Forceful Liturgy

The picture here takes the place of one I could not find. It is a photo of U.S. soldiers in Iraq grieving the death of a fellow soldier. Last week I was chatting with Mari Evans and she mentioned an image I remember seeing as well. It appeared in Newsweek. It showed soldiers gathered into a small space in Iraq. In the photograph was also a pile of stones that the soldiers had put together to commemorate their friend who had died. Each of them had taken a stone and written a message to their buddy and their friend on the stone and then in a grieving liturgy they had created this pile, this makeshift memorial for their friends memory. Mari talked about what a powerful image that was and how if she had been there and participated in such a thing she would have walked out of their angry enough to want to kill someone -- to lash out in grief and rage at the next person who came along who you might blame. Who knows whether that happened...but I cannot help but think of that ever since our conversation because it made me think of two things. One it made me think of the battles that are raging in the Middle East even as I type these words. I think of how it is not only the soldiers who are grieving in ways that perhaps build up and upon the rage rather than heal it...but also the civilians as their body tolls rise in both Israel and Lebanon (not to mention Iraq). There will be funerals galore...will those funerals be liturgies of healing or liturgies that will deepen the divisions and pain between peoples (of course no liturgy can erase the pain, for example, of a child's death -- but it can address the pain or it can feed the pain and rage). The United Methodist Book of Resolutions (I can't believe I'm quoting it here) says that war is incompatible with Christian teaching. And one doesn't have any doubt living in the midst of it -- or even watching it on our television screens.

The other question that image raises for me, though -- is how do the rituals the liturgies that we participate in, as the community gathers for worship on a weekly basis, shape us, form us? Every Sunday we gather for worship at Broadway -- how is it that the images and symbols that we use (not to mention our words and music) shape our lives, the choices we make, the people we are and that we are becoming? As a worship leader I don't believe I think clearly or creatively enough about this issue. When we share the peace of Christ in worship, we often find ourselves extending a hand or a hug to someone who we have had problems with in the past week or months or perhaps years ago. Yet...we "practice" our faith -- we practice the peace, in hopes and with faith that peace is there. But perhaps we are just going through the motions. Are we providing ways for one another to participate in our life together that more likely works for our healing -- that shapes us in ways that cause us to consider the choices we make each day to recognize God's presence and love even when things are miserable? I just don't know. But I'm glad to be wrestling with this question.

I worry that in our worship and in the commodity that has become Christianity in the United States we have made worship so nice that it doesn't shape us, it doesn't challenge us, it simply becomes a marker along the road that says "you're a nice person, you are doing alright, don't worry about a thing, you've checked the religion thing off on your checklist this week - now move on to the next thing -- i.e. trips to the grocery store, teeth cleaning, volunteer work, and then home to bed).

At the same time I see examples every week of ways in which the liturgy and language of faith intrudes on the choices of Christian people I am around. But I wonder still if we cannot be more thoughtful and creative about the opportunities we give to people to meet that in our corporate worship. Hmmmm.