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Sixth Sunday, August 5, 2001:
"Live East of Your Work"
A. Living with an eastward perspective
1. Looking forward, looking eastward, in the New Testament
Matthew 24:26-27:
"So if anyone tells you, 'There he is, out in the desert,' do not go out; or, 'Here he is, in the inner rooms,' do not believe it. For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man." (NIV)
Revelation 7:1-2a:
After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth to prevent any wind from blowing on the land or on the sea or on any tree. Then I saw another angel coming up from the east, having the seal of the living God. (NIV)
2. The synagogue's anticipation of the presence of God
From Webber, Robert E., The Biblical Foundations of Christian Worship, Vol. 1, The Complete Library of Christian Worship, (Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody, MA, 1993), p. 133:
. . . [A]ll the synagogues were built in such a fashion that the congregations could face Jerusalem. The common practice was to erect the building on a small hill or prominence, sometimes near water but always in such a fashion that the back wall, which faced the door, was toward Jerusalem.
Ibid., p. 140:
Here, then, in the very architecture of the building, was a profound symbol of the meaning of synagogue worship. God who was present in the past was made present through the symbols of his presence. And God's presence was also anticipated in the future, for every congregation faced Jerusalem in expectation of the gathering of the Jews there in the city of the Great King.
3. Eschatology in our worship
From the prayer of St. Chrysostom, in this morning's Word & Table service at Epworth:
Almighty God, . . . fulfill now, O Lord, the desires and petitions of your servants, as may be most expedient for them, granting us in this world knowledge of your truth, and in the world to come life everlasting.
From the prayer of thanksgiving, in this morning's Word & Table service at Epworth:
O Lord and Heavenly Father, we most heartily thank You . . . because we are members incorporated into the mystical body of your Son, the blessed company of all faithful people; and because we are also heirs, through hope, of your everlasting kingdom. . . .
From the Lord's Prayer, in this evening's Evening Prayers:
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. . . .
From Psalm 98, as edited by John Wesley for public reading, marked for chanting in this evening's Evening Prayers:
9 for he cometh to judge the earth. With righteousness shall he judge the world; and the people with equity.
From the Apostles' Creed, in this evening's Evening Prayers:
I believe in God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth; / and in Jesus Christ his only son our Lord; . . . From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in . . . the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.
From the Prayers of the People, in this evening's Evening Prayers:
We also bless your holy name for [_____________], for all your servants departed this life in your faith and fear, and beseech You to grant us grace so to follow the good examples of all your saints, that with them we may be partakers of your heavenly kingdom.
From the General Thanksgiving, in this evening's Evening Prayers:
We bless You for . . . the means of grace, and for the hope of glory.
From the benedictory prayer, in this evening's Evening Prayers:
Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever.
From "The Day Thou Gavest, Lord, Is Ended", the recessional hymn by John Ellerton in this evening's Evening Prayers:
So be it, Lord; Thy throne shall never, Like earth's proud empires, pass away; Thy Kingdom stands, and grows forever Till all Thy creatures own Thy sway.
4. See question 40 below.
B. The origins of synagogue worship
From Webber, Robert E., The Biblical Foundations of Christian Worship, Vol. 1, The Complete Library of Christian Worship, (Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody, MA, 1993), pp. 131-132:
[T]he synagogue arose as a corporate Torah study. . . .
The scholarly treatment of the problem [the uncertain origin of the synagogue] has tended to fall under the influence of two opposing schools of thought. The traditional one that Moses founded the synagogue is as old as the Targums (Aramaic translations of the Torah) and cited by Josephus . . . . The second thesis that the synagogue was of societal origin and appeared during the Exile, was . . . finally dominant . . . .
. . . . It may be that the synagogue was only one type of worship arrangement known at the time and that it was the one that survived the Roman destruction of the great temple. . . . The basic unit of the synagogue was ten men who gathered for prayer. This is similar to Old Testament congregations.
C. Links between synagogue worship and Christian worship
| Synagogue Worship | New Testament/Christian Worship |
| Worship on the Sabbath | Worship on Sunday |
| The "servant of the synagogue" | Cantor, acolytes, sexton |
| Call to worship: | Call to worship: |
| Leader: "Bless ye the Lord, the one who is to be blessed." | Minister: "Blessed be God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit." |
| People: "Blessed be the Lord forever." | People: "And blessed be his kingdom, now and forever." |
| Praise, especially through song | Praise, especially through song |
| The qaddish prayer (also Tefillah) | The Lord's prayer |
| Readings from Pentateuch and Prophets | Old Testament reading |
| Recounting the story of salvation, through the readings and prayers | Recounting the story of salvation, through readings and hymns |
| The Tefillah prayers: | Prayers of the people [See question 2 below]: |
| The three opening benedictions | The Gloria |
| The three prayers for spiritual blessings, including forgiveness | Confession of sin |
| The four prayers for material blessings | The prayers for the needs of the people [See question 33 below] |
| The six prayers for social blessings | The prayers for nation, world, society, and justice [See question 3 below.] |
| The three final prayers for restoration of worship in Jerusalem, for gratitude and peace | The prayers for the Church, for peace and righteousness, and of thanksgiving [See ##4, 12, 30] |
| Commentary on the readings | Sermon |
| Freewill offerings for the poor | The collection |
| The Shema (Great Commandments) | Confession of faith [See question 13] |
| No animal sacrifice, which was only at the temple | No animal sacrifice, which Christ's sacrifice replaced |
| The berakhah (in Hebrew) or eucharistia (in Greek) prayer of thanksgiving | Jesus' berakhah prayer upon his institution of Holy Communion |
D. New Testament worship: Word & Table
From the study book, p. 99:
. . . . As Jesus was known in the breaking of the bread on the road to Emmaus and in the upper room, so they experienced the mystery of the resurrected Christ as the regular worship event of breaking bread; . . . .
From Webber, Robert E., The Biblical Foundations of Christian Worship, Vol. 1, The Complete Library of Christian Worship (Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody, MA, 1993), p. 103:
Early Christians continued to worship in the temple and in the synagogue. Gradually, however, they separated from the Jewish institutions of worship into their own assemblies. As to form, Christian worship involved prayer and praise but centered around the teaching of Scripture and the Lord's Supper. Christ was proclaimed in the Word and celebrated at the table.
E. New Testament worship: a worship with form, but with reality, too
Ibid.,pp. 104-105 [and see question 38 below]:
In the true prophetic tradition, Jesus does not tolerate the perverting of true piety into empty formalism. He censures not only the display of prayer, but also the prayer that is merely vain repetition (Matt. 6:7). He also condemns the exaggerated emphasis on ritual practice that makes this a substitute for genuine righteousness ( Mark 7:6-8). Nevertheless, he does not reject either form (cf. the Lord's Prayer and the new ritual of the Lord's Supper) or ritual observances (Matt. 23:23) as such. His call is the prophetic call for the inner walk, the true consecration, and the right conduct, which will naturally find expression in religious exercises and which alone give substance, reality, and power to the external motions. (Emphasis added.)
Ibid., p. 106:
The sources do not indicate that a recognized structure had emerged at this period. Nevertheless, even at Corinth the constituent features of worship-prayer, praise, exposition and perhaps reading of the Scriptures, and the Lord's Supper-are evident. The materials of liturgy are also present. The Psalms would be the Old Testament Psalter, and readings involved a fixed form of words. Paul gives a simple order for the Lord's Supper. Part of the general content of prayer is suggested in 1 Timothy 2:1-3. The prayer of Acts 4:24, though extemporaneous, uses liturgical phrases obviously drawn from the Old Testament. Even the sermons recorded in Acts are not without patent similarities of wording and structure. Since the primitive church is heir to the rich tradition of the Old Testament and Judaism, it would be strange if this were not so. The new spirit and power lie in the new understanding of the old forms, the fashioning of new forms out of the old, rather than in formlessness. . . .
F. Holy Communion: from the first, constitutive of weekly worship
Ibid., p. 109 [and see question 28 below]:
Both biblical and patristic evidence support the view that this [the Lord's Supper] was from the very first a constitutive part of weekly worship.
G. Eschatology in Holy Communion: Living Eastwardly
From this morning's Word & Table service at Epworth [see ##11 & 40 below]:
Minister: Therefore, we proclaim the mystery of faith:
People: Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.
H. Questions to ponder or discuss, now or later
1. Which came first: liturgy (the people's pattern of worship) or theology?
2. What can prayer in public worship do, which private prayer cannot?
3. How important is intercessory prayer in a worship service?
4. Why are the "Prayers of the People" part of the Service of the Table rather than being part of the Service of the Word?
5. If a service does not contain an invocation of the Triune God at the outset, is anything important lost?
6. What is the most intensive and extensive form of praise and thanksgiving in the Christian tradition?
7. Where do we find a church's primary theology?
8. Are active participation and self-expression worship?
9. What is transubstantiation in reverse?
[Responses: Making the holy into something mundane, such as by failing to appreciate the holy, failing to receive Communion, and failing to give worth to the body and blood of Christ]
10. Who leads our worship? Who should do so?
11. What about our worship serves as a school against forgetfulness?
12. What about our worship serves as a school against ingratitude?
13. Is there a distinction between loving God with all our heart, and worshiping God with all our heart?
14. Can prayer be visual instead of verbal?
15. Which religious gestures are holier than others?
16. Which religious symbols are holier than others?
17. Which carries more meaning: a statement of religious or theological fact or truth, or a symbol of the same?
18. Which of the five senses should be omitted from worship?
19. Should the human imagination be omitted from worship?
20. Is participation in religious ritual: a. Participation, by attention, in the rites? b. Participation in an act of the church? c. Participation in the rule and reign of God?
21. Does our worship regularly reveal the difference between who God is and who we are?
22. Is there such a thing as physically embodied theology?
23. What role, if any, does bodily memory play in worship? [Comments concerned: total physical response, inherent physical response, inherited response, automatic response, and communication by action.]
24. Is silence important in worship?
25. How does following the Christian calendar illuminate the scripture?
26. What is the role of confession of sin, in a worship service?
27. Is a benediction important in a worship service?
28. Was John Wesley right or wrong, in his contention that one should receive Communion as often as possible?
29. What's a "collect"?
30. What is the role of lamentation in a worship service?
31. Is the Eucharist inexhaustibly relevant to every human context of suffering? Why, or why not?
32. Is worship really worship, if it fails to engage the people with the mystery of God?
33. Is worship really worship, if it fails to engage the people with human suffering?
34. How important is the reading or singing of scripture, in a worship service?
35. Does it make any difference where the pulpit is placed? Where the Communion altar is placed?
36. Can doctrines be reduced to cognitive human systems? What keeps doctrine from becoming dogmatic and negative?
37. Is it the purpose of worship to make an impact on the culture?
38. Does God prefer unplanned worship?
39. Through symbol, parable and metaphor, can worship take us beyond what our senses can otherwise disclose of God?
40. Can Christians mark time by remembering forward and backward?
41. What is missing, when Word is without sacrament, or when sacrament is without Word? [Suggestions: Context; confirmation; example; corroboration; a lens through which to interpret and re-interpret, forward and backward; application; dramatization; personalization; particularization; cohesiveness; theme; prioritization; participation in the tradition of and with the saints; illumination; correlation; balance between reason and mystery]
42. What is the role of sacred space? Is there such a thing?
43. What makes ministry "sacred ministry" (Robert Webber's phrase)?
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