Enjoy this intermission between two hard to hear essays, and do not let my beard hide my tongue-in-cheek. A weightier work appears tomorrow.
In the previous essay, I dismissed the four-fold shape of liturgy as imaginary and doing more harm than good. I could have spoken with more clarity about what is meant when speaking of a four-fold shape/movement/order. Apparently a few people thought I was referencing the four-fold order of worship. That is understandable because a lot of four-fold things started showing up in churches after World War II, and the truth is much that can be said about a four-fold shape of liturgy is the same as for the four-fold order of worship. The are birthed from the same mother in the same moment.
Just as there is no such thing as the theory of evolution but there are evolutionary theories, also, there is not a four-fold order, but there are fourfold orders. They seem all the rage, and every modern denomination has at least one, and every one of them claims theirs is the ancient order of worship that has always been and is still practiced today.
One four-fold order consists of Entering, Hearing, Giving Thanks, and Departing. Another has Gathering, Word, Table, and Sending. Still another holds to Awe and Praise, Confession and Pardon, God’s Word, Our Response. I could mention others. If you think they are all the same thing with different phrasings, you are wrong. One is from a PCUSA clergy, one is Global Methodist, and one is Baptist. Each uses a different lexicon for these words. If you spoke to them individually, you would know that they have different understandings, and each would place certain acts of worship in different places in the order. Where is the Lord’s Supper placed in the third example? Is it before or after God’s Word, or is it God’s Word? It depends on what one means by these four different acts, doesn’t it.
Perhaps we could attain some clarity—perhaps one of these, or another, could acquire validation—if we looked at what the ancients said about the four-fold order. What did Chrysostom say about it? What is written by Augustine regarding the four-fold order of worship? Maybe someone more like Cranmer or Luther, who authored many liturgies, could settle the matter. We are Methodists. Why don’t we turn to Wesley’s works for his view on the four-fold order of worsgip? Alas, all are silent about the four-fold order because they never heard of a four-fold order because their liturgies do not fit into a four-fold order. The ancients seem oblivious to the ancient order of worship that has always been. If only St Basil had the benefit of a modern seminary education.
Gregory Dix was aware of four movements when he introduced them in The Shape of Liturgy, 1945. He advocated for the four-fold shape of the Lord’s Supper as taking, blessing, breaking, and giving. You can see how easily one can translate these acts into any of the sets of four above.
Shortly after the success of Dix’s book, Vatican II found a four-fold presence of Christ in the Mass–in the Eucharist broken and shared, in the minister, in the Word of God, and in the assembled people. Then, the Episcopalian Carl Daw found the four-fold shape for preaching, which coincides with taking, blessing, breaking, and giving. Isn’t it amazing how God has placed a four-fold order everywhere one wants to look for it. How is it that it took the post World War II generation to find this?
Let us take the order of Gathering, Word, Table, Sending as I personally find it the best of the group before us. I mean that with sincerity—no sarcasm (though I would argue that there are only three. The Table cannot be separated or compartmentalized. The Table is present in the first words and the last words of the service. But that is not, at present, a popular understanding.) If we look at Gathering, Word, Table, and Sending, do you not notice something is missing? The Emmaus journey could never have begun if they had not made preparation and agreed to meet. The Hebrew Scriptures give considerable attention to preparation for worship. Jesus speaks of being reconciled before presenting an offering. Preparation is required in both the Old and New Testaments, attested to by Christ, and necessary for the Emmaus journey. Clearly, preparation is an essential part of worship. So now we have a five-fold order of Preparation, Gathering, Word, Table, and Sending.
Preparation is not just for worship leaders. Everyone must prepare for worship. We must plan when to rise. We must attend to personal grooming. Get dressed. Most of us must have breakfast. Lo and behold! I have discovered another four-fold order in the act of Preparation: Rise, Wash, Dress, Dine. Doesn’t that all sound very liturgical?
That also presents a problem. Things are out of balance. I have a four-fold order of Preparation in a five-fold order of worship. That cannot stand. Never fear. I failed to include traveling to the meeting place in the Preparation. Since the last act in worship is Sending, then traveling to and sending from make perfect bookends to worship, don’t they. That gives us a five-fold order of Preparation within the five-fold order of worship. This is the ancient order of worship that has always been and is still practiced today.
Isn’t it amazing how God has placed the five-fold order everywhere one desires to look for it?
(If people are allowed to make up stories about an ancient four-fold order, then I am allowed to make up stories about an ancient five-fold order, and I like mine better.)
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