Memorial Service, Worship

The memorial service is for my Aunt Caroline. She died last weekend. I don't know if you ever met her. She was my favorite aunt. Her son Brian was my best friend as a child. I'm riding dwn to Visalia with my sister. My parents are nt doing well enough to travel that far so they can't go. Cyndi interviewing for a job as payroll and benefits manager at Whole Foods on Friday so she can't go, either. Yes, We will still be at your house for brunch on Saturday. 10 AM. Bringing champagne.

Worship: What Bernard said about the object of worship is one of the reasons I converted to Orthodoxy. Nothing about Orthodox wosrship is like being a spectator in an audience. When I was a boy I would sing hymns in church such as "I'll Fly Away", and "The Old Rugged Cross" which were very me-oriented. Very sentimental. And then at PBC I would sing hymns such as "It is well with my soul", again very me-oriented. And When I was in the choir at PBC I often felt like I was a performer and the songs I sang were for the enjoyment of the people in the audience. (this was especially true at Christmas.) Then at Cornerstone in San Francisco it was like an hour of really good, night-club quality rock music. The band at Cornerstone was good enough to play at Bimbo's or the Great American Music Hall or Slims. In fact, the inside of the church kind of looked like Great American Music Hall. It even had a bar, but it only served coffee. But the lyrics of the songs tended to be vapid. Kind of like Jesus makes me not feel lonely, or Jeus is cool, or Jesus meets all my needs. (To be fair, they had this one song, "Let Your Kingdom Come" that was theologically orthodox, actually said something, and totally rocked. It had a chourus that kind of reminded me of GnR's "Sweet Child of Mine". I have it on CD.)

I know your experience of Orthodoxy when you came to visit Holy Trinity that one time was very uncomfortable for you, but I think that is for two reasons: 1) it reminded you of your Roman Catholic childhood and 2) it was not user-friendly at all. That is, it was God who was the audience not the people, not the choir, not the clergy. The Gospel book was honored in the Little Entrance, God's words were listened to in the Apostol and Gospel Readings, God's great acts in history were recounted and He was praised for them, the people prayed for God's universe, the people bowed their foreheads to when the Holy Spirit entered the Bread and Wine, the Icons of God (including all the people in the temple) were honored with incense. That much worship is foreign to the vast majority of American Evangelical Protestants.

Frederica Mathews-Green wrote about speaking at Evangelical churches. She said she was amazed that after all of that tremendous preaching and beautiful singing that the audience didn't actually worship God. She jokingly wondered if they all sneaked back in to the church later, after she left, and did some real worship.

But, it is true, there is zero entertainment value in Orthodox services. You might not know this, but Orthodoxy does not just mean "Right-thinking" as many translators would put it. It also can be translated as "right-praise". Meaning, among other things, that it is for the hallowing of God's name, not for the warm-fuzzy feelings of the people.

I remember the first time I was ever in an Orthodox Church in Ben Lomond. I was dumb-struck. It seemed like for the first time in my life I was seeing real worship. And it was just a Vespers service! I really thought God might appear any moment, like he did to Isaiah in the year that king Uzziah died. It reminded me of something out of Revelation.

You should really try to make it to the Vigil services with us (It's way better than Vespers, and twice as long!). We have them every Saturday night. (Not to be confused with Festal Vigils which only happen on the eves of major feasts.) They really are the best services for Protestants to attend.