The Anglican Tradition

We are starting a new sermon series this morning, and this sermon series will take us all the way to Advent. We’re calling the series, “The Shape of Our Liturgy: How our Liturgy is Shaped, and How our Liturgy Shapes Us.”

We recognize that many of you were not raised as Anglicans. In fact, for many of you, Redeemer is the first and only Anglican Church that you’ve been a part of. And we know that there are many different parts to our service, some of which may confuse you, or some of which you’d like clarification. Or there might be moments in our service that speak to you in a special way, and you’re wondering why that particular part of the liturgy speaks so clearly and powerfully to you. I remember when Melanie and I first started going to an Anglican church. In those early days, I found myself being moved to tears so often, and I didn’t really know why. I know I am a pretty emotional guy, but still. What was it that about the liturgy that was cutting straight to my heart? And what I found was that the more I learned about the liturgy, the more I realized that it was God himself who was speaking to me through this liturgy, because it all comes from Scripture itself. While it may not always be word for word, everything we do and say in our service is based on the Word of God.

Now, on the other hand, there are some in the room who may have been Anglican for quite some time. Maybe you grew up in this tradition, or you’re like me, and you’ve been in an Anglican church for many years at this point. And I can tell you this: I need to come back to the liturgy with fresh eyes. I need to come back to it and remember it’s beauty and how the Spirit utilizes these words to form me in Christ week in and week out.

So each week we’re going to look at a specific part of the liturgy - for example, in a couple weeks we’ll take a look at the Prayer for Purity - “Almighty God, to you all hearts are open, all desires known, and from you no secrets are hid...” But before we get into the first movement of our liturgical services, I thought it be important for us to take a step back, and take a look at the overarching shape of the liturgy. The element that holds it all together and provides the scaffolding for everything we say and do. Which is the Call and the Response. All of our worship is shaped by a Call to the congregation and a Response back. What happens here on Sunday mornings is a dialogue, not a monologue. And what this structure of Call and Response meant to represent is Christ is speaking to his Bride, the Church, through his prophets (whether that’s a pastor or deacon or layperson) and the Bride, the Church, responds in kind.

We have been given the great privilege, the grace - to have been invited into conversation with our God. Not because we are particularly worthy of conversation, in fact, we are particularly unworthy for conversation. But our good and kind Lord chose to descend to us in order to bring us up into life with him. And that mark of grace: of God initiating and his people responding is the heart of the liturgy and the heart of the gospel.

So, turn with me to 1 Peter 2:9-10. I want to look at three things today. First, inherent in our worship is the belief that our God, in grace, chooses to speak to unworthy conversation partners. And what that reveals to us, is if you have ever felt unworthy, this is the one place where you are made worthy. This is the one place where you have a seat at the table, where you are invited to have a conversation with the most important person to have ever existed: the Triune God.

Second, I want to look at the nature of God’s call to us. When God speaks, things happen. In the liturgy, when I get to call forth to you the promises of God, God is forming a people. His words do not return void. His words spoke Creation into being, and his words speak a people into a new kind of life.

Finally, you are called to respond. You are invited into the dialogue with God. You are invited into communion with him. And our response is praise and worship.

So turn with me to 1 Peter 2:9-10.

9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

When I was fresh out of college, I was working as a youth pastor for a church plant in Athens. And we have the great fortune of hosting an incredibly prominent and famous pastor - a guy who I looked up to and from whom I had learned quite a lot, especially in the realm of theology. And I remember when he first arrived at the conference center we had rented out for the seminar that he was headlining, I was excited, because I couldn’t wait to meet him! But I never did. Because he never made himself available to us. He went straight to his prep room and never came out. And as soon as his talk was finished, he was out the door. And I remember feeling so small. So insignificant. I felt like a 22 year old pastoral resident nobody.

Have you ever tried to speak to someone who is your superior in some way? Someone smarter than you? More successful than you? Better looking than you? Someone who is of a higher status than you? Students go through this every single day at school - you remember your middle school days. It seems like nothing, but we carry those wounds for quite some time. There’s nothing like feeling excluded from a conversation or relationship because of our status.

Well, here’s what we see in our passage today. At one time, we were in darkness - meaning we living in confusion and shame. At one time, we were not a people - meaning we have no social status, no identity, and no allies because we have alienated ourselves from each other and from our God. We were not a people, because our sin had robbed us of our identities. Our passage also tells us that we were once a people who did not have mercy - meaning we were a people of wrath. We stood before the great Lawgiver as guilty.

And yet it is precisely these ashamed, alienated, and guilt-ridden people that our God chose to call out of darkness and to bring into light. It is precisely men and women like you and me, that he did not leave in alienation or shame or isolation. He did not count us unworthy. Romans 5:8 - “While we were still sinners , Christ died for us.” While we were still in darkness, our God called out to us. While we were still not a people, our God chose to make us a people. While we were under his wrath, he chose to justify us.

The first thing that we need to remember in our liturgy is that none of us deserve to be here, except that our God chose to bring us together. And because of this, when we look at some deep shame in our lives, we shouldn’t run further away from the church, we should run closer to it. Because the church is the one place where we can be brought out of our isolation and have our identity and status restored, the one place where light can cast out the darkness within us, the one place where unworthy people can be wrapped in the righteousness of the one who is worthy, Jesus Christ. And therefore, we come here each and every Sunday reminding ourselves that our God has chosen to count us worthy of dialogue, worthy of conversation, as a pure act of grace. We are a people brought to conversation because of the goodness of our God.

But here’s the thing. When God calls us in conversation, he doesn’t just leave us as we are. I had a pastor in college that used to say, “Come as you are, but don’t leave as you came.” We must remember that when God speaks in the liturgy, the call that he ushers forth speaks new life into us. The Word of God actually does something to us and in us. Look again at our passage.

9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you [or beckoned you, summoned you, like inviting someone to a party] out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

The overtones of Genesis 1 are hard to miss in this passage. He has called us out of darkness and into light. What is the first act of God that is recorded in Scripture? He speaks, and the darkness is scattered as he brings forth light. When our God speaks, he creates. He spoke and light cut through the darkness. He spoke and life blossomed on the earth.

We often think of words as just a vehicle for description. Our words simply describe things. This is metal. It is hot. I am tired. Words describe things. But there’s another angle to the function of words that we don’t think about very often - and that is that words have power. Words do something. Think about in the courtroom. When a judge looks to the defendant and says, “Innocent,” that word does something very real. That single word has actually created a whole new existence, a whole new reality, a whole new life for the defendant. That one word actually did a whole lot, way more than just describing something.

Think about what happens when a man and woman come together in marriage. And they look at one another and declare, “I do!” And the minister turns to the crowd and says, “I now declare them man and wife!” Those words have power. They do something. A metaphysical change has occured. These words have created a whole new reality as two people are now one flesh.

Words have power. And God’s words have the greatest power. When God speaks, he ushers forth reality. This is what Hebrews 1 tells us. Hebrew 1 tells us that God not only spoke Creation into being, he continues to speak Creation into being.

1 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.

So the Son of God, whom John calls the Word; he is the one who spoke creation into existence. But look at what comes next:

3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.

Not only did the Word speak forth Creation, but he continues to speak it forth, as his beautiful song reverberates in all the universe as he continues to say, “Let there be...” He continues to uphold all things by the power of his word.

And isn’t this exactly what we see throughout the ministry of Jesus? When Jesus pronounces that you are forgiven…you are truly forgiven. When he was hanging on the cross, and he pronounced, “It is finished.” It was finished. When he rose three days later and met his disciples in the upper room in John 20, and he says, “Peace be with you.” He wasn’t just saying hello, he was pronouncing, “I have brought peace to you. Because of my resurrection, you have been brought into the New Creation, and you are now at peace with God.” It is a declaration of reality. When God speaks, he ushers forward reality.

When we have a conversation with God, the call that he issues forth is a call of power. So…what does this have to do with our liturgy? Let me tell you.

God uses instruments to speak, but he is still the one who is speaking. We see this throughout the Old Testament prophets. The prophets spoke with power, but it wasn’t their words, it was the words of God. In our passage here, Peter has no right to say these things on his own. But he is speaking on behalf of God, but it is God the Spirit speaking through him.

9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession.

What is Peter doing here? He is proclaiming the identity that God has given his people, to God’s people, on God’s behalf. And the great privilege that I have each Sunday. Through the liturgy, I get to speak forth God’s truth to you. And when God’s word is spoken forth into the family of God, it creates a people. His word doesn’t return void. His word actually has power. His word actually forms us into his redeemed people.

Each week when we gather together in the liturgy and you confess your sins, I get to tell you that you are forgiven. It’s not me telling you that, in my authority. I have no right to do that. All I am saying is what Christ has already said, that if you confess your sins and place your faith in Christ as your Redeemer, you are forgiven. And that Word has power to cast out the shame and darkness in our lives. The question is, “Do we actually believe it?”

Here’s another one. Each week, you all get to speak as the mouthpiece of God to each other. Each week, when you say to your neighbors, “The Peace of the lord be always with you. And also with you.” What are you proclaiming? We are a people who are at peace because of the life, death, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are at peace with one another, at peace with God, at peace with creation, and at peace within ourselves. You get to proclaim that as a representative of Jesus because you are a royal priesthood.

Coming to church every Sunday and receiving the word of God as he calls out to you through the liturgy - it actually does something to you. It forms us. It forms our worldview as the one true story is told here week in and week out. It forms our identity as the children of God who were bought with a price. The Call of God has power, and it forms us. And just as he called us into his marvelous light, he beckons us in the liturgy, week in and week out, to walk in that light with him.

Now, very briefly, how are we called to respond? Look back with me at our passage.

9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

When the church is called forth by Christ, and we see our glorious Savior and Redeemer, our right response is to proclaim his excellencies. This is why we sing in worship. This is why, whenever the word of God is read, how do we respond? “Thanks be to God!” It’s a response of gratitude. Our right response to our Lord is to give him praise.

I was thinking about this the other day. Whenever I look at my baby Chloe, I can’t help but smile. I mean, just last night at dinner, I told my wife Melanie that Chloe has the cutest shape of head. Who says things like that? You only say things like that about babies. But truly, when I look at Chloe and see her big eyes, her little button nose, her electric smile, I can’t help but smile. It’s just an immediately response. I can be in the worst mood in the world, but when Chloe starts eat her toes, I smile.

Well, we were created to have an even greater response to our Lord. That when we stand in his presence - the one who is truth, who is beauty, who is goodness - when we stand in his presence our right and good response is to proclaim his excellencies. To meet his face with joy and to worship with our whole hearts. This is our response.

Central to our liturgy is this pattern of Call and Response. Jesus calls to his church, and his church responds. Jesus invites us into dialogue, even when we are unworthy. Jesus speaks to us, and we are transformed. And when we hear the call of God, our right response is praise and worship from a heart overflowing with gratitude. Let’s pray.