Larson, Rebecca S. Voigts

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Worship: discovering how to be Christ\u27s church in the world

Wilfrid Laurier University

ConsensusVolume 18Issue 1 Issues in Church Life Article 75-1-1992Worship: discovering how to be Christ's church inthe worldRebecca S. Voigts LarsonFollow this and additional works at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensusThis Studies and Observations is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion inConsensus by an authorized editor of Scholars Commons @ Laurier. For more information, please contact scholarscommons@wlu.ca.Recommended CitationLarson, Rebecca S. Voigts (1992) "Worship: discovering how to be Christ's church in the world," Consensus: Vol. 18 : Iss. 1 , Article 7.Available at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensus/vol18/iss1/7Worship: Discovering How to beChrist’s Church in the WorldRebecca S. Voigts LarsonDevelopment Education and TrainingWorld Council of Churches, Geneva[This is an abbreviated form of an address given to the Conven-tion of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, 9-1f July1991, Edmonton, Alberta. The title has been added as appro-priate to the appearance of the address in published form.— TheEditor)When the World Council of Churches (WCC) held its sixthassembly in Vancouver in 1983, many of you were a part ofthe preparations; others arranged your holidays that summerin order to attend. Those who couldn’t, watched the assemblyproceedings on CBC as the work of churches throughout theworld was broadcast in an unprecedented way across Canada.My own involvement in that assembly began with the clos-ing worship of the convention of what was then the WesternCanada Synod. The preacher was Bill Lazareth, and I can re-member him looking out upon an expanse of Lutheran facesand preparing us for the WCC assembly. He told us to beprepared to swim out of our quiet Lutheran lake into the surg-ing waters of the ecumenical ocean. As a staff member of theWorld Council of Churches, I have now been swimming aroundin that ecumenical ocean for some years.It is a very great privilege to have been invited to speakto you this morning. I would like to use this time to say twothings; First, to encourage this church, my church, to be boldand imaginative in your witness to the world, and to under-stand that you are part of a family of baptized people whichstretches beyond Lutherans and around the globe. Secondly, I92 Consensuswant to affirm the work and gifts of the Evangelical LutheranChurch in Canada (ELCIC) and to applaud and encourage andthank you.In addressing these two points, encouraging you to be boldand imaginative in your witness to the world, and in affirmingyour work here at home, I would like to speak to you aboutworship, and to invite you to discover the meaning of ecumeni-cal worship as it is experienced within the World Council ofChurches.At the seventh WCC assembly held in Canberra, Australialast February, I was privileged to be part of the staff teamresponsible for worship.Organizing worship in a WCC assembly is a bit of atrick, when you consider that you will be planning for 311member churches and 21 confessional groups, including Ger-man Lutherans, Chilean Pentecostals, Cuban Methodists,Ethiopian Copts, Ugandan Anglicans, Russian Orthodox, andCanadian Lutherans. Before you start, you know that you willneed to work in at least the five official languages of the WCC—English, French, German, Spanish, and Russian. You realizethat you begin with no common music, no common liturgyand no common culture. In addition, you can expect that peo-ple will arrive every morning at the worship tent lugging theirvastly different regional, economic, and gender perspectives,as well as their personal concerns, and their concerns for theircountry and their church.How does one plan for worship with such a diverse inter-national and ecumenical congregation? Part of the answer tothis question was given to me by my daughter Sarah when sheturned four.On the day that she turned four, Sarah had a birthdayparty. It will often happen that a four year old will want toinvite big friends, as well as, or instead of, little friends to abirthday party. And this was the case for Sarah. When herguests arrived, mostly big friends, she ran to greet them, andwhen she did each one bent down to her and asked the samequestion: “Well, Sarah, what is it like to be four?”And to each one she offered the same curious response: “I’mnot four ... I’m three.”It was a wonderful party. We played games; laughed to-gether; told stories about Sarah and when she was born andWorship 93what she was like when she was little and how she had grownin wisdom and stature. Gifts were brought, opened, exclaimedover. Then there was a point when things got quiet. Sarahgrew restless, and kept looking towards the door. Just whenshe thought she couldn’t wait any longer, her mother appearedcarrying a cake. Oh it was beautiful! It had two layers, withbright pink icing; her name was written on the top and fourcandles burned brightly.Sarah’s eyes were wide as her mother put the cake on a lowtable where she was seated. Around her the song swelled; notjust any song, but a special song—“Happy birthday to you.Happy birthday to you Sarah closed her eyes tight, took adeep breath, made a wish and blew out the candles.It was then—only then—that she looked up and announcedto all who were gathered around her: “There, now I’m four!”Oh, what a minglement of meaning one gaudy pink cakeand four flickering candles were able to carry in the mind andheart of this small child! It was not just the days and weeksof expectation and longing, although that was part of it; itwas not just being surrounded by those she loved, althoughthat was it as well. All that Sarah knew about family and loveand friends and growing up and turning four; all that she knewabout the past and the future was baked into a cake and servedto her on a plate by her mother.Sarah needed help in turning four. In the same way, we asan ecumenical family, and we here in the ELCIC, need help indiscovering how to be Christ’s church within the world. Wor-ship is one place which invites this discovery.What happens in ecumenical worship is what happened forSarah, and, as you may realize, is also what happens in yourcongregation every Sunday: the family is gathered, stories offaith and faithfulness are told, gifts are offered, candles are lit,songs are sung and food is served. All that you know aboutfamily and friends, death and life, sin and forgiveness, despairand hope; all that you know about the past and the future isblessed and broken and given to you.We could use this time to reflect in some detail on whathappens in worship in your congregation. Who gathers at thetable? What are the issues that they bring? What needs to beforgiven, redeemed, infused with new life?94 ConsensusOr, together we could reflect upon what it means for usand the work and witness of this church that we worship atthis convention. What does it mean to worship together whenwe have disagreed over sacramental practices? When we havebattled over abortion?Or, we could raise the question for the World Council ofChurches. What happens when this international, interconfes-sional, intercultural family of baptized Christians gathers forworship?First of all, despite the many points of disunity within thebody of Christ, worship is the place where we attempt a fore-taste of the unity which we seek. Within the World Council ofChurches, this question of unity is a troubling one, for the pres-sures to move apart from one another are tremendous. Just asSarah needed help turning four, we in the ecumenical move-ment need help in staying together. Worship helps us to dothat.One could say that in the ecumenical family we don’t agreeon much. In the early days, the divisions within the ecu-menical movement tended to be primarily along confessionallines. A great deal of work which is now contained in whatis called the BEM document on baptism, eucharist and theministry has successfully addressed many of these divisions.Now, other divisions are foremost—those between rich andpoor, gender issues, gospel and culture, how we understandGod and the Bible, the ordination of women. Always, thereis a great danger of internal self-destruction because of sec-toral/political/ethnocentric agenda masquerading in theologi-cal clothing.As one member of the Canadian ecumenical work has ex-pressed it, “We bite our tongues constantly to keep fromcoming into conflict with one another, because we believe sostrongly in the importance of what we are doing together thatwe will not abandon each other. We intend to stay together!”And so it is that we as an ecumenical family dare to gatherin one worship tent to say the words “I believe in God theFather Almighty The WCC must ask—we in the ELCICmust ask—how do we balance the creative tension between thewhole and the part within the body of Christ? How do we findunity within the diversity that sometimes threatens to drive usapart?Worship 95Secondly, it is in worship that the wounds of the world arelifted before God. And yet, how do we move beyond languages,cultures and traditions which divide to discover symbols whichbear the stories of God’s faithful action for all of God’s people,and which evoke the mission and witness of the church?I would like to describe to you, from the experience of ec-umenical worship, four issues which are central to the life andwork of the council, and which are also a part of the missionof the ELCIC.Aboriginal PeopleHow do we discover symbols which will bear the meaningof the struggle of many churches, including our own, to walkawhile with aboriginal people?Perhaps the most deeply moving and politically laden eventat the Canberra assembly took place in the opening worshipservice. A single individual, a young man, entered the worshiptent, carrying in his hand a message stick. It had been given tohim by Emilio Castro on behalf of the member churches of theWCC. The message which the runner bore was a request: thechurches were asking permission to enter the land on which theaboriginal people of what is now called Australia have lived forover 40,000 years.The worship leaders waited outside while the runner carriedthe stick to the aboriginal elders gathered at the front of thetent. He handed it to Matilda House-Williams, who is thetraditional owner of the land on which the assembly was tobe held. With great solemnity she put the stick on her head,signifying the importance of the message which it bore. Sheconferred with the other elders. Together they agreed, andgave permission for the WCC to enter the land.For the duration of the assembly, the message stick restedon the altar. It was made of wood, with intricate carvings, butsimple in appearance nonetheless. However, the issues whichMatilda House-Williams laid before God and before the assem-bly when she placed the message stick upon the altar were notsimple. These are issues which have grown out of five centuriesof systematic economic, cultural and social destruction of abo-riginal peoples in all parts of the world. We in Canada knowthem well.96 ConsensusIt is remarkable, given the history and experience of aborig-inal people, that their response to the request of the churchesto enter their land was one of gracious hospitality. The elders,standing at the altar, looked to the entrance of the tent, andmotioning with open hands, pronounced the words of invita-tion: ‘‘COME!”Ecumenical Decade in Solidarity with WomenHow do we discover symbols which will bear the meaningof the wounds of women and of the commitment of churchesaround the world, including our church, to the EcumenicalDecade in Solidarity with Women?One of the most moving worship experiences which I haveever had took place during a recent meeting of the CentralCommittee, which is the governing body of the WCC. The wor-ship was built around the text from Hebrews 11 which describesthe cloud of faithful witnesses which have gone before us andwhich inspire our commitment to run the race that is ours inthis time and place. There was a time during the worship when Ipeople were asked to be silent, and bring to mind the names of 'those people who have inspired them in their faith. Who had 'modeled the faith for them? Whose lives had reflected what|it means to be a faithful follower of Christ? Whose witness .had brought their own faith alive? Then, people were asked to ileave their seats and to write the names of those persons onjpapers which had been placed around the walls of the room. iLater, I took time to walk amongst this cloud of witnesses,]and to read the names written there. And what I saw was 1amazing; although not so amazing once you think about it. IWith all due respect to the many sermons carefully wrought by Igenerations of pastors, including myself, what I saw, in writingjand printing, in careful script and in scrawl, were these words,jover and over: my mother; my grandmother; my mother; myjSunday school teacher; my mother. The cloud of witnesses|surrounding this worship, and framing the faith of this CentralCommittee was nothing less than two thousand years of womenin solidarity with the church—sitting at bedsides singing hymnsand praying with children crying from bad dreams or empty |stomachs; two thousand years of women holding on to their |faith through indescribable violence and abuse; 2000 years ofWorship 97children watching their mothers and their grandmothers, andlearning from them.Justice, Peace and the Integrity of CreationHow do we discover symbols which will bear the meaning ofthe yearning of the world for justice, peace, and the integrityof creation?Before I left Geneva, I spoke with a colleague who had justreturned from a visit to churches in the Sudan. I asked herabout her trip, and her response was “Oh Becki, it is beyondmisery. Beyond misery.”How are we as the church to respond to the many situa-tions around the globe which cry out to us? How are we tounderstand the complexity of issues relating to justice, peaceand creation?We do respond, and as Canadians, and as this church werespond generously. I plead with you, however, not to give into what is called compassion fatigue. I encourage you to con-tinue your high commitment to the humanitarian work that isdone through the churches. The work of Canadian LutheranWorld Relief, which is done in cooperation with other Luther-ans from around the world through the Lutheran World Fed-eration, continues to face enormous challenges and needs yourgenerous and consistent support.As your convention reports will tell you, our church alsoworks ecumenically to address the root causes of injustice. Par-ticularly, we work through the interchurch coalitions which arethe envy of many groups and churches throughout the world.You need to know how important the work of these Cana-dian coalitions is to the international task of addressing issuesof hunger, economic justice, refugees and human rights. Youneed to know how much the international community relies onthese coalitions as a research and networking base, and howmuch people and churches in the south value this work.How do we find ways to bear the meaning of this work inworship? At the Canberra assembly, which took place duringvery critical days of the Gulf War, an all night peace vigil washeld. Church people from all over the world came togetherto sing and pray—people whose countries were a part of theUN- supported forces; people from the mid-east; Palestinians.98 ConsensusJust before dawn, the participants from the United States wereleading the vigil. They were suffering, literally, about what thiswar meant and the role of their country. Even as the oil fieldswere burning, they began to speak about oil, and the politi-cal and economic role of oil within this military confrontation.The issues of justice, of war and peace, and of the violationof the creation were tangible. And then, within the contextof worship, they offered oil in the Old Testament, mideasterntradition of anointing, and of healing. Tears streaming downfaces, people offered oil to one another, in a mutual anoint-ing. And as the lines moved slowly forward to the altar in theearly light of a Sunday dawn, the song that was^sung was this:“There is a balm in Gilead, that makes the wounded whole;there is a balm in Gilead, to cure the sinsick soul.”The Search for UnityHow do we discover symbols which will bear the pain of theongoing search for unity within the body of Christ?One way, which is not easy to discuss, but which cannot beleft out, are those eucharistic elements which more powerfullythan any other symbols bear meaning for us. Within the ec-umenical movement, bread and wine are painful symbols, forwe still set up barriers for one another around the table ofthe Lord. And yet, bread and wine still call us to be fed inall of our hungers, including and especially our hunger to beone. Therefore, even as we gather in worship to express ourunity, we are painfully aware within the church that at thismost intimate point of our life together we are still divided.Worship helps us to become the church in mission in theworld, addressing issues of aboriginal people, women, justice,peace and the integrity of creation, and the search for unity.That is way, in ecumenical worship, we are bold to pray “thykingdom come”. It is in the Lord’s prayer, spoken simultane-ously in many languages, that the ecumenical family in all ofits diversity and unity comes together. Joyce Christensen hasdescribed the experience of many who have shared this way ofpraying as a “Pentecost event”. And that it is, as together inmany voices, in different dress, from churches who otherwisedon’t agree on much, we dare to ask that the signs of the king-dom for which we all yearn, be made present here and now.Worship 99It is our prayer, too, in the Evangelical Lutheran Church inCanada.We need help to be the church, to be faithful, in Canadaand throughout the world. Worship and liturgy help us todo that. And for me, as for so many others, when I movebeyond my Canadian Lutheran family to gather within a globalcommunity, my ecumenical horizons vastly expanded, I havesomething of the experience of Sarah at her birthday party.I discover that worship engages me in a new way, and I amoverwhelmed, take a deep breath, and exclaim, “Ah, so that iswhat it means to be Lutheran!”

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Worship: discovering how to be Christ\u27s church in the world

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