Worship is what happens when we are experiencing a living encounter with God and responding to Him rightly.

It is "meeting" - expressed in dialogue, producing growth in "knowing" (biblical faith always has a "knowing at its heart), and for its full content to be realised it must be both individual and communal; individual because each person must answer to God for himself, and communal because our individuality cannot be realised except in relationship. God made us that way.

Our God-given nature also requires us to express our attitudes both by words and by actions - indeed, God himself has always communicated Himself to us by words and deeds … and we are made in His image!

What gives shape and content to Christian worship?

The answer Jesus gave is John 4:24, "God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth."

I - In Spirit

(a) In the resources supplied by the Holy Spirit.

(b) With that element of our nature which is the meeting-point of the human with the divine, namely, our spirit … regarded not as something separate from the rest of us, but as that into which our whole being flows, body, mind and feeling. Worship must engage the whole person Godward.

"Worship is the submission of all our nature to God. It is the quickening of conscience by His holiness; the nourishment of the mind with His truth; the purifying of imagination by His beauty; the opening of the heart to His love; the surrender of the will to His purpose - and all this is gathered up in adoration, the most selfless attitude of which our nature is capable, and therefore the chief remedy for that self-centredness which is original sin, and the source of all actual sin." (William Temple, 'Readings in John's Gospel', MacMillan, p. 68)

II - In Truth

(a) According to the truth. It must be directed to God as He truly is, as He stands revealed in His Word and His Work, so as to be free from all homage to Him under a false image (which is idolatry).

(b) Truly, without insincerity or self-deception or dishonesty.

"Christian worship is distinct from all other worship, in the first place because it is directed to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; its development and expression is distinct from all other worship, in the second place because its inspiration from the human side is the Holy Spirit, Who has been in the Church to inspire and guide it since Pentecost." (William Maxwell, 'An Outline of Christian Worship', Oxford University Press, p. 1)

Implications of all this are -

1. God Himself must be the focus of our worship, not our feelings about Him.

Worship must "set Him forth" so His "worth-ship" is acknowledged. We are to behold Him. This means worship must have an objective character, primarily, and a subjective character only secondarily. We become like what we look at … so we must look!

Worship that seeks to manipulate my reactions without giving me a reality to react to will end up corrupting me and losing its way. We must not worship anything but God; that is the first commandment.

2. The initiative in worship must come from God.

It is His Word to us that must be heard first, not ours to Him. We must ask, not "What are we after when we worship?" but "What is He after?" If we are invited to meet the Queen, we do not insist that arrangements be to our liking; we learn what are her requirements, then accept and follow them. We should do no less with God. He has indicated His wishes in Scripture.

I - OLD TESTAMENT

Looking first to the Old Testament, we focus on three significant occasions of worship when God entered into, or renewed His Covenant Relationship with His people Israel:

1. With Moses - Exodus 19-24
2. With Josiah - II Kings 23
3. With Nehemiah - Nehemiah 8

Five elements emerge:

		Exodus	II Kings	Nehemiah
1.	CALL TO ASSEMBLY	19:10-11, 13b	23:1-2a	8:1, 18b
2.	GOD'S WORD SPOKEN	20 - 23	23:2b	8:2-3, 8
3.	CONGREGATIONAL RESPONSE	24:3	23:3b	8:6; 9:2-3, 5ƒƒ
4.	COVENANTAL SACRIFICE	24:5-8	23:21	10:32-34
5.	COVENANTAL MEAL	24:11	23:22-23	8:9-12

Israel at worship was thus a believing society, attentive to God and answering to Him in the bonds of a sacred covenant, sealed in sacrifice and ratified in the fellowship meal. All this was rooted in God's redeeming acts, first the Exodus, and later the return from Exile.

The essentials of Biblical worship are thus established:

1. It is inspired by God's spoken Word and visible Work, and
2. The response is expressed in words and actions, in community.

Worship in fact found expression at three levels -

a. Individual - Wherever God "met" a man e.g, Gen. 15, 22, 28:10-22, Ex. 3
b. Family - The Passover e.g. was essentially family worship, Ex. 12:19, 26 See also Deut. 6:6-7, 20-25, Prov. 1:8
c. Community - The temple was the only place where the Covenant Community could gather for worship … until the Exile, during which time, since the temple was no longer accessible, synagogue worship took its rise; it centred in the reading and exposition of Scripture, with associated prayers and the singing of psalms.

After the Exile, worship was divided between Synagogue (worship centred on the Word) and Temple (worship centred on action - sacrifice; though prophets functioned in the temple - you got a sermon with your sacrifice! Psalm 50 is an example of this: sacrifice to v. 6, sermon from v. 7; see also Psalms 32, 95, 115, 136)

II - NEW TESTAMENT

Turning to the New Testament, this pattern of worship is clearly maintained, but with two significant differences:

1. Sacrifice disappears - the "one, full, perfect and sufficient sacrifice of Christ" eliminates the need for it.

2. The Word and Work of God which supplies the focus and inspiration of worship is the Word of Christ and God's saving deed in Christ, which together give rise to the New Covenant.

Acts 2:42 reiterates the pattern:

1.	ASSEMBLY	FELLOWSHIP
2.	GOD'S WORD	APOSTLES' TEACHING
3.	PEOPLES' RESPONSE	PRAYERS
4.	SACRIFICE	REPLACED by its MEMORIAL
5.	COVENANT MEAL	BREAKING OF BREAD

This five-fold structure may be further reduced to a twofold pattern -

1. Word (elements 1-3 above)
2. Sacrament (elements 4-5 above)

This twofold pattern in fact characterised all the Resurrection appearances of Jesus to Groups (not to individuals) except the last, the Ascension. So Luke 24:28-35, 36-49 (= John 20:19-23) John 21:9-19, Acts 1:3-4 (v. 4 should read, "while eating with them"), Acts 10:41-42. As to the absence of any reference to wine being drunk in the resurrection appearances, the Lord's statement at the Last Supper should be remembered, "I shall not again drink of this fruit of the vine until I drink it new with you in my Father's Kingdom." (Matt. 26:29)

The commandment given at the Last Supper, "Do this", and the pattern established by the Risen Lord Himself combined to give early Christian worship its basic structure, which may be further illustrated from …

I Cor. 14:26 - "you come together" for worship centred on the Word;
I Cor. 11:20 - "you come together" to eat, worship centred on the Meal.

Worship was at first daily, in the temple and the home (Acts 2:46, 5:42), but before long had become weekly, in the home (Acts 20:7-8). In trying to build a picture of New Testament worship, we must remember that after the persecution recorded in Acts 8:1 denied Christians any further access to the Jerusalem Temple, most worship took place in the comparative informality of private homes, which placed a limit on the size of congregations. Where they could, they all met together as one: e.g. the church in Antioch, where Paul and Barnabas taught "a large company" (Acts 11:26) "for a whole year"; perhaps they rented a hall there. As far as we know, no public buildings were erected for worship by Christians for almost three centuries. (They would only get pulled down in the next persecution!) In Acts 20:20 Paul taught "publicly" (in Tyrannus' lecture hall? 19:10) and "from house to house." There are many references to such homes - Acts 1:13, 2:46, 5:42, 12:12, 16:15, 40, Rom. 16:3, 23, I Cor. 16:15, 19, Col. 4:15, Philemon 2. See also Acts 20:20.

The day of worship quickly ceased to be the Jewish Sabbath and was replaced by "the first day of the week" (Acts 20:7, I Cor 16:2) because that was the day Christ rose from the dead … which is why it came to be called "the Lord's Day." (Rev. 1:10) Every weekly gathering for worship was an Easter Festival!

No less than six historical influences contributed to the shaping of early Christian worship:

1. The Home Jewish religious observances, including the Passover,
2. The Synagogue Scripture reading and exposition, prayers, psalms.

(An interesting carry-over here is the synagogue practise of separating the men from the women - it lies behind the much misunderstood requirement of Paul's in I Cor. 14:34-35; he meant that the women were not to shout across the room to their husbands during sermon time! I Cor. 11:5 shows that Paul did expect women to "prophesy".)

3. The Temple where the liturgical element was strong (for further comment on this see below - "Congregational Response").
4. The Last Supper
5. The Resurrection Appearances
6. Pentecost

Following the pattern of worship outlined in the Old Testament, we can trace the elements that contributed to it in the New Testament.

1. ASSEMBLY

Heb. 10:25, James 2:2, Acts 20:7 (Only after the day's work were slaves free)

Note especially Paul's comments in I Corinthians: twice he says "when you assemble as a church" -

(a) I Cor. 11:18 & 20 "… to eat" - worship centred on the Table.
(b) I Cor. 14:26 "… with a hymn, teaching, revelation etc." - worship centred on the Word.

We note again the twofold pattern of Word and Sacrament.

2. GOD'S WORD

(a) THE READING OF THE SCRIPTURES - I Tim. 4:13

The Gospels and Epistles did not get written until well after the Church was born, which meant that for a time the only "Scripture" was the Old Testament. So they did what missionaries have to do in pioneer situations to-day before the scriptures have been translated into the people's language - put Gospel truth into rhythmic statements and set them to music. This is what lies behind Eph. 5:19 and Col 3:16 - "Scripture in Song"! Examples are I Tim. 3:16, 1:15, II Tim. 2:11, Titus 3:4-7, Phil. 2:5-11, Rev. 5-6, 4:11, 7:15-17, 15:3-4, (This list is not exhaustive). From Acts 20:35b, a saying not incorporated into any of the Gospels, and such passages as I Cor. 7:10, it is clear that many remembered sayings of Jesus were in circulation by word of mouth before they were issued in written form in the Gospels as we now have them. Many verses in Rom. 12, e.g. v. 14, (Matt. 5:44), v. 18 (Mark 9:50), 13:7 (Matt. 22:21), 13:8-10 (Matt. 22:37-40) echo the words of Jesus. At Acts 2:22 and 10:38, Luke surely summarised what Peter said - he would have illustrated these statements with incidents now preserved for us in the Gospel narratives. Such memories of the apostles' would have been circulated orally long before the Gospels were written up.

(b) PREACHING - of all sorts!

1. The Apostles' Teaching - Acts 2:42, 6:2, 11:26, 20:7-11, 20, 27

There were two recognisably different kinds of preaching, the ''Kerygma" and the "Didache". The kerygma made disciples, the didache matured them.

KERYGMA = Proclamation

This was preaching to the unconverted; what we call Gospel preaching.

It was the proclamation of Jesus as the promised Christ (the Messiah) the Son of God, given to be Saviour and Lord of the world, Who suffered and died for our sins, was raised by God to rule and judge all men, in Whose Name repentance, forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Spirit are given, this response being embodied in baptism. These are its essential features. Their presentation was varied according to the audience addressed, eg. Jew or Gentile. Examples in Acts are: 2:14-39, 3:12-26, 4:8-12, 5:30-32 (notice how in these four examples its statement is honed down to an irreducible minimum) 7:2-53 - all these to Jews; 10:34-43 to Gentiles; 13:16-41 to Jews of the "Dispersion"); 17:22-31 to Greeks; 26:1-23 to rulers. See also I Cor. 15:1-7 and Titus 3:4-7. It had its origin, of course, with Jesus Himself, Luke 24:46-47.

The following references to such Gospel proclamation, to both individuals and groups, are worth noting: Acts 8:5, 8:35 (notice from v. 36 that baptism as the appropriate response to the Gospel must have been an integral part of the presentation, or the eunuch would not have known to ask for it), 9:20, 11:20 (note: this was by rank and file believers, and resulted in the formation of the largest Gentile church, in Antioch), 16:30, 28:23 & 30. The kerygma was mostly preached outside the place of assembly.

DIDACHE = Teaching

This was preaching for the converted, to build them up in the faith.

Two very brief and basic descriptions of this sort of preaching are given in Acts 11:23 - Barnabas "exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose" - and 13:43 Paul and Barnabas urged them to "continue in the grace of God". It was teaching to "present every man mature in Christ" (Col. 1:28) and to bring congregations to maturity too. (Eph. 4:11-16)

All the New Testament epistles are "teaching" of this sort: from instructions like Col. 4:16, I Thess. 5:27, and Rev. 1:3, it is clear the apostles expected their letters to be read in the house churches during "sermon time". The apostles obviously strove to get the Gospel and its implications for Christian living "said right". Gal. 2:2 shows that Paul and the others checked their presentation of it with each other; so it could be described as "the standard of teaching to which you were committed," Rom. 6:17, 16:17, or "the pattern of sound words which you heard from me," I Tim. 1:13 (I Tim. 6:3, 14, Titus 1:9, II Thess. 2:15, 3:6)

One of the functions of the elders who were appointed in all the churches (Acts 14:23, 20:17, Titus 1:5) was to teach (I Tim. 5:17-19) and they themselves were well taught (II Tim. 2:2). They were to be supported financially by the congregations to whom they ministered. (I Tim. 5:17-19, where "honour" means "pay" (stipend) - see Luke 10:7, Gal. 5:6)

This sort of teaching often went on, too, in small informal groups. We meet this first in Acts 17:11; other examples are Acts 18:26, 19:1-7, Col. 3:16. From the way Paul sent his travelling companions here, there and everywhere among the churches, Timothy, Titus, Silas, Epaphras, and such passages as I Thess. 5:12-13, Heb. 13:17, he was obviously concerned that all such study groups, as well as the house churches, should have able and reliable leadership. He was only too well aware how easily "the truth" can be perverted - II Cor. 11:4, Gal. 3:1, 5:7-12, Eph. 4:14, Col. 2:8, 16, II Thess. 2:1-3a, 3:14-15, I Tim. 1:6-7, 6:3-5. See also I Cor 15:12, and II Peter 3:15-18, Titus 1:10-14.

The relevance of teaching to the "household" character of most churches may be seen from the repeated pattern of application to those groups which made up a household: husbands and wives, children and slaves (employed in the family business run from the home) - compare Eph. 5:21 - 6:9, Col. 3:18 - 4:1, I Peter 2:18 - 3:7.

2. Prophecy

This was Spirit-inspired preaching which brought the timeless truth of Scripture to bear on local and immediate life situations … "so that all may learn and all be encouraged" - I Cor. 14:29-33. This ministry was open to women as well as men - Acts 21:9, I Cor. 11:4-5. Teaching was open to women also; Aquila, who taught Apollos, shared this ministry with his wife Priscilla, Acts 18:26; Timothy had been taught by women, II Tim. 1:5. As to I Tim. 2:12, I take it to mean, "I permit no woman so to teach as to bear authority over men," meaning that whilst the office of a ruling elder was not open to a woman, the office of a teaching elder might be. Eldership seems to have consisted of three categories, ruling, teaching and pastoring. (Not enough account has been taken of these distinctions in the debate about the ordination of women.) Note that prophecies were to be "weighed": I Cor. 14:29, I Thess. 5:20. Paul rated prophecy very much higher than tongues: I Cor. 14:1-5, 23-25. Note Rev. 19:10.

Exhortation, admonition, rebuke, "convincing" etc. would all come under the general heading of teaching or prophesying: II Tim. 4:2, 2:24, Titus 1:9; see also Acts 2:40, 20:2, Rom. 12:8, I Thess. 4:1-2, Heb. 13:22

3. Tongues and their Interpretation

Apart from Acts 19:6, these are not mentioned in the New Testament except for the extended treatment Paul gives to their exercise in I Cor. 12 - 14.

The gift of tongues at Pentecost, be it noted - and in Cornelius' house (Acts 11:15 "just as on us", and v. 17, "the same gift") - was of a quite different sort: Acts 2:6 & 11 make it quite clear that those present heard the apostles in their native languages - no interpretation was needed; there was instant intelligibility. But in I Cor. 12-14 the tongues under discussion were completely unintelligible without interpretation - I Cor. 14:2, 9, 16, 23. Whilst Paul stops short of forbidding their exercise, he clearly regards them as having a doubtful value in public worship, and much preferred prophesying - I Cor. 14:1, 5 (the phrase "I want you all to …" here is exactly the same as "I wish that all were …" at 7:7, where he means 'unmarried'; if 14:5 is given the force of an apostolic command, the same force must be given to 7:7, which would mean we are all under apostolic command to remain unmarried! The phrase is clearly an idiomatic turn of phrase having no more force than "If it were up to me, I'd as soon you … BUT …!).

The verses 14:39-40 sum up the whole argument. As a gift for congregational worship, it really is not worth the fuss that is made of it.

(C) CONGREGATIONAL RESPONSE

(1) The "Amen" to affirm others' prayers - I Cor. 14:16. Note also I Cor. 1:20 …"the Amen we all utter." This surely represents the absolute minimum of congregational participation there ought to be in any church that regards itself as being Biblical! Alas, all too often, Rev 5:14 is fulfilled … there are no more than four living creatures who will do it!

(2) Prayers. Acts 2:42, I Tim. 2:1-4, 8, I Cor. 11:4-5, 14:15-16. Rom. 8:15, Gal. 4:6 and I Peter 1:17 may suggest that the Lord's Prayer was used liturgically. Certainly "Maranatha" (Our Lord, come!) was - I Cor. 16:22, Rev. 22:20 - as an invocation leading in to the worship of the Lord's Table ("Come now", as at the resurrection meals, was its primary meaning).

(3) Liturgical Affirmations of Faith. The "sure sayings" in the Pastoral Epistles are examples of this - I Tim. 1:15, 3:1 (said at a bishop's ordination, surely), 4:9-10, II Tim. 2:11, Titus 3:4-8a. "Jesus is Lord" was another, Rom. 10:9, I Cor. 12:3b. I Cor. 15:3b-4 is probably another. It is likely that in Revelation, John quotes such congregational praise formulae too (or supplies a few new ones!) - Rev. 4:11, 5:9 (omitting "to take the scroll and open its seals"), 15:3-4, 19:5. Heb. 13:15 offers support for this.

(4) Singing. Psalms (old and new?), hymns, spiritual songs - Eph. 5:19, Col. 3:16, I Cor. 14:26 (sung as a solo, surely, when introduced for the first time.)

(5) Benedictions. Rom. 15:5-6, 16:25-27, II Cor. 13:14, Gal. 1:3-5, 6:18, Eph. 1:2, 6:23-24, I Thess. 5:23-24, II Thess. 3:16, Heb. 13:20-21, I Peter 5:10-11, Jude 24-25. There may be others, eg. Eph 3:20-21.

(6) The Offering. Yes, it gets a mention! - I Cor. 16:1-2.

(D) SACRIFICE

- disappears, but is "set forth" in the Lord's Supper, I Cor. 11:26.

(E) COVENANT MEAL - Mark 14:22-24, I Cor. 11:23-29

Throughout the New Testament period, this was a full meal - Acts 2:42, 46, 20:11. Paul's word for it in I Cor. 11:20 was the word for the main meal of the day, i.e., the Lord's Dinner. Verses 21 & 22 bear this out; and Jude 12 refers to them as "Love Feasts". At some point in the meal, bread and wine would be set aside (much as they were in the Passover Meal) for the "memorial" aspect of it. But it was not only the Last Supper that gave it its character; it was a repetition of the Resurrection appearances, when "He was known to them in the breaking of the bread", Luke 24:35. See also Acts 10:40 - they expected Him to make Himself manifest again as they ate and drank with Him. This lends special force to Rev. 3:20; despite its frequent use evangelistically, it is to the Lord's Supper it refers in the context of the letter to the Laodicean church.

They prefaced the meal by "kissing one another with a holy kiss" (after the manner of conventional greetings among Mediterranean peoples) as a pledge of the love and charity and reconciled relationships in which they joyfully celebrated it (I Peter 5:14 calls it "the kiss of love"). The reason so many epistles end with the phrase "Greet one another with a holy kiss" is because the writer knew his letter would be read in sermon time, and would lead directly into the worship of the Table - so Rom. 16:16, (you see the point of the next two verses?), I Cor. 16:20, (note how "Our Lord come" follows v. 22), II Cor. 13:12, I Thess. 5:26, (27!), I Peter 5:14.

The worship at the Table in the New Testament era should always be conceived as being conducted in the comparative informality of the house church setting: because it was a full meal, it was not practicable at big public assemblies. Interestingly, however, the big North African basilicas, the best surviving buildings that mushroomed after the peace of the Empire, were all designed architecturally to feature the Table at the building's centre, not in the apse, which featured the bishop's throne and across whose chord the lecterns stood.

THE ESSENTIALS IN THE CONDUCT OF THE LORD'S SUPPER

Historically, all the liturgies were modelled on the Gospel records of the Last Supper. All fall into four parts governed by the four verbs in the narrative of the institution: "He took"; "He gave thanks"; "He brake": and " He gave."

1. He took the bread and the cup - The Offertory

The first New Testament element in this introductory part of the celebration, the "kiss of peace", preserved an emphasis on the requirement to "examine one's self" before participating: we should be in a state of contrition, repentance and faith, and "in love and charity with our neighbours", because we are here renewing the Covenant. There is no reason why the kiss, a cultural feature of the Mediterranean life, should not be replaced by a more natural cultural action for us in the shaking or folding of hands, the people saying to one another in their pews, "The peace of God be with you." (People sometimes express a wish to be baptised again when they have come to a fuller understanding of what their baptism meant; they should be helped to see that the Communion Service offers repeated opportunities to give expression to what prompts that wish.)

The necessary introduction of the elements, corresponding to the Lord's action in "taking the bread and the wine", has varied from the simple setting aside of the bread and wine from the elements of the shared meal in New Testament times to the "Great Entrance" in the liturgies of the East, where the ceremonial procession of the elements was even more elaborate than the entrance of the "Gospel" book. More simply, many liturgies combine the bringing in of the elements with the bringing up of the people's money gifts.

Among Baptists, this element has degenerated into an almost surreptitious action in which (usually a lady) removes the fly screen from the elements during the singing of a hymn. And there is commonly no more untidy movement than that of deacons who leave it until the last possible moment to shuffle forward raggedly to the table! All things should be done "decently and in order", as the apostle required.

2. He gave thanks and blessed - The Eucharist (Thanksgiving Prayer)

Out of this grew the great Prayer of Thanksgiving and the Consecration, whose consistent elements were:

Thanksgiving for creation, providence and redemption
Celebration of God's Holiness
"Sacred Recital" of our Lord's life, death, resurrection and ascension, including the "Words of Institution" from I Cor. 11
Invocation of the Holy Spirit

The substance of the prayer at the Table should be a thankful recital of God's goodness in our creation, preservation and redemption, with emphasis on God's saving deed in Christ and all its benefits.

If there is one feature of our worship which, with the sermon, belongs properly to the officiating minister, it is this prayer. But we have surrendered it to untutored deacons, who "give thanks for the bread … and the wine" - a nonsense! Thanks is given for Him Whose body was broken and whose blood shed, of which the bread and wine are but symbols. If the practice is to continue, the least a pastor should do is give his deacons instruction in how to offer this prayer. It should be so composed as to embody all that was present in the Lord's own mind and heart in the Upper Room (for which John 13-17 supplies ample content).

NOTE: Two points about the offering of prayer in the congregation:

1. We should address God directly. I am really disturbed by the language of so may prayers: "We would pray that Thou wouldst …" and so on. When, I ask, "would" we prefer to do this? It is as though we are making a tape for God to play back at some future time when it suits Him. We are not addressing Him directly.

2. It is not the pray-er's task to say his private prayers in public, suffering the congregation to eavesdrop on them. He prays as a spokesman for the people. He should so pray, and in such language, that the congregation can identify with what he is saying, appropriate it so it becomes an expression of their own prayer and say Amen to it. To do this effectively, at the same time as you really address God face to face, requires thought and care and preparation and skill. The ability effectively to do it in a wholly extemporaneous way can only come with experience. It is a discipline that must be learned.

We decry liturgical prayers (the fruit of such experience in people gifted by God for it) as being vain repetition. But listening to pastors offering their "extemporaneous" prayers week after week, it becomes obvious that they have expressions no less liturgical and repetitive than any prayer books', with the one significant difference that their expressions are usually far less evocative. They have a liturgy every bit as formal, only it is lamentably inferior!

3. He brake the bread - The Fraction

From the beginning, this feature was so prominent that the whole service was called "The Breaking of Bread", as in Acts.

This is a carry-through from the "memorial" character of Old Testament celebrations like the Passover, Ex. 12:14 (to which the phrase "in remembrance of me" refers), whose purpose was to make the worshipper contemporary with the events recalled - to bring them alive so those present felt they were experiencing them as if present at their first occurrence. (Part of the text of a "Haggadah" I bought in Safed in Israel reads: "In every generation, each individual is bound to regard himself as if he personally had gone forth from Egypt.") We should bear this in mind in the way we shape our service. Great emphasis is placed in the Old Testament on preserving the memory of God's deeds - either by the placing of memorials (Joshua 24:26-7), or by the recital of His deeds in the Temple worship, as Psalm 102:18, "Let this be recorded for a generation to come, so that a people yet unborn may praise the LORD." (e.g. Psalms 78, 106, 107, Nehemiah 9, Malachi 3:16). The aim of such sacred recital, to make the worshipper contemporary with the events, further serves to underline the fact that the Communion Service emphatically does not have reference only to the past; the backward look is undeniable, but the present and the future are not a whit less important. New Testament Christians looked for Jesus to be "made known to them in the breaking of the bread" there and then; and the feast was "until He come" - it was a foretaste of the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. We look back, up and on. The Communion Service is a solemn reminder of our Lord's self-sacrifice, a joyful celebration of His resurrection and an eager affirmation of His future triumph.

4. He gave - The Delivery or Distribution

The variety of abuses that have occurred in the history of this element of the service need no retelling. What needs to be said is that nothing should detract from the simplicity of the actions - getting the bread and the wine from the table to the worshipper's mouths! Whether music, scripture readings or silence accompany it is immaterial - though in view of the typically Baptist abhorrence of silent meditation, we should hang on to this last acceptance of it for dear life!

Once these four actions have been observed, the service should be brought to an end as briefly and simply as possible, with a blessing and a "dismissal" (like Simeon's) into peace.

TENSION BETWEEN THE FORMAL AND THE FREE

Having reviewed the whole scene from both Old and New Testaments, it is obvious that whilst there was an extraordinary variety and flexibility in Biblical worship, it was all held within a firm framework - a liturgy (the word simply means "pattern": there need be no suspicion of it) of Word and Sacrament. Spontaneous elements were mingled with strong liturgical elements. It was in that tension between the formal and the free that the strength of New Testament worship lay. Worship that is formal only dies by strangulation (vain repetition); worship that is free only, so it honours no constraints, dies by dissipation (I Cor. 14:31-33, 40). God is not a God of confusion; but neither is He a God of icy regularity! The Spirit does not scorn tradition; rather He enlivens it.

It should be said that the big assembly and the small group experiences of worship supply different dimensions of it, and the loss of either is serious. There is a dimension of inspiration and of awe possible in the large assembly … a "lifting up" into an awareness of God's greatness and the magnitude of the spiritual world … which the experience of worship in the small group can rarely supply. On the other hand, the small group experience provides for the intimacy and personal relevance of worship which the big assembly can hardly supply. Both are needful.

EARLY DEVELOPMENT

Interestingly, the pattern we have evinced is borne out by two documents describing Christian worship shortly after the period covered by the New Testament.

The first is "The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles" (the Didache) from about 100 AD. The order given is:

1. On the Lord's Day, come together.
2. Confession of transgressions "that our sacrifice may be pure" - quarrels to be settled before worship begins!
3. Prophecy.
4. Prayers and Offertory.
5. Thanksgiving for Cup and for Broken Bread (prophets to give thanks "as much as they will"!)
6. Communion (for the baptised only).

The second is Justin's, from about 160 AD.

1. Scripture readings, from the prophets (O.T.) and "memoirs of the apostles" (Gospels & Epistles), read "as time permits".
2. "The presiding elder instructs and encourages the people to practise the truths contained in the scripture lections."
3. Thereafter all stand and offer prayers together.
4. Psalms and hymns are sung.
5. These ended, "we greet one another with a holy kiss. Then bread and a cup of wine mixed with water are brought to him who presides".
6. He, "taking them, offers up praise and glory to the Father of all, and gives thanks at great length that we have been accounted worthy to receive these gifts from God."
7. "The people cry aloud, saying 'Amen - so be it!'"
8. "Those among us called deacons give to all present, sharing it among them, and carry it also to those who are absent (the sick) but only to those who believe the things taught by us as true, are washed with the washing that is for forgiveness of sins, and so live as Christ commanded us."

These two orders are quoted because they illustrate the kind of development that grew out of apostolic influence, not because they are thought to be binding.

CONCLUSION

In the light of all the above I offer the following as an attempt to fashion all these elements together to suggest how our worship might be ordered.

I know how daunting in appearance it looks! But if the prayers - there are quite a few - are all brief, the readings likewise, the sermon kept to 20 minutes (do miracles still happen?) and the notices too kept brief, it will fit into an hour and a quarter. I know, because, with the use of a prepared congregational booklet of prayers and praises (numbered like a hymn hook), we succeeded in doing so over a period of five years in my Southampton pastorate (where the congregation, admittedly, and the building, were small). It "keeps the shape" (of Word and Sacrament) and provides for congregational participation, both formal and free. The various elements, of course, may be expressed in music or speech, by individuals or groups or the congregation as a whole, so that variety is sustained.

Finding the most appropriate place for the Notices is not easy. They are not fitting too early in the service when the congregation's attention should be focussed upon God. In a service which does not include the Lord's Supper, they fit best perhaps before the prayers of intercession, if some of their content calls for inclusion in those prayers, or after, where they may be seen as a celebration of fellowship. Where the Lord's Supper is observed they are appropriate at the end, where they may be regarded as a celebration of fellowship at the point where, hopefully, it has best been experienced.

© 1995 Rev. Paul T. Harrison B.D.

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