Outward Looking Liturgy
Dave Haseldine
Shipmate Posts: 7
Most recently I have wrestled with the traditional blessing below
Traditional Blessing:
And the blessing of God Almighty,
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
be upon you and remain with you for ever.
Amen.
It's a great to pray God's blessing on everyone in the congregation as each person there will be in need of God's blessing. But should that really be the final word in an act of worship? I remember reading David Watson quoting David Bosch who wrote the following reflecting on the state of Jesus' Church in Apartheid South Africa: "If evangelism doesn't begin with the individual it doesn't begin. But if it ends with the individual it ends." I think that is true not just for evangelism but for all aspects of discipleship/apprenticeship to Jesus.
So I have long been toying with how to mirror the "welcome and call to worship" start of worship services at the end, e.g. with a "blessing and call to discipleship". i.e. blessing "us" as individuals in need of God's grace, and then sending us out to "them" like lambs among wolves and to costly discipleship. My problem with ending worship with a traditional blessing like the one above is that it is unbelievably narrow. If the blessing of the Gospel ends with "us" individuals, it ends.
So here is the same blessing hopefully infected with some of the same disruptive grace that the Holy Spirit unleashed from the Upper Room in Acts:
And the blessing of God,
Father, Jesus, and Holy Spirit,
be upon us, and remain with us;
And also fill us,
and forever overflow through us
to be upon, remain, fill,
and overflow to and through “them”,
all those “others” God sends us to.
Amen?
Traditional Blessing:
And the blessing of God Almighty,
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
be upon you and remain with you for ever.
Amen.
It's a great to pray God's blessing on everyone in the congregation as each person there will be in need of God's blessing. But should that really be the final word in an act of worship? I remember reading David Watson quoting David Bosch who wrote the following reflecting on the state of Jesus' Church in Apartheid South Africa: "If evangelism doesn't begin with the individual it doesn't begin. But if it ends with the individual it ends." I think that is true not just for evangelism but for all aspects of discipleship/apprenticeship to Jesus.
So I have long been toying with how to mirror the "welcome and call to worship" start of worship services at the end, e.g. with a "blessing and call to discipleship". i.e. blessing "us" as individuals in need of God's grace, and then sending us out to "them" like lambs among wolves and to costly discipleship. My problem with ending worship with a traditional blessing like the one above is that it is unbelievably narrow. If the blessing of the Gospel ends with "us" individuals, it ends.
So here is the same blessing hopefully infected with some of the same disruptive grace that the Holy Spirit unleashed from the Upper Room in Acts:
And the blessing of God,
Father, Jesus, and Holy Spirit,
be upon us, and remain with us;
And also fill us,
and forever overflow through us
to be upon, remain, fill,
and overflow to and through “them”,
all those “others” God sends us to.
Amen?
Comments
In my denomination, every minister will have his or her particular way of doing the Charge. Some will use the same words every week (or maybe tweak them just slightly from week to week), while others will draw on something from the readings or sermon for the Charge.
What I am most used to hearing is something like this:
Disciples of Jesus Christ,
go out into the world in peace;
have courage;
hold on to what is good;
return no one evil for evil;
strengthen the fainthearted;
support the weak,
and help the suffering;
honor all people;
love and serve the Lord,
rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit.
And may the blessing of Almighty God—
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—
be and remain with you all,
with all who are dear to you,
and with all who are known and dear only to God.
Alleluia! Amen.
@Dave Haseldine, if you’re asking for thoughts on your rewritten Blessing, I get where you’re going, but personally I find the use of “them” and “those others,” a bit, well, othering. It seems to put those people at arm’s length; at least that’s how I hear it. Maybe “those we meet” and “all to whom God sends us,” or something like those?
Priest or Deacon: Go in peace, to love and serve the Lord!
People: In the name of Christ, Amen!
Outward-looking, IMHO, and not too wordy. Many C of E services are far too wordy, anyway...
I think I'd prefer to stick to the existing blessing and dismissal, and unpack all the theology you're trying to pack into it in a sermon. "At the end of every Eucharist we say... but what does that mean? What are its implications and outworkings?"
Go in the peace of Christ
Thanks be to God
"Dismissal" sounds to me too much like an "ending" which can feel like it reflects our human tendency today and throughout history (e.g. Isaiah and the other Biblical prophets) to disconnect the rest of the week from the worship service.
Thanks for the comments on the use of "us" and "them". Given that everyone is made in the image and likeness of God, discriminatory thinking and behaviour shouldn't have a place in our lives. But in the real world it does. Decades ago I heard a Baptist minister and Christian Aid area rep. confess that he was prejudiced. I was shocked, thinking, if anyone isn't, you aren't! But he made me think, if we are honest, we all are, even if we are hopefully working to be less so. Jesus said we are to pray for our enemies, presumably because, unlike God, consciously or without realising it, there are individuals and whole groups of people that we don't love as we love ourselves and those we perceive to be like us (to me one of the saddest verses in the Bible is Acts 22:22). Using "us" and "them" language is a deliberate attempt to both reflect this reality and to challenge it.
Thanks also for the comment about ministers and worship leaders using "us" rather than "you". Makes complete sense to me, but I know it doesn't to some, lay and ordained.
But as I’ve noted, my denomination tends to use charge rather than dismissal.
Or being sacked from a job.
“Send us out
in the power of your Spirit
to live and work
to your praise and glory.”
Ah - I wondered if that lovely prayer was still included! IIRC, it first appeared in Series 3, over fifty years ago...
Our Place doesn't use it, I'm afraid, employing just the seasonal post-Communion prayer before the Notices aka Homily 5/Blessing/the Mass is ended - Thank God for that!
Very true.
I have seen and heard some of the very helpful sending out prayers quoted above, so some may be in the Methodist Worship Book.
And responding to some helpful feedback from Facebook, also critical of my over-complex adaptation, here is a simpler adaptation that tries to be faithful to the original Trinitarian blessing and still catch something of the divine mission-to-others that is absent from the traditional blessing:
The blessing of God,
Father, Jesus, and Holy Spirit,
now and forever
be upon us, and remain with us,
and be upon others, and remain with them.
Amen.
It does, as has been suggested refer to the dismissal of the faithful at the end of the liturgy, but not simply the sending away,but the sending out .
After coming together to celebrate the presence of Christ in the gathered community and in the proclamation of the Gospel as well as in the bread and wine of the eucharist we are sent out on the mission to bring the Good News to to others.
The present English forms of Ite missa est which are used in the Roman liturgy are
Go forth, the Mass is ended or
Go and announce the Gsopel of the Lord or
Go in peace,glorifying the Lord by your life or
Go in peace.
The congregation is sent out with the blessing of the whole Church as proclaimed by the official representative of the whole church community,namely the bishop or priest.
But that is not the end of the liturgy the end in Roman Rite is one of the following:
In other words the mass does not end in the blessing but with the sending out to do God's will.
Imagine a squad of soldiers on parade. They are given a set of instructions, and then dismissed to carry out those instructions.
Your original version, although I didn't like the language, carried a sense of the apostolic mission, which I think you've completely removed here.
I'll note that right before the blessing and dismissal in the Episcopal rite comes the post-communion prayer, which concludes:
So I suppose my question to you would be to ask what precedes the blessing in your normal service. It doesn't make sense to consider it in isolation - you have to place it in context.
Exactly.
Sometimes it feels like that. Especially if you've been battered by words for the last 60 minutes.
It's the Methodist Worship Book of the Methodist Church in Great Britain:)
I just wanted to note that in the Church of Norway, the last words are "go in peace, serve the Lord with gladness."
Beautiful words: thank you. Love the "with gladness". A good reminder.