Today we are continuing in our series on worship in which over the next several weeks we will be examining the various elements of our worship. Last Sunday we spoke of preparing for worship. In coming weeks, we’ll look at prayer in our worship, music, the proclamation of the Word, our response to God in our worship and other forms that make up our worship. On this Pentecost Sunday, we are looking at the "language" of our worship—appropriately, we hope, as language was an important part of the Pentecost story. (Read Joel 2:28-32 and Acts 2:1-4, 36-39 with paraphrase of 5-25)

The language of worship seeks to find, in its various forms, first of all, a way for the worshiper to communicate praise and glory to God, and, secondly, a way that communicates to the worshiper God’s love, mercy and grace. I speak of "various forms" of worship because we human beings are a people of varied tastes and inclinations. For example, some of us are visual learners; some of us are audio learners. Visual people will be attracted to and aided by visual forms in worship—for example, the use of the screen, the colors of red for Pentecost, and the images in the wood carvings on our baptismal font, pulpit and table. Audio people will be attracted to and aided by the sounds of worship—the music, the reading of Scripture, perhaps even closing their eyes to hear the words of Scripture as it is read. Some of us are meditative and reflective types—in the terminology of GodViews such people are probably Devotionalists—finding the deepest expression of God in the quiet and meditative disciplines of our faith. Such people will find the prayers and the quiet moments in our language of worship to be most helpful to their worship. Just as the visitors to Jerusalem at Pentecost heard the gospel proclaimed in their own, varied languages, so too do we receive the gospel and offer the best of our worship in a variety of ways and forms.

As I mentioned, over the next several weeks we will be exploring the various forms of our worship. In some ways, talking about the "language" of our worship, the various "forms" of our worship, is to talk about the "liturgy" of our worship. Liturgy, which has its roots as a word in the Greek words for "public" and for "work," means "the forms used in our work of public worship." So, when we speak of the liturgy of our worship, we are speaking about those various "forms" in worship—from Preludes to Postludes, Calls to Worship and Benedictions, Prayers and Music, etc.

All of which reminds me of my Introduction to Worship class at seminary. It was also known as "Baby Worship" since it was a first semester required class for first-year seminary students and future classes on worship were to come. One of our assignments in "Baby Worship" was to work in small groups of eight and put together four Advent services for morning worship and four Advent evening prayer services. My group decided the best way to handle the assignment was to "divide and conquer," breaking into smaller groups of two people each and assigning one morning and one evening service to each sub-group. We also decided in order to do that "dividing and conquering" we needed to come up with a basic framework for the services so we were all working with the same thing. What we were talking about was the "liturgy" framework all of us were to use with our services. After much discussion, we came up with a framework for the morning worship services that contained twenty items, much to my amazement. I need to add here that while my growing up years were spent in the Lutheran Church which is a "high church" on the liturgical scale, my pre-seminary years as a Presbyterian were spent in a church that was "low church" on the liturgical scale. That is to say, in the Lutheran Church I grew up in the order of the service was the same every Sunday. The only changes were the hymns to be sung, the Scriptures to be read and what the pastor had to say in his sermon. Otherwise, the liturgy of the service was always the same—including the same words to be said…oftentimes sung! If one went every Sunday, like my family did, one didn’t even need to open the Worshipbook—the "liturgy" became memorized because it was repeated every Sunday. And there were probably more than twenty items making up that order for worship. On the other hand, the Presbyterian Church we were members of before going to seminary had an ever changing order of worship and the number of items making up the service was probably no more than ten. So, when my small group determined twenty items that had to be included in the skeletal framework for our worship services, I was somewhat amazed. This week, I pulled out my folder for that class and read the paper I wrote about the process. I wrote one sentence in that paper that ended with an exclamation point: "The ‘basic frame’ for the morning worship consisted of twenty items!" I went on to explain my discomfort with the framework stemmed from my Presbyterian Church experience where "we seldom sang the Doxology, never sang the Gloria Patri, and did not have a Passing of the Peace other than a general time of greeting." Obviously, the members of my group had a different Presbyterian experience and felt there were at least twenty "must-be-included" items in the liturgy for our worship services.

Now, we do have a Book of Order which includes as one of its three sections a Directory for Worship that guides and directs our worship decisions. One of the things we celebrate as Presbyterians, however, is our diversity and variety. Consequently, there is little that is mandated in the Directory for Worship. Certainly, there are not twenty "must-be-included" items for a Presbyterian worship service. In fact, about 20 years ago the Directory for Worship was re-written with a goal of updating the language and making the directory more concise and brief. The result, however, was a Directory for Worship that about doubled in size! The reason for that was the reality of acknowledging the many and varied forms that are suitable for Presbyterian worship. Not "required," but suitable for inclusion. Liturgical dance, for example, is mentioned. Not every worship service on every Sunday must include liturgical dance, but it is acknowledged in the Directory for Worship as an acceptable form for worship. Thus resulting in a larger Directory for Worship.

The point is this, Presbyterian worship can be many and varied in the form it will take, in the language or liturgy it will use. In some ways, the Book of Order and its Directory for Worship encourages this. Therefore, while in this series we will talk about such things as being called to worship—the topic for next week—how that call to worship looks will vary. Some Sundays it will be a responsive call to worship as it was this morning; some Sundays it will be more informal, perhaps Janet calling us to worship by moving us from a time of greeting to a time of offering God our worship in song. Not every Sunday includes the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper as today’s worship does, but they are always present through the font and table and through the words spoken and sung about God’s love and grace. The form of our worship, the language of our worship will vary from Sunday to Sunday, but the goal is always the same—to lead us to worshiping God.

In conclusion, allow me to refer again to the Directory for Worship to help us see the desired goal of the language of our worship. In a section of the first chapter of the directory, a section entitled "The Language of Worship" it reads as follows, God brings all things into being by the Word. God offers the Word of grace, and people respond to that divine initiative through the language of worship. They call God by name, invoke God’s presence, beseech God in prayer, and stand before God in silence and contemplation. They bow before God, lift hands and voices in praise, sing, make music, and dance. Heart, soul, strength, and mind, with one accord, they join in the language, drama, and pageantry of worship." (W-1.2001)

Not everyone is comfortable with lifting hands in worship, not everyone can sing, not everyone is comfortable with silence, not everyone will dance in worship. But in all these things, in their varied form and style, we find a language, a form that helps us worship. Hopefully, along the way, we learn to accept and celebrate the language of others that may not be our form for worship, but helps lead others to worship God. Then, collectively, we find ourselves together as a church responding to God’s "initiative of grace through His Word" by offering to God our worship and praise.

Let us take a moment of silence, even if silence is not your primary language for worship, let us take a moment for silent reflection on God’s Word for us today.