Liturgical Jottings

Rector’s Blog Sept. 11, 2021

Elijah and the cup

Early in the summer, I had an insight in the middle of the Eucharist at Christ Church in Lancaster, SC. Sometimes that happens. Mary Pat and I both have had the similar experience of the Holy Spirit speaking to us in the midst of our morning shower. It seemed especially significant that the insight came during the Eucharistic Prayer.

The insight was that blessing a chalice with wine at the Eucharist, along with the bread, and yet not consuming the wine, was very similar to another religious ritual with which I was fairly familiar. There are five cups of wine poured at a Passover meal, but the last one is not consumed. It stands alone at the table, unconsumed, an eloquent but silent symbol of the longing for Elijah to one day return, bringing with a time of complete redemption that is not yet fulfilled. It is called “Elijah’s cup.”

As we refrained from sharing in the common cup at Eucharists, out of caution for the possibility that the virus might be passed to others by that basic action, many have longed for a return to our former practice. Many have expected it sooner rather than later. That morning in Lancaster, I realized that we had before us a powerful symbol of “eschatological expectation.” The unconsumed chalice is a symbol of our longing for redemption which is already but not yet here.

Passover meal:

A Jewish Passover celebration has many characteristics in common with a Christian Eucharist. Chief among them is an “anamnesis” — literally a “reminiscence” or “memorial sacrifice”. In the Passover Seder meal one must relate the story of the Exodus, remembering God’s redemption of the people. Ancient teaching has claimed that when that redemption is remembered and retold, we in the present participate in the primordial story itself. The escape from slavery is made present.

In the Eucharist, we remember and tell the story of how Jesus took bread and wine and directed his disciples to “do this in memory of me.” As we do that, day by day, week by week, we participate in Jesus’ redemption, that primordial sacrifice.

It important that one of the most familiar lines in our Episcopal Eucharistic liturgies is, “Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.”

Passover and Eucharist are deeply linked.

Hope & expectation

The Eucharist, as a sacrament, connects memory and hope. The action we do reaches out into the future which God has prepared for us. It is not yet. But God’s promise has already been made. It is already but not yet.

It is a solemn event.

Prayer of the community

I began these reflections, because I wanted to share some observations and learnings I have had over the course of my ministry. I was ordained shortly after the most recent Book of Common Prayer had received it’s final approval. There had been a decade of trial liturgies and countless conversations, from parish to parish, across dioceses, and at National gatherings. A lot of thought went into the book and not a little compromise. Over the years I have often lamented the compromises in the revisions.Today I lament even more our present state across the land, where compromise seems to be a sign of weakness rather than a sign of the bond that unites us as a community, dedicated to the common good.

Difference in Rite 1 and Rite 2

The previous official Book of Common Prayer, from 1928, had looked and felt very much like the prayer book in England of 1662. The Episcopal church of the 1950’s looked very like the church of the 1920’s. Change has typically been slow in the church.

In the 1960’s that began to change. Change was beginning to speed up. There are a variety of ways to calibrate or graph the rate of change in the world around us, but most of us would agree that it is going quite fast today.

In the 1950’s and 60’s, Episcopalians knelt and stood, sat and bowed, in predictable ways. The prayers and actions reflected in the Book of Common Prayer were pretty much what they had been for a long time. With the revised prayer book that began to change.

It is especially visible in the separate rites, “Rite One” and “Rite Two”.

Baptism: Immersion as the “norm”

The rite of baptism introduces perhaps the greatest change of any in the current prayer book. There are many points to be made about it, but let me observe here just one fairly minor detail.

The new rite maintains that the “normative” form of baptism is by immersion. The preferred method of baptism would be in a body of water big enough to allow a person to be submerged in it.

That sounds totally “un-Episcopalian” to many. Why would I say such a thing? The answer is found in the rubrics.

One of my teachers, a person who was very much involved in the development of the 1979 BCP, taught us that when the rubrics give options, the order of the options is important. The first option is taken to be the “preferred” or normative option.

In the prayer book we read:

Each candidate is presented by name to the Celebrant, or to an assisting priest or deacon, who then immerses, or pours water upon, the candidate, saying

N., I baptize you in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Immersion is the preferred method, but sprinkling or pouring water is also acceptable.

Rubrics

One example will serve to illustrate my general observation here. I learned from my liturgy professors the importance of paying close attention. Small differences can signify large distinctions. In practice most of us don’t pay attention to the “rubrics”. It is sometimes important to do so.

Kneel or stand

The rubrics in both Rite 1 and 2 direct that at the beginning of the Eucharistic prayer that the people will stand. Then at the conclusion of the Sanctus, the people are directed to do something else.

In Rite 1 the people are directed to “kneel or stand”. In Rite 2 the people are directed to “stand or kneel.” Why the difference? It is because the men and women who were designing the new prayers, understood the Eucharist to be essentially a “celebration”, a “Great Thanksgiving”. In its origins, the prayers of Rite 1, going back centuries, understood Holy Communion to be essentially a sacrifice or recalling a sacrifice. The appropriate response of the people from that perspective was one of repentance.

Celebration or Repentance? These are both important religious actions and prayers. But they are not the same.

Small details

Rite 1 says “kneel or stand” and Rite 2 says “stand or kneel”. Two different rubrics indicate two different approaches to the prayer. Paying attention to small details allows us to see that. The order of the options is signficant. Rite 1 is understood to be penitential in nature. Rite 2 is understood to be celebratory in nature. The difference is reflected in the posture one takes in prayer.

Posture

One of the things I learned over the course of several years was the importance of posture in prayer. Kneeling is certainly not the only posture for prayer. And I learned that there is a long history of different kinds of posture associated with different kinds of prayer.

Kinds of prayer

We have suggested that the rubrics of our prayer book suggest at least 2 different kinds of prayer. The Bible itself reflects a greater variety of kinds of prayer.

Prayer in scripture

Sitting is classically a student posture. It is the way students arrange themselves in a classroom or a lecture hall. It is the way our religious assemblies are arranged for a good bit of our liturgies.

Standing might be associated with being at attention. It is a posture for receiving orders from a superior. This would have been the posture of Jesus’ disciples as he sent them out, 2 by 2, 70 or more.

Walking has a classical association with learning. Aristotle taught his students in walking around. Walking is a time when I often do my best thinking, receive significant insight. Walking can be a time of Revelation. It is a time of pilgrimage.

Bowing is a sign of obedience to a “Lord.” When God is experienced as a “Master” it is appropriate to take the posture of bowing before such a one. We bow before the Queen. How much more bow before the Almighty.

Hands raised is a sign of praise and gratitude. It indicates rejoicing in the occasion or the news. Hands raised is not just a posture of contemporary Christian communities. It is a very ancient religious posture, worthy of our use.

Kneeling is a sign of confession. It portrays remorse and a desire for conversion. It is a worthy posture of prayer, but not the only one.

To prostrate before another is to indicate complete submission to another. It is powerful to take such a posture before God.

Another liturgical principle

My teachers articulated a liturgical theory derived from the study of the historical development of the liturgy. It seems that those liturgies that are held to be most ancient and most solemn, tend to retain the most conservative and oldest characteristics.

Two ancient and solemn liturgies:

An illustration of the principle is found in two very ancient and solemn liturgies: Good Friday and Ordination. At these two liturgies the most conservative form of kneeling has been retained through the centuries. Both liturgies call for prostration on the part of the officiant. Utter submission to God. Powerful.

Conclusion

Let me conclude these jottings with this simple note. I take the liturgy that we share with great seriousness. I continually feel humbled at the solemn tasks we share.

The people’s work

Any study concerning the liturgy of the church will lead eventually to considering the etymology of the word. “liturgy” is from the Greek meaning “work of the people.”

The earliest application of that meaning in my experience served to emphasize that liturgy is not something that an “officiant” does. It is a community happening. It takes a village — as they say. It is what all of us do together, each of us with a part to play.

For me the clearest and most consistent presence that I experience as we worship together is the presence of God in the community gathered. God is present in the kaleidoscopic diversity of each one gathered, whether in person or virtually.

The work that we do together, the “liturgy”, is important. But it is clear that it is not the only work of the people. The Jesus movement in and around Monroe, NC, is involved with various kinds of work.

• daily prayer
• service to one another
• assistance to others in need
• making music
• making silence
• feeding the hungry
• lifting up the fallen
• accompanying the sick and the dying
• and more

It is a great and important work that we do here. Let us give God the glory.