The Tea Kettle of Liturgy

Regardless of what sort of spirituality you practice, there is a liturgy to the practice. The liturgy is a structure that the acts of the practice follow. These are easy to see in a worship service, but it is not limited to worship events. When a professional sports event begins, there is a civic liturgy that we follow. When there is a wedding there is a reception liturgy. Birthdays, start of school days, family gatherings have their own liturgies.

What is the point of liturgy? How do we know if it is “good” liturgy? Beyond the content of the worship the liturgy (the structure and order of things) serves a different function, but what is that function? I would submit that the function of liturgy is to be like a tea kettle and what makes for a good tea kettle is being able to hold the dynamic boiling water.

When people gather for worship, there are so many emotions, anxieties, celebrations, hopes and fears. The gathered body is dynamic and full of energy. This energy is neutral, but we all know that energy does not stay neutral for very long. We see an energetic group can turn into a mob and do great harm rather quickly. We also can see an energetic group to rally for a pro-social cause and build a house in 24 hours. It is the function of the liturgy to properly hold the energy of the collective body.

Like a kettle, the liturgy must be stronger than the energy of the contents. The liturgy must be able to stand through different temperatures and not shatter. It must be directional enough to channel the energy well and, if possible, be built to help the energy sing. It needs to be able to have the endurance as the energy dissipates and cools off. It consistent in its ability so that when it is time to gather the energy again, people can be confident that the energy can be properly held.

The water in the kettle does now “know” what it will become. But the water in the kettle always becomes more than it can imagine. Will it become the foundation for life-giving tea? The warmth to the cold heart? The agent to help purify or clean a wound? Liturgy does not squelch the energy of the gathered body but helps the body transform into something they could not imagine before they gathered. Something transcendent, something greater than the sum of their parts.

The worship liturgy is not there to resolve the anxiety, tension, fear or excitement of the body. The liturgy is the container that holds all of that. Too often church leaders use the liturgy to resolve the this anxiety. The liturgy is not a cure or a resolution. Liturgy is a kettle, and let us not be lukewarm.

Orthodoxy and Orthopraxy - Two "Rights" Making Us Wrong

One of the ways that people talk about the divisions in the church is along a fabricated line between orthodoxy and orthopraxy. One is about having the right beliefs while the other is about doing the right actions. One elevates the head while the other elevates the hands. One wants to be sure you are able to confess the correct beliefs while the other wants to be sure you are doing the correct pro-social behavior.

It is too simple to say that those who elevate orthodoxy do not care about what you do or that those who elevate orthopraxy do not care about what you believe. It is rather that in any sort of dichotomy there will always be one that is elevated as slightly more important than the other. We may say we hold these two equally, and for the most part we do, but inevitably we will put things in a slight order. Like going to the grocery store. You don’t get the milk last because it is least important, but because that is how the store is organized.

And so, over time, the church fabricates a division between the orthodoxy and the orthopraxy. While making the case for their slightly elevated preference, a fine line is created. Over the years the line gets more and more visible and rigid to the point where now there are “camps” within the church. There are those who feel that if we do not have the correct beliefs then the church will become obsolete since you can do correct action in a lot of places. There are others who feel that the mystery of God is so vast that the narrowness of belief will turn people off to the church thus making church obsolete, so liberate people to have a wide beliefs so the church can promote the right actions of Christ.

The irony is that both approaches are much closer than they realize.

It might be thought of in this way. The Orthodox group want people to first believe the right things, then they will do the right behaviors at which point they will belong to the Church.

Conversely, the Orthopraxy group want people to first do the right behaviors, then they will come to believe the right things at which point they will belong to the Church.

In each group belonging to the Church is contingent upon having both right belief and action first.

The struggle is that Orthodoxy and the Orthopraxy camps are both correct and yet both missing the mark. Studies in psychology, sociology and anthropology (not to mention theology and philosophy) show that humans crave and need the safety of belonging. In fact humans will believe or do some very awful things in order to acquire the security that comes with belonging.

And so, this is in part why the Orthodoxy and Orthopraxy camps will always come up short. Each side has is bass ackwards. If we are interested in midwifing the kingdom of God, the repairing of the light, the restoration and regeneration of the world, and the flourishing of all, then we must BEGIN with belonging.

Beginning with belonging is not orthodoxy or othopraxy but orthocardia - having a right heart.

When we signal and show that we belong to one another, that we are safe with each other, that we care for and about one another, then we can talk about what should come next (belief or action). Perhaps more profound is that we will discover how belief and actions are too interrelated to separate out, but that is for another time.

As the world and church continue to fight about what is the right way to live or the right things to think, we will continue to grow more aggrieved and lost. We will find that the more extreme viewpoints will get greater influence. The more we build churches on “what we believe” or “how to become a member” the more we will continue to fail to meet the deep need of humanity. It is not until we abandon the need for litmus tests of word and action that we will see the right heart of Christ beating in the world.

The Last Sound and Romans 12

The Last Sound is a beautiful podcast episode exploring sound and nature. It is worth listening to for so many levels and I hope you would take time to listen.

One of the segments in the story speaks of how is it possible for so many different animals and insects to communicate in nature. Over time, life has discovered a sort of frequency or range that different animals and insects us in order to communicate. This allows for crickets to be able to be heard even as bears roar loudly over them. Or for birds to hear one another through the symphony of other bird songs. Every animal communicates in a bound range so they can be heard and they can hear others.

Every animal respects the boundaries of the frequencies except one. Human beings.

Humans run amok over the sound board that is nature. We know that noise pollution is something we speak about, however we seem to make little efforts to address this pollution (other than complain that it is too loud). We complain about all the noise on the news or internet. We try to discern the signals from the noise but we all assume that noise is part of life. We tolerate noise that runs over all the frequencies of communication and in some cases we believe that overcoming all the noise makes you a good communicator.

If you are able to speak the loudest or with the most incendiary comments, if you are getting clicks and likes and ratings, then you must be a good communicator. When really you could be a communication pollutant.

There is a little line in Romans 12 where Paul writes, “Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.”

It is common to learn that communication is about controlling the narrative or dominating the airwaves. It is about getting your message to “cut through” and “penetrate the market.” It is about being louder. It is about being bold and definitive. It is not about harmony. It is not about respecting the frequency range of another person, but about speaking over them. Be it “mansplaning” or “cancel culture” we have taken the gift of communication and turned it into a megaphone that overtakes the chorus of voices.

I do not know much about music, but I know harmony means that you do not always sing the melody. That there are other notes that are sung, but your voice is still heard. The melody and harmonies complement one another and make the other richer and fuller.

Christians are called to live in harmony (not unison). We do not demand others to join in the song we are singing and expect them to sing the way we sing. We are the ones asked to moderate our voices to harmonize with those around us.

When life is too noisy people flee and go on vacation or step away from a place as a way to find that peace we long for. Could it be that many people are leaving Christianity (and organized religion on the whole) because it is too noisy, loud and not teaching harmony?