Friday, June 30, 2006
Recent History 4
Report from the “Recent History of Christian Worship” seminar:
Our attention shifted away from the Charismatic movement to mainline liturgical developments with a presentation from Arlo Duba. Along with providing a history of the Presbyterian Book of Common Worship, Arlo explored changes in the theology of the sacraments and developments in understanding the nature of liturgical language.
Although the Book of Common Worship is not often found in pews, Arlo argued that it was intended to be a worship book of the people. It came out of the Reformed tradition of putting prayers in the hands and mouths of the people in the pew. It was also intended to “express a fully orbed Baptismal theology.” According to Arlo, this is why the book includes such a breadth of prayers for daily, weekly, and occasional services.
Baptism, according to Arlo, is “an inclusive, life-encompassing concept” that should shape who we are and what we do. He encourages leading multiple parts of the liturgy from the baptismal font to emphasize this role of baptism. Dr. Duba challenged the language of renewing baptism. He claimed that we never renew our baptism. Renewal is what God does in us moment by moment. We simply reaffirm what God does in us.
Duba also focused on the Lord’s Supper, particularly as compared to the Last Supper and in relationship to the Lord’s Day. Referencing Cullman, Duba claimed there are two accounts of the origin of the Lord’s Supper. The familiar account of the Last Supper focuses on the death of Jesus, but the post resurrection meals of Luke 24, John 21, and Acts 10 joyfully focus on the resurrection. Dr. Duba also argued that the first day of the week, the Lord’s Day, became a weekly celebration of the resurrection and fellowship with Christ for early Christians. Duba explained the Lord’s Supper, as a celebration of the resurrection and as fellowship with Christ, should be part of this weekly practice because of it’s prominence in the original Lord’s Day.
Arlo concluded with a few comments on words in worship, particularly in relationship to metaphor. Just as a metaphor alludes to deeper meaning than that of each separate word, our words in worship do not have complete meaning in themselves. Rather, meaning comes from the deeper layers of meaning that evoke change in the lives of those who worship.
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