Worship And Spiritual Formation

Every aspect of liturgy shapes the faith of the worshiping community, altering its understanding of both God and the Christian life. This article explores some of the ways in which this occurs and suggests ways in which the church's worship can more adequately reflect the fullness of the gospel.

Definitions It is a truism that worship has something to do with spiritual formation and direction. Actually defining the relationship between the two, however, involves considering a number of factors not evident upon a surface consideration of the topic. For instance, the term spiritual direction often evokes images of a spiritual mentor counseling a neophyte charge in matters concerning the ascent of God. This individual-centered model of how one grows in God continues today in the ancient contemplative monastic orders of the West and even is beginning to be utilized in various forms in a number of Protestant churches. Within that tradition, there are authors, such as Thomas Merton, who have attempted to relate liturgy to the practice of spiritual mentoring. What concerns us here, however, is not the classical institution of spiritual direction. Instead, what follows is an introduction to the relationship between Christian worship and what can be termed spiritual formation. The question is how worship can be and is related to ongoing spiritual growth, which is a part of Christian life. That process obviously goes by different names in different ecclesiastical traditions: sanctification, holiness, even divinization (Greek theosis). This diversity of terminology reflects the variety of linguistic, historical, and sociological factors involved in how Christians describe and attempt to understand the very mystery of salvation itself. Many congregations and denominations have come to realize that the Sunday service of worship can act as a powerful means of shaping the spiritual development of individual Christians. This liturgical influence upon spiritual formation probably does happen and ought to happen indirectly; i.e., only by conscious reflection upon the actions of Christian worship will it become clear how worship nourishes the individual in her or his life in God. Below, we will examine four components of Christian worship in light of their role in spiritual formation: the Word, the Eucharist, baptism, and the liturgical calendar. General Considerations Before considering these four elements of Christian liturgy, it is necessary to make a few general remarks about the relationship between worship and Christian life. Existence in Christ cannot, of course, be reduced to participation in worship services. As Paul makes clear, the offering made by Christians is their life; that is, their service (Rom. 12:1). Occasions for communal worship are privileged times in which the Christian community gathers to proclaim and celebrate through word, action, and symbol the saving action of God in Christ. Worship can provide a means by which the meaning of Christian life is symbolized, articulated, interpreted, and critiqued. In this sense, liturgy can operate hermeneutically. For that function fully to take place, however, worship must take its place as one, but not the only, element of the community's life in Christ. If worship stands as the only (or even the primary) element of a congregation's life, it runs the danger of losing its openness to critique in the light of the gospel's demands. In such an isolated position, worship is capable of losing any relationship to the life of the community. Congregational worship calls forth the best efforts of all in the community to interpret its rich field of symbols in order to make available to the present the diverse and multivalent liturgical tradition. It is vital that all members of the church share in this tradition. It is vital that all members of the church share in this interpretive project by bringing their own experience of life in Christ to the community gathered for worship. In too many Christian communities, the responsibility and authority for interpreting the symbols of worship is left up to the pastor alone or to a very small group within the church. For the formative power of worship to emerge, all Christians must actively make the experience of worship a part of the interpretive cycle of Christian life. The mechanism for interpreting the actions and symbols of worship will vary from congregation to congregation: church school; share groups; informal settings, such as meals; or more structured occasions, such as perhaps the occasional churchwide retreat. Whatever form the vehicle for reflection and interpretation takes, the imperative element is the involvement of as many congregation members as possible. The ultimate goal, of course, is the establishment of a critical piety (for want of a better term) for all the baptized, a life in Christ semper reformanda (always reforming). For such a critical piety to be nourished by worship, the symbols of worship (i.e., the material elements of the sacraments, the congregational liturgical actions, the structure of services, and above all, the biblical symbols that confront worshipers as they hear the Word and receive the sacraments) must be made as accessible for interpretation as possible for each worshiper. This is the task of those responsible for planning and conducting worship services. This task requires a solid understanding of the history of Christian liturgy and of the ethos of the congregation. If knowledge of history is lacking, the service runs the risk of being subject to the latest liturgical fad. If the ethos of the congregation is not grasped, the congregation may be alienated from its own service. In both instances, the formative power of worship is lost. The Word: Hearing in the Context of Worship Most Christian congregations no longer rely upon the Word of God delivered through the mouths of prophets, although prophecy does occur in some Pentecostal, charismatic, and African independent church services. Even in those settings, however, the Word of God as revealed in the Scriptures of the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible and the New Testament takes precedence, at least in theory. It is the reading, hearing, and preaching of the Word that stands in a primary, fundamental relationship to Christian worship. The Bible cannot be expected to supply a blueprint for worship; its writings only hint at the liturgical practices of the communities it represents. Instead, the Word of God has a more basic authority for Christian worship. Its proclamation of the gospel ought continually to challenge the churches to a greater conformity, in loving obedience and service, to God, who has spoken in Christ. The challenge the gospel poses to the life of the church ought to find expression in the church's liturgical acts. If it does not, worship not only loses its formative power but may actually hinder discipleship. Two examples of this authority of the Word concern the persistence of racism and sexism in North American congregations. Martin Luther King, Jr., called the Sunday worship hour "?the most segregated hour in American life.?" Although Christians proclaim that in Christ "?there is no Jew or Greek, male or female, slave or free,?" their liturgical assemblies often legitimate the exclusion of women from the gospel story and paper over the chasm separating Christians of different races. Any adequate theology of the Word of God in worship and spiritual formation must include an acknowledgment of the word of judgment that continues to address the "?solemn assemblies?" of contemporary Christians. A willingness to hear that Word and to act upon it helps legitimate what Christians have to say in other settings about the power of God's Word. At least since the nineteenth century, American Protestant worship has not included a tremendous amount of Scripture. One learns from studying the witnesses to ancient Christian worship and preaching that Scripture directly and indirectly composed a major portion of worship. The great liturgies of the ancient sees (St. Mark in Alexandria, St. Basil and St. Chrysostom in Constantinople, St. James in Jerusalem, and several others) every Sunday included readings from the Law, the Prophets, the Epistles, Acts, and the Gospels. Ancient Christian prayers and hymns constantly quote and allude to Scripture passages. For example, the hymns of Ephrem the Syrian (d. 373) weave together scriptural allusion and imagery into masterpieces of poetic and theological expressions. They were sung in Ephrem's church and constitute one of the greatest poetic treasures of all Christianity. Through the hearing of Scripture in the service, individuals can begin to relate the narratives of their lives to those of the people God called in Israel's history and in the ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus. The question is how the church service can expose the congregation to most, if not all, of the Scriptures over the course of a given period of time. It is historically the case that, in mainline Protestant denominations, not much Scripture has been read or sung in the Sunday service. The advent of the ecumenical three-year lectionary produced under the auspices of the Consultation on Common Texts (most recently revised in 1992) has helped to change that situation, at least for some churches. The CCT Revised Common Lectionary is accompanied by a liturgical calendar into which the three-year cycle of readings fits. Thus this ecumenical lectionary makes possible the reading of a substantial portion of the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible and the New Testament over a relatively short period of time. In the process, the congregation using it experiences the biblical witness of God's saving actions through the prism of a year-long celebration of the birth, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus. In short, the lectionary and calendar "?refract?" the light of the gospel into its many components. Of course, a lectionary provides only one means among many for achieving the goal of reading more Scripture in the Sunday service. Other churches choose to read entire books of the Bible over a number or Sundays. This method, known as lectio continua, appears to have been practiced in some ancient churches and was advocated by several of the sixteenth-century Protestant Reformers. The advantage of this approach versus that of a lectionary seems clear: One reads through entire biblical works, not simply the selections chosen for the lectionary. The disadvantages of lectio continua include a potential loss of any wider context in which to place the work being read; there is always the danger that the congregation will lose sight of the wider canonical and historical context of the Sunday readings. It does not necessarily follow, however, that a church that elects to follow this practice must abandon a liturgical calendar. Indeed, the construction of a scheme for the reading of entire biblical books that corresponded with the celebration of the Christmas and Easter liturgical cycles could make a challenging and rewarding exercise for a congregation willing to invest the time and energy to do so. The Eucharist: Context for Spiritual Formation The Lord's Supper is rooted in the actions of Jesus, who ate with tax collectors and sinners, who miraculously fed multitudes of people who came to hear him, who ate with his disciples a final meal before his execution, and who sat down to meals with them after his resurrection. The church's celebration of the Lord's Supper appears to have drawn upon these meals Jesus held and above all upon the Last Supper, with its dominant paschal imagery of covenant, sacrifice, and freedom. Last Supper and Lord's Supper. Too often in Protestant services, the Lord's Supper has been interpreted solely in light of the Last Supper. While the cross certainly stands at the center of the Lord's Supper, its proclamation is incomplete if it does not include the Good News of the Resurrection and of the freedom from sin and death it effects. The recovery of the Lord's Supper in many Protestant churches will entail a recovery of the proclamation of the fullness of the gospel. As it proclaims the Good News of freedom, new life, holiness, and victory over sin and death, so also can the celebration of the Lord's Supper contribute positively to spiritual formation. It can be argued that the Eucharist (or Lord's Supper) functions as the fundamentally stable element of the Sunday service. Other portions of the weekly times of worship can and do change according to the time of the liturgical, civic, or agricultural calendar. Each Sunday, the service proclaims a different facet of the saving love of God, and the changing readings, hymns, and sermons reflect that fact. For those churches that celebrate the Lord's Supper each Sunday, the Eucharist provides a counterpoint, a context for the seasonal portions of the service. It proclaims the larger context for the church's gathering together: the saving death and resurrection of Jesus. Several advocates of liturgical renewal have spoken of the Great Thanksgiving at the Lord's Supper as the creed par excellence of the church, for in it the saving acts of God on behalf of humanity are remembered in thanksgiving. As it does so, the Great Thanksgiving provides a constant reminder, a context for reflection and action in Christ's name. The Lord's Supper can most adequately contribute to spiritual formation when it is celebrated often, preferably every Sunday. Some may consider that a weekly celebration of the Lord's Supper is "?too Catholic?" or somehow indicates crypto-Anglicanism. It is worth pointing out that frequent or weekly celebration of the Eucharist was practiced not only by the sixteenth-century Protestant Reformers (Luther, Calvin, and Simons) but also by the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century forebearers of the "?free church?" denominations, English and Scottish Presbyterians and Congregationalists, and English Baptists. A recovery of frequent celebration for these churches will entail a rediscovery and interpretation of their own traditions' thought on and practice of the Lord's Supper. Nourishment and Challenge. At its best, the celebration of the Lord's Supper proclaims the gospel through its material elements (bread and wine) and its actions (thanksgiving, offering, and receiving). The Lord's Supper nourishes believers; Christians speak of receiving the body and blood of Christ in the rite. Yet there is more to the Lord's Supper than nourishment; the action of gathering about the Table of the Lord who invited all sinners to the Table ought to play a role in spiritual formation. Thus, liturgical action can inform the process of growing in Christ. Christian Initiation: Burial and Rebirth The classical biblical images for baptism speak of death and burial with Christ (Rom. 6) and of new birth and the descent of the Spirit (John 3; Mark 1 and parallels). There is, of course, a communal dimension to baptism; through it, women and men enter the body of Christ. These basic meanings of baptism are rich in potential for spiritual formation if they are made accessible to contemporary women and men. The history of Christian initiation reveals a multiformity in baptismal rites, which to some extent can be traced to the predominance of one or the other of the above biblical paradigms. Given this historical diversity in the rites of initiation, it is impossible to recommend as normative any one manner of performing and structuring this act. Whatever framework of baptismal practice a congregation uses, it will best facilitate the spiritual formation of the individual if it makes explicit the rich imagery for baptism found in the New Testament and in the Christian tradition. In recent years, many churches have begun to recover or reemphasize the role of the Spirit in baptism. Liturgical and theological traditions throughout history have not always agreed about the precise relationship of the Spirit to water baptism, nor has a consensus existed concerning the most appropriate means of symbolizing that relationship. In this century, Pentecostal and charismatic churches have emphasized the role of the Spirit in an experience of spiritual maturity or renewal subsequent to water baptism, an event known by a variety of names: baptism of the Spirit and the second blessing, to name two. The challenge today is to make explicit and accessible the rich symbols that have been attached to baptism throughout the ages. This task implies several things on the level of the celebration of the rites themselves, for example, emphasizing the physical element of water by using the method of immersion or pouring. Or else the candidate's profession of faith or the profession of faith made on behalf of the candidate can be constructed in ways that emphasize the communal nature of that act. For women and men who belong to twentieth-century Western cultures, perhaps the most important dimension of baptism to recover is the communal dimension. Baptism represents the abandonment of one life and the beginning of another; this new life is marked by existence in Christian community with other followers of Christ. The church as the communion of disciples is the body of Christ in the world and serves as the family in which God nurtures women and men into full maturity in Christ. The connections between baptism and spiritual formation can be made most explicit precisely when congregations emphasize the acts of repentance and entrance into a new life in community, which make up an important part of the baptismal rites. The form of those acts will, of course, vary from congregation to congregation. Some churches may wish to form a catechumenate (whether or not that term is used) in which persons desiring to repent and turn to God can learn (over the course of days, weeks, or months) about the meaning of life in the body of Christ and thus prepare for their baptism. The Liturgical Year: Refracting the Light of Christ The round of special seasons, Sundays, and days in the liturgical calendars of many churches reflects the human incapacity to comprehend the depth and richness of the fact of salvation in Christ on a daily basis. In addition, most Christian calendars reflect the interconnectedness of contemporary Christian communities with other cycles that give meaning to human life: the educational calendar (beginning in early September), the agricultural cycle (to which the educational calendar is still tied, at least in the United States), the astronomical cycle, the round of civic and national holidays, even (and perhaps most strongly of all) the commercial calendar. Incarnation and Resurrection: Two Foci. Making sense of this jumble of festivals and seasons can seem a daunting task for anyone who wishes to make the liturgical calendar a help to Christian formation. In actuality, the liturgical calendar is simple. It revolves around the celebration of two events in Christ's life: his birth (Christmas-Epiphany) and resurrection (Easter). These two cycles, in turn, stamp the services of every Sunday, which fall in their orbit with their particular character. For example, both Christmas and Easter came eventually to be preceded, in both East and West, by a period of preparation (Advent, Lent). The entire purpose of this arrangement of festive time is to make possible the proclamation of the gospel, to explicate and enunciate the riches of what Christians believe God has done for the world in the Christ. Thus there is in the liturgical calendar an interplay of proclamation, celebration, and commemoration. The value of the liturgical year for spiritual formation lies precisely in its ability to make readily available for Christians a broader, deeper, and richer proclamation of the Good News than they might avail themselves of on their own. Sunday: The Feast Par Excellence. It is not an exaggeration to suggest that Sunday is the most neglected feast day of the entire calendar. Yet Sunday is the foundation for the entire liturgical cycle. It is the day of Resurrection, the day of light, the eighth day, which is a sign of the eschatological rest that awaits all God's people. As such, it is an anticipation of the joy God will bring to fruition for the entire creation at the eschaton. The celebration of Sunday in its fullness, therefore, offers perhaps the best opportunity for providing Christians the proper theological, existential, and eschatological framework for spiritual formation. The theological value of Sunday lies in its identity as the day of Christ's resurrection, the day of the event on which all Christian hope lies. Sunday celebrates the "?new creation?" wrought by Christ, the new life given to women and men through the death and resurrection of the Lord. Finally, the day of Sunday looks forward to the completion of God's intention for the world's salvation, a foretaste of which has been given in the resurrection of Christ. This eschatlog-ical dimension of Christian faith, although sometimes neglected, is an essential component of spiritual formation, for it makes possible the attitude of vigilance in hope that marks all the Christian's life. When the Sunday service is permeated by the festive character of the eighth day, then it can succeed in conveying the theological and communal values that must inform Christian life every day of the week. Again, the manner in which Sunday worship articulates these values will vary from congregation to congregation, according to the liturgical tradition embraced by the congregation. Liturgy and Contemplation. The connection between liturgy and contemplation or meditation has traditionally been made in the monastic communities of East and West, in which the daily recitation of the Psalms formed the core of individual and communal prayer life. In the twentieth century, some ecumenical communities (especially the Taizé community) have introduced opportunities for contemplation within communal worship through the use of silence and repetitive song. The Taizé services and music have found wide acceptance among Protestants and Roman Catholics alike, for they offer a means of structuring space for meditation into a variety of worship services. The ecumenical potential for the use of the Taizé resources is great. Some Protestant congregations have begun to celebrate morning prayer and vespers, in which the reading of Scripture, psalmody, prayer, and silence contribute to a liturgical setting for individual meditation and prayer. The rise of small group movements within a variety of Protestant denominations (for example, the "?covenant discipleship?" movement in the United Methodist Church) may make possible new liturgical environments for meditation and contemplation. The classical "?unprogrammed?" Quaker meeting, in which all are silent unless prompted to speak, is popular among Christians who belong to liturgical churches but who at the same time desire the liturgical silence necessary for prayerful meditation and contemplation. The use of silence certainly provides a powerful counterpoint to the often noisy, wordy character of much Christian worship. It can provide a wholesome context in which women and men can begin to journey toward the goal of all spiritual formation: lives that themselves are constant prayers to God.