BREAK THE CHAINS OF OPPRESION AND THE YOKE OF ...

Litur gy
We therefore have to be acutely aware that all our liturgical interaction carries
meaning which will be measured against our interaction as believers outside the
liturgy also.
The smallest of gestures will tell not only others, but ourselves about the measure
of integrity we seek to live.
What does it say when the surplus bread of the communion celebration is simply
consigned to the bin? What does it say when the celebrant does not raise the
chalice high enough for all to see? Are these liturgical minutiae? Insignificant? Or
filled with meaning of the intended or unintended kind?
The liturgy of Communion tells us who we are, whose we are and how we are to
live. The liturgy of Communion and the issue of justice are linked inextricably
for the very simple reason that we confess Jesus as Lord. But it is God’s justice
that we are confronted with and it has initially more to say about us, than we
have to say about others.
At the heart of God’s justice lies the recognition and confession of our injustice:
our injustice, not that of others. ‘The woman you gave me….’ – pointing the
finger at others will not do.
It is therefore significant to note that in relation to Holy Communion and the issue
of justice, it is first and foremost God’s justice we are concerned with and
then our injustice. Our subsequent concern for justice is an outflowing of that
primary recognition that justice is not ours, but it is God’s and is given to us as a
gift and a gracious mercy which is not to be appropriated for our private salvation
but to be shared for that of the whole of creation.
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At the centre of the liturgy we therefore confess Jesus as Lord and God as the author
of justice, divine justice. And we confess ourselves as not just, but trusting
ourselves to be justified through Christ.
In the liturgical history of the church this has been supremely expressed in the
agnus dei in preparation for the receiving and sharing of Holy Communion.
The interaction of the short phrases between celebrant and congregation expresses
that interrelationship between God’s merciful justice and our injustice
and it is at this point that consideration shall be given to a liturgical development
which has taken place in the Reformed tradition within Scotland, but may have
found similar expressions in other branches of the Reformed family of churches.
Originally intended as a liturgical interaction between the celebrant and the congregation,
such responses as indicated in the agnus dei were by gradual process
appropriated for the use of the celebrant alone – possibly out of a misguided fear
of being perceived to be too Roman-catholic or Episcopalian - and thereby rendering
the role of the congregation as that of passive recipient rather than active
participant in the liturgy and drama of salvation of not only Holy Communion,
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– THE LITURGY OF HOLY COMMUNION –