The Language of Praise

The second article in the current issue of Liturgy is an essay by Paul Junggap Huh which traces the history and development of the practice of sung psalmody from Calvin’s prescriptions for the church in Geneva to the 2011 revision of The Psalter: Psalms and Canticles for Singing, of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

Fourth Sunday of Easter: 29 April 2012

The first thing that struck me, during the initial skim of the readings for this week is that the assemblers of the lectionary had violated one of their own organizing principles.  Week by week, the RCL provides a first lesson from the Hebrew scriptures (except during Eastertide, when the first lesson is from the Acts of the Apostles), a Psalm chosen as a congregational sung response to that first lesson, a lesson from the Epistles (or occasionally from the Revelation to John) and a lesson from one of the Gospels. This Sunday, however, the Psalm is clearly meant to complement the Gospel lesson, and seemingly does not refer to the first lesson at all! I love the 23rd Psalm as much as the next preacher, but really!  Quel fromage! as dear Molly Ivens, of blessed memory, used to say.

Sing to the Lord some new old songs!

A new issue of Liturgy has arrived! How exciting!  Our new topic is Singing the Psalms, and the articles are amazing! The editor for this issue is David Gambrell, associate for worship in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Office of Theology and Worship and editor of Call to Worship: Liturgy, Music, Preaching, and the Arts, and he has assembled a wonderful collection of writers who have thought deeply well about the the place of the Psalms in the public worship of the church.

An Autumnal Easter

Springtime in Northern Illinois seems to be elusive this year. Instead of a period of gradual warming, we seem to be having periods of Summer heat, followed by sudden resurgences of Winter weather. It’s playing hob with the traditional patterns of gardening (plant the peas on St. Patrick’s Day; plant the potatoes on Good Friday) and turning my mind back to the issues of ecology and liturgy that are discussed in the current issue of Liturgy.

Second Sunday of Easter: 15 April 2012

Early in my preaching career, I was appointed as the associate pastor to one of those great tall-steeple-church-in-a-university-town congregations. My mother had been an associate pastor for many years to a nearly identical congregation across town, and her advice to me was, “You will always preach on the Sunday after Christmas and the Sunday after Easter. Better start studying up on Doubting Thomas.”

Initiation and Community

One of the greatest gifts of liturgical renewal has been the gradual return to a focus upon the various rites of preparation and initiation during the Lent-Easter-Pentecost cycle. However, concurrently with this renaissance of attention to the deep meanings of initiation, and its essentially communal character, the church finds itself embedded in a culture which is is increasingly individualistic, alienated and transient. 

Feast of the Resurrection: April 8, 2012

While it is fashionable to decry the current abysmal lack of biblical literacy in western culture, its one advantage is that preachers often have the opportunity to tell someone a story for the first time. Not on Easter though. One of the main difficulties of Easter preaching is overcoming the fact that nearly everyone arrives upon the scene already knowing how the story ends. Even (perhaps especially) those who only worship God on Christmas and Easter walk through the church doors confident that they know what they are about to hear.

What do you mean I'm not the main character?

I gave up meat for Lent. Not just the red meat, but the fish & poultry too. And not just on Fridays either. I went the whole (bean) enchilada - Sundays included. Then, in the midst “having a little smug” about the steely self-discipline required to make such a huge sacrifice I happened upon Frank Senn’s theological reflections for Holy Week, published in the Spring 2003 issue of Liturgy, and all of the smug just sort of slowly leaked away.