Our Grand, Sacred Play

The 19th century Danish theologian, Soren Kierkegaard, said that worship is a play put on for an audience of one. The audience is God and each of us, gathered in the sacred space, plays a role for the pleasure and delight of this holy audience.

I hope you can learn, to mark and inwardly digest this simple metaphor because there is a deep temptation for us to think otherwise.

In our church most sit in seating that is similar to what we experience in a movie theater or a sports stadium. Because of this similarity, we may be tempted to go into passive-consumer mode. To switch metaphors a bit, because of how our bodies are positioned, we might think that we are on the bleachers and not on the playing field or even the sidelines.

But that's not at all the case. The essential role of every person in our church on any given Sunday was driven home to me these last two weeks. About two weeks ago our computer broke and so we were unable to provide printed Sunday bulletins; we had to either use the Book of Common Prayer or go by memory. My goodness, what a difference! To my ears, it was like everyone gathered was claiming the words for themselves. The congregational responses were strong, assured and sensitive to the meaning intended. It was like we had found our voice and were speaking our essential roles in our sacred play with conviction and ardor. It came as no surprise when many came out of church suggesting we don't need bulletins.

Well, maybe we don't. For now, we're saying goodbye to the extra paper and returning to the book. For those of us who have been worshipping in this tradition for a while, we might be even called to take the next step. Eventually, the actors in a play have to put down the script, speak the words with confidence and trust that they have made the words their own.

What about you? Are you ready to let go of the bulletin? Are you ready to claim these deep, ancient words as your own and, with your brothers and sisters at St. Paul's, offer them in praise of God, to the delight and joy of the One who made you?