This discussion of the dominant version and sub-version of life comes to an end in another reference to worship. It sets a vision. From "Mandate to Difference":
The task and goal of worship, accompanied by education and pastoral care, is to move our lives from the dominant version of reality to the sub-version, finally that our old certitudes will have been subverted by the work of the spirit. Judged by the dominant version, life in the sub-version is vulnerable and foolish and exposed. But the sub-version in the end cannot be judged by the dominant version. In the end, it is judge by the truth of the gospel, by the reality of God whom we attest, and by the truth of our own lives in the image of that God. We are endlessly seduced out of that truth by the dominant version, and so we return again to worship to recite and receive this sub-version that is the truth of our life and the truth of the world.
Months ago I read this and used it on the front page of our weekly newsletter. I think it is a good vision statement to have in mind whenever we work together to plan for worship. It is good to walk into our worship carrying such expectations and being willing to wonder about this sub-version of reality and how it is to become the version of life we enter by the power of the Holy Spirit. I don't think this places pressure on us to "get worship right," rather it invites us to let ourselves be set free within the truthfulness of the gospel that is to be announced in many ways throughout worship. In worship we are about the liberation of God's people and the movement of God's people into a radically new way of experiencing the day in which we live. The simple singing of the same old parts of the liturgy are meant to remind us...to call us...to beckon us...to bring about a transfiguration of all things so that we can go out and face all that the dominant version of life tries to feed us. And we then, can stand up as advocates for another way - or even people who are willing to resist the paths of life that seem to be so empowered by the status quo of this dominant version.
Connection: Again I say....come to worship. Come and hear the word and be the word. Come and let yourself be a part of the holy noise that is capable of raising us up to new life in the name of the one whose noisy life has changed everything - forever.
Lord of our Worship, we gather in your name and we await the moments of transformation that come when we hear your Word and taste the feast and feel the water and let our voices join with others in songs of praise and thanksgiving. When we are weary of the world, pull us out into the presence of your people in worship and bring us that living word that cracks open the day with your love and grace. Amen.
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