Daniel who prayed three times a day facing Jerusalem (Daniel 6:10), the psalmist who speaks of praising God seven times a day (Ps. 119:164) and the early disciples who we find praying at fixed hours: 9 am in the upper room (Acts 2: 1, 15); Peter on roof for his Noon prayers (Acts 10:9); Peter & John on way to temple for 3pm prayers (Acts 3:1), everyday liturgy invites one into knowing God's presence at all times by meeting with Him at certain, set, times.
- hallowed habits of meditating on His Word, savoring His bread each time we eat physical food
- regular family gatherings to sing hymns and psalms, worshipping
- being aware, present, to His abiding Presence, as we work
- honoring the Sabbath, celebrating the Biblical feasts, making holidays holy
- as a family, observing Advent and Lent in simple, thoughtful ways
- opening and closing our days with prayer, fencing our days with blessings...
- corporate and individual communion throughout the week
Often translated as "minister" or "worship" instead of "liturgy" in English language Bibles ("and in their ministering to the Lord and fasting..." Acts 3:2), so we minister before the Lord, presenting our bodies, all that we do, up to Him as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God, which is our spiritual worship (Romans 12:1). As The Message renders Ro. 12:1,
"Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering."
So this family humbly, (and bumbling) attempt to live all of life as liturgy.... for I quietly believe that liturgy doesn’t merely happen in church, but rather liturgy happens in hearts. Whenever, wherever, I am in God's service as His servant, so I am living out an everyday liturgy of deliberate worship. Without an everyday liturgy, a quotidian dance of worship, we may grow stiff, spiritually awkward, lukewarm. As the trees of the field perform their praise in the beauty of daily, quotidian rhythms, we too may enter into the quotidian liturgy of sacred rhythms, hallowed habits ... a sacrificed life which is our spiritual act of worship.
So that is all, friend... I simply pray to live a quiet life (that sometimes fizzles into a chaotically loud life) that is a holy experience: listening... laundry... liturgy. Only by His infinite grace...
Father God... remind me again how everyday is sacred, how life is liturgy, how to keep the rhythms of Your grace. I yearn for union---deep, intimate, complete union--- with You. You, here with me, in the holy ordinary.
Related:
Cleaning: My quotidian liturgy
The Problem with Not Experiencing God
Relationship with God in the Midst of Crazy Family Life
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