Liturgy: A Reminder That It Is Always About God
This post was originally a guest post at tracesoffaith.com.
Recently, my husband and I were looking for a new church. We both had lists of what we wanted in worship. But as we visited different churches, all of which are a beautiful representation of the body of Christ, we realized, our souls deeply desired a service that pointed us towards Jesus, and for us, that meant a liturgical service.
Regardless of whether I was attending church in South Carolina, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, India, Dubai, or Georgia, the repetitive motions of the liturgical services have been a reminder that worship is about God.
Confession
I studied abroad in Dharmsala, India. While there, I learned Tibetan and studied Buddhism at the Dali Llama’s school. I attended a little Anglican church, where the entire congregation spoke Hindi. The priest could only say “cupcake” in English, and I only understood enough Hindi to watch Bollywood movies.
Despite the language barrier, when it came time for confession, I recited the words in English as the congregation recited the words in Hindi. As the Priest pronounced me cleansed from my sins in Hindi, I felt the Holy Spirit affirm his words.
Despite knowing that private confession works and practicing private confession regularly, hearing a priest absolve me of my sins, reminds me that it is Jesus’ death on a cross, not my hard work, that washes away the stain of my sin.
Greg Goebel writes, “The voice speaks, and the people hear audibly that God has mercy, that he forgives, and that he does so through Jesus Christ. The human conscience needs to hear that voice.”
As I stand with the body of Christ, I feel the freedom to bare my soul before God. To share with him all the ways that I have fallen short. The grace to do that within a community reminds me that we are one body of Christ.
To read the entire blog post, please visit Traci's blog!
