I've never found a connection with God through rituals. This was an overwhelming theme in my mind during church at ULC today.
* Constructed Choral Responses feel so hollow to me
* I feel like Creeds are far more focused on institutional religion than spirituality with God
- Adam, Chris and I noticed today that even though they changed the Apostle's Creed from "Holy Catholic Church" to "Holy Christian Church," they left in the the next line about "communion of saints" (which is a very Catholic belief). Any ideas as to why that is?
* One ritual that I do feel some sort of connection with is communion. But I noticed in the bulletin today that ULC believes in the "real presence" of the body and blood - whereas I've always interpreted it as a symbolic practice. What's your take?
Adam and I are very excited to be moving back to the Ann Arbor area in the fall - even more exciting news is that our favorite church, Resurrection Life, is starting an affiliate church in A2. I'd really like for us to get involved in helping it get off the ground - maybe it could be our future home church :-)
Sorry if this is long and babbling - I should have written my responses in word and then copied and pasted!
ReplyDelete1) I do feel robot at times doing the scripted choral responses. They do not do them all the time, but when they do they usually correspond with the "lesson" for the day or part of confession. And I do believe (at least it was in the Catholic Church) that they are a combination of verses.
2)Actually a lot of single words are added/deleted/changed from the Apostle's Creed that I had to memorize as a child. There are a few versions of various Creeds that ULC puts in their service. Saints are not necessarily only a Catholic belief. As far as I understand, to Catholics a Saint is an Catholic that has made it to Heaven (although there others that are received as a higher Saint). In the Lutheran Church ALL Christians, whether in heaven or alive on Earth, are considered Saints. But I believe the Lutheran Church still recognizes many Saints from the Catholic Church, even thought they do not pray to them for specific things (ie: Saint Anthony when something needs to be found). The Lutheran Church even has a specific calendar that recognizes and honors certain saints throughout the year.
But... I don't think it is actually referring to Saints, per se... I think it is to represent the spiritual union of the members of the Church. I also think the direct translation of the word "saints" to the English language means "Christians", "holy people" and "holy things" and is used many times in this context in the New Testament. Also, the Eucharist could be the "holy thing" that brings us to communion.
3) I have had this discussion with Jay as well. The Church says you believe it is the actual body and blood of Christ. But I think that is interesting because I have also thought of it as symbolic. Communion is also referred to as The Lord's Supper, meant to reenact the Last Supper. But there is a difference between the Catholic Church and the Lutheran Church. The Catholic Church believes that the Host and the Wine have actually changed into the body and blood of Christ, while the Lutheran Church believes that the presence of the two exist, but it hasn't physically changed into it. I could be wrong about this, but that's what I have taken from it.
4) As with Resurrection Life, Jay and I did not feel any spiritual connection while being there. I think it was more of the production aspect of things. It seems like we were more on a movie set than with the presence of God. And even during the sermon, I felt like I was a kid with ADD in school and could not focus on what was being said, with the cameras moving around and the clocks blinking. And I really did not like how they did not have communion.
2 - interesting take on the use of "saints" - never thought of it referring to all Christians. Sara - do you happen to know what the intent of the word is?
ReplyDelete4 - Just goes to show how different spiritual experiences can be from one person to the next :-) When I said "us," I was referring to Adam and I. Not having communion every service is the one thing that Adam also doesn't like about ResLife. I think because he grew up in a church that takes communion every week, he feels like he's missing out on something if he goes to a service that doesn't have it. But, scripturally (new word of the day haha) speaking, there is nothing that says how often communion should be taken. At least not in the Gospels anyway...some people argue that Paul alludes to a frequency in 1 Corinthians - but Paul wasn't even at the Last Supper! None of the disciples who were present mention anything about Jesus saying how often they should eat the bread and drink the wine in remembrance of him.
1. Rituals - rituals are something that speak to some and not others. What people who are really into ritualized worship connect with is the fact that they are doing what people have done for 100s of years. Saying the same words that have been spoken everywhere by many Christians. They are connected to a what is bigger about the community of faith and the history of it.
ReplyDeleteThey also connect with words that are memorized and in times of trouble or when words are at a loss, they can remember those words and ponder them.
The specific form of ritual that you are talking about is called liturgy. Litergy is probably the most ancient form of worship and goes back to the jewish days. Some of the words said as part of litergy in modern worship are traced back to the early church and to Jesus himself "Peace be with you" "and also with you" This reminded the early church of the resurrected Jesus who spoke and breathed his peace on them.
Liturgy is very rich with meaning if you know why its done or what its intentions are. But it also has the danger of being done with a mind that is not engaged, not present.
It is also a more detached, less emotional form of worship. It is what people do regardless of how they feel ... a discipline.
I personally find liturgy engaging but only when we take it on and make it our own. At my church in Davis we had an alternative worship using modern / secular music....yet we brought in some of the elements of liturgy. We owned it and made our own traditions around it, like a family does with their christmas dinner or tree.
But liturgy turns a lot of people off -- it can look hypocritical or empty. My mom left the Catholic church due a lot to the style of worship and the focus on liturgy.
2. The Creed... Oh boy. there's a lot here. Yes, the creed is institutional. It is a statement of belief that was created to ensure that different churches had a core set of beliefs. It was written as part of an effort in the early church of bring some cohesion to the practices of the church (along with setting forth the cannon of scriptures -- what to include, what not)
In terms of wording ... the holy catholic church... is kept by many protestants because the word catholic means universal or entire church. Some change to Christian because most people don't know that's what is meant by that word in the creed. It is talking about the entirety of the Christian faith... the church of Jesus. Not any one denomimation. The communion of saints means that those who confess the creed believe that believers should partake in communion as Jesus requested us to do.
There are two main Christian creeds. The Apostles Creed -- which is most commonly said. The Nicine Creed - a little more in depth and usually said on special occasions. I'm not so clear on the origins of each but I think they came about in the same era.
Communion...
ReplyDeleteHeavy.
Tony is right that the Catholics believe in a literal conversion from bread and wine to the body and blood of christ through the santification of the host. Lutherans believe literal bread and wine but that the presence of God is somehow there.
Jesus said -- this is my body. Take and eat of it all of you. do this in remembrance of me.
The words of institution leave so much to us to try to understand. Its infinitely deep. It is a journey to knowing God. So simple he made it a place to connect with us. No matter what our level of sophistication. At the most basic -- God eats with us. He shares a meal. We understand what it means to share a meal with someone. It means you are close. You trust each other. You talk. You have a place of commonality. God comes to us and invites us to the table.
But as we deepen our understanding of the last supper. We understand the meal isn't just an ordinary meal. Its a meal to celebrate freedom and promise.
Deeper -- we learn that perfect lambs were slaughtered as a means to mark, protect and free God's beloved. And as Jesus reaches for that bread and that cup, his disciples understood that Jesus is saying -- he will intercede. He is the connection between man and God. He brings freedom.
They remembered that moment with each other after Jesus left by recreating the meal and remembering his words. And, I believe, that God still comes to the table. He is there. Sharing the meal. Joining our journey. Connecting, freeing and redeeming us.
There is no prescribed frequency for communion. The methodist church we go to now only has it once a month. I personally would love it at every service. For me, it is one of those moments where I am alone with God for a second. And now, with Eddie in my arms, it is a time to bring him to God.