The first of maybe several posts on the liturgy

     "Genuine spirituality requires spontaneity, but spontaneous spiritual expression will be richer if grounded in an  equal measure of discipline and consistency"- Yoel Finkelman, whole First Things Article here.

So looks like the Orthodox Jews get it too, guess that just leaves us Baptists, some various non-denoms, and the Pentecostals who are still mostly in the dark.  Maybe it's just me, but I really don't see the value of following the latest Lifeway fad, instead of 2000 years of tradition when worshiping God.  I have heard the arguments against liturgy as being staid, constricting, and dead, but the thing is we fall into our own patterns often without noticing it, and liturgy, especially when organized around the calendar (Advent, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, ect.), actually draws us out of repetition through planning.  I know that for instance, when I lead a Bible study, it inevitably turns to one of a few "pet" topics, and preachers without some sort of lectionary seem to tend to the same thing.  Or they go through cycles of fad, getting all focused on one topic, perhaps doing a sermon series on it, and then, along with the congregation, forgetting all about it as they move on to the next topic.  We really credit ourselves with too much spontaneity.  Our prayers take on a certain faux-spontaneity, having all the trappings of a spontaneous prayer (informality, occasional rambling , use of God or Lord in spaces we might normally fill with "uh" or "umm"- God, you know I just really, want, Lord, to...) but actually return again and again to a few time-worn phrases that we always use.  Now this is fine, it's normal.  Language fails us here anyway, so the return to phrases that have taken on a special meaning for us is really the only proper way for us to try and communicate.  Thank goodness that we have, as Paul says, the Holy Spirit interceding for us with "groanings words cannot express".  The difference however in liturgical prayer is that the words have a common meaning, as we pray together we live into them, they take on a shared meaning rather than a personal one.  As I don't think I have a big Pentecostal audience here, I'll go ahead and say this:  I don't think Paul's admonishing against speaking in tongues (i.e. other human languages, not, I don't think, crazy sounding talk that just comes out spontaneously, but I may be wrong- maybe) is too far off here.  When we return to our favorite little phrases when praying "spontaneously", we are in effect speaking a slightly different language than our hearers because our words do not carry the same associations for them they might for us; language is not algebra. Without a translation from this slightly different tongue, the hearer isn't edified as they might be.  Liturgy, by providing a common language in which things too definite for language are spoken about, mitigates this problem at least a little by allowing the congregation to invest meaning into the same words.  And this works because we have much more in common than we let on, especially when it comes to our relationship with God.  I mean we all have sinned against Him "in word, in thought, and in deed, by doing what we ought not do and neglecting to do that which we ought..." saying as much together bonds us together as a family more trying to figure out what the deacon is talking about while she's up there. (Did you see how I snuck that "she" in there as a deacon?  Take that ultra-conservative, non-Biblical SBCers, you just got called out on a blog that is probably read by 5 or 6 people) Liturgy encourages us because it allows us to see the others in our position before God, we take a step back into the Church rather than perceiving our selves to stand alone in our faith and struggle. And of course the continuity of the liturgy places us into a greater historical context, a larger narrative of God's continued faithfulness and work within the world.  This seems especially crucial with so many forces within the modern world creating a sense of displacement and alienation; liturgy provides a certain "rootedness" for lack of a better word, but that is probably a whole 'nother post....

As you can see this is also one of my soapbox topics with the Baptists (which I am, and plan to remain) which I will probably return to again and again.  Perhaps the blog needs to follow a lectionary... Anyway, I-monk has been doing some good stuff on the liturgy lately too.  You should check it out; that is, if you do that sort of thing.