Worship: Don’t leave anyone out

I love words. So does our youngest son, who enjoys puns. Sometimes at dinner we can drag out a pun with five or even eight groan-worthy permutations. When our youngest daughter is home from college, she begs for mercy: “Make it stop!”

We humans use words to play, think, rebuke, teach, learn, explore, sell, entertain, delight, direct and create. Author and teacher Richard Lederer highlighted our need for words by, fittingly, creating a new word. He said we are “verbivores;” we must consume words to live. That reminds me of some famous words: “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word. . . .” We Christians love the Word of God so much that we call it special revelation.

The patron saint of us Reformed folk, John Calvin, spoke and wrote many words: sermons, commentaries, the Institutes and more. Calvin defines faith as “a firm and certain knowledge of God’s benevolence toward us, founded upon the truth of the freely given promise in Christ, both revealed to our minds and sealed upon our hearts by the Holy Spirit” (Institutes, 3.2.7).

Reformed Christians have worked hard to ensure that church members have the right knowledge, and we have used words as the tool of choice for faith formation. Many of us can respond with exactly the same words to the question, “What is your only comfort?” Knowledge of the right words and the thoughts that the words symbolize have been the hallmarks of public profession of faith in the Reformed tradition.

I’m thankful to be part of this rigorous intellectual tradition, but our penchant for words and intellect have left people behind. Many of us who had to sit through both worship services every Sunday can tell you exactly how many boards span the sanctuary ceilings of our youth, because we counted them while our minds wandered through long discourses on the Bible, Bavinck and Berkhof.

In a sincere attempt to make worship more meaningful, some churches remove children, young people and people with intellectual disabilities, creating separate worship experiences for them. Hwarang Moon, a Korean Reformed Christian author, was so concerned by this practice that he wrote a book as an apologetic for including all God’s people in worship: Engraved Upon the Heart: Children, the Cognitively Challenged, and Liturgy’s Influence on Faith Formation (Wipf and Stock, 2015). Moon argues that everyone should be included in worship because not just the words, but the practice of worship forms faith by connecting believers today with God’s saving work done throughout history (93).

Divide and prejudice
Moon invites Calvin into this argument. Though Calvin’s definition of faith revolves around knowledge, Moon nuances that apparently cognitive understanding of faith by looking at Calvin’s other descriptions of faith including this (for me) surprising passage, “[Faith] is not a bare knowledge which flutters in the mind, but . . . it carries along with it a lively affection, which has its seat in the heart” (39). Moon describes the multiple ways that Calvin encouraged faith formation, which included not only catechetical instruction and preaching (for the mind), but also weekly participation in worship (which always included communion), bodily gestures, repetition, ceremony and ritual – all to foster knowledge and piety.

Moon strengthens his case by building on the Reformed tradition’s emphasis on covenant: “A relationship with God can be maintained even if the brain ceases to function, because God is gracious and faithful to the covenant. . . . Participation in public worship and the sacraments, where God is present and encounters us, is critical” (169).

Moon contends that excluding anyone from worship not only detracts from their own faith formation but also from forming the faith of all worshipers. He writes, “Prejudice is strengthened by separation” (201). “Rather than separating a person and permitting participation in public worship only after finishing a designated level of education . . . the church now must consider the power of participation and engagement” (169).

Sometimes I feel jealous of the “smells and bells” worship in the Orthodox tradition that engages the mind and all five senses, but I’m not ready to throw out our rich, Reformed worship tradition. Moon invites us to take practical steps toward healthier faith formation of all who are part of a church. He insists that everyone must be invited to engage in worship, trusting that participation in worship itself will help form the faith of worshipers, whatever their age or intellectual ability. (The Calvin Institute on Christian Worship has been helping worship leaders do just that with their recent emphasis on Universal Design in Worship.) In addition, Moon encourages readers to find ways to engage the mind and the heart, the ears and the eyes, tongue, nose and fingers. For example, Moon recommends celebrating communion every week, and I agree wholeheartedly.

Some churches have occasional “special” worship services in which people with intellectual disabilities are invited to help lead worship. While good, typically these services happen just once a year, sending the message that the rest of the year, the gifts of people with intellectual disabilities are not welcome. In contrast, my own church has occasionally sung a delightful song, “We Are Marching in the Light of God,” in three languages. A large group of us, including adults and children, march around the outside of the chairs while we all sing. Usually someone with an intellectual disability leads the way in this joyous celebration of the whole body of Christ, and God forms everyone’s faith in the process.