Christian Ritualism

"Ritual reflects and shapes individual life and the order of a community. It is at the heart of Christian paedeia." - Peter J. Leithart (Against Christianity)

Ritual is, in fact, what defines a community. To understand a society's rituals is to glimpse the threads that hold them together as a people. Take, for instance, American Christianity; it, along with American culture in general, places a great emphasis on individualism and personalizing the Christian experience. We are to seek the truth for ourselves and whatever church we happen to be attending becomes our primary research facility. We ask our leaders great and forboding questions and they gives us their (in our eyes) opinion along with several reading recommendations. In turn, we pick and choose what looks and/or sounds good according to our peculiar circumstances (influenced largely by how we were raised as children) becoming more set in our ways with the passing of time. We come to favor a certain style and flow of worship, specific types of personal devotions, etc. and we ultimately end up with a brand of Christianity to call our own. This is the general process of ending up in First X of Chattanooga or Weeping Mother of Saint X, or whatever.

Never do we stop to examine whether or not Scripture has set forth rituals for us. Sure we have the Lord's Supper and Baptism (along with several others depending on your take) but don't those take place within our own pre-established framework? If you don't believe so, take a moment to reflect on how the Lord's Supper is celebrated in your church. Is it once a week? Is there enough wine and bread for everyone? Is wine even an option? Does the congregation celebrate together or within the individual "bubble" of their pew space? Today the American Church largely ignores her past and confusingly refers to a group of independent ritualists as a "congregation." Instead it should be the common rituals that bring us together, teach us how to interpret the world around us and train us how to live in that world as the people of God; it is also the common rituals that show us how to worship, how to be beautiful, how to be poetic:

"For individuals, Christian ritual trains the body and soul in suitable posture and movement. By moving us through a series of spiritual and physical postures, liturgical ritual imposes a choreography on us. Patterned by rituals of worship, we begin to live life before God as kneeling to confess, as standing to hear, as singing and clapping in praise, as sitting to eat and drink. Worship trains us in the steps for walking, for dancing rightly through life... For groups, ritual depicts the world as it ought to be, the real world as it is believed to be, especially the social and political realities of the world. Christian ritual displays the world as we believe and hope it one day will be. Ritual displays to public view who goes where, how each of us fits into the whole, how the members of the body are knit into one while yet remaining many, how the melodic lines of each individual life harmonize into a communal symphony." - Leithart (ibid)

In my previous post I requested that your individualism be left at the door and what I refered to is that individualism which has established its own personal rituals in addition to, or outside of, the realm of Christian ritual. It was not a request to leave your individuality at the door, as that is what makes you a unique citizen of the kingdom. God has not yet brought us, as individuals, into His presence though we experience it vicariously through the Holy Spirit. Jesus has taken humanity, i.e. human being, into the presence of God and we have the promise of a similar glorification. Jesus didn't just bring humanity into God's presence, He brought a perfected (through Himself) humanity into God's presence. That is the reality, weight and the truth of His ascension; a truth that is known through the ritual of the written word. Learn the rituals of the gospel and live life abundantly in the one who holds and continually presents those rituals for us.