A Cloud of Witnesses: An Historical View of Worship Opening Exercise: Who taught you to worship? We have all been taught to do the things we do. Someone taught you how to read, how to cook, how to play baseball, how to play the guitar.

Think about what you do when you worship. Who taught you to read? Do you remember? What about to sing? To tell time? To eat? To celebrate a birthday? To pray?

Worship involves all these things – and it is more sophisticated than any of them. Who taught you to worship? Who taught you how all the bits and pieces hangs together and to what end? Can you think of specific examples? (Maybe Mom or worship pastor. Or book?)

Have you learned anything from a historical person – from someone you never met? Someone who is part of the “great cloud of witnesses” who followed Jesus before us?

Did a story from Scripture help model for you a fitting attitude or posture or action (or perhaps an unfitting one) for worship?

Did the words of an ancient hymn or prayer ever touch you, help you to express, to understand, to love, to obey?

Did a habitual action, practiced by older generations (like tithing) teach you about self-sacrifice?

Very few of us have any tales about how we were taught by others how to worship – explicitly instructed in what it meant to worship, both within the assembly, and in all our lives.

We are not as intentional about teaching this stuff these days as Christians have been in centuries past.

Why, I wonder? Why are we so disconnected from the great cloud of witnesses, and from their wisdom about worship? I have a few ideas…

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Historical AmnesiaWhy do we have this historical amnesia?

1. What Can They Teach Us? -- Chronological Snobbery. This is what CS Lewis called a certain prejudice against ideas that are old. In our age, we are fascinated with novelty. Only what is new and shiny is worth anything. We know that folks from years ago were less technologically sophisticated than we, and we mistakenly suppose they were thus were less psychologically and culturally and theologically sophisticated. But they, too, followed Christ; they, too, struggled to know how to live in the world but not be of it; how to face death with honesty and hope; how to love God and neighbor.

2. What Can They Teach Us? – Cultural (Ir)relevance. In our own age, when we become keen to fit in to our contemporary culture, to be relevant and hip, w become uncomfortable with (or unfamiliar with) thinking about the church as a counter-cultural community. We don’t need to learn about worship because we take our cues for what to do in church from other cultural contexts. We don’t know how to listen to a sermon, but we do know how to

listen to a lecture, or a motivational speaker. For that matter, we don’t much know how to preach a sermon, but

we do know how to sell a product or host a show. We don’t know how to lament together, or sing together, but we do

know how to listen to a band playing music, go to a concert. We don’t know how to eat together in a way that commemorates

God’s action in history and creates community and anticipates God’s future for us – so we have coffee and donuts after church instead of bread and wine at church.

3. What Can They Teach Us? -- You Just Know. We learn naturally, don’t need teaching. Worship impulse is inborn. We watch and listen and do what those around us are doing. There’s some truth to this: we do learn by doing. That’s important. And we end up not doing so bad. One can play a decent game of baseball, or pick a few guitar chords out – but never really reach one’s potential unless there is intentionality.

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Of course, there is a theological assumption here that we all naturally not only wish to worship (homo adorans) but that we are all capable of good worship on our own. My conviction is that we do desire it, but we don’t know much about how; sin gets in the way.

Think about acquiring language. It comes naturally, but you still need instruction; better instruction means better facility with language.

What They Can Teach Us - Learning from the PastObviously, I think that the history of the Church – and the Church at Worship in particular – has a great deal to teach us.

Learning explicitly from the Cloud of Witnesses helps us in a number of ways.

1. Remember God in history. God worked in the lives of these people, who sang praise, and offered prayers and gave thanks, too. Gives us confidence that God can work in our lives now. Future hope, too.

2. We need a beachhead apart from our own culture in order to critique it, to identify its blindspots – and its strengths.

3. Connect to something bigger than ourselves. Chronological connectivity has the counterintuitive effect of

heightening our sense of importance. We are part of something that began long ago and will go on after we are gone. It is far more significant than our own lives in this particular moment. In an age when change is so rapid as to be bewildering, people need this grounding more than ever.

Have you ever worshipped in an ancient church – maybe a cathedral in England or something – and felt there deeply connected to all those whose prayers were raised in that place?

4. Get really proficient at the thing that is our final destiny.

So much for the argument. Let’s begin looking at just a few things we can learn from those who have come before us.

A.First things first: Worship Ordo and what the first Christians teach us about the things we should not do without.Scripture gives us little idea about what the first Christians’ worship looked like, except that we know that the first

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Christians were Jews. They prayed Jewish prayers, read Jewish scriptures. We also know that they baptized converts, cared for one another, and “broke bread.”

From Justin Martyr (100-165 A.D.) we get this account of the worship life of the Christian community within 100 years of Jesus’ death and resurrection:

Justin Martyr (c. 155) Chapter LXVII.-Weekly Worship of the ChristiansAnd we afterwards continually remind each other of these things. And the wealthy among us help the needy; and we always keep together; and for all things wherewith we are supplied, we bless the Maker of all through His Son Jesus Christ, and through the Holy Ghost.

And on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits; then, when the reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs, and exhorts to the imitation of these good things.

Then we all rise together and pray, and, as we before said, when our prayer is ended, bread and wine and water are brought, and the president in like manner offers prayers and thanksgivings, according to his ability, and the people assent, saying Amen; and there is a distribution to each, and a participation of that over which thanks have been given, and to those who are absent a portion is sent by the deacons.

And they who are well to do, and willing, give what each thinks fit; and what is collected is deposited with the president, who succours the orphans and widows and those who, through sickness or any other cause, are in want, and those who are in bonds and the strangers sojourning among us, and in a word takes care of all who are in need.

What are the features of their worship? (Trinity) Scripture/Sermon Prayer Lord’s Supper

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Gifts for the poor

Recollects Acts 2

Acts 2 -- The People of the WayActs 2: 42 They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

Follows OT: Covenant word and promises/Ritual action to “seal” the agreement

Also pattern of J’s life: Galilee&Teaching/Jerusalem&Sacrifice Also Luke 24 (Emmaus Rd)

The richness is that the texts speak God’s grace, tell the story; then that story is acted out in the sign of the meal. The meal means more when put next to the text; the texts mean more when they are read and understood in light of the meal of the anointed one who was crucified and through which we receive life.

Of course, we know the early Christians did many other things: washing feet, anointing with oil, offering testimony, reciting the Psalms, singing canticles (scriptural songs), giving to one another the kiss of peace. But these basic elements were the ones they decided they could not do without and still do ‘good’ worship on the Lord’s Day. This pattern, established so early in the life of the church,

came to be dominant most everywhere for 1500 years: Gathering, Word, Prayers, Gifts, Table, Dismissal. Note: it was the pattern for SUNDAY worship; not daily prayer or

personal devotions – we’ll see more about that later. This pattern was the unity within which there was a great deal of

functional variety.

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The pattern didn’t change substantially until the Protestant Reformation, which started in Germany in the 1500s. There, some reformers, following the teachings of Ulrich Zwingli and others, dropped the Lord’s Supper from the service altogether, celebrating it only occasionally.

For these folks, the sermon became the central, most important thing that happened in the worship on Sunday, and without the two anchors, all the other pieces were shifted around substantially.

Only recently, in the past 30 years or so, have many Protestant churches that had abandoned this pattern, seen its wisdom and come back to using it.

Transition: Concern not only with logic, but with symbol, with our bodies as well as our minds.

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(we didn’t have time for this section)B.Becoming a Christian – A holistic process for nurturing

disciples, not just convertsImagine yourself now at the end of the 4th century. The Roman emperor is Diocletian, and though there has been relative peace and tolerance of Christians for about 50 years, a new wave of persecution will be starting soon. Attracted to the church by their love for one another and by the message of God’s love for us in Jesus, you decide to become a Christian. It has been a three-year, four-step process, now about to culminate, this night – Easter night – in your baptism.Each step has been one of growing deeper into the faith, growth in “knowledge and love of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.”

1. The first step began when, as a Seeker, the cost of discipleship was set before you plainly.

2. At the second step, you became a Hearer, entering the longest, 3-year phase of the Catechumenate. You studied with a mentor, and learned more about what it meant to follow Jesus in community.

3. After having shown sufficient growth in Christ-like character, you were admitted to the third step of Purification. This was a six-week stage during Lent, the weeks preceding Easter, and was a time of intense spiritual warfare, involving lots of fasting and solitude.

4. The fourth stage is called the Mystagogue, where you will learn – explicitly – about what Baptism and the Lord’s Supper mean. But you can’t enter that stage until your own baptism.

At each step along the way, as you moved from one stage to another, there was a ceremony in worship called a “Rite of Passage” where you stood up, had hands laid on you, were marked by the sign of the cross, where you declared your faith and renounced all other powers, and where the whole congregation prayed for you.

This is the last rite – on the Saturday night before Easter, and the service begins with a lighting of a fire in the dark, signaling the resurrection.

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The story of God’s plan for salvation is told through Scripture readings all night long,

and at sunrise you are brought to the pool in the baptistery – a large pool in the middle of the church.

You kneel, and the pastor prays that evil powers may no longer have a hold you on.

He breathes on you, as Jesus breathed on his disciples in the upper room.

He takes oil and seals your eyes, your noses, your ears, your forehead, that you may now see and hear and experience the world with Christian sensibilities.

A prayer is said over the water, and you go down into it. Then you are baptized in the Triune name, being immersed three

times, and questioned each time about your belief in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Then you are anointed with sweet-smelling oil, a sign of your anointing with the Spirit.

You come out of the water and are, for the first time, allowed to share the fellowship of the whole community in a kiss of peace.

You are given a special meal of bread and honey, signifying that you have entered the promised land. And then…

You go with the rest of the community to the Table where – again for the first time – you have the bread and wine of Christ’s presence at the Eucharist.

Now – you can read about this experience in more detail on the internet if you want – the process is laid out in the Apostolic Tradition of Hippolytus.

There is so much to commend this whole process of initiation into the Church, but the one thing I want to lift up today is how seriously it takes the fact that we are embodied people. The rites and ceremonies of the church that mark the passing from one world into another – especially in baptism – are very physical. They involve all our senses: sight, sound, smell, taste, touch. Becoming a Christian isn’t just a matter of saying “yes” to certain beliefs about what we think is true in the abstract. It involves loving God with heart and soul and mind and strength – with emotion and will and HABIT. And habits are developed in the body.

This whole process being adopted by more churches. Texas church that does it; video of woman who was baptized, and she

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says she “smelled like salvation for a week.” And every time someone else is baptized, she remembers her own baptism and what it means, and who she is in Christ.

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C.Marking Time – Christian Calendars for days, weeks, years, lives

The way we tell time says a lot about us. The dates we circle on our calendars reveal what is most important to us. Lovers of leisure circle vacation days. Workaholics circle significant due dates. If family is important, you focus on birthdays, anniversaries.

What time is sacred for you? Holy. Set apart (not necessarily “God” time). Something nothing can interrupt, something that nourishes you. Family time, Daily Show and Colbert at 11. Sunday afternoon nap? Yearly Theologiggler meeting; Fishing trip with guys; personal retreat in January…

We are creatures of time, which involves both memory and anticipation. We recall and sometimes celebrate or mourn significant dates; we anticipate days that are special. Our present is made meaningful because of its relation to the past and the future. The modern church, like the ancient and medieval church, still marks Sunday – the first day of the week – as a special day relative to the rest of the week – a day of rest and resurrection. But we do little today to set up regular markers in the other calendars of our lives: Daily, Yearly, and Lifelong.

In the Middle Ages, Christians established an elaborate pattern for marking time, for setting landmarks that stand tall to claim everything within view as belonging to Christ.

I want to share just two of those calendars briefly: the yearly, and the daily.

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A. The Yearly Calendar – Putting ourselves in Jesus’ story Two festivals of anticipation, celebration, communication. Advent, Christmas, Epiphany

Lent, Easter, Pentecost

Helps us as Christians to start not with our own needs, but with God – with God’s story and what God is doing in the world.

B. The Daily Calendar – Pray without ceasing

Benedictine Rule for Daily Prayer Before Dawn (3 a.m.) = Nocturns Morning (6 a.m.) = Matins Third (9 a.m.) = Terce Sixth (12 Noon) = Sext Ninth (3 p.m.) = None Evening/After work (6 p.m.) = Vespers Nightfall (9 p.m.ish) = Compline Midnight

Praying the Psalms -- Meaning Someone Else’s Words These times for gathered prayer lasted for centuries. But what did the Medieval Christians do at these gathered times for prayer? How do you pray that often and keep from being bored and banal saying the same things? “Lord, I’ve still got this headache. Could you do something about that? And I’m still nervous about the presentations I have to give next week. Just like I was three hours ago.”

One of the things that medieval Christians have to teach us – something they knew from generations of our Jewish brothers and sisters, by the way – is that to sustain a life of prayer, one needs to use words that are honest, rich, and which express the whole range of the human experience before God.

And the book they turned to, naturally, was the book of Psalms – the prayerbook of the Church. They had a system worked out so that every Psalm was prayed at least once a day.

They would stand on opposite sides of their meeting place, supporting each other in prayer, and sing or chant the Psalm to each other, often

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punctuated by a refrain they would sing together. The type of music they sang was Gregorian plainsong – we won’t do that here. But this type of Psalm saying – antiphonal – is one of the very richest ways to pray the psalms together in community. The music can lead our hearts where the text directs.

There are some who have argued throughout the church’s history (especially in the Reformation, and in the USA in the 19th and 20th centuries) that a “read prayer is a dead prayer.” This certainly isn’t the way the first Christians thought about praying. They prayed Jewish prayers, and they prayed the Psalms. Jesus taught his disciples to pray, and expected that they would use the words he gave them. When the words are worth saying, they’re worth saying over, learning new depths of meaning as one says them again. In fact, one could argue that it would be a fabulous discipline for one’s prayer life to spend a season only praying the Lord’s prayer for 3 months, or 3 years, learning to mean those words more and more every time we say them. (Just as saying the words of a song –hymn, praise song – can mean more by having said/sung them many times before; “prone to wander, Lord, I feel it; prone to leave the God I love…”)

(More: kids learning to say words like “I’m sorry” and “Thank you” and “please help” and needing to say them before they can really grow into their meaning).

1 To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.

2 O my God, in you I trust; do not let me be put to shame; do not let my enemies exult over me.

3 Do not let those who wait for you be put to shame;

let them be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous.

Refrain4 Make me to know your ways,

O Lord; teach me your paths.

5 Lead me in your truth, and teach me,

for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all day long.

Refrain6 Be mindful of your mercy, O

Lord, and of your steadfast love, for they have been from of old.

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7 Do not remember the sins of my youth or my transgressions; according to your steadfast love remember me, for your goodness' sake, O Lord!

Refrain

8 Good and upright is the Lord; therefore he instructs sinners in the way.

9 He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble his way.

10 All the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness, for those who keep his covenant and his decrees.

Refrain

D.

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E. Form and Freedom – Praying in the Spirit

There are times when we want to pray our own prayers, though – to express with our own words the desires of our hearts – our confession, our petition, our promises of dedication.

Thomas Cranmer was the Archbishop of Canterbury during the time of the English Reformation (late 1500s), and one of his great contributions to the church was the mastery of a particular form of prayer: the collect.

You likely know some collect prayers, because they are quite famous (see handout)

The beauty of these prayers is not just in Cranmer’s choice of words, but in the structure of the prayer.

Address – (YOU)Attribute/Acknowledgement – (WHO) Appeal – (DO) Aspiration - (TO)

THROUGH Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Collect form can be used, like the chord changes in a jazz songs, or the dramatic ‘beats’ of an improv skit, to give a stable structure to our spontaneously spoken prayers.

This structure provides theological strengthWhat we ask for should be rooted in the character of

God.and liturgically purpose (instead of the puddling prayer that is merely expressive of emotion and little else. Good for the individual, not for upbuilding of the body)

Beautiful, you may say, but too formal, too stuffy. No one really talks like that. But we do. All the time.

Exercise: Let’s compose one together.

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Then do one yourself.

ConclusionCathedral of the Angels description.

Hope you have some taste that when we worship – anytime and anywhere – we are surrounded by this cloud of witnesses, who have run the race before us, and who point to Christ, the author and perfecter of our faith.

Improvise a closing collect.

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