The Beauty of Liturgy
There is something so special about praying the prayers other Christ-followers have uttered for hundreds of years. Allowing my heart to get caught up in the prayers saturated with theology ties me to the richness and goodness of what God has been doing in this world for centuries.
The things He does aren't always big. They doesn’t always change the face of the planet, but He calms my heart after I've been berated by life, gives me reminders that I am free to love the homeless couple living in their van, and awakens in me an awareness that the Lord has my heart in His hands.
The thing with Liturgy is this: it can be just a ritual or it can be sacred. If it is sacred, people will adopt orphans, feed the starving children in Africa, and even appreciate their bus drivers. If it is just ritual, people will kill in the name of Christ, live immature, hypocritical lives and drag Jesus’s good name and mine through the mud.
I remember when I first fell in love with liturgy. I was at Multnomah Bible College’s 2002 Liturgy Chapel and I realized what I was saying. I recognized that the words on the page were so ripe and rich, that it was like biting into a perfect peach and knowing that the juices would run down your wrist and then arm! I got so excited about what I was being led to pray that I started jumping up and down in chapel and was filled with joy! How I loved the depth of meaning, the fullness of thought behind what was held in my hands and I wondered how I had never seen the beauty in liturgical prayer before.
The things He does aren't always big. They doesn’t always change the face of the planet, but He calms my heart after I've been berated by life, gives me reminders that I am free to love the homeless couple living in their van, and awakens in me an awareness that the Lord has my heart in His hands.
The thing with Liturgy is this: it can be just a ritual or it can be sacred. If it is sacred, people will adopt orphans, feed the starving children in Africa, and even appreciate their bus drivers. If it is just ritual, people will kill in the name of Christ, live immature, hypocritical lives and drag Jesus’s good name and mine through the mud.
I remember when I first fell in love with liturgy. I was at Multnomah Bible College’s 2002 Liturgy Chapel and I realized what I was saying. I recognized that the words on the page were so ripe and rich, that it was like biting into a perfect peach and knowing that the juices would run down your wrist and then arm! I got so excited about what I was being led to pray that I started jumping up and down in chapel and was filled with joy! How I loved the depth of meaning, the fullness of thought behind what was held in my hands and I wondered how I had never seen the beauty in liturgical prayer before.
posted by MostHighsBeloved @ 5:09 PM
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