A Brief History Of Drama In Worship

Worship as the celebration of God's saving acts in Christ is itself dramatic, enacting the relationship between God and his people and reenacting the living, dying, and rising of Christ. The article below traces this theme throughout the history of Christian worship.

Drama and Worship During Biblical Times Hebrew worship, beginning with the early sacrifices made by Abel and his successors Abraham, the patriarchs, and the priesthood of Israel, is a dramatic portrayal of the relationship that men and women have with God. In the sacrifices of the Old Testament, a common pattern emerges, which, at its very heart, is a powerful four-part drama. First, the worshipers went through an extensive preparation and personal cleansing, followed by a ritual of preparing an animal for slaughter. Next, the animal in a ceremonial rite was "offered" as a gift to God, who is the giver of all gifts. Then, in another ceremony the animal was butchered, and certain parts were burned on the altar. Finally, both priest and people shared a great feast together with God as they ate the animal that had been offered. In this dramatic action the "stuff" of every day life, which came from God, was offered to God, and returned by God to the people for the feast in which God shared. In this drama the true meaning of life was portrayed in a powerful four-act play. This sense of dramatizing a relationship to God is central to all Jewish worship and finds a significant place in the feasts of Israel. The Shabbat is a dramatic remembrance of God's creative act; Passover a reenactment of the Exodus; Shavuoth, or Feast of Weeks, a celebration of harvest; Rosh Hashanah, or the Feast of Trumpets, a drama of the new year; and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, a drama of returning to God; Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles or Feast of Booth, a dramatic remembrance that Israel lived in booths or huts when God called them up out of Egypt. In all these celebrations Israel told and acted out the story in worship which was directed to God. Drama was the underlying structure of worship. The same approach to worship is found in New Testament times. The service of the Word is a dramatic retelling of God's great acts of creation, the Fall, the patriarchs, the Exodus and formation of Israel, the prophets, the coming of Jesus and his birth, life, death, resurrection, ascension, and coming again. This is story and drama at its best, a play about the meaning of the world and of our lives within world history. Furthermore, the Eucharist or Lord's Supper is the great drama of God's saving act in Jesus Christ. (The connection the dramatic feast of the Old Testament has with the eucharistic drama and feast of Christian worship is more than coincidental.) Here, as in Israel, the drama of redemption is acted out and symbolized in the taking, blessing, breaking, and giving of bread and wine. This drama has an affinity with eating and drinking at home, with the drama of life continually nourished. It is not a casual drama to be taken lightly or not played well. Rather, it is a dramatic reenactment of the most important event in history, the event through which a new creation was birthed, an event that marks the beginning of the steady march of creation toward becoming the new heavens and the new earth. Drama and Worship in Subsequent History The dramatic nature of worship shown above is found in the practice of worship from the very beginning of the Christian era and has remained a fundamental aspect of worship through history. Variations can be seen in the intensity with which the drama of worship has been celebrated. In the early church the Eucharist was always celebrated with an awareness of its drama and mystery. As worship became public and was celebrated in large basilicas, later churches, and cathedrals since the fourth century, the dramatic nature of the service was stressed through an increased number of processions and ceremonial actions centering around primary actions of the liturgy, such as the reading of the gospel and the celebration of bread and wine. The only major departure from the dramatic sense of worship in history is the emergence of modern Protestant worship. This form of worship is largely directed toward the intellect. But even here dramatic elements are often unknowingly expressed in the style of preaching and in the manner of handling Communion. In addition to the Sunday drama, the festivals of the church year were developed as dramatic memorials of God's acts of salvation. Primarily these services of worship are clustered around Christmas and Easter. While the services of Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany were dramas of the coming of Christ and his manifestation to the world, the most intense dramatic celebrations are during Holy Week—Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, the Paschal Vigil, Easter Sunday, and Pentecost. Drama Within the Liturgy While the dramatic nature of worship has always been expressed through the service of worship itself, the idea of drama or small dramas within worship has not fared as well. Christian worship began in the Roman era when theater was crude, degenerate, and characterized by a considerable immorality. Consequently drama, the theater, mime, puppets and such were viewed by Christians with distaste and even horror. When Constantine was converted and the empire was "Christianized" somewhat, Christians dealt a decisive blow to drama and theater. During the medieval era, the Catholic church restored drama as a way of communicating the stories of faith and educating the people. The earliest forms of drama were developed around the events of Holy Week. On Palm Sunday, the church held a procession with a person riding on a donkey; on Good Friday a cross was wrapped in cloth and laid inside an empty tomb in the chancel; and on Easter Sunday the empty cross was dramatically displayed to celebrate the Resurrection. Another early form of drama known as the trope, meaning phrase or clause, became a dramatic insertion in the liturgy. The following trope, Quem Queritas ("whom seek ye"), is found in the introductory portion of the Mass as early as a.d. 925: Angel: Whom seek ye in the tomb, O Christian? The Three Marys: Jesus of Nazareth, the crucified, O Heavenly Beings. Angel: He is not here, He is risen as He foretold. God and announce that He is risen from the tomb. Soon plays like the Quem Queritas were expanded into full dramatic productions and eventually spread all over Europe, expanding beyond into the medieval market place. Three kinds of plays were developed: (1) mystery plays, which dramatized Bible events such as Creation, the lives of various persons (e.g., Cain and Abel, Noah, Abraham, etc.), the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus; (2) miracle plays, which featured Christian saints such as St. Nicholas and Joan of Arc; (3) morality plays, which probed human conduct and dealt with the clash between vices and virtues; the most famous of these plays is Everyman. While drama had its start in the church and flourished in the liturgy and the courtyards of churches, it eventually became increasingly baudy and secular. In 1250, Pope Innocent III threw the players out of the church, but they continued to perform in the outdoors. Drama within the church did not fare well during the Reformation, the Puritan era, or during the seventeenth through the nineteenth centuries. Only now in twentieth-century renewal worship is drama finding its place back within the church. Drama in Worship Today In the twentieth century, drama within the church has come full circle and is making a comeback in worship. The dramatic nature of every service of worship, the dramatic character of the great festivals of the church year, and the use of small dramas within worship are all matters of interest. Generally, three criteria are used to measure the dramatic character of these services: (1) the emotional and physical involvement of the congregation; (2) the presence of crisis and conflict in the drama; and (3) the reenactment of an important spiritual experience or the rehearsal of that which is to be performed in the world. There are certain forms of drama which are inappropriate within worship, yet appropriate in educational situations like Sunday School, recreational situations like church parties, or family worship. Youth plays, drama games, skits, puppets, clowns, and parades are all forms of drama that are useful means of communicating truth, but are not generally acceptable within a morning worship of Word and Table. Because the great drama of the Christian faith is expressed primarily through Word and Table, the use of small dramas must always serve these two focal points and never replace them or even overshadow them. Consequently, the forms of drama recommended in a service of worship among renewalists is that of choral reading, storytelling, and chancel drama. These are especially useful in the service of the Word, where they heighten important aspects of the scriptural text.