Worship as Mission

Devotional Reflection, Wednesday, October 18, 20113

Proper 23, the week of the twentieth Sunday after Pentecost

The Rev. David W. Perkins, Th.D.

Key phrases for reflection from today’s reading:

23If, therefore, the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues, and outsiders or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are out of your mind? 24But if all prophesy, an unbeliever or outsider who enters is reproved by all and called to account by all. 25After the secrets of the unbeliever’s heart are disclosed, that person will bow down before God and worship him, declaring, ‘God is really among you.’

You will find the full text of today’s epistle reading at the end of this reflection.

Daily Office Lectionary Readings (BCP, 986)

AM Psalm 119:1-24; PM Psalm 12, 13, 14

Jer. 37:3-21; 1 Cor. 14:13-25; Matt. 10:24-33

Today we celebrate the Feast of Luke the Evangelist. (See below.)

David's Reflections

How does the church relate to those who attend without faith in Jesus? It might surprise us how many pass through our doors in a given year. Some come to attend weddings. funerals, baptisms, or confirmations. If you ask people to share their first encounter with the Episcopal Church, many will say a wedding, baptism, or funeral of someone they knew. Some come to Sunday worship from out of town as part of a visit with friends or family. Some attend in moments of personal crisis, looking for assurance and answers. Some come because you, a coworker or neighbor or relative, invited them. Some walk in "cold turkey" out of curiosity or spiritual hunger.

In this text, Paul shows concern for how the worship practices of the church will impact unbelievers. Will they think we are nuts or weird. If several people in the Corinthian church were speaking ecstatically, Paul feared unbelievers might be driven farther away from the Christian faith. So, he calls on ecstatics to forego the public practice of tongues in favor of prophecy, utterance inspired by the Spirit that builds up the Christian community. The outsider could understand the language of prophecy but not the language of ecstatic speech.

I hear both a direct and an indirect message in this text. First, we are to encourage people to live into all the gifts that God's Spirit might intend for them. To receive the gift of praying ecstatically is just as appropriate as receiving the gift for helping, the gift for healing, or any other. Yet, no enablement from God is given simply for personal benefit or to bequeath to a Christian a certain spiritual experience they may be seeking. Even if we value the gift of ecstatic prayer language, we would ask the practitioner to pray ecstatically in a whisper in public worship. We are called to seek God and not just a particular experience of God.

The indirect message I hear calls on us to make our worship as lucid to outsiders and unbelievers as possible. Our liturgy can be impenetrable to outsiders; I've seen veteran Episcopalians get frustrated with The Book of Common Prayer in one hand, the hymnal in the other, and feeling the need for a third hand. Our liturgical helps, our music, and our practice of Holy Communion can be a witness that calls people closer to God and makes the boundaries very permeable for those without faith.

Something Lutheran liturgical scholar Gordon Lathrop wrote has haunted me for two decades and guided my practice. I shared with him my gratitude at a conference and he expressed delight. He was addressing the issue of outsiders being present in worship when he wrote, The task of the assembly is a task of polarity: make the center strong, the symbols large, the words of Christ clear, and make that center accessible,the circle large, the periphery permeable.”+

Becoming sensitive to the seeker and making worship more accessible does not equate to dumbing down. It equates to love for neighbor. It equates to understanding that worship itself has a missional energy. Worship does not serve some instrumental function like preparing us for mission in the world; rather, worship itself is an act of missional proclamation to the world. The Spirit’s activity in word and sacrament reaches out not only to the person of faith but to the person without faith. Hence, the drive to make worship as accessible as possible to the seeker puts us in synch with the Spirit’s desire to gather all to the divine love. We are worshipping in the world and on behalf of the world. Remember the words in Prayer D, “giving voice to every creature under heaven.”

We would hope that those without faith would respond in worship along the lines of Paul's last words in today's reading: "After the secrets of the unbeliever’s heart are disclosed, that person will bow down before God and worship him, declaring, ‘God is really among you.’” *

©David W. Perkins, 2023.

+Gordon W Lathrop. Holy Things: A Liturgical Theology. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1993, p. 132.

*Note: for more of my thinking on this topic, see a blog on my website. https://www.davidwperkins.com/post/worship-as-mission

Collect of the Day, Proper 23, the twentieth Sunday after Pentecost

Lord, we pray that your grace may always precede and follow us, that we may continually be given to good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (BCP, pp. 234-235)

Today we celebrate the Feast of Luke the Evangelist. (New Testament)

http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/Luke.htm

Collect of the Feast of Luke the Evangelist

Almighty God, who inspired your servant Luke the physician to set forth in the Gospel the love and healing power of your Son: Graciously continue in your Church this love and power to heal, to the praise and glory of your Name; through your Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

A Collect for Grace

Lord God, almighty and everlasting Father, you have brought us in safety to this new day: Preserve us with your mighty power, that we may not fall into sin, nor be overcome by adversity; and in all we do, direct us to the fulfilling of your purpose; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, 100)

In Times of Personal Distress

Lord Christ, you came into the world as one of us, and suffered as we do. As we go through the trials of life, help us to realize that you are with us at all times and in all things; that we have no secrets from you; and that your loving grace enfolds us for eternity. In the security of your embrace we pray. Amen. (Enriching Our Worship: 2, p. 69)

In the Evening

O Lord, support us all the day long, until the shadows lengthen, and the evening comes, and the busy world is hushed, and the fever of life is over, and our work is done. Then in thy mercy, grant us a safe lodging, and a holy rest, and peace at the last. Amen. (BCP, 833)

A Collect for Mission

Lord Jesus Christ, you stretched out your arms of love on the hard wood of the cross that everyone might come within the reach of your saving embrace: So clothe us in your Spirit that we, reaching forth our hands in love, may bring those who do not know you to the knowledge and love of you; for the honor of your Name. Amen. (BCP, 101)

Daily Office Epistle, 1 Corinthians 14:13-25

13Therefore, one who speaks in a tongue should pray for the power to interpret. 14For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays but my mind is unproductive.

15 What should I do then? I will pray with the spirit, but I will pray with the mind also; I will sing praise with the spirit, but I will sing praise with the mind also. 16Otherwise, if you say a blessing with the spirit, how can anyone in the position of an outsider say the ‘Amen’ to your thanksgiving, since the outsider does not know what you are saying? 17For you may give thanks well enough, but the other person is not built up. 18I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you; 19nevertheless, in church I would rather speak five words with my mind, in order to instruct others also, than ten thousand words in a tongue. 20Brothers and sisters, do not be children in your thinking; rather, be infants in evil, but in thinking be adults.

21 In the law it is written, ‘By people of strange tongues and by the lips of foreigners I will speak to this people; yet even then they will not listen to me,’ says the Lord. 22Tongues, then, are a sign not for believers but for unbelievers, while prophecy is not for unbelievers but for believers. 23If, therefore, the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues, and outsiders or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are out of your mind? 24But if all prophesy, an unbeliever or outsider who enters is reproved by all and called to account by all. 25After the secrets of the unbeliever’s heart are disclosed, that person will bow down before God and worship him, declaring, ‘God is really among you.’

Daily Offices in The Book of Common Prayer

Morning Prayer, Rite 2, page 75, The Book of Common Prayer

Noonday Prayer, page 103, Book of Common Prayer

Order of Worship for Evening (Vespers), p 109, Book of Common Prayer

Evening Prayer, Rite 2, page 115, Book of Common Prayer

Compline (Night Prayer), page 127, Book of Common Prayer

Daily Devotionals, page 136, Book of Common Prayer