SENSORY WORSHIP

Here are some thoughts I recently sent to our pastors concerning worship.

We have been beginning to re-envision ways to enrich our worship experiences, and the aspect that grabbed my imagination, considers the use of our five senses. I have given a lot of thought over the years regarding worship, and the ways we can draw our whole self/ all ourselves into glorifying God and making ourselves aware of His presence. For what other reason did God give us senses than for the purpose of communication, relationship (with Him, others, and Nature), and discovery?

Over the past many years, some of my worship experiences have been in other congregations. One deeply meaningful relationship I had thirty years ago was with a Franciscan community/monastery in Salzburg, Austria. Aesthetically, the place of worship had a profound impact on me. Actually, much of Europe with its Gothic Cathedrals, and Baroque churches affect me positively. One of the things I noticed was the way light was used, meaning the natural sunlight streaming through windows: whether stained glass or plain glass. Even the colors used: primarily reds and blues, could affect one a certain way, and elicit a sense of the transcendence of God. I was disappointed in the absence of high windows that could let in sunlight when our sanctuary was built. Since we rely 100% on electricity and man-made lighting arrangements, it does something to our worship…almost as if we have too much control. It doesn’t leave the opportunity open for God to suddenly roll back a bank of clouds and have rays of light suddenly illuminate a sanctuary, where before all was cast in shade and muted light. I’m sure that few people (if anyone) had thought of that when the sanctuary/worship hall was designed, but I think about things that way…a bit odd, perhaps. All of this is to point out that the use of LIGHT, not just colors, or visual effects, can be very important. Light sources are also important, not just images or pictures that are visible because they reflect light. Candles, Sunlight, Lamps, etc…

When we gathered a week or so ago for pizza and visioning/dreaming, I wrote a few notes. These are some rough notes that can be fleshed out as time goes on:

Worship engages us with the Arts that engage our senses:
Visual Arts (sight)== includes color (such as banners that reflect the various seasons in the church calendar), imagery: banners, 3D (depth as well as form); LIGHT—such as lamps, muted lighting, and even darkness (as in tenebrae service), as well as candles, direct sunlight, etc…
Musical/Audio Arts (hearing)== includes a variety of music and singing: also various instruments (like violin, trumpet, flute, piano, guitars, I wish we had an oboe!!!) Audio can also involve choral readings like last week with the scripture. Possibly (if the Reformers among us can stomach it) chant or responsive readings, choral responses to psalms. Our hymnal has quite a collection at the back. Let’s use the hymnal more. Praise songs address the affective/emotional domain, but less the cognitive/intellectual domain which hymns address more profoundly. Worship should not only help us to feel well—feel closer to God, but also think well—think more profoundly, theologically about God.
Kinesthetic Arts (touch, movement)== Raising hand, bending our knees, learning perhaps a song with hand motions—let the woman who knows sign language teach us all one song totally in sign language as we sing it (something simple). Do we ever bow our heads or kneel? It’s scriptural, but also Roman Catholic, so Protestants have veered away. Even making the sign of the cross. Popish, perhaps, in some peoples eyes, but a lllloooonnnnnggggg standing tradition of the Church Universal: making the sign of the cross. I wonder how much we can dare without turning some people off? Does raising our hands in worship and praise scare some people away? Perhaps, those who fear Pentecostals. Would crossing oneself shock someone else??? Questions to explore as we continue to look into the depth of worship.
Another kinesthetic practice could be in dance (liturgical dance and otherwise) as well as drama, plays, skits, processions up the aisle.
Aromatic Arts (smell)== This is where I remember the incense within an Episcopal Church I attended our first year of marriage. AH! Frankincense and myrrh. Think about the pungent worship Israel had as they offered those smoky burnt offerings to the LORD. And think of the psalmist who wrote of offering incense and prayers…. I wonder what we could do here. I think I would be reticent for the practice seems so Catholic, but it is quite powerful, and I have heard that the sense of smell actually deeply affects and strengthens memory of events. Once you can associate a smell with an event, person, or place, and you can smell that again, the memory of it comes flooding back. One has to just be careful of allergies, or of being too over powering. Perhaps scented candles?? Fragrant potlucks? More flowers? Rose scented air freshener?
Epicurean Arts (taste)== Obviously in worship the thing that comes first to mind is Communion/Lord’s Supper/Eucharist. Bread and Juice. Question: is Wine forbidden by the Covenant, or just not used? Wine is a far more powerful and authentic element than juice: both in taste, in symbolism, in tradition.
How else could taste be employed? The ancient church had love feasts: we have potlucks upon occasion, or other dinners. I think it would be helpful to our community to gather together to eat far more often. Make potlucks, dinners, seders, etc worshipful.

Okay there you have it. A few notes that explore Sensory Worship (not worship of the senses, but worship by and through the senses).

Yours, PETE

Check out Churchrater.com

I recently discovered a website entitled Churchrater.com . Check it out. It is directed or managed by a friend of mine, Pete Walker, who's a George Fox Seminarian. There is some real interesting dialogue going on concerning all sorts of things affecting congregations: Gays in the Catholic Church, how Hospitable (or not) Churches are towards Children, a number of comments about various churches--often first time visits--across the country, etc. There's also a new movement a foot: BICBW. It stands for "But I Could Be Wrong." Membership to this movement of one's willingness to admit, and submit, to one's finitude and the possibility of error when pontificating, is totally FREE, and one needs only to end one's communication with the following postscript: BICBW.

Sins of omission and commission

There are a few variations to The Lord’s Prayer, particularly in the section about asking God to forgive our debts/trespasses/sins. Our new pastor has been leading us in the Lord’s Prayer, over the past few weeks, by using the phase “forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us” rather than the phrase “forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors” that had been used by our congregation for many years.

When I think about the differences between debts and trespasses, I am reminded of some differences between various types of sins. Most often, I suppose, we think of sin as an active transgression: something that we do that is wrong. Theft, murder, adultery, deceit, arrogance, violence, etc. All those things are included in the broad umbrella of trespasses. Trespassing has come to mean something rather narrow: namely stepping onto someone else’s property without permission (quite often to do harm or appropriate something that doesn’t belong to oneself.) But what of debts? Our pastor pointed out the limiting connotations associate with debts in which our mind thinks in financial terms. Forgive us our debts sounds like a college student reneging on a student loan that he owes and had made promises to pay. However, I think that the whole idea of debts deals, rather, with what we owe people in terms of basic human transactions: love, compassion, generosity, the fruits of the Spirit. Our prayer, “forgive us our debts,” is an acknowledgment that we often fail to share these fruits of the Spirit with others. Sin is not just an active transgression, at times like this, but also a passive inaction when we should have acted: something that we did not do that would have been right. The Book of Common Prayer captures this in the confession: “Most merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done, and by what we have left undone.”

These sins have been called sins of omission (debts) and commission (trespasses). When we “commit” sins of omission we aren’t really committing anything at all. We actually are omitting to perform something that God would have us do. We fail to do something we ought to do through apathy, carelessness, lack of conviction, laziness or selfishness. If we consider the fact that God has given certain spiritual gifts, we actually sin if we fail to employ those gifts, practice and use those talents. In Jesus’s parable about the 5, 2 and 1 talents, it is the person who buried his talent and didn’t use it even slightly that was censored, punished and removed from the community or a relationship with his master. Burying his talent was a sin of omission: he had a debt to his master and refused to “pay” it by employing his talent.

If the sins of commission are more obvious, the sins of omission are more insidious. They lull us into a false sense of sinlessness. We can imagine someone objecting, “But I haven’t done anything wrong!” The question isn’t always whether or not one has done something wrong. More importantly is the question: What have I done that is right? How have I intentionally, deliberately and passionately embraced my calling? How fervently have I strained my ears to hear His voice, His whisper? How much have I expended myself to fulfill the one debt remaining (Romans 13:8), the love of one another, or “the carrying of each other’s burdens” (Galatians 6:2) which is the fulfillment of the law of Christ? The sins of omission are so often linked with that cankerous spiritual malady, indifference. When we withhold grace, forgiveness, compassion, or mercy, we rob our neighbor of his very breath, we deny him food, drink, hope, friendship, meaning. This is no small insignificant thing. It is truly insidious because we will not find ourselves throw in jail because of it. There are no laws of the state that threaten us with imprisonment if we turn a blind eye to a neighbor in need. No, we may not be thrown into prison, but there is a Place we may very well be thrown out of. “And between us and you a great chasm has been fixed” (Luke 16:19-31).

It is best to pray that God would forgive us all our sins: both debts and trespasses.

Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.