The document discusses rethinking various aspects of liturgy, including historical, doctrinal, spiritual, missional, and ecclesial elements. It examines how liturgies can either foster hostility or inspire kindness. Specific rituals like baptism and communion are analyzed, considering how their meaning and practice could be reformulated. The goal is to transform liturgies of hostility into liturgies of harmony, new identity, and peacemaking.

1. rethinking liturgy

2. Historical
Doctrinal
Spiritual
Missional
Ecclesial
Liturgical
rethinking
the whole
system

3. Historical
Doctrinal
Spiritual
Missional
Ecclesial
Liturgical
rethinking
the whole
system

4. 4
public worship: a gathering for
liturgy
• liturgy: an orderly succession of public rituals
• rituals: actions involving the body by which
people bond to meaning
• ritualism: repeating the actions without
meaning
4

5. Liturgy:
the “workout” of the
people -
rituals and practices
for formation

6. Question:
How do we induct or initiate
people into our public worship
- so they know the meaning
we want them to bond to?

7. Are there unintended
“malformations” happening?
-Revelation sermon
-“Give us the lost” & “the nations” songs
-Warfare language, cliches
-Emotional manipulation/hype
-Emotional strangulation
-Racial/Cultural/age exclusion
-Body acknowledgement
-Intellectual or political messages

8. Six marks (Bryan Sirchio):
-Vertical and horizontal
-Individual and community
-Progressive theology
-Inclusive language
-Emotional authenticity
-Fresh images, ideas, language

9. Six dynamic tensions:
-Charismatic and contemplative
-Regularity and intensity
-Familiarity and surprise
-Ancient and Future
-Planned and spontaneous
-Word and image

10. there are liturgies that foment
hostility and reinforce hostility...

11. can we imagine liturgies that
inspire kindness?

13. From Follow the Sacredness, by Jonathan Haidt
http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/17/forget-the-money-follow-the-sacredness/
Despite what you might have learned in
Economics 101, people aren’t always
selfish. In politics, they’re more often
groupish. When people feel that a group
they value — be it racial, religious, regional
or ideological — is under attack, they rally
to its defense, even at some cost to
themselves. We evolved to be tribal, and
politics is a competition among coalitions
of tribes.

14. ... The key to understanding tribal behavior is not money,
it’s sacredness. The great trick that humans developed at
some point in the last few hundred thousand years is the
ability to circle around a tree, rock, ancestor, flag, book or
god, and then treat that thing as sacred.
People who worship the same idol can trust one another,
work as a team and prevail over less cohesive groups. So if
you want to understand politics, and especially our
divisive culture wars, you must follow the sacredness.

15. The very act of gathering for worship
can be “groupish” ritual
of affirming
“us-ness”
versus
“them-ness.”

16. The Songs We Sing

17. All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful:
The Lord God made them all.
- Ms. Cecil Alexander (1848)

18. Each little flower that opens,/ Each little bird that sings,/
He made their glowing colors./ He made their tiny wings.
The purple headed mountains,/ The river running by,/ The
sunset and the morning/ That brightens up the sky.
The cold wind in the winter,/ The pleasant summer sun,/
The ripe fruits in the garden,/ He made them every one.
The tall trees in the greenwood,/The meadows where we
play,/ The rushes by the water,/ To gather every day.
He gave us eyes to see them,/ And lips that we might tell/
How great is God Almighty,/ Who has made all things
well.
All things bright and beautiful,/ All creatures great and
small,/ All things wise and wonderful:/ The Lord God
made them all.

19. The rich man in his castle,
The poor man at his gate,
He made them, high or lowly,
And ordered their estate.
All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful:
The Lord God made them all.

20. Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to
war,
With the cross of Jesus going on before.
Christ, the royal master, leads against the
foe;
Forward into battle see his banners go!
-Sabine Baring-Gould

21. France, 1847
Placide Clappeau, a French wine merchant,
mayor of the French town Roquemaure,
writes a poem.
Adolphe Adam sets it to music.
Later the song is translated into English by John
S. Dwight –
It is said to have been the first music ever
broadcast over radio.

22. O holy night, the stars are brightly shining;
It is the night of the dear Savior’s birth!
Long lay the world in sin and error pining,
Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth.
A thrill of hope, the weary soul rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.
Fall on your knees, O hear the angel voices!
O night divine, O night when Christ was born!
O night, O holy night, O night divine!

23. Truly He taught us to love one another;
His law is love and His Gospel is peace.
Chains shall He break for the slave is our brother
And in His Name all oppression shall cease.
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,
Let all within us praise His holy Name!
Christ is the Lord! O praise His name forever!
His pow’r and glory evermore proclaim!
His pow’r and glory evermore proclaim!
1847

24. 1. Onward, all disciples, in the path of peace,
Just as Jesus taught us, love your enemies
Walk on in the Spirit, seek God’s kingdom first,
Let God’s peace and justice be your hunger and your
thirst!
Onward, all disciples, in humility
Walk with God, do justice, love wholeheartedly
2. We now face our failures in remorse and tears.
We must now build plowshares from our swords and
spears, Turn from the broad highway of prejudice and
war
To follow Jesus to a place we’ve never been before
Onward, all disciples, in humility
Walk with God, do justice, love wholeheartedly

25. 3. Like a mighty river, justice, flowing free,
Makes our deserts blossom in peace, joy, and beauty,
Peace is life’s great treasure, harmony our dream.
May justice flow like rivers and an ever flowing stream!
Onward, all disciples, in humility
Walk with God, do justice, love wholeheartedly
4. Onward then, all people, reach out open hands,
Walk together now, so each child understands
That the greatest power here or up above
Is the strength of service and the gentle might of love.
Onward, all disciples, in humility
Walk with God, do justice, love wholeheartedly

26. The Sermons We Preach

27. The Sermons We Preach
- Who is scapegoated/condemned?
- What virtues are aspired to?
- What vices are condemned?
- What Scriptures are emphasized?
- What subjects are avoided?
And vice versa?

28. The Rituals We Practice

29. Baptism: A ritual of cleansing

30. Clean - unclean
Acceptance - revulsion
Us - them
Clean, still water
Certified Gatekeepers

31. Meanwhile in the
wilderness:
The Essenes
- Hyper-clearn
-Hyper-puritan
- Isolated communes
- Multiple daily baptisms

32. What would it mean for John ...
- to leave his father’s priestly work
- to leave the Temple
- to leave Jerusalem
- to avoid the Essenes
- and to baptize ...

33. in the Jordan River?
- in public
- in running water
- in an “undeveloped”
setting
- with a message, not of
cleanliness, but ...

34. rethinking, reformulation, repentance?

35. What does it mean for
Jesus to accept John’s
baptism?

36. What would it
mean for the
Spirit in the form
of a dove to
descend upon
Jesus?

37. And what would it mean
for Jesus’ disciples to
expand John’s “guerrilla
theatre” around the
world?

38. Baptism - not into a
new “hyper-clean”
religion - but into
Christ, a new
humanity, a new
kingdom, a new way
of life?

39. Peter, Acts 10:
“God has shown me I
should never call
anyone impure or
unclean.”
“I now realize ... God
does not show
favoritism.”

40. Baptism into this new way of being human ...
Born again ...
Given a new identity ...
In the flowing river ...
In solidarity with everyone everywhere.

41. In Christ ...
neither Jew nor Greek ...
male nor female ...
slave nor free ...

42. In Christ ...
neither Jew nor Greek ...
male nor female ...
slave nor free ...
Christian nor nonChristian?
Us or them?

44. The Eucharist

45. Altar of Sacrifice ... to
appease a hostile God?
or
Table of Fellowship ... to
celebrate a reconciling God?

46. A table of elitism and exclusion ...
or a feast of grace and reconciliation?

47. In John’s gospel:
Bread as manna ... God’s self-giving
Food, not sacrifice

48. For Paul ...
Eucharist as passover ... not day of
atonement.
Meal of liberation ...
Meal of anticipation ...

49. We don’t need to offer a sacred gift to
appease a hostile God ...
Rather, a gracious God offers a sacred
gift of love to us ...
so that we will be reconciled to God
and to one another.

50. Meal of unity ...
Meal of solidarity ...
Meal of one-anotherness

52. how will our liturgies of
hostility be transformed
...

53. into liturgies of harmony?
new identity?
peace-making?

54. Historical
Doctrinal
Spiritual
Missional
Ecclesial
Liturgical
rethinking
the whole
system

55. 55

56. A
Are

57. you

58. ready

59. to

60. cross

61. the

62. road?

63. 2 conversations...

64. free stuff ...

65. 65

68. Christ has no body here but
ours.
No hands, no feet here on
earth but ours.
Ours are the eyes through
which he looks
On this world with kindness.

69. Ours are the hands through
which he works.
Ours are the feet on which he
moves.
Ours are the voices through
which he speaks
To this world with kindness.

70. Through our smile, our touch,
our listening ear,
Embodied in us,
Jesus is living here.

71. So let us go now
Filled with the Spirit
Into this world
With kindness.

72. Christ has no body here but
ours.
No hands, no feet here on
earth but ours.
Ours are the eyes through
which he looks
On this world with kindness.

73. Ours are the hands through
which he works.
Ours are the feet on which he
moves.
Ours are the voices through
which he speaks
To this world with kindness.

74. Through our smile, our touch,
our listening ear,
Embodied in us,
Jesus is living here.

75. So let us go now
Filled with the Spirit
Into this world
With kindness.