Worship Come to Its Senses

Saliers, in this brief text, looks at the implications of liturgy and worship. He uses the term 'coming to its senses' in the meaning that 'coming to our senses requires both the deepening of thought and the awakening of conscience.' It requires discernment and reflection. Saliers sees the liturgical reform efforts of the past generation as a response to 'a deeper hunger for a renewed connection between liturgy and life, between common prayer and ministry.' Saliers sets out four essential qualities of worship that make it true and relevant - awe, delight, truthfulness and hope. Each of these must be present, or the worship experience is diminished and is in danger of being inauthentic, if not in intention, then in the experience of those present. Awe has an element of mystery about it, according to Saliers, but also is something that can be found in nature and in human society and action. Awe does not imply distance and the inability to be known or understood - for Saliers, 'The Holy Other who is intimately present - this is the source of any sense of awe before God.' If we learn to experience this awe in the worship context, perhaps it can be carried out into the world. Too often, church experience is the exact opposite of delight. Long-winded preachers or stiffly executed rituals can really draw the sense of delight away with amazing speed and force. Saliers argues for a sense of simplicity (he cites the Shaker Song, 'Simple Gifts' as well as the Shaker experience), and the sense of gratitude as part of this delight. 'Life is brought to holiness and delight by a continual rehearsal of thanks.' Delight can be experienced in song as in silence; 'godly delight is to be found in every dimension of worship.... When the whole range of our senses is activated by the Word and sacramental signs of God, life comes to worship, and worship comes alive.' One might think that truth is a fundamental component of authentic worship, but often 'truth' is a victim of redefinition. Confession, according to Saliers, is an important component in reconciling ourselves and our lives outside of worship to God in this setting. Worship should be transformative, and risk the kind of honesty that doesn't bow to taste or 'just getting along' kinds of feelings. However, our sense of honesty must be honestly met. 'Testimony can itself become self-indulgent', Saliers writes, and our tendencies toward truth should be governed by grace such that we look to ourselves first in this regard, for the sake of our relationship with the community. Hope is perhaps the most important element for many in worship. One hymn that I know best mentions hope twice in the first stanza: O God, our help in ages past, Our hope for years to come, Our shelter from the stormy blast, And our eternal home! Hope binds us together with the past and the future. Saliers writes about life through hope and memory, as well as the practice of hope in the community. This hymn demonstr

Saliers, who has written extensively on the theology of worship, presents a great book to introduce people to the idea of thinking about worship as something filled with meaning and implications. It will serve as a good discussion starter for church groups, and will be a good read for people of all types who are interested in religion. Saliers is an intriguing person and a gifted scholar - this book is truly a gift to the church and will be useful to ministers, laity, and students of theology. It will show them the potential wonder of worship and challenge the assumptions we have all been lulled into holding about our corporate and private worship lives.