musings on liturgy mostly

so it has definitely been too long since the last post, especially since the last post was all emo and depressing.

I promise I'm not it a constant state of depression.

Life looks like this: school, work, school, work, sleep, sleep, sleep, think about things due for school, sleep.

notice a pattern? yeah, i need to go to the doctor and have the ol' thyroid junk checked out. I've been avoiding it mainly because I'm too exhausted to remember. Good reason to actually go, eh? yeah, shut up.

I LOVE my history of worship and sacraments class. To the point where Seth gets shushed when attempting a snide comment because I want to hear every word. Now, you know it has to be something serious when I turn down the opportunity for a snide comment.

Annie Dillard said "I often think of the set pieces of liturgy as certain words which people have successfully addressed to God without their getting killed." The context was a critique of high church ceremony, but I'm post modern and therefore feel free to jettison the context and embrace the quote for the meaning I have created for it.

That is that I love the idea that sometimes we forget in our worship service with potluck announcements and attempts at "making it feel new" that wear thin and fall short that there are specific ways people have been talking to God and about God since almost the very beginning of the church. To go to a worship service and hear a prayer that hasn't changed much since the 8th century or a chant that is using the same words spoken since the 2nd century makes me feel the embrace of the cloud of witnesses.

It is a VERY BIG God we are worshiping and He promised to show up when we worship Him. Maybe we should be using words that have not gotten people killed for thousands of years. Now, of course I am not saying that God doesn't appreciate innovation or creativity, hello, post modern here. I am saying that stumbling around and coming up with something new all the time, charting ways to reinvent the wheel to better appeal to this segment or wake up that group may be forgetting the the creator of the Universe, Yahweh, I AM is on the receiving end of our efforts.

The reason the liturgy is set is specifically because words MATTER and have weight when we enter into sacred space. Every last bit of was sculpted, debated, weighed carefully and put into place for a reason. Usually for several different reasons at the same time.

Am I converting to Greek Orthodoxy? No, they still get plenty of things wrong, like the rest of us wanders. But they do get a lot of things right that we may have jettisoned along the way searching for individual experience. I went to an Orthodox service for class and it was amazing. A feast for the senses. They were ordaining a deacon that day and the bishop was up from Atlanta. This particular deacon had converted from Protestantism and the subject of the bishop's homily was about finding the roots of the Christian family tree. That's kind of how I see my interest, that of a genealogist.

My own family tree has some scary stuff in it. My family owned slaves in Mississippi. It kind of makes me feel queasy when I think about it. But it was part of who they were. I want to know about them and how they thought, but I don't particularly want to embrace all of their values.

It's the evening here and even on this gray day, the sun is trying to turn the gray golden as it exits. On that note, here's the phos hilaron, a prayer that can be traced from the 2nd century.

Φώς 'ιλαρόν αγίας δόξης αθανάτου Πατρός, ουρανίου, αγίου, μάκαρος, Ιησού Χριστέ, ελθόντες επί τήν ηλίου δύσιν, ιδόντες φώς εσπερινόν, υμνούμεν Πατέρα, Υιόν, καί άγιον Πνεύμα, Θεόν, Αξιόν σε εν πάσι καιροίς υμνείσθαι φωναίς αισίαις, Υιέ Θεού, ζωήν ο διδούς, διό ο κόσμος σέ δοξάζει.

O enrapturing light of holy glory, holy heaven, of the image of the deathless Father, Jesus Christ, you are coming at the setting of sun. Seeing the evening light we sing hymns to God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. You are worthy in all fittingness to be praised with joyous voices, Son of God, giver of life. To you, o God, creation gives praise.