My favorite martial art is Aikido. It is very subtle yet powerful. The art consists of a series of joint locks and throwing techniques that rely on proper balance and movement in conjunction with precise timing. It takes a very long time to become proficient at it. Years longer than other martial arts. Practice consists of repeating the basic movements over and over, until they become second nature, then putting the various movements together in sequence and trying to time it just right. It is a painstaking process that takes years. The end result is breathtaking when you see it performed by a master. They will often defeat multiple opponents attacking all at once and can effortlessly subdue much larger attackers. Not many people attain such proficiency though. The repetitive and mundane nature of the practice discourages the less committed.

In various quarters of the internet and occasionally on blogs I frequent, I will hear a particular criticism of the historic liturgy proffered as a serious argument against its use in the church. It is the charge that the liturgy is vain repetition, and that people are bored with it or “just don’t get anything out of it.”

Instead of engaging on several different blogs and forums, this post will be my public response, much like my previous post on infant baptism.

So, is the liturgy vain repetition? The short answer is no.

My previous pastor was confronted with this question one time and in turn asked the person how they ever learned anything deeply without repetition. Most important things in life are learned through repetition, and the more we do it the better we get. This is the entire premise of Malcom Gladwell’s book, ‘Outliers.’ (Gladwell’s research show that it takes ten thousand hours to hone your skill or talent to be world class.)

Underneath the accusation of vain repetition lies the assumption that as soon as someone is born again they are naturally and automatically able to worship and don’t really need any more than a few cursory pointers and any systematic approach to learning how to worship God may be dispensed with. Given the depth of our sin and the general ignorance in the church concerning the scriptures, this is neither a wise nor safe assumption to make.

A second underlying assumption is that when we have heard something once, or even just a couple times, that we totally understand it and grasp all it’s implications, and therefore have no need of hearing it again, at least any time soon. This is easily proven false by asking average Christians to recite and explain the Ten Commandments, the Lord’s Prayer, or the Apostle’s Creed. Be honest, do you remember your Pastor’s sermon from two weeks ago? This kind of attitude makes us consumers of ideas, collectors of bits and pieces of the scriptures, not disciples longing to fully grasp Jesus’ teaching.

How are we to pass on the faith and inculcate it deeply into our children when what we do every week changes based on the whims of the pastor?

Several pastors I know have been at the bedsides of dying parishioners who were totally unresponsive to family members and doctors. When the pastors sang or recited the liturgy they noticed the parishioners mouthing the words to the Lord’s prayer or other parts of the liturgy. This kind of thing comes from deep learning and years of recitation, not glossing over different musical choruses every week.

I have been a Lutheran for twenty years, and finally got to the point a few years ago where I could worship on Sunday morning and not need to look at the hymnal. Once I got to that point, worship was almost a whole new experience for me. I could sing and recite God’s word back to Him in unison with the whole congregation, and not have to hold a hymnal (except for some hymns) or a bulletin.

Another problem with the accusation of vain repetition is that the liturgy is almost entirely taken from Scripture. In worship, how do you vainly repeat Scripture? Is it vain repetition when we read various passages of Scripture or even the entire Bible over and over again? No. God’s word is rich and deep and the Holy Spirit applies the word anew every day. You will never entirely grasp the meaning of a passage of Scripture and exhaust its future value. How many of us have participated in systematic memorization of the Bible?

Given the sad state of biblical literacy in the church, you would think more churches would be considering some kind regular and repeated recitation of various passages of scripture.

As to the charge of being boring and ‘not getting anything out of it’ these problems lie with the hearer, not the liturgy. Basically they are saying they are bored with the Scriptures, and/or are not getting the emotional lift they had hoped for. These are the bleatings of a generation raised on TV and the internet, trained by these mediums to have an attention span measured in seconds.

Much of ‘contemporary worship’ follows a liturgy of sorts. I can walk into a Vineyard Church, or a Calvary Chapel and tell you exactly where in the worship service they are without looking at a bulletin. Although the form may be the same week to week in these churches, the content is different every week and precludes deep learning on the part of the members unless they are very self motivated. Contemporary evangelical worship often mimics one of our culture’s premier entertainment venues: the rock concert. It is something to ponder. When our worship mimics entertainment, it can only lead to disaster.

A side note to my Lutheran brothers and sisters. Contrary to the assertions of some Lutherans, it is not possible to pour Lutheran content into these other forms of worship. Chaplain Mike over at Internetmonk.com recently reviewed Cole Smith’s new book,‘A Lover’s Quarrel with the Evangelical Church.’ and wrote this:

Rejecting the long understood fact that “the medium is the message”, evangelicalism has adopted the philosophy that any means is OK as long as one is communicating the right message. However, as Smith observes, “When you change the medium, you change the message, whether you intend to or not and though the words remain exactly the same. It is a lesson the evangelical church has not yet learned.”

Many Lutherans will learn this the hard way. The evangelicals are learning it now. When you reject the historic forms of worship that are based on the Scriptures and hammered out by the church over centuries, not only are you destined to ‘reinvent the wheel’, so to speak, but you risk compromising the essence of Christian worship.

By Pat K