On New Testament Worship

Twentieth Sunday after Trinity
Ephesians 5:15-21
© 2009 Rev. Matthew L. Whitehead

It is easy to be confused by today’s epistle lesson. At first reading it seems as if the argument that Saint Paul makes does not connect. He gives an exhortation against drunkenness and then exhorts his audience to sing. Huh? Doesn’t drunkenness encourage singing? We know this to be true! Isn’t this how all the bar songs of old came about? Doesn’t this explain karaoke?

If we could put these exhortations in their biblical and historical context, however, it begins to make a bit more sense. The contrast made between drunkenness and singing is part of a larger contrast that begins back in Ephesians chapter four. The contrast has to do with worship. Many of the Ephesian Christians had converted from paganism, and were accustomed to the manner of worship found in the pagan temples. The pagan rituals were known for drunkenness, debauchery, and all manner of immorality. Paul’s exhortation was to put away the pagan notions of worship, and learn how to worship ‘in Spirit and truth’1.

There are three principles of worship to be gleaned from Paul’s exhortation. These principles, which in ancient times set Christian worship apart from that of the pagans, in modern times can be applied to set apart traditional Christian worship from secular society and from the modern, so-called ‘seeker-sensitive’ movement within Protestantism. Let me be clear: It is not my aim to equate ‘seeker sensitive’ worship to paganism or secularism (this would be false and cruel). Rather, my aim is to show that there are ancient Apostolic standards set for our worship, standards which we as Anglicans keep through The Book of Common Prayer. The principles are these: (1) Traditional Christian worship is explicitly Trinitarian; (2) Traditional Christian worship uses time for holy purposes, (3) Traditional Christian worship is Liturgical.

Saint Paul exhorted the Ephesians, “Be filled with the Spirit… giving thanks always for all things unto God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

The pagan religions of the New Testament era were directed toward multiple gods and toward the emperor. When Paul visited Athens, he noticed that they even had a cult for the unknown god; a fail-safe, I suppose, to make sure they did not leave anyone out!2 From the beginning, Christian worship was distinct from the pagan cults, because Christians have always known who it is that they worship. We worship God the Father, the source of all good things, together with His Son, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. Christian worship must be explicitly Trinitarian, not only because it sets us apart from false religions, but chiefly because true worship must reflect the eternal truth of the Holy Trinity.

Our Book of Common Prayer keeps us within the bounds of Trinitarian worship. We see this in the explicit Trinitarian invocations of many of the prayers and collects, and in the blessing after the eucharist. We see it in the Nicene Creed, by which we bind ourselves to the Church’s historical statement of Faith in the Triune God. But the pinnacle of Trinitarian worship is in the eucharist itself, the most holy act of worship we can make, given to us by the incarnate Son of God himself. The eucharist is a memorial sacrifice in which the body and blood of Jesus Christ is offered to the Father through the invocation of the Holy Spirit. We follow Saint Paul’s exhortation in offering worship to God that reflects His Trinity of Persons.

Saint Paul exhorted the Ephesians to “[be wise and redeem the time], because the days are evil.” Now, this is not to say that ‘the days are evil’ because time itself is evil, but rather that Mankind has become so corrupt that evil prevails in our day.3 A holistic view of time sees it in its proper place, as a part of God’s creation, and therefore inherently good, although corrupted by Mankind’s sinfulness. Time is something that can be redeemed, and should be redeemed if we are to be the stewards of God’s creation that we were created to be.

How does the Church redeem time? We have the Daily Offices: Morning and Evening Prayer (or Matins and Vespers or Evensong, if you prefer). These offices came into the Prayer Book by way of the monasteries, which designed hours of prayer to be observed at several times throughout the day, so that the day might not be lost to temporal distractions. The Christian week has always started on Sunday, commemorating as holy the first day of the week upon which Christ rose from the dead. Then there is the Kalendar, by which we use the year and the seasons to reenact the great drama of salvation through the celebration of certain feasts: Christmas comes in the dead of Winter, when we are yearning for light in the darkness; Easter comes in the Spring, when the earth itself celebrates new life. The Kalendar also commemorates the lives of the Saints, who are the great heroes of the Faith.
How is this traditional Christian idea of time received in society? The day now begins and ends with cable news. Sunday is no longer a holy day, but either another workday or a second Saturday. And how does society receive the Christian Kalendar? Christmas is no longer about the Incarnation of the Son of God, it is now about a fat man who give you whatever you want; even in many churches Christmas has been dumbed down to a mere birthday party for Jesus. Easter is no longer about the Passion of our Lord, it is now about a bunny and eggs. Shrove Tuesday, or Mardi Gras in the French, is no longer about celebrating the Lenten fast whereby we discipline our bodies toward holiness, it is now about drunken debauchery out in the open, whereby the body is used for whatever unholy ends one desires.

Where the Church seeks to redeem the time for the sake of holiness, the world seeks to pervert time for its own ends. We must continue in the ancient Christian practice of redeeming time, lest we give in to secular pressure, and allow time to become the tool of Satan for evil, rather than a means of grace given by our Lord.

Saint Paul exhorted the Ephesians, “[Speak] to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.” We often like to read this verse and leave it on the surface, “sing happy songs”, but it goes much deeper than that. Not only does Saint Paul prescribe what we are to sing, but how we are to sing it.

We are to sing “psalms”, that is the canonical Old Testament psalter. We are to sing “hymns and spiritual songs”, which are the songs from the New Testament, such as the Benedictus4, the Magnificat5 and the Nunc Dimittis6. It could also include non-canonical Christian hymnody designed to convey the Faith, such as the Te Deum Laudamus, the Benedictus es, Domine, and the Gloria in Excelsis. All of these form the permanent basic hymnody of our worship, be it in the Daily Offices or in the Eucharist.
Just as important as the specific content of our worship, is the manner in which Saint Paul tells us to worship. Saint John Chrysostom notes that “[to make melody in the heart] unto the Lord” is to have our minds engaged in worship.7 “[To speak unto ourselves]” evokes the back and forth communication of liturgical worship, where the priest offers a prayer on behalf of the congregation, and the congregation signifies its participation with the “Amen”. “Liturgy” means “work of the people”, implying that, contrary to popular belief, liturgical worship is not done by the priest alone. Rather, it cannot happen without the people present to participate in and ratify the worship of the Church.

This understanding of traditional Christian worship is contrasted with what might be found in many of the Protestant mega-churches. There the worship consists of rock-and-roll praise choruses that might just as easily be sung to one’s lover as to his Lord, if only the pronouns were changed. Worship is no longer about a community of Faith approaching their Lord in the unity of the Holy Spirit, but rather about a collection individuals, each singing their own praises as their own hearts move them. Anglicans are not content with such worship, not because we do not like rock-and-roll, or because we prefer to read our prayers, but because we desire to remain within the tradition set forth from the earliest times of the Church.

The Prayer Book keeps us focused on those priorities of worship, set forth by the apostolic authority of Saint Paul. By ‘redeeming the time’ through liturgical Trinitarian worship, we anticipate the redemption of the world. The days are evil, but so long as we continue in the traditional worship which the Church has passed down to us, we proclaim with hope that Jesus Christ will return with glory to complete the redemption which has already begun in his incarnation and passion.

1 John 4:23. In regard to the contrast, see Barclay, William. The Letters to the Galatians and Ephesians. The New Daily Study Bible Series. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2002; 192. See also Shepherd, Massey H., Jr. The Oxford American Prayer Book Commentary. New York: Oxford University Press, 1950; 217.
2 Acts 17:16-34.
3 Chrysostom, Homily on Ephesians, 18.5.15-17; In Edwards, Mark J., ed. Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, vol. NT VIII. Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, ed. Thomas C. Oden. Downer’s Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1999 (ACCS); 180.
4 Sung by Zacharias after the naming of St. John the Baptist, from Luke 1:68-79. Sung at Morning Prayer, 1928 American Book of Common Prayer (BCP), p.14.
5 Sung by Mary while visiting Elizabeth after the Annunciation, from Luke 1:46-55. Sung at Evening Prayer, BCP, p.26.
6 Sung by Simeon after seeing the infant Christ in the Temple, from Luke 2:29-32. Sung at Evening Prayer, BCP, p.29.
7 Chrysostom, Homily on Ephesians, 19.5.19-21; ACCS, 182.