Life as Liturgy

I was chatting briefly the other day with a friend who was doing some research on the issue of worship and culture.  Specifically, he had been looking lately at the issue of liturgy in the modern “mega-churches”.  Liturgy, if I get this right, was understood to be a form of worship that involved congregational response, and he was making some comments about the brief amount of actual congregational involvement there is in worship services these days.  I think he mentioned something like an average of three minutes in a typical service. 

That got me thinking.  As a former pastor as well as worship leader, I’ve mulled these sorts of things over at some length and now here I am chewing that cud once again. 

The word liturgy comes from the Greek term leitourgeo.  The literal meaning is to render a public service at one’s own expense.  In ancient times the assembly, or public leaders, would assign “liturgies” to wealthy individuals in order to get the public works done.  In the bible it also refers to the service performed by priests in the Old Testament sacrificial system.  In any event, the underlying meaning has to do with service, although it is translated as worship in many English bibles.  It is related to (Vines says it is synonymous with) the term latreia, which is more common in Scripture and also has to do with rendering service and often times translated as worship. 

When we think of liturgical worship, however, what we usually have in mind is some kind of formalized, more ritualistic worship style that often times has some component of congregational response involved in terms of readings, responses, etc. 

Here’s what I’ve been thinking.  If liturgy is a “response” to God, the proclamation of his word, etc., is the big question really how much or of what kind that response is during a weekly worship “service”, or is it bigger than that?  Perhaps the “service” we render (our “liturgy”) is less about whether we’re singing along on some worship songs or being involved in a call and response set of readings, and more about how we respond with our lives. 

I know people who “religiously” attend a liturgical form of worship service in which they recite the words of the Lord’s prayer “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us”, and yet harbor a bitterness and unwillingness to forgive in their hearts over a perceived slight from many years ago that continues to foment pain and broken relationships.  They do “liturgy” every week in the sense that we normally understand it, but in my mind they have no “liturgy” in their lives in the sense of actually responding to what God has called them to do with their service. 

Likewise, having led worship and preached in more contemporary churches over the years, I have seen many people who sell themselves out to experiential worship during the “service” every week, and yet continue to maintain characteristics of their lifestyles that are knowingly out of sync with God’s will for their lives.  They hear these things, but fail to respond.  Their lives are not a liturgy. 

Paul says in Romans 12:1 to offer our bodies as living sacrifices and that this is our spiritual act of worship (latreia, or service).  He tells us that in this context, we should be transformed,(metamorphoo, metamorphised), using a present tense construction that indicates an ongoing activity of the Spirit.  This follows the first 11 chapters of that book which outlines the basic theological foundation that we are saved by grace through the finished work of Christ.  Our “response” to this is to my mind so much more than how much involvement we have in a weekly “service”.  In my mind Paul actually gives us in the remainder of Romans examples of what that might mean, including things like using our gifts in the church, honoring others above ourselves, being joyful, hopeful, prayerful, hospitable, spiritually zealous, humble, empathetic of others, not being vengeful, and especially love. 

Things like this are our liturgies, in my mind.  They are our responses to the revelation of God and his grace in our lives.  Our weekly “worship services” are just snap-shots, tiny fragments of lives devoted to the service of God.  I’m not so concerned with how or how much liturgy we have during a weekly gathering.  If we are to be true and sincere worshipers of God, we must respond to God with lives lived daily as our liturgy.