Soulfood

One of the books I’ve been meaning to read for some time came to me this year (thanks to my wife) and I was able to finish it in February. Tish Harrison Warren’s book The Liturgy of the Ordinary is a helpful exhortation to live before the face of God, communing with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in every day moments. Being faithful in the little things is our spiritual act of worship – and remembering YHWH in the little things draws us closer to Him. “[T]hese small bits of our day are profoundly meaningful because they are the site of our worship. The crucible of our spiritual formation is in the monotony of our daily routines.” (p. 34)

On our need for a regular, tangible proclamation of the pardon we receive in Christ: “Unkind and condemning thoughts tell me that God’s love is distant, cold or irrelevant, that I must prove myself to God and other people, that I am orphaned and unlovable, that God is tapping his toe, impatient with me, ready to walk out on me. These thoughts are loud enough that I need a human voice telling me, week in and week out, that they’re lies. I need to hear from someone who knows me that there is grace enough for me, that Christ’s work is on my behalf, even as I’m on my knees confessing that I’ve blown it again this week. We may confess quietly, even silently. But we are reminded of our forgiveness out loud, with standing and shouting. We need to be sure to hear it.” (p. 59) In a recent conversation, my wife and a friend and I all agreed that the declaration of pardon is a weekly highlight for us.

But Warren also reminds us to confess our sins daily: “The practice of confession and absolution must find its way into the small moments of sinfulness in my day. When it does, the gospel – grace itself – seeps into my day, and these moments are transformed.” (p. 59)

On sitting in traffic, Warren reflects on our timebound nature and our impatience. There is a wonderful quote from Hans Ur von Balthasar on the effect impatience has on our obedience. Perhaps impatience was part of the root of the sin of our first parents. Warren, quoting Balthasar: “Patience [is] the basic constituent of Christianity…the power to wait, to persevere, to hold out, to endure to the end, not to transcend one’s own limitations, not to force issues by playing the hero or the titan, but to practice the virtue that lies beyond heroism, the meekness of the lamb that is led.” (p. 104)

On the significance of congregation and community: “In the sin and failure of the church, we see the darkness and ugliness for which Christ suffered and died. But we also see the spectacular hope that in the midst of sinners, God can bring forth redemption, repentance, and transformation. We gaze in weakness, with dim eyes, on the power of God.” (p. 123)

Warren drives home the truth that the church is not a place where we should expect to find (only) people we like. “But there are other people around me in the pews, people I find irritating or awkward, people who vehemently hold political positions I find suspect, people with whom I have nothing in common outside of our shared membership in this community of the saints. Some of those I practice call and response with each week would not be people I would ever want to go with on a long road trip. The body of Christ is made of all kinds of people, some of whom I find obnoxious, arrogant, self-righteous, or misguided (charges, I’m sure, others have rightly applied to me).” (p. 125)

On sabbath/rest, Warren writes of the comfort of liturgy:

“When I first began to attend a church that worshiped with historic liturgy, I cried every week. I hadn’t realized it, but for most of my life my worship experience had been marked by my own striving to get to a particular emotional or cognitive place – a place of joy or crisis or emotion or ardent doctrinal affirmation.

“But as we stumbled into a small, stone-walled Anglican church one Sunday, I felt too tired and weak to work myself up – my heart or my head – to any emotional climax or intellectual achievement. So I sat in church and followed the script and said my lines.

“The words of the liturgy felt like a mother rocking me, singing over me, speaking words of blessing again and again. I was relaxing into the church like an overtired child collapsing on her mom.” (p. 150)

Whatever you think of women’s ordination (Warren is ordained in the Anglican church), Warren has much wisdom to share in this book and I encourage any who are seeking counsel as to how to make every moment holy to read this book for themselves. May it bring you closer to the Lord of the Sabbath!