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A HISTORY OF LITURGY IN THE CHRISTIAN REFORMED CHURCH
John Vriend
July 18, 1979
Editor's Note:
In this address, the Rev. Mr. Vriend examined the liturgical consciousness of the Christian Reformed denomination. Three perspectives were used to organize the speech: systematic, historical, and practical.
John Vriend is Pastor of the Church of the Servant, a Christian Reformed congregation located in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He has been for many years a member of his denomination's liturgical committees.
I. A SYSTEMATIC PERSPECTIVE
A. The Vision of a Drama
Not so long ago I chatted with a devout Christian woman in this city who told me she had been raised from childhood in a non-Christian home. In her twenties, however, she was so drawn to the singing she heard through the windows of the Alpine Avenue Christian Reformed Church that one day, plucking up all her courage and risking the stares of the good people who worshiped there, she slipped inside. What she found was incredible: God speaking to her through the ministry of Dr. P. Y. De Jong, and his people answering in songs and prayers. When the law was read she trembled; when the Word of God was preached she hung on every word; when the Psalms were sung she felt a surge of joy. It took her story, the tale of a woman who came from the outside, to impress on me anew the phenomenal importance of authentic Christian worship.
This young woman had what many others of her age had: a job, a husband, a home, friends, recreational activities. But when she heard the singing, she felt a missing dimension. Life without worship is terribly incomplete. It was of the fuller life that the congregation sang. It witnessed, perhaps without knowing it, to a higher reality, a mystery of salvation, a perspective beyond the limits of this life, a glory that is divine. Inside the walls of the church the singing may have been viewed as routine; outside those walls it struck the depths of an unfulfilled searching soul.
What we need as insiders is a vision of the staggering privilege, and the unlimited possibilities, of divine worship. if our worship services lack the power to uplift us, if irritation and boredom have taken the place of drama and excitement, then it is time to ask ourselves what it is we may legitimately expect to have happen when we come together Sunday morning.
B. The Outline of a Drama
One of the most liturgical books of the Bible, outside the Psalms perhaps the most liturgical book of the Bible, is the book of Revelation. What John sees when he is in the spirit on the Lord's day is an open door. Just as in the Narnia stories of C. S. Lewis Lucy and Jill walk through a door in the back of a clothes closet into an immensely more vivid world than they knew before, so St. John goes through a door into a momentous world called heaven. The first thing he sees there, after he has blinked a few times, is a throne. That throne is very hard to see. John can tell it is not vacant. But whatever occupies it is so brilliant, and the Brilliance is reflected from so many objects around it, that John's inner mind is flooded with images of precious stones, jasper and carnelian (Rev. 4:3). It is Brilliance enthroned. Out of that brilliant core of the universe there proceeds rule, sovereignty, effective control, healing power, a many-sided kind of government, such that no creature in our world can escape the force of it.
Around this Immensity of Brilliance on the throne, arranged in concentric circles, are various created orders of beings, one of them made up out of four living creatures representing creation, and a circle made up out of twenty-four elders representing the universal church. The elders, who are forever falling on their faces and throwing their crowns in the air, are easily the liveliest and the most worshipful bunch of elders I have ever seen.
Now where in this setting do you see the Lamb standing? It's between the throne and the creation, between the throne and the church. The Lamb mediates between the brilliant Decree-maker on the throne and the world you and I inhabit. The Lamb mediates the fulness of the restorative power of the Brilliance on the throne and the church to which you and I belong. And all the orders of being around the throne and the Lamb--angels, saints, elders, living creatures--are worshipful participants in the drama of the government of the world.
The pattern in this drama is liturgical. It is a pattern of dialogic interaction between the Throne and the beings gathered around the Throne. It is a pattern of alternation between the word-actions issuing from the Center and the answering word-actions issuing from the created beings around the Center. Worship in heaven, as it is ideally on earth, is a magnetic field in which sparks fly between two poles, the pole of a self-revealing sovereign God and the pole of the self-revealing, adoring, or contrite, people of God. If God were to speak or act in a void, there would be no worship; if people were to sing their songs or say their prayers in a void, there would be no worship. It is the presence of the living, acting, speaking God and the presence of the living, acting, speaking people of God that makes up the drama of an official worship service. Wherever in such a service God communicates to his people his action-words or his word-actions, and evokes from his people their genuine responses; wherever God's people present to him their prayers, confessions, songs, and offerings and evoke from him his pardon, comfort, and mission-orders; there worship happens.
C. The Movement in this Drama
Essential to the drama of a worship service is a clear, meaningful, and flowing progression from beginning to end. A biblical example is that of the temple drama in which Isaiah is called to be God's prophet.
It begins when Isaiah, like John in the book of Revelation, sees the Lord sitting on his throne, high and lifted up, and the seraphim around and above the throne. One calls out to another saying: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory." At this proclamation of the holiness of God the foundations shake and the house fills with smoke. Isaiah makes his confession of unworthiness. He has seen the King in his glory. Then he receives the message of forgiveness. Isaiah is cleansed. Next comes the Word of the Lord:
"Whom shall I send and who will go for us?" Isaiah responds: "Here am I! (Hineni!) Send me." And the Lord said, "Go."
The movement in this drama of interaction is that of preparation, proclamation, response, and commissioning. At the beginning the worshiper is confronted with the holiness of God and he repents; then he hears of God's will to act and offers himself; finally, the Lord sends him back into the world with a mission, and he goes. It is like the classic pattern of progression in the worship services of Reformed churches. The only omission in this pattern is the celebration of the Lord's Supper--but that is a chapter by itself.
D. Factors Blurring the Distinction of Roles in the Drama
1. A non-normative factor
The main thing obscuring the dialogic structure of our worship services is that for most of our history the minister has been nearly alone in performing both God's and the people's parts in the service. He spoke for God when he gave the greeting and for the people when he said the "Amen" to the greeting. He spoke for God when he read the law or preached the sermon; and for the people when he led in nearly all the prayers. Often switching roles without warning and with the dexterity of a trained impersonator, he combined "God-speak" and "man-speak" in a way which obliterated the distinction in the minds of the worshipers, if not in his own as well.
2. Normative factors
Once we have made the happy discovery that a liturgy is supposed to establish dialogue between God and his people, we may miss the point that a liturgy must also foster fellowship among the people. Having decided that psalms and hymns are to be addressed to God, we may ignore the plain biblical given that psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, and prophecies may also be addressed to one another in the service (Eph. 5:19; 1 Cor. 14:34). The command: "Greet one another with a holy kiss" can hardly be accomplished solely along vertical lines. The New Testament allows for a good measure of horizontal "one-anothering" within worship that is not considered a violation of worship's "divine-human" structure.
Another factor which blurs the distinction of roles is the way Scripture speaks both of the Lord's Supper and baptism. In the Reformed understanding of the Sacraments, they are vehicles, and not just reminders, of God's saving action for his people. So one would think they belong definitely on God's side of the dialogue, with the human part being to receive and to affirm them. But Scripture is richer in its understanding. It can say of the Lord's Supper that as often as we partake of the bread and the wine, we proclaim the Lord's death till he comes (1 Cor. 11:26). The very act of receiving in turn becomes a proclamation to the world, an act in which we are agents for God. Similarly, baptism, which is God's seal of ownership, is also called "an appeal to God for a clear conscience" (1 Peter 3:21). This is not to deny the validity of the distinction of roles in worship; it is a warning against the idea that any given act must always fall under the same rubric.
II. A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
A. The Datheenian period (1857-1916)
B. The Dialogic period (1916-1930)
C. The period of Quiescence (1930-1964)
D. The period of Reawakening (1964- ?)
For practical purposes we can divide the liturgical history of the Christian Reformed Church into four periods. Although I realize there is no way one can give precise labels to each of these periods, I shall nevertheless assign to each a name that will help us, I trust, to keep them apart.
A. The Datheenian Period
The period between 1857 and 1916 I call Datheenian after the father of the Dutch Reformed tradition in worship, the stormy Peter Datheen (1531-1588). Datheen, as you may know, never gave to the churches an order of worship. What he gave was instructional formularies, prayers, and Psalm versions. His outlook was shaped by the practice of the Dutch refugees who settled first in London and later in Frankenthal, Germany, in what is called the Palatinate, and is somewhat Zwinglian.1
The service in the Palatinate, where Datheen worked for a time, went something like this:
1. Salutation
2. Prayer before Sermon
(a lengthy prayer which included confession of sin)
3. Scripture reading
4. Sermon
5. Long Prayer
6. Psalm
7. Benediction
(from Liturgical Report, Acts of Synod 1968, p. 153)
Writes Dr. John Kromminga, "The order which went unquestioned for the first sixty years of the existence of the Christian Reformed Church was a corruption of the order derived from the Reformers." Kromminga cites as an illustration an early order of worship used in the Christian Reformed Church:
1. Votum or Invocation
2. Salutation
3. Psalm
4. Law
5. Scripture Reading
6. Psalm
7. General Prayer
8. Psalm and Offering
9. Sermon
10. Closing Prayer
11. Psalm (and Doxology)
12. Benediction
(Taken from John Kromminga, The Christian Reformed Church, A Study in Orthodoxy, pp. 191-192, 1949.)
Another early example is offered by Heyns:
1. Psalm
2. Brief Prayer
3. Salutation
4. Law (afternoon: the Creed)
5. Scripture Reading
6. Psalm
7. Introduction of the Sermon
8. Prayer before the Sermon with Intercessions
9. Psalm and Offering
10. Sermon
11. Thanksgiving
12. Psalm
13. Benediction
(Taken from W. Heyns, Liturgiek, p. 187, 1903.)
It is plain that many of the essential elements of worship are present in this Order; it is equally obvious that the liturgical meaning of the parts in relation to the other parts and to the whole has been lost. The "law," for instance, appears as a floating element without any liturgical anchorage either in that which precedes or follows. Neither is there a clear logical progression, or movement, in this order. It is more a jumble of unconnected parts, held together loosely by a begining Votum or Salutation and a concluding Benediction.
The professors in the Seminary who taught Liturgics, H. Beuker in the late 1890's and W. Heyn's in the early 1900's, were aware of these defects, as is evident from their class notes, but appear to have had little influence on the worship practices of the churches.
B. The Dialogic Period
Next is the period between 1916-1930, one I call the Dialogic period. It begins with an overture from Classis Illinois in 1916 asking that "Synod express the desirability of introducing a uniform order of services in our American-speaking churches, in which the congregation takes a more active part...." (Agendum of Synod, 1920, p. 57).
A committee, appointed in 1916 and enlarged in 1918, reports to the Synod of 1920. It lays down one basic liturgical principle from which four deductions are made.
The fundamental principle is this: "The essence of public worship lies in the meeting of God with his people."
From this principle the following deductions are made:
1. "Two kinds of exercise are essential to public worship: acts from the side of God and acts from the side of God's people. In the former God approaches his people to bless them with his Word, Sacrament, and Benediction. In the latter the church approaches the Lord to serve him in Prayer, Song, and Offering."
2. "These two kinds of exercises should succeed one another in an appropriate logical and psychological order."
3. "These exercises should contain nothing which is mysterious and incomprehensible to those who participate in them, lest it be impossible for them to worship the Lord `in spirit and in truth.'"
4. "These services should be so arranged that the characteristic simplicity of a Reformed church service be maintained" (Agendum, 1920, p. 58).
The result of reflection along the lines of these principles is the following plan:
ORDER OF WORSHIP FOR THE MORNING SERVICE
(Organ Prelude)
Part I. Introductory Service
A Parte Ecclesiae: Votum
Dei: Salutation
Ecclesiae: Psalm
Part II. Service of Reconciliation
Dei: Summary of the Law
Ecclesiae: Confession of Sin and Penitential Psalm
Dei: Absolution
Ecclesiae: Apostles' Creed
Ecclesiae: Psalm of Praise
Part III. Service of Gratitude
Ecclesiae: General Prayer, Concluded with "Our Father"
Ecclesiae: Offertory
Ecclesiae: Psalm of Thanksgiving
Part IV. Service of the Word
Dei: Scripture
Del: Sermon
Part V. Closing Service
Ecclesiae: Prayer of Thanksgiving
Ecclesiae: Doxology or Psalm
Dei: Benediction
It is a dialogic period for more than one reason. The Order proposed is rigidly dialogic in structure. The committee is in dialogue with the biennial Synods from 1916-1928. The Synods play a game of cat-and-mouse with the committee. Its work is finally adopted in 1928. And in 1930, under a deluge of protests from 8 classes, 8 consistories, and 10 individuals (6 from Ripon, California, alone), the plan is repudiated. End of period.
Reasons? One can give several:
1. Stubborn adherence to tradition;
2. A fierce desire to be free from Synodical rule;
3. A failure on the part of the committee to educate the churches;
4. The individualism of ministers; and
5. The inclusion of a proclamation of pardon called the "absolution."
C. The Period of Quiescence
The third period, 1930-1964, is a period of Quiescence. Forms for marriage and public profession of faith are introduced; liturgical forms for a number of mission fields are launched; a Dutch marriage form for the newly arrived immigrants in Canada is given synodical blessing; shorter and more contemporary forms for the celebration of the Lord's Supper are offered. It is toward the end of this period, between 1962 and 1964, that new unrest develops. There is discontent with expressions in the Form for Infant Baptism. In general, the feeling arises that incidental revisions of liturgical formularies cannot satisfy a denomination that needs a fundamental review, in the light of sound Reformed principles of worship, of all its liturgical literature and the contemporary needs of the churches. So, while this period is one of low-key adjustments and little liturgical excitement, it bears within it the beginnings of a cry for renewal in all our worship practices.
D. The Period of Reawakening
Finally, there is the period between 1964 and 1979, the period of Reawakening. I hardly need to describe it for you. The monumental report of 1968 is there for all of us to read and digest. New forms, revised forms, and new translations of old forms come down the conveyor belt year after year. The standing Committee on Liturgy provides us with materials and their rationale; it never imposes any action on a congregation, nor does synod. It leaves all the churches free to do as they wish. And the churches, by and large, continue to do what they have done before, though with increasing flexibility, increasing congregational participation, an increasing number of options, and ever growing diversity.
Concluding this part of my speech, let me describe the liturgical consciousness that seems to me to have emerged. It is the liturgical consciousness of a people who were twice bitten in the Old World and somewhat unsure of themselves in the New.
In the 16th century we were stung by the superstitions and corruptions of Rome, and in reply we exalted the gospel of justification as the thing that matters most. In the 19th century we were stung by the liberalism and laxity of the state-church under King William and, in reply, we exalted purity of doctrine as the thing that matters most.
The liturgical consequence of the first is that our services have one focus, the sermon; they tend to be catechetical rather than dialogic in structure, and often lack a clear climactic order. The liturgical consequence of the second is that, rather than leaving to the ministers the challenge of instruction in the sacraments and ceremonies of the church, we have insisted on the use of official forms that tend to be long, monologic, and "heavy," rather than worshipful in character.
A twice-bitten people, who moreover have had to maintain their faith in the seductive welter of the North American world, can be shy for generations. But the reasons are historical more than biblical. And the cure for this shyness lies in the study and re-development of the liturgy on the basis of biblical positives, all of which call for worship practice that is dialogic in structure and fosters fellowship among the people.
III. A PRACTICAL PERSPECTIVE ON THE RENEWAL OF OUR LITURGICAL CONSCIOUSNESS
Are you ready for one more sprint in this race against time? A host of questions storm at us the moment we consider the practical "what do we do now?" side of liturgical consciousness. For example: What freedom do local congregations have to design, or experiment with, new liturgies? How do we educate the congregation to accept change? Who are the key persons to approach and who are the best agents of change?
Let me suggest three areas of concern.
A. First, what is your motive for seeking change?
Please, be honest. Is the impulse for change perhaps a desire to be less traditional and more like other American or Canadian churches? There can be little doubt that a desire for choirs and popular gospel music came to us less from the dynamics of principle than from the surrounding church world, the radio, and the television.
Or is our desire for change motivated by a concern to reduce the monopoly powers of minister and organist in our worship services? That may be a legitimate concern but it is not the highest.
Another motive is to activate the congregation more fully in the highest exercises of the spirit of believers; or, to encourage renewal throughout the Christian life, beginning at the center, which is communal worship; or, to become more expressive in our love for God (the charismatic motif).
So much for motive. Let's be careful to examine it.
B. What are the materials available to us?
Let me list just a few:
1. In the last 75 years a massive body of literature has been built up on worship in every major tradition. In our tradition, Abraham Kuyper in the Dutch, Howard Hageman and James Hastings Nichole on this side of the ocean, as well as many others have provided helpful books.
2. Several churches in the CRC have already formed their own supplementary songbooks. The Church of the Servant is only one of them. The Psalter Hymnal Supplement is well-known to you, also.
3. This year's synod has authorized the production of a loose-leaf service book that will bring together a body of liturgical materials, prayers, and forms produced in the CRC over the last 15 years.
4. Basic to any effort at renewal should be a thorough acquaintance with the 1968 report on worship.
C. By what methods shall we pursue change?
In my own ministry I have usually started in my catechism classes. I would produce written materials, in question and answer form, for three or four weeks of study at the beginning of the season. These mimeographed sheets of instruction would travel with the students into almost all the homes of the congregation and stimulate family discussions on worship.
After the ferment had begun I would ask the consistory to appoint a committee that would study existing practices in the light of the principles of the 1968 Report.
This committee would propose a new order of worship to council. Council would study it for a couple of months, propose some amendments, and perhaps approve its use, on a trial basis, after a congregational meeting had discussed it. And so on.
An important idea is to encourage pastors to attend a conference on worship such as this one. It seems to me little progress can be made apart from the active participation of the pastors.
Another avenue of approach is the Seminary. Historically, our Reformed seminaries have treated liturgics as the stepchild of the curriculum. That minimalizing tendency must be challenged.
Enough on methods.
Let me summarize as succinctly as I can:
Worship is the pulsating center of our life together. It's from there that renewal can spread to the whole of life. Let's make the most of it!
Note
1. By "Zwinglian" I mean that he broke with the order of the Catholic mass, disconnected the Sacrament from the Word, and turned worship into a preaching service.