Chris Campbell
God is a God not of disorder but of peace… all things should be done decently and in order.
Beloved in the body of Christ,
Today's Epistle speaks to an issue that is near and dear to my heart, liturgy.
One might imagine that after almost two millennia of worship that Christians would have settled on a proper method of glorification and intercession to our Lord God, but yet this is still a very divisive and controversial question. But why is this?
In my experience, a large part of the contention comes from how personal prayer is. One's aesthetic taste, personal theology, and perception of the world all come into play when we approach worship.
Paul is, however, very generous in his understanding of this, saying: my friends, be eager to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues.
However, he understands that some order is necessary, not only for the communal worship of God, but to not scare away and instead draw in the unbeliever. So what is to be done? How can we find many ways of worshiping God while still keeping order?
The answer lies in drawing from the development of the almost two millennia of tradition that the church has and adapting and contextualizing it into our contemporary era.
Luckily the Anglican Communion has within it a Book of Common Prayer, a book that offers a diverse collection of different forms of worship which are prayed by a diverse collection of people all around the world.
If you ever want to see what offerings of communal worship are available, take a look at the BCP and you will find a wide variety of liturgies, all ordered and decent, as Paul recommends worship be.
So does this book offer a solution to the issue Paul raises? Perhaps not a final solution, but the BCP offers a stepping stone and a way forward for both individuals and congregations to be able to worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness, and keep the peace and order which is necessary for communal worship and the evangelism we are called to.
May you live in Truth, Peace, and Love
—Chris Campbell