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Order of Worship

Order of Worship

Last updated on: September 7, 2017 at 12:05 am by Peter Leithart

Order of Worship 2017-09-07T00:05:22+06:00 Peter Leithart

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This repeats some material from an earlier post.

INTRODUCTION
In the last several classes, we have been looking at sacrifice as it operated in the OC, both in the Mosaic and the Davidic worship. We have seen that Mosaic worship follows a sequence of purification-ascension-communion, and we have seen that Davidic worship incorporates musical ?sacrifices of praise?Einto this sequence, particularly at the moment of ascension (2 Chronicles 29:20-35).

This week, I will examine two aspects of the biblical theology of worship. First, I will finish off the biblical theology of sacrifice by showing that sacrificial terminology is applied not only to Jesus?Ework, but also to the church?s life and worship. Worship in the NC, as well as in the OC, is sacrificial. Second, I want to explore the liturgical implications of NT Wright?s insight that Jesus?Eministry involves a ?counter-temple?Emovement.

ECCLESIAL SACRIFICE IN THE NT
As Augustine pointed out, the NT sacrifices are REAL sacrifices, in contrast to the merely symbolic sacrifices of the OT. In the OT, the worshiper himself never ?drew near?Ebut had to rely on an animal substitute. We still have a mediator, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, but we do ?draw near?Eand that boldly. In the OT, the worshiper never was able to sacrifice HIMSELF; but we offer ourselves as living sacrifices. We?re doing the real thing; Israel was sacrificing in types and shadows.

A number of passages describe the entirety of the Christian life in sacrificial terms. Romans 12:1f is explicit about this, and the details of how Christians offer ?living sacrifice.?ESimilarly, Hebrews 13 grows out of the exhortation of Hebrews 12:28 that we are to offer God acceptable service with reverence and awe, an exhortation to be engaged in priestly ?service.?E

There are also passages that clearly show that our WORSHIP is sacrificial. In a sense, this is simple logic: If the whole Christian life is sacrificial, so is Christian worship. But there is also more direct textual evidence. Within the whole-life sacrifice demanded by Hebrews 13 is the ?continual sacrifice of praise?Eand thanks (v. 15). (The ?continually?Ecomes from the present tense of the verb, ANAPHERO, which is a word used frequently in Leviticus to describe the offering of animals on the altar, Leviticus 3:5, 11, 14, 16; 4:10, 19, 26, 31; etc.) Calvin says that the author of Hebrews here answers the question of whether or not Christians continue to have any form of sacrifice. The answer: ?another form of sacrifice is left for us which is no less pleasing to God, namely the offering to Him of the calves of our lips, as the prophet Hosea says (14:3). The sacrifice of praise is not only equally pleasing to God but more so than all the outward things that were used under the law . . . . We therefore see that the finest worship of God, and the one which is to be preferred to all other exercises, that we should celebrate the goodness of God by the giving of thanks. This, I say, is the rite of sacrifice which God commends to us today.?E

Along similar lines, Peter says that the church is the new Israel, established as a holy priesthood to ?offer up spiritual sacrifices to God through Jesus Christ?E(1 Peter 2:5). The whole notion that the church is a ?temple of God?Eunderscores Peter?s point, since the temple exists as a place for sacrifice and prayers (1 Corinthians 3; 6). Especially as the gathered church, the church is the place of continuing sacrifice, the sacrifice of praise. Calvin sees a broader point here, but also recognizes that the passage focuses on liturgical sacrifice: ?Among the spiritual sacrifices, he gives first place to the offering of ourselves . . . for we can offer nothing to God until we offer to Him ourselves as a sacrifice, which is done by denying ourselves. Then, afterwards follow prayers, thanksgiving, alms, and all the duties of religion.?E

To buttress the point that this way of talking about liturgical sacrifice in the NC is not a throwback to medieval Romanism, let me offer a couple of quotations from the Reformers. The first from Calvin: ?The Lord’s Supper cannot be without a sacrifice of [praise], in which, while we proclaim his death [1 Cor 11:26] and give thanks, we do nothing but offer a sacrifice of praise. From this office of sacrificing, all Christians are called a royal priesthood [1 Pet 2:9], because through Christ we offer that sacrifice of praise to God of which the apostle speaks [Heb 13:15]. And we do not appear with our gifts before God without an intercessor. The Mediator interceding for us is Christ, by whom we offer ourselves and what is ours to the Father. He is our Pontiff, who has entered the heavenly sanctuary [Heb 9:24] and opens a way for us to enter [cf. Heb 10:20]. He is the altar [Heb 13:10] upon which we lay our gifts, that whatever we venture to do, we may undertake in him. He it is, I say, that has made us a kingdom and priests unto the Father.?E

Another from Luther: ?We do not offer Christ as a sacrifice, but . . . Christ offers us. And in this way it is permissible, yes profitable, to call the mass a sacrifice; not on its own account, but because we offer ourselves as a sacrifice along with Christ. That is, we lay ourselves on Christ by a firm faith in his testament and do not otherwise appear before God with our praise, prayer, and sacrifice except through Christ and His mediation. Nor do we doubt that Christ is our priest or minister in heaven before God. Such faith truly brings it to pass that Christ takes up our cause, presents us and our prayers and praise, and also offers himself for us in heaven.?E

We can even see that the specific acts of Christian worship are described in sacrificial terminology in the NT, just as the musical worship of the Levites in 1-2 Chronicles was described in terminology borrowed from the Mosaic system. We have already noted the notion of ?praise?Eas sacrifice. In 1 John 1:9, further, confession is connected with forgiveness and cleansing (closely associated with the purification offering). According to Hebrews 4:12-13, the Word of God is like the sacrificial knife that divides joints and marrow in order to prepare a sacrifice. In instituting the Supper, Jesus spoke of His ?body and blood,?Esacrificial terminology if there ever was any. He also said that we are to ?do this as My memorial,?Eusing the idea of ?memorial?Ethat we first find in Leviticus 2 (the ?memorial portion?Eof the tribute/grain offering).

It is clear, then, that worship in the NT is as sacrificial as worship in the OT. Actually, NT worship is more fully sacrificial than worship in the OT. As Augustine said, what we do in the NT is real sacrifice, the truth that the OC sacrifices only pointed to. By the same logic that we can reason from infant circumcision to infant baptism, we can examine the OT sacrificial rites to learn about how to order the sacrificial worship of the NT.

JESUS, SACRIFICE AND PRIEST
I want to examine this from a somewhat different perspective, focusing on the Christological basis for Christian worship. I noted in an earlier lecture in this series that the sacrificial sequence in Leviticus provides a pattern for the life of Jesus that leads into the life of the church. Jesus is elected as the sacrifice, slaughtered on the cross, ascends to the Father, and shares Himself with His disciples in a meal. Not just the death of Jesus, but His entire life and ministry, is one great act of sacrificial worship to God. The French liturgist JJ van Allmen has made the same point (though with different details in mind): ?the very life of Jesus of Nazareth is a life which is, in some sense, ?liturgical?? ( Worship: Its Theology and Practice , p. 21).

As van Allmen points out, Jesus?E?liturgical?Ework did not cease when He ascended into heaven. He is in heaven as a priest, and as such oversees and leads a continual offering of praise and sacrifice made possible by His original and once-for-all sacrifice. As va
n Allmen puts it, ?There is thus a twofold Christological basis to the worship of the Church: there is the earthly cult celebrated by the life, the death and the glorification of the incarnate Christ; and the heavenly cult which, in glory, He celebrates until the time of the world to come. Or rather: the earthly worship which Jesus Christ offered from His birth to His death, and which the synoptic Gospels present in a structure that is to be commemorated by the cult of the Church [Note: van Allmen means the sequence from a Galilean teaching ministry to the sacrifice in Jerusalem], becomes, while Christians await the eternal liturgy of the Kingdom, the basis of a double cult: namely, the heavenly offering of Christ which is a prolongation and a harvesting of the Jerusalem ministry of Jesus ?Eand secondly, the worship of the Church on earth which is a recapitulation of both the Galilean and the Jerusalemite ministry of Jesus?E(pp. 25-26).

Further, the church?s worship on earth is not an autonomous act, but is possible only through the work of the Spirit of Christ. Through the Spirit the church?s liturgy is joined to the heavenly liturgy of the incarnate Son, and our sacrifice of praise is acceptable through the ministrations of the One who made the perfect sacrifice. Through the Spirit, then, the church?s sacrifice of praise is joined to the priestly ministry of Jesus in heaven to become one great liturgy that binds heaven and earth.

JESUS THE NEW TEMPLE
We can examine this from another angle as well. It is clear from the gospels that Jesus is a new temple (Jn 2:13-22), but the importance of this has not always been recognized. It is not a bit of random typology. As NT Wright has pointed out, Jesus repeatedly offers the people who approach Him blessings that Jews would have associated with the temple. Wright points to a number of features of Jesus?Eministry that assume that His ministry is effectively the rebuilding of the temple. His disciples do not fast. Fasting, Wright points out ?had to do with commemorating the destruction of the Temple?E( Jesus and the Victory of God , p. 433; cf. Zech 8:19). If Jesus?Edisciples do not fast, it is because the new temple has come. Though Jesus teaches in the temple area, he also teaches elsewhere, not only in synagogues but in the open air, by lakes, and on mountain tops. Wherever Jesus is, there is a place for instruction, for the delivery of the Word of the Lord.

A couple of aspects of this are important for my purposes. First, following John?s preparatory ministry, Jesus?Edisciples continue to baptize those who want to follow Him (John 4:1-2). Baptisms and washings in the OC removed various forms of uncleanness that prevented the person from approaching God in the sanctuary. In the NT, baptism is a mark of discipleship, but the cleansing aspect is still present; baptism is done in conjunction with confession and repentance (Matthew 3:5-6). Baptism cleanses the baptized to approach and dwell in the new temple, Jesus.

Second, as Wright points out, Jesus freely forgives people who come to Him without requiring them to offer sacrifice in the temple (Mark 2:1-13; Luke 7:36-50). He cites Meyer?s claim that ?this kind of extravagant independence would break the monopoly of the system, with its centre in priesthood and temple,?Eand thus Jesus?Eentire ministry ?was already undermining the absolute claims of [the scribes?] city and the basis for its control, the temple?E(p. 434). In these cases, it is sufficient for someone to approach Jesus in faith and devotion, and He freely forgives sins. Symbolically, Jesus accomplishes the same thing when He repeatedly cleanses lepers (Luke 7:22). In one case, He instructs the lepers to go through the Mosaic ritual for cleansing (Matthew 8:1-4). But in other cases He simply restores lepers and receives thanks (Luke 17:11-19). It is significant in this regard that Jesus frequently delivers people from ?unclean?Espirits; His exorcisms are simultaneously an act of cleansing and purification (Mark 1:21-28).

Third, Jesus eats and drinks with His disciples, as well as with tax gatherers and sinners. These celebrations involve the formation of the new, eschatological Israel. Jesus?Emeals establish a circle of companions, those who share bread with Him. Jesus celebrates the ?feast of the kingdom?Ewith His disciples, and through that begins to form the ?eschatological Israel,?Ethe Israel of the end times. He celebrates the feast of the eschatological community, the feast that makes the eschatological community what it is. In this respect too, Jesus?Eministry is a counter-temple movement. Festivals no longer center on the architectural temple in Jerusalem; instead, festivals break out wherever Jesus goes. In John 6, Jesus hosts a meal in the wilderness during the time of Passover, a feast normally celebrated at the temple. Jesus is the new festive center for the new Israel.

Jesus trains His disciples at the table. Table ministry is a training ground for the disciples. Jesus not only teaches at the table, but also puts His disciples to work at the table (Lk 9:10-17), and this is a central part of the apostles?Etraining. Jesus discusses discipleship in the categories of table manners (Lk 14:1-24). Jesus not only establishes a new circle of table friends, but also tells them that their conduct at the table is supposed to distinguish them from others. And their conduct at table is to model how they are going to live when they are away from the table. The righteousness that surpasses the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees is reflected in meal practices that differ from the meal practices of the Pharisees.

Several of these aspects of Jesus?Eministry come into particular focus in Luke 24. The two disciples are fleeing Emmaeus, discouraged by Jesus?Edeath and puzzled by reports of His resurrection. They need to ?turn around?Eand go back to Jerusalem to participate in the mission of the disciples. Jesus restores them to mission by rebuking them for their hard-heartedness, by teaching them concerning Himself, and by breaking bread with them. This is what happens each week as the church gathers for worship: We are restored to mission through rebuke, acceptance, instruction, and communion, as Jesus makes Himself known to us in the breaking of bread.

Jesus, and particularly the Risen Jesus, is thus the location for all that the temple provided in the OC: forgiveness and cleansing, instruction in the Word of the Lord, fellowship with the Lord at His table. Forgiveness and cleansing is found in turning to Jesus in faith and repentance; guidance and enlightenment is found in Jesus?EWords; communion with God is found at Jesus?Etable. And when the church gathers in Jesus?Ename, and in His presence through the Spirit, this is exactly what happens in worship: We draw near to Jesus seeking cleansing and renewal; we listen to His word; we sit at His table. This is the NC form of the sequence of purification-ascension-communion that we found in the Mosaic and Davidic systems of worship. In the worship of the church, Jesus continues to be active through His Spirit, cleansing the defiled, instructing the ignorant, feeding the hungry. Our ?sacrifice?Ein worship is a matter of approaching the ?sacrificed One?Ein faith, seeking purification, instruction, and food.

CONCLUSION
From both OT and NT, then, we discover the same pattern and sequence of worship. This sequence might take any number of specific forms in various churches. But the sequence is a fairly fixed biblical sequence.

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