Spontaneous Ritual

I recently received a link to this video

It is a great satire of a contemporary trend in Christian worship. It is a fairly honest critique at a style of worship that often describes itself as free of old church liturgy, led by the Holy Spirit, and removed from any ritual or formula. It is good to watch and laugh with a bit of smug satisfaction.

The same video could be made of more “classical” services – except we know that we are ridged and formulaic. It could also be made of my prayers, or of my sermons. We are creatures of habit. I remember in a worship class I took the professor stated that we tend to create our own liturgy and stick to it even when we don’t want to. This was why he felt a pre-written liturgy, prayers and all, is good. At least then we know some thought went into the worship service. I wonder if he is right.

On the other hand there needs to be room for spontaneity and the movement of the Spirit in worship. Last Sunday, during worship, a woman had a medical “incident” in the service and had to be carried out of the sanctuary. The flow of the service was not interrupted and we could have carried as if nothing happened. Yet something happened and I felt it was important to take a risk and break out of the norm. We prayed in a place where a prayer was not prescribed. It was a prayer that was very aware of the presence of the Holy Spirit.

We are creatures of habit. We will find ourselves doing the same things again and again, yet we need to always be open to the calling and the movement of the Holy Spirit. This says the young, hip guy with a printed tee-shirt, hip glasses, and tattoos.