Worship as Surgery

     I have been listening to some old cassette tapes of worship services from a church in Charlotte.  I keep these tapes and listen to them because this church was created and shaped by the conviction that worship is vital.   The preacher was a man named H. Louis Patrick and he was exceptional.  He was, in  my opinion, the best preacher I have ever heard.  But not only was he a great preacher, he was also convinced and the church conducted worship as if it was absolutely essential.

     I remember hearing George Buttrick, another outstanding Protestant preacher in New York City, who once quipped that he would entertain "layman" Sunday as soon as they had layman surgery at Mt. Sinai Hospital.   I have quoted that before and been jumped by other preachers who suggested that liturgy was "the people's work" and so they should be involved.  It seems to me that singing hymns, confessing sin, saying what they believe in the creeds is a pretty heavy load for the layperson.

     But I think that what Buttrick meant and what Patrick believed is that worship is as important to the human spirit as medical surgery.   People do not causally decide to skip an appointment for their surgery.  They do not allow their games to cancel their surgery.  Medical concerns are number one concerns. They are a top priority.  Buttrick and Patrick both believed the same about the need for the human spirit for worship as the people of God. Worship is not a causal come and go affair. It is, as Anne Dillard suggested, humans playing with dynamite, when the Power and love of God might irrupt in the midst of the people.  Worship ought to be carefully and prayerfully planned and conducted.

      It is this attitude, this expectation, this view of worship that seems to be missing in so much of the Protestant worship that I have seen in retirement.  There is too much carelessness in what is done. There is too much focus on the activities of the announcements. There is too much "hail fellow well met". There is too much of a desire to have people "be happy."  There is too little challenge and demand of the gospel shared.   Probably too much psychology and too little good theology.  (I know there is too little Bible being used if what I hear from the religious speakers in politics. They either have a much edited smaller Bible or they aren't reading the one they have.)

     I am very lucky. I have a whole box of these cassette tapes that I can play when my "sin sick soul" needs surgery.  But I pray for the Christian faith in the USA.