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| Indiana-Kentucky
Synod |
Sanctus | ||
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A
Newsletter of the Worship Committee of the Indiana-Kentucky Synod | ||
 |
August,2006
Luke the Physician | |
Sanctus
is an occasional newsletter of the Worship Committee of the Indiana-Kentucky Synod.
It is mailed bi-monthly, as part of the Indiana-Kentucky Synod Resource Packet,
to to Rostered Leaders and Lay Congregation Chairs (presidents or vice-presidents).
Sanctus is also mailed to the Worship Planning Team chairs
in our I-K Synod Congregations. If you are a local worship planning leader and
would like to join this mailing, please contact Pr. Rudy Mueller, Rmueller@iksynod.org
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August
2006 Sanctus Online: | ||
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St. Luke the Evangelist is often thought to be a physician, due to Paul's comment in Colossians 4.14.
Many congregations have done special services of healing when the feast of St. Luke falls on a Sunday. [The feast day is October 18, not a Sunday this year.] In some congregations those rites and services of healing were meaningful and found a place in the regular life of the parish. In this issue we offer some suggestions for beginning, including, or enhancing rites of healing in the worship life of the congregation.
We begin by directing you to Life Passages: Marriage, Healing, Funeral (RW4), volume four of the Renewing Worship resources. There are several helpful comments on page 24 about the place of healing in the life of the parish. The ministry of healing:
1. "…has its foundation in the prayer of the worshipping community…"
2. "…emphasizes caring for the sick in the widest possible understanding of that term."
3. "…is grounded in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ…"
4. "…does not replace the gifts of God that come through the scientific community…"
Note that this ministry of healing is nothing new to our congregations. It is already part of every community that gathers to intercede in prayer for those who are ill, whether it is Sunday's assembly, two or three in a hospital room, or a parent by a child's bed. Note that this ministry understands healing and care in a very broad sense. It recognizes that there is illness of body, soul and mind. It recognizes that there is pain and brokenness in relationships and in communities.
Note that this ministry of healing is the ministry of Jesus Christ. In his time on earth he was engaged in healing disease, giving sight to the blind, cleansing lepers, and making the lame to walk. In his own death and resurrection he brought healing to our deepest ill, the sickness of sin and death. When he is present in sins absolved, in Word proclaimed, in water poured, in peace shared, in bread broken, there healing is found for our every ill.Note that this ministry celebrates healing wherever it is found. It gives thanks for care givers in homes and institutions, for researchers in the medical and scientific fields, for surgeons and nurses, for doctors and social workers. It celebrates the presence of God's healing power of love in our worshipping community, but also in the world around us.
There will be a Rite of Healing in the new Evangelical Lutheran Worship (ELW), which can be set within Holy Communion or the Service of the Word. If the rite takes place during the Sunday gathering, the propers of the day are used. For a liturgy of healing at another time, suggestions for other lessons and prayers specifically focused on healing are given in RW4, pages 32-39.
On the following page are some suggestions for celebrating the Feast of St. Luke with a rite of healing. Also in this issue is the latest information concerning Renewing Worship and the new hymnbook. Vicki Garber reviews Lisa Dahill's "Truly Present: Practicing Prayer in the Liturgy," Susan McMahon offers an article on children in worship, and Martin Gehring gives his response to this year's Institute of Liturgical Studies.
The
color of the day is red.
These notes are specifically for using the
Feast of St. Luke as an occasion for a liturgy of healing. The emphasis on Luke
as an evangelist, therefore, is not lifted up in these notes.
For discussion
about healing rites, see the section "Word".
While
it is appropriate on a feast day to omit the Brief Order for Confession and
Forgiveness, the relationship between healing and a rite of confession and
forgiveness provides encouragement for using it this day. It might also be appropriate
following the Creed as a beginning of the healing rite.
Possible hymns:
LBW: 161, 178 (st 19), 343, 345, 400; WOV: 716; RWSongbook:
197
A possible greeting:
P
Our help is the name of the Lord;
C The maker of heaven and earth.
P The
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ …
The
lessons for St. Luke may be used. The alternate first reading, Isaiah 35.5-8,
would be appropriate for a liturgy of healing. If you are planning such a liturgy
for a time other than Sunday morning or the Feast of St. Luke, suggestions for
readings may be found in RW4, pp 32-39.
Possible hymns for Hymn of the
Day: LBW: 360, 376, 423, 425, 426, 431, 434, 435.
WOV: 668,
735, 737, 738, 756; RWSongbook: 200; TFBF: Hymns 183-190
The liturgy of healing may be led from the baptismal font.
After a brief address by the presider, a litany of healing is offered, which serves as the intercessory prayers. Three litanies are provided in RW4, on pages 28, 34-36.
There
may be more than one station for laying on of hands, anointing with oil, and prayer.
Those who wish anointing and/or prayer come forward. If they wish, they may
speak briefly to the person who will anoint and pray, indicating the reason they
seek healing.
After the person kneels, the minister lays hands on the person's
head, and following a brief silence, offers the blessing.
If there is
oil for anointing, it is then placed on the person's forehead, making the sign
of the cross and using the appointed or similar words. If there is unscented oil
from the chrism mass, it may be used. If there is no oil from the chrism mass,
olive oil may be blessed before individuals come forward.
A prayer concludes
the rite.
"Create
in Me" would be an appropriate Offertory. Hymn 559 (LBW) is also appropriate.
Eucharistic
Prayer G in WOV Leaders Edition, even though it is for use in the summer,
makes two references to Jesus' coming to heal and would be appropriate for a liturgy
of healing.
Possible distribution hymns: LBW: 197; WOV:
706; TFBF: 129
"Lord, Now You Let Your Servant Go in Peace",
(since it is from Luke's Gospel), is an appropriate post-communion canticle.
"We
give you thanks… through the healing power of this gift of life…"
(prayer #241) is an appropriate post-communion prayer.
A possible
dismissal:
A "You are my witnesses", says the Lord, that all might
know and believe and understand that I am God. Go in peace. Bring healing and
life in Jesus' name to all the world.
C Thanks be to God.
You
can pre-order your copies of Evangelical Lutheran Worship. Go to www.augsburgfortress.org
to place your order. The pre-publication price is $17.50.
This new worship
resource is scheduled to be published on October 3, 2006, and the cost then will
be $20 each.
Augsburg Fortress is offering twelve-month financing on purchases
of the pew edition. Congregations have been mailed a Preview Kit, which includes
a CD music sampler and a CD-ROM with sample graphics, order forms, logos, and
more. [Note that the two discs have been labeled backwards, and replacement discs
have been mailed to all congregations.] The Leaders Ritual Edition (altar edition),
the Leaders Desk Edition, and Accompaniment Editions (one for hymns, one for liturgies)
will also be available the first of October.
Also
note that in September, every congregation and rostered leader will receive an
Introductory Kit.
This Kit will contain an introductory DVD for congregational
use, as well as other information for helping congregations promote this new worship
resource.
Also
note that in September, every congregation and rostered leader will receive an
Introductory Kit.
This Kit will contain an introductory DVD for congregational
use, as well as other information for helping congregations promote this new worship
resource.
The Synod will offer a series of events to introduce the new hymnbook this fall and next March. The events will be held at the following sites:
| Christ
the King | South
Bend | October
28 |
|
St.
Luke | Newburgh,
IN | November
4 |
| Pilgrim | Indianapolis
| November
18 |
Gloria
Dei | Crestview
Hills, KY | March
3, 2007 |
|
Risen
Savior | Fort
Wayne | March
17, 2007 |
Registration forms are in this issue of the Resource Packet and are available on-line at www.iksynod.org. These events are for all interested persons, including youth groups, confirmation classes, congregation councils, campus ministry sites, worship committees, choirs, musicians, and all rostered leaders.
NEW
from Renewing Worship
Lectionary Charts: The lectionary conversion
chart developed for Renewing Worship has been updated to reflect the final Sunday
designations that will be used in Evangelical Lutheran Worship. Charts
are also available showing the Sunday after Pentecost designations for 2006 (Year
B) and 2007 (Year C).
Daily
Prayer Readings for the Time after Pentecost
Daily readings for the time
after Pentecost are available for both the complementary series (ELCA) and the
semi-continuous series (ELCIC). These excerpts are from Revised Common Lectionary
Daily Readings, published by the Consultation on Common Texts, which is available
for purchase from Augsburg Fortress.
Put
on your calendars the Worship Jubilee Event on Navy Pier in Chicago, August 3-6,
2007.
Two websites allow you to get copyright permission quick and easy. They are www.onelicense.net and www.licensingonline.org. There are some publishers that are on both sites, but neither requires annual fees, so they are both good sites to have earmarked as a favorite.
As you use Renewing Worship resources, www.sundaysandseasons.com, continues to be a good value. They added a new User Guide to online help documentation! In it, you'll find information about the site and its different sections, as well as step-by-step instructions on how to use each feature. They've broken it down into 5 areas, labeled just like the tabs at the top of your Sundays and Seasons.com page: Home, Planner, Reference Library, Hymns & Songs, and NRSV Bible. For those who'd like to learn more about the different terms on the site, they've also included a glossary.
Children
in Worship: Healing the Future
And so it is that Luke's gospel is as shocking to us moderns as it was to his own well-trained contemporaries. I for one am stunned each time I read this gospel through in one sitting. Luke's characters are so amazing! - companions who will stop at nothing in order to bring a friend to Jesus; a centurion humbled through love for a servant; a Samaritan moved to shocking generosity of spirit; grateful women set free. This gospel tells story after story and gives image after image of an "over the top" God - one who hunts high and low for a single coin, one who pursues a lost sheep, one who runs shamelessly to welcome a son who squandered his inheritance and is a disgrace to the family name.
This is the God I want ALL children to know. This God heals the world.
Last Sunday, when I was in my parents' church in South Dakota I was momentarily transformed by the preacher's illustration of God's "over the top" love.
We had been cued to consider the "half full -half empty" question by a projected photo of a woman looking through a glass of water. Taking a full pitcher of milk and a glass, the preacher poured until the milk reached the middle of the glass. Then, boldly gesturing with glass in hand (a bit too boldly for my comfort zone) he spoke of differences resulting from these two perspectives and how these differences often lie at the root of conflicts in our congregation and conflicts within families. Hmm… family conflict… yes, during this visit to my mother he definitely had my full attention at that point.
Then he stopped and poured milk right up to the rim of the glass. The tension in the room rose along with the milk. He paused and we all held our breath. And then he simply said that with God, each of the two perspectives miss the point. They miss the mark.
And
then he poured more milk….
and some more…
and he kept on pouring
and pouring and pouring.
The milk ran over the rim and out on the table and
still he kept pouring more.
There were many in the room -perhaps the children most of all - who like me, were at least a little shocked and scandalized by all this. But… shocked at the waste, or scandalized over a little spilled milk in church, what sense could we make of a life poured out?
The sermon certainly messed up MY thinking -thank God. It changed how I related to my mother all week. In the preacher's risk-taking, I experienced at my core that both "half-full" and "half-empty" are perspectives of a fear-based economy of scarcity. Neither one can be good or true. In God's economy of grace, of course, no such dichotomy exists. The message had gently uncovered both my secret pride in having a half-full perspective and the more deeply hidden threat of not measuring up, which a little self-satisfaction had kept out of my awareness.
What I saw that day and all that week was that God's overflowing grace knows no bounds - 'though it does have a way of messing things up in all kinds of places - even church! There is no half-full. No half-empty… just wholly abounding, prodigal grace rushing in from the future, welcoming us home.
The various speakers orbited this theme in more or less elliptical fashion. John Bell, a member of the Iona Community of Scotland, spoke of the need to engage the world directly in our worship, lamenting the lack of hymnody to bluntly engage such themes as domestic violence and economic injustice. Being a liturgical institute, I suppose it should come as no surprise that past presentations have tended to frown on such things as "seeker" services and other less liturgical, more culture-informed styles of worship. Yet as the liturgical landscape changes, the Institute offered a growing number of presentations devoted to electronic media in worship.
Further, Thomas Schattauer, professor of Liturgics at Wartburg Theological Seminary struck a more generous and welcome note of respect in his presentation, suggesting that perhaps such different manifestations of worship might simply reflect differing facets of the same wonderful jewel of worship. Schattauer offered that many folks have found worship today "conventional", by which he means a structure and style of worship which only speaks to the maintenance of the church. He suggested that there have been several different ways in which worshipping communities have responded in attempts "to re-imagine the assembly for worship in relation to God's mission (God's purpose for the world)": the liturgical movement, the contemporary worship movement, liberation perspectives, the post-modern approaches, and pentecostalism. He did not offer this as a solution to the differences in worship styles, but many found it an insightful and helpful analysis.
Of course, there are always many more workshops and presentations than time and stamina make possible, but the real glory of the institute lies not in its speakers, but in its worship. Gathering morning, noon and night, we experience worship of such high caliber, so glorious in its conception and execution, that I find myself delighted and depressed at the same time: delighted to find worship transfigured into something so wonderful, engaging and holy, but depressed to know that soon I will have to descend back into that work-a-day valley where worship, though faithful, may not be exactly … well … exhilarating. But that's why I go. For a few days I get to live a vision of what worship could be. And having breathed that summit air, I come back down ready to renew my efforts to live into that vision.
Next
year's Institute, "Healing in the Christian Assembly: A Focus in the Context
of Liturgical Worship", will be held April 16-18, so mark your calendars
now.
[Editor's
Note: Truly Present is a book in the Worship Matter Series, published by Augsburg
Fortress. It is order number 0-8066-5147-4.]
Dr. Dahill's book "Truly Present, Practicing Prayer in the Liturgy" is a pleasant read which seeks to engage the reader in a series of spiritual practices that carry the experience, learning and enthusiasm of Sunday worship into daily life. The book is beautifully written. Indeed, in some places it is almost poetic in its description. After presenting a thought provoking introduction, Dr. Dahill covers seven general areas of worship in succeeding chapters: Gathered and Called (Baptism), Confession, Singing (and Arts), Silence before the Word, Receiving the Living Word, Responding to the Living Word, and the Body of Christ through connection with the Eucharist and Vocation. Each chapter is organized to first analyze our human need in a particular area of worship. Needs analysis is followed by suggested prayer practices that can be done on a day to day basis. These practices are designed to continue what began in worship. Finally, each chapter ends with a series of reflection questions.
The book has many strong concepts that are well developed and helpful. The author's analysis of our need in and for the various pieces of worship is insightful in every chapter. She moves the reader through a process of recognizing the ways in which worship touches our deepest human burden, sorrow, isolation, pain, joy and thanksgiving. She reminds us of how common it is in our day to be exhausted, depleted, and hungry for holy space and time. She helps us to reflect on what we miss if we are not confessional. She touches a deep chord as she discusses the ways in which music and art mold and shape our lives and our thoughts. She makes a strong case for receiving and responding to Christ, the Living Word, in our midst and to the Eucharist as our connection to the Body of Christ. Perhaps her strongest analysis is in her view of both our need for and our discomfort with silence.
The reflection questions at the end of each chapter are particularly helpful and would easily and perhaps best, lend themselves to group discussion.
Less accessible are the recommended prayer practices themselves. I engaged in many of these practices myself and found it difficult in some cases to make the transition from the printed word to actually doing the recommended practice. However, that is not all bad because most of what we do in practice is learned in the doing, not merely in the reading. Perhaps it will stimulate people to make a greater effort to do the prayers rather than simply to think they are a good idea and then fail to put them to use.
I had no trouble envisioning Dr. Dahill's writings as a stimulus for preaching and instruction about worship. Her work could easily translate into a very fine leading of a whole congregation into a deeper worship experience. I also believe that the flow of growth encouraged by use of her work would go both directions, that as people experienced the suggested prayer practice they would find that not only do they experience a greater sense of the holy in day to day living, but also that their joy and inspiration in worship would be enhanced.
I hope that many people read Dr. Dahill's book and put it to use, for like her, I believe that God is calling us constantly into deeper relationship, and that the more we engage with God the more we will recognize that to do so is the highest purpose of our lives.
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