Worship

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship,
to the breaking of bread and the prayers. Acts 2:42 NRSV

Because we have been sharing space, thanks to the great kindness of our Kenwood Park UMC brothers and sisters, we have been assembling for one worship service on Sunday mornings. I have heard from a few people that, for them, our one service is either too traditional or it is too contemporary (yes, I have heard both!). Furthermore, the comments generally refer to the songs we sing or the style of the music.

Perhaps it would be helpful to share my approach to worship. This is part of the doctoral dissertation I am working on, so I have done quite a bit of research in this area. A big question for me is, How did the ancient church worship? “Walking backwards into the future,” means looking to the early church as we move forward in the twenty-first century.

About the middle of the second century, Justin Martyr wrote in his First Apology a description of the normal Sunday worship. It’s our earliest and best look at the worship practices of the ancient church. He wrote:

And on the day called Sunday there is a meeting in one place of those who live in cities or the country, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read as long as time permits. When the reader has finished, the president in a discourse urges and invites [us] to the imitation of these noble things. Then we all stand up together and offer prayers. And, as said before, when we have finished the prayer, bread is brought, and wine and water (Cyril Richardson, ed., Early Christian Fathers, p. 287).

The central act was reading scripture. The early church read scripture "as long as time permits." In fact for the first three centuries, Christian worship was comprised mainly of getting together, greeting those gathered, reading from the Old Testament scriptures, the New Testament letters, the Gospels (the “memoirs of the apostles”), and then hearing a sermon. As an aside, it’s interesting to note that after the sermon, anyone not yet baptized was dismissed. Then the congregation prayed together and shared in holy communion before dispersing. This was the ancient practice of worship.

What is missing? For the first three centuries, other than a psalm that might be sung between the scripture readings, there was very little singing. Singing first appeared when Christian worship became more elaborate in the fourth and fifth centuries. Even then, however, the singing often functioned to mask some action, such as moving into the sanctuary or getting the clergy to the altar-table.

Ironically, in the latter half of the twentieth century and now in the twenty-first century, there have been “worship wars” over the style of music used for singing. Some congregations and Christians have even come to consider singing equal to (or greater than!) the reading and preaching of scripture in worship. As we walk backwards into the future, what might the ancient church be saying to us?

Of course, we Methodists have always been “a singing people” and that is true of Salem too. The next time we gather for worship be sure to open the hymnal to page vii and read John Wesley’s directions for singing. Much of our Christian and United Methodist theology is contained in our hymns. One of the interesting issues for Salem, though, is that our United Methodist hymnal has only been used for a few years. I have learned that some of the classic Christian or Methodist hymns are relatively unknown. As the congregation learns some of those songs, I need to learn some of the songs that have been a part of Salem’s worship for decades.

We will sing in our worship. Music and singing can be a wonderful part of worship. 500 years ago, the reformer, Martin Luther, said of worship “that nothing else be done in it than that our dear Lord Himself talk to us though His holy Word and that we, in turn, talk to Him in prayer and song of praise.” We will sing many hymns from centuries past. We will also sing songs from modern writers. We will sing both ancient and modern songs whether we have one gathering for worship or more than one with the hymns and songs accompanied instrumentally in different styles.

Regarding musical styles, we all have our own preferences and musical “tastes.” But worship is not about us. It is about God. In baptism we are dead, buried, and out of the way. My desires or preferences are not important.

The singing as well as the style of the music are not the heart of worship. Rather, we gather together, we greet one another in the name of the Lord Jesus, we read scripture in order to align our lives to God’s narrative (preaching), we pray together, and we receive Holy Communion. Then we are sent back out into the world to live as the people of God. In worship we are responding to God who has acted to give his life to us and to bring us to partake in God’s life.