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Sermon for Trinity Sunday June 6, 2004 St. Luke’s Church, Jamestown, NY
Today we are celebrating the Book of Common Prayer, which was established on the Feast of Pentecost in June of 1549. At that moment, the Church of England was born, a church based not on a particular doctrine, but on a way of worshiping, specifically a book of common prayer. From that day to this, Anglicans have been defined not by what they believe, but by how they worship. We are truly a people of the book, and that book passed down to us through many revisions, is both our greatest strength and, at times, our greatest challenge. Let me walk you through three turning points in history and then end with some thoughts about worship today. Great Moments in Liturgical History Scene One 1549: First Prayer Book written by Archbishop Cranmer and imposed on English public by the Act of Uniformity. Basically translated and simplified Latin Roman Catholic worship for the new English Church. Lasted only three years until a more radical Protestant book was imposed in 1552. Then a compromise book, combining parts of both books was issued by Queen Elizabeth in 1559. It was finally revised in 1662 and that book remains the official Prayer Book for the Church of England. Radical change from Latin to modern conversational English—the language people understood. THE principle for prayer books ever since. Bringing the tradition of the past into the present in a way that could be understood by everyone. Scene Two 1789: A new Prayer Book for a new country. Still Anglicans but separated from England by Revolution. Prayer book shaped by two forces—creation of a new Episcopal Church cut off from the Mother Church of England, and influence of the Scottish Church, which had consecrated the first American bishop, Samuel Seabury. Challenge was to take the tradition of the English Prayer Book and adapt it to a new society, a new time. This meant elimination of prayers for royal family and clergy oaths to the monarch, among other things. Scene Three 1979: Most of the changes after 1789 were minor. 1928 book not much different from 1789 and 1892 books. But all that changed in 1976 when a new book was proposed, the most dramatic change in prayer book history since 1549. Elizabethan language was kept in Rite I, but Rite II was put in modern conversational English. Back to the principles of the 1549 book. Taking the tradition of the past and bringing it into the present in a more understandable form. There is no doubt that Elizabethan language is lovelier and more elegant than the language of today. But that is not the point. Elizabethan language made sense in an Elizabethan setting. But, increasingly, it was growing harder and harder for people to understand and relate to it in the current day. The new prayer book also went further back into history and gave us Eucharistic Prayers modeled on prayers from the early church. All three prayer books were responses to the same challenge: How do we balance our tradition with innovation? How do we preserve our links to the past while staying relevant in the present? This is a balancing act the church will always face. Today we are having some fun with worship. At 8 am we are using prayers taken right out of the 1549 Book of Common Prayer. At 10 am we are using Rite II, with contemporary music led by the diocesan youth choir. They are very different worship experiences. I wish you all had the privilege I have today of experiencing both back to back. But what I want to say clearly is that both are thoroughly Episcopal, thoroughly Anglican services. Both are rooted in the tradition and both are relevant to their day. Both are attempts to find the right balance in worship. I shared with some folks recently that I don’t like change. But then, I have rarely met anyone who really does like change. We are deeply imprinted with ways of living and thinking, usually in childhood. Then we spend the rest of our lives yearning nostalgically for “the good old days.” In 1979 after the current prayer book was adopted, a group started the 1928 Prayer Book Society, dedicated to bringing back the old prayer book. Soon you and I can start the 1979 Prayer Book Society. That is human nature. But we must always beware of misplaced loyalty. We must always remember what worship is for. Because we are human beings who are programmed to dislike change, we often mistake the trivial stuff for the important stuff. I have thoroughly enjoyed our special music Sundays. I have loved singing through the church’s history from Gregorian Chant in January to contemporary music today. But I want to let you in on a little secret. God doesn’t actually care what style of music we sing. God likes it all, especially when we sing with our hearts and minds fully engaged and focused on him. God also doesn’t care whether we offer our prayers in Elizabethan English or modern English or Spanish or even Ebonics, as long as our hearts and minds are fully engaged and focused on him. God doesn’t care if we stand or kneel during the Eucharistic prayer, or if we dress up or dress down. All of these things are human creations, human traditions, human customs. And all of them are fine and good. We need our traditions and our customs. We need to know what to expect when we come to church. As Anglicans, we demand that our worship be orderly and beautiful, full of symbol and ritual. But that is not enough. Our worship must also be accessible to everyone, even those who didn’t grow up with the 1928 Book of Common Prayer—young parishioners, new parishioners, visitors and those from other denominations. At St. Luke’s we will always be people of the book, our beloved prayer book. You will not hear prayers here which start like this, “Lord, I just really really want to tell you…” Like it or not, we will always tend to emphasize formal dignified worship, but we must always strive to balance that tradition with an openness to new ideas and new forms which speak to new people and new generations. Let me close with a few of my personal thoughts about worship: 1) Solemnity is good, but I hunger for worship that is consistently joyful, even playful at times. I shocked one of our members once when I suggested that when we come back from the communion rail we ought to be so fired up that we high five the choir on the way back to our pew. When we come to church we hear Good News, we experience the power of the resurrection, we meet the living God. So why do we look so glum? 2) On the other hand, worship is also not entertainment. Yes, the words are largely the same week after week. If you think that’s boring, too bad. Worshiping God is not like going to see Shrek 2 or playing a Nintendo. You are not the audience here, you are the participants. The service is not designed to entertain you, it’s designed to bring you into the presence of God. And that often takes repetition and silence. 3) Speaking of silence, I am tired of people telling me they don’t or can’t or won’t sing. Sure, we sometimes schedule some unsingable hymns, but often that is a cop out, plain and simple. The Bible says “Make a joyful noise unto the Lord;” it doesn’t matter if you think you can sing or not, nor does it matter what your neighbor thinks in the next pew. 4) Worship is something we can only do together. Sure, you can pray at home or on the lake or on the golf course, but worship is Common Prayer. That means we do it in common, together. When you are not here, the rest of us suffer. Our worship is less than it ought to be. Our community is weakened. There are some very good reasons for staying home on Sunday morning, but there are more bad reasons. We need each other. At St. Luke’s we are blessed with beautiful worship in a beautiful setting. We are blessed to be part of a denomination which values tradition and yet which is open to change. We are the inheritors of a Prayer Book tradition which began in 1549 and has roots which stretch back to the Jewish temple. May we do our part in our own day to preserve the tradition we have been given and to bring it forward into our own day, responding to the needs and concerns of our community and the world. Amen. |
410 North Main Street, Jamestown, New York 14701Phone (716)483-6405 * Fax (716)483-6406 * stluke@madbbs.com |
