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Q & A
Q&A: Rekindling meaning of liturgy Mary Jacobs, Apr 24, 2007
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Daniel T. Benedict
Daniel Benedict wants to rekindle the discovery of worship as a spiritual adventure. He writes about liturgy in his new book, Patterned by Grace: How Liturgy Shapes Us (Upper Room Books, 2007). The Rev. Benedict will lead an online workshop and book study, "Liturgy Out of the Box: Patterned By Grace" from May 14 to June 3 (see www.BeADisciple.com). He recently spoke with Associate Editor Mary Jacobs.
How do you define liturgy?
I'm using liturgy in the sense that it's 'a patterned communal action around public symbols supported by words.' There are patterns, like word next to table, the week next to the eighth day, praise next to lament. I don't mean that it's at 9 o'clock every Sunday morning, although that is part of the pattern. It's communal because liturgy is not about what I do in my private devotions; it's about what we do together as Christians. By public symbols, I mean the strong central dimensions of Christian worship -- what we do around the font, around the lectern and pulpit, around the table. Liturgy is the choreography of the community around those central public symbols. And then I say, 'supported by words.' It's primarily action, not words. Protestantism was born in an age of reason and enlightenment, so we really got hung up on words. But in the ancient church, it was more about action. I think the recovery of liturgy today is about the recovery of the primary actions.
You say that while worship may appear to be our doing, on a deeper level it is the work of God in and through us. Why is that distinction important?
If we think of ourselves as being engaged in a collaborative dialogue with God through the Holy Spirit, then we're more expectant and open in worship. There's been a humanistic approach to worship, an idea that we animate worship, or that worship is something we do for God or something that the leaders does to the people. That's to miss the fact that the Spirit is the wild wind that blew over creation and danced on the heads of the apostles at Pentecost. The Spirit still stirs us to acts of justice and compassion and devotion and worship.
You write that something like hurricane relief can be a kind of liturgy. How so?
Liturgy comes from two Greek words, for people and work-so literally, the word liturgy means "the work of the people." In its earliest usage, liturgy did not have specific religious associations; it was the public work done for the common good. Barn raisings in the 19th century, in this understanding, was liturgy.
So if people get in their RVs to help with the building after Katrina, that's liturgy. Christ's liturgy is done both around font, word and table, and it goes on after that, when we go out into the world in acts of justice and compassion. The last act of the liturgy is sending people forth to love God and serve their neighbors.
Many churches are using technology creatively in worship. How can congregations make sure that technology makes worship engaging rather than just entertaining?
We live in digital culture. I'm all for embracing digital tech and using it in worship so long as we have a strong awareness of what's at the center. I do think we've got to take seriously and be attentive to the reality of digital culture in worship. I think that may mean using digital technology in worship.
It also may mean that by being attentive to it, we become more literate about digital culture in the way we worship. As one African-American pastor said to a group of us gathered to talk about using digital technology in worship, "I've been preaching to the screen in the minds of my people for all the years of my ministry." I thought that was profound, because what he realizes is even if you've got a screen at the front of the church, the reality is the screen is in the heads of the people. In the end, you want to project something on the screen of the people's minds and hearts.
Christian liturgy is adaptive to its context. Because we're in digital culture, we're going to adapt worship to the digital culture. The non-negotiables are washing and birthing people into the Christian faith, telling and enacting and responding to God's stories and our own; it's sharing the Paschal meal with tears and thankful hearts.
Increasingly, we're going to be more aware and capable of including digital culture in worship without being silly. I got an e-mail one time from a person who was saying they were using a video clip over and over in the background. He just thought that was so cool. I thought, 'That is so silly. I'm glad you're impressed with the technology, but what did that have to do with John 3:16?'
There's something deep in the gospel that calls us away from being simply trendy to connecting to wonder and awe and mystery, to God in the depths of our human journey in the cosmos.
The back of your book says you "rescue liturgy from its stuffy associations." Why does liturgy have stuffy associations?
Many people, from movies and popular associations, think of officious-looking priests and people, with their eyes glazed over, as they go through the motions of wordy and disconnected prayer. It's like the cartoons, where the pastor is up front and the people are hearing, "Blah, blah, blah." But I think it only becomes stuffy when we get lazy. You know that line from G.K. Chesterton, where he says that "Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it's been found difficult and not tried"? That's also true of liturgy; it's been found difficult. Because we get lazy we just don't do it well.
On the other hand, much of Protestant worship has been geared to the thinking, rational person. But what if people who come to church are very kinesthetic and there's nothing kinesthetic going on? Part of the stuffiness may be the very narrow range of involvement that liturgy typically asks of us. We need to re-learn to worship God as liturgical prayer.
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You say that while worship may appear to be our doing, on a deeper level it is the work of God in and through us. Why is that distinction important? 
