A Letter from Dr. Sean Lucas February 2, 2017

February 2, 2017 My Dear Friends: I love the bit from C. S. Lewis when he compares liturgy to a dance. In his Letters to Malcolm, Lewis notes that some Anglican vicars were keen to monkey around with the worship service by “incessant brightenings, lightenings, lengthenings” and so forth. They thought that innovation was the way to keep worshipers interested. Lewis observed that really a worship service isn’t meant for entertainment, but for enactment—we are enacting the worship and service of God every Sunday.

And in order to enact the service, it is most helpful to have a structure that remains constant from week to week. Such a liturgy “enables us to [worship] best….when, through long familiarity, we don’t have to think about it. As long as you notice, and have to count, the steps, you are not yet dancing, but only learning to dance....The perfect worship service would be one we were almost unaware of; our attention would have been on God.” The goal is instead of thinking about worshiping, we actually worship.

I very much believe this. But the reason why I want to bring this all up is that this Sunday morning, we will have a new dance step: we have added a pastoral prayer into the service. As your pastor, I think it is important that you hear me pray for you each week and for us to pray together about the most pressing things in our congregation’s life together. I believe that God works best through the means of grace— Word, sacrament, and prayer—but when we don’t intercede for each other in our worship services, then we are laying down the most powerful weapon that God has given us (Eph 6:18).

The other thing you’ll notice is that a couple of dance steps have moved locations in the service. Like in a complicated dance, sometimes we have to spin our partners in one place, but when you change the dance slightly, you spin your partner in another, so it is the same here. When you look at the order of service on Sunday, you’ll notice that. After a few weeks, I think this will become second nature to us all and we will be able to worship without thinking about what’s next in the service.

Because that is my great desire for us—that we become and continue to be whole-hearted, passionate lovers of God, a love that comes to expression in our corporate worship together and that will be evidenced in our transformed lives as we seek justice and reconciliation in our relationships. That’s why we keep talking about new people for a new Memphis—it is God’s mission for us and it is fueled by our Lord’s Day worship. Can’t wait for this Sunday!

In the grip of God’s grace,