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

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Litur gy 49 The Liturgy of Holy Communion and Issues �of Justice Lindsay Schluter, �Larkhall, Scotland ‘The God of Scripture is not a God of disorder, but surely God’s ways are not our ways, nor are God’s thoughts our thoughts (Isaiah 55:9). Our Sunday services can become efforts to orchestrate intimacy without contact, to seek encounter without risk. The danger of losing control in our worship is an apparent danger to us but irrelevant to God.’ 1 ‘Prayer is to enter into the lion’s den. It brings us before the Holy One where it is uncertain whether we will come back alive or sane, for it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.’ 2 At the heart of prayer, at the heart of worship everything that matters in our lives is at stake. Every aspect of self-centred living becomes endangered as we come to worship the God who gives of Self into that very self-centredness of ours, and we are asked to share in God’s self-giving to others. Worship, when understood in this way is indeed a dangerous act and one where we may want to reconsider whether we truly want to be part of it. We may never be the same at the end of an act of worship, we may have encountered the danger of meeting God face to face and may as a result discover that we are the ones on whom a suffering world waits as signs of God3 � . � � � � To engage in worship is a dangerous thing, it is a profoundly counter-cultural act and only too often �it exposes � �our spiritual complacency � �towards a world of suffering and injustice. And so, while we prepare the prayers, purchase the wine, set the central heating or draw up the rota for those who are to count the offering, while we do all this and more in preparation for worship we have to hold to the wider vision and its dangerous implications in what it means to be a worshipping people of God. 1 Labberton, 47. 2 Attributed to an American Preacher. If the correct source could be supplied by any reader the author would be most grateful. 3 Romans 8:19. �� – THE LITURGY OF HOLY COMMUNION – 97
Litur gy Within all these efforts in preparing worship there also lies another danger: God’s Holy Spirit will move where she will, but in contrast our desire is only too often for control and thereby we are capable of stifling and hindering God’s Spirit. Maybe even that is one of the conscious or unconscious desires we have as leaders of worship. And yet another danger lies hidden only too often from our eyes when we engage in preparing, leading and participating in worship. From the opening chapters of the bible onwards the human willingness to believe lies about God and then even attempt to pass off those lies to God is apparent. Again and again the people of Israel try to tell God that they are on his side and are doing what God has commanded. And again and again the prophets make it clear: it is a lie. The presumption that we can hide behind our own assumptions starts in the garden of Eden and has lost none of its attractions in the year 2010. Then to add fuel to the fire by blaming others – ‘The woman whom you gave to be with me….’ – will not work. We may succeed in deceiving ourselves, we will not do so with God. We are called to worship in Spirit and in truth, yet as Labberton puts it: only one community exist where there is no lying: the triune communion of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 4 “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord’, and do not do what I tell you?” 5 The discrepancy between our acts of worship and our acts of Christian living can be stark. ‘We confess “Jesus is Lord’ …but only submit to the part of Christ’s authority that fits our grand personal designs, doesn’t cause pain,…….doesn’t draw us across ethnic or racial division, doesn’t add the pressure of too much guilt, doesn’t mean forgiving as we have been forgiven, doesn’t ask for more than a check (sic) to show compassion. We “sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs” … expressing our desire to know Jesus, but the Jesus we want to know is the sanitized (sic) Jesus that looks a lot like us when we think we are at our best. Despite God’s Word to the contrary, we think we can say we love God and yet hate our neighbour, neglect the widow, forget the orphan, fail to visit the prisoner, ignore the oppressed.’ 6 � � � � � This much for setting some of the overall context of this paper whose main intention is to address matters of the liturgy of Holy Communion in relation to the issue of Justice. I had been asked by my own denomination, the Church of Scotland, to attend in March 2009 a preparatory conference in Zurich for the Uniting Council in Grand Rapids in 2010. The main qualification I could identify for having been 4 Labberton, 70. 5 Luke 6:46. 6 Labberton, 71. �� 98 – THE LITURGY OF HOLY COMMUNION –
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eak the chains of oppresion and the
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BREAK THE CHAINS OF OPRESSION AND T
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PContents REAChing Preface There is
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PREFA ce There is No Unjust Communi
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PREFA ce Let us remember: there sho
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PREFA ce ed, stripped bare, when th
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PREAChing 1 Preaching on Justice: T
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PREAChing message of the free grace
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PREAChing come aware of how abundan
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PREAChing I draw attention again to
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PREAChing who believe that “those
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EnGAGEMEnT 2 Commitment after Accra
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EnGAGEMEnT which has become spiritu
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EnGAGEMEnT worries more, is more ea
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Europe’s Discussion about Justice
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were being seen - because of this -
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Discus sion Church and State are fu
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The Reformed tradition with the ope
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DEMoc rAcy However democracy is sti
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DEMoc rAcy of the homo politicus -
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viewers, the programme is “cut to
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DEMoc rAcy Finally it would natural
Page 47 and 48: point modern democracies are open t
Page 49 and 50: DEMoc rAcy Naturally, in many cases
Page 52 and 53: cove nanTi ng 59 Europe’s Road to
Page 54 and 55: cove nanTi ng Western neighbor coun
Page 56 and 57: cove nanTi ng focused on. On the on
Page 58 and 59: 5 pE o H 6 Theology of hope in time
Page 60 and 61: At the bottom of these enormous ent
Page 62 and 63: The question has to be raised wheth
Page 64 and 65: in the communio with Christ. In thi
Page 66 and 67: anity has been closely related to e
Page 68 and 69: world: the oppressed, the poor, the
Page 70 and 71: 8 p EM ire 7 Empire - Provocation w
Page 72 and 73: EMpire thors also supply an ambitio
Page 74 and 75: EMpire Aspects of a difficult relat
Page 76 and 77: governments in southern countries e
Page 78 and 79: EMpire Talk of empire, as this exam
Page 80: EMpire hand, and realpolitik talk a
Page 83 and 84: Ethics two? Globethics.net proposes
Page 85 and 86: Ethics 2. Performance-related justi
Page 87 and 88: Ethics difficult to implement all o
Page 89 and 90: Ethics instrument, which correspond
Page 91 and 92: Ethics tice. In some cases it may s
Page 93 and 94: Ethics 6. The Principle of Transpar
Page 95 and 96: Ethics to others what we ourselves
Page 100 and 101: Litur gy chosen was that one of the
Page 102 and 103: Litur gy stronger weighting towards
Page 104 and 105: Litur gy It may be argued that few
Page 106 and 107: Litur gy but here particularly so.
Page 108 and 109: Litur gy turn out to be. For if we
Page 110: For the shaping of the liturgy the
Page 113 and 114: PRojec ts The scope of the children
Page 115 and 116: DiaLo g ic analyses which already e
Page 117 and 118: DiaLo g suppression as a power-alli
Page 119 and 120: DiaLo g Dreaming a Different World
Page 121 and 122: DiaLo g We remember together the in
Page 123 and 124: The Further Development of the Conc
Page 125 and 126: DiaLo g come to stand: do they belo
Page 127 and 128: DiaLo g dividuals who come into vie
Page 129 and 130: EXPLoita Tion formation and counsel
Page 131 and 132: there is emerging here a specific i
Page 133 and 134: EXPLoita Tion wealthier lands in No
Page 135 and 136: study 5 of children’s attitudes t
Page 137 and 138: EXPLoita Tion Christian understandi
Page 139 and 140: EXPLoita Tion gal prosecution of cr
Page 141 and 142: these questions. An approach that r
Page 143 and 144: of governments for the regular fina
Page 145 and 146: We recommend EXPLoita Tion The orga
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Hope in God’s Future: Christian D
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FuturE I Approaching God in the con
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FuturE All of these changes will ha
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FuturE ship; God’s sacrifice in C
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FuturE between rich and poor becomi
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FuturE Reflection 5 Low-lying count
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gry and those now first finding the
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FuturE Even to sinners like us, God
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FuturE UK Government Committee on C
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FuturE Reflection 11 “A commitmen
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FuturE Alertness to disproportionat
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FuturE set out on a journey of free
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seeking 2. It has become much more
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seeking tions and in the Synod, was
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LEArnin G Praying for growth Food,
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we, with 20% of world-population, a
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LEArnin G hunger, but sooner from a
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LEArnin G And they wonder: what doe
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LEArnin G The richer the USA and Eu
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A Globalance - Christian Perspectiv
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A GLoB LAncE uence on political and
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Recommendations The position paper
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Pov y ert 17 „Don’t Leave Us Ha
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Group Children’s Summit 2006” r
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Pov erty our doorstep as relatively
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Pov erty This well-founded option f
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All these rights could be provided
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Pov erty The action “Hiding is no
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