Monday, January 19, 2009A SELF CRITICISM: failure to make full use of the hymnal and liturgy.
While I am not comfortable with view screens or overhead projectors, before we liturgical church members get smug, we should ask ourselves about how well do we use our hymnals? One former Jesuit, who became continuing Anglican, advised using the hymnal as my prayer book, if I remember correctly. While Lutheran Worship (LW) is not as good as The
Lutheran Hymnal (TLH), in my opinion, it does have the advantage of a good lectionary. The LW also had Luther's Small Catechism. How many people have consulted the Small Catechism since confirmation or adult instruction? We now have the Lutheran Service Book (LSB). I admit I have not purchased a copy yet. But if I do get a copy, I should probably do more than sing the hymns on Sunday and read through the lectionary. Perhaps view screens might be more convenient than holding hymnals. But with the hymnal or prayer book we can take the contents with us outside church. Well the contents can be put on a laptop. The early church did not have the modern conveniences we have. They probably did not even have hymnals. My guess is the liturgy was introduced in catechism and practiced in worship. The scripture lessons were most likely not projected on to a big screen. The scripture lessons were read to the congregation. And they probably memorized the text. The reason why I write this is other cultures communicated by reading to the people instead of people reading the books. Though John Steinbeck is novelist, not a Bible Scholar, what he wrote in a letter sort of relates to learning the faith. Steinbeck wrote that the Greek people did not learn about the Persian wars by reading about them. Instead the accounts of the Persian wars were READ TO them. Steinbeck really hit home the point of memory. Instead of reading the text, they had the text read to them and they memorized the text. Or eventually after having the text read to them, over the years, they internalized the contents. Perhaps we might want to do more with exercising our memory. I know of one pastor who seemed to favor simply listening to the reading instead of listening and reading along while the lessons were being read. I think reading could have been a distraction. But others argue that one must read along and get hit with information on more than one level. I suspect others would argue one should exercise the memory. Steinbeck wrote that the written word must have destroyed (or disabled) what must have been a remarkable tool, that is memory. ____________________________________________________________
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