2.14.2008

Stasis-- A Follow-up To "Christian Porn"

Many today feel that "worship" must always be ecstatic-- thus they equate this with an emotionally transcendent experience-- essentially a passionate rush. Christians often live off of these quick fixes from Sunday to Sunday. Some are so addicted that they bounce from worship service to worship service throughout the week seeking to find a place to get one more hit from this sweet drug.

"Ecstatic" and "ecstasy" come from the words "ek" (out, outside of) and "stasis" (balance, motionless, inactivity). Ecstasy is an imbalance (do not immediately consider this as negative!), it is motion, and it is activity. Essentially, it is something beyond the norm.

In some ways, worship is always outside the normal parameters. When we enter into worship (not necessarily speaking about a corporate worship service) and give our bodies as a spiritual act of service/worship, this brings us into a spiritually formative space. As such, it is outside of the average Americans daily routine.

Nevertheless, I do think worship for the Christian person and faith community is to become stasis-- the normal state of existence. To follow some prayerful rhythm throughout my day, week, and year. Prayerbooks are beginning to become popular again. I have fallen in love with using one over the past couple of years. At first, they were something very ecstatic. Now, its getting closer to stasis-- a daily rhythm that is becoming my daily rhythm and balance.

The Psalms form the "meaty" section of most ancient and contemporary prayerbooks. Being exposed to it and the often ancient prayers that accompany these Psalms has changed the way I enter and consider prayer. It makes me think about my world differently, gives me an expanded imagination for my adoration and intercessions, and challenges me to consider myself and what I speak before God differently.

A great example of this is Psalm 10 where it starts, "Why do you stand so far off, O LORD?" and in then lists off all of the things the wicked are doing in the world. In verse 12 is a call out to God, "Rise up." It is not my normal way to incite God in such a way. However, the Psalm scripts me to do so. By going down this path, I'm able to reach the destination at the end of Psalm 10: "The Lord is Sovereign.... The Lord will hear the desire of the humble." Several things happen in such a prayer. 1) A realization that I need God to do something about the evil in the world. 2) A realization of what evil looks like (things I tend to overlook on a daily basis: persecution of the poor, covetous cursing, wicked arrogance, murdering of the innocent, ambushing in the public square, etc). 3) When I get upset and want to use violent means to end the wickedness I see, I must humble myself and seek the face of God. He is the only one who is sovereign. And he hears the cry of the humble rather than the sword of the warrior.

6 comments:

  1. Insightful again. I wondered what prayerbook you have been using.

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  2. Thanks for the complement! I use two primary prayerbooks: Sacred Space (from the Irish Jesuits) and the Book of Common Worship: Daily Prayer (PCUSA)

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  3. Thanks Justin. I just ordered them both - I'm interested in establishing some kind of daily prayer practice with a new community I'm establishing. Peace!

    And another one I've found helpful for myself is David Adam's The Rhythm of Life: Celtic Daily Prayer... four "mini-services" per day for each day of the week.

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  4. this question has been posed in my missional theology class: If God is a missionary God, i.e. a God who is in active mission to and for the world, should not our worship practices reflect this? Hopefully the answer to that one is, yes our worship of God should be reflective of God's nature. This leads to the second question what does it look like to worship a missionary God? I leave it at that for the moment...

    Also I think that shaping our prayer/worship by the strange and awesome texts of scripture is vital to our formation as a people who exist both to and for the world. I like the PC(USA) daily prayer book and I have toyed with scared spaces, as well. I also enjoy lectio divina and of the professors has also recommended the resources of the Company of Pastors, which makes use of the PC(USA) daily prayer book, the revised common lectionary and readings from our book of confessions.

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  5. Ben, I'm glad you mentioned David Adam's book. That little book is what got me started with prayerbooks in the first place. I would recommend it and Sacred Space (www.sacredspace.ie is the online version) to anyone wanting to begin using a prayerbook. Easy to use, very inspirational... something about that Celtic tradition really produces some great theology and liturgy. Also my friend Dave Dack created/combined his own daily prayer rhythm on his site: http://davedack.com/daily-prayer/

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  6. Eric, great call on the Company of Pastors... for all of you reading this, it is something you have to subscribe to through the PCUSA website: www.pcusa.org/pastorselders/

    Eric asks a very important question... how is worship to reflect our missional God? I think this gets at the heart of my last two posts. Worship often becomes about "me" rather than God. God is interested in "we." Maybe I will post on this in the next few days.

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