The lead piece is from "Amazing Grace by Kathleen Norris. In this book she takes many of the words and images of the faith and attempts to put some reality and life to them.
ORTHODOXY
...I encountered (in the book Liturgical Theology) an ancient tradition of the Christian Church, lex orandi, lex credendi, which translates into a truth that seems radical in our own suspicious, divisive, and narrow-minded age, that "orthodoxy first means right worship, and only secondarily doctrinal accuracy."... Much of the exasperation with what people term "organized religion" comes from the fact that the Christian church has often given so much weight to doctrinal accuracy that the life-giving potential of worship, and faith itself, gets lost in the shuffle, made all but inaccessible to the skeptical multitudes.
Norris notes that the author of Liturgical Theology finds that the notion of "orthodoxy as 'correct doctrine' was unheard of in western Christianity" until the mid-sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, when both the Catholic and newly formed Protestant churches found it prudent to standardize worship and dogma and thus establish distinct identities. This was politics, of course, but the root cause was fear... It does not surprise me to discover that the Christian prejudice in favor of "correct theology" took hold as literacy increased and oral traditions faded. Theology moved from the mouth, ear, and breath onto the page. Words set in stone, as it were, that had the unintended effect of fossilizing doctrines that were meant to be lived and breathed.
The "living poem" of the liturgy pulls us into an adventure that is most likely well beyond the place we would go by ourselves. Getting our "praise straight" (ortho-doxy) is a part of the dynamics of being a community that worships together. Often the liturgy is ridiculed because it is not "contemporary enough" for people in our day. And yet, in those forms of worship we are pulled beyond ourselves and introduced to the journey of the faith that has been practiced for centuries as a way to shape our daily lives of praise. Some months ago I used comments by Bishop Desmond Tutu. He went through each part of the liturgy and unveiled its meaning and its importance for our lives as saints of God in every day. We will always need to keep an eye on what is being introduced into the life of the church and what is being taken away. That watchfulness does not have to be born out of fear. It can be born out of the need simply to keep our praise pointed in the right direction.
Connection: It is not uncommon for folks to praise God for the "good" things that happen to us as individuals. And yet, our praise of God is not dependent on what happens to me. It is the work of the people to praise our God. We could say it this way: It is the daily liturgy (work of the people) to praise our God. So, how is your life an example of the ortho-doxy of the Church alive today?
Lord of every time and every place, you hold us together within the poetic realm of our praise of you. Within the variety of our lives comes the common thread of praise that connects us to you and pulls us beyond ourselves and into the great community of saints. Praise to you, O God, this day. Amen
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