thoughts on worship

Just got in from a long day -- two worship services and an afternoon of fairly successful thesis writing.

It's nothing new, but it struck me squarely in the face today: our worship (i.e. the worship of the congregation with which I assemble) is crippled by ritualism. For the millionth time, the "president" of the Lord's Table (to borrow a now-archaic term) read the standard biblical passages regarding the Eucharist (Acts 20.7, 1 Corinthians 11.23ff.).

What is wrong with these passages? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. But something is definitely wrong when they -- read without comment -- are the only way, week in and week out, that the minds and hearts of the congregation are prepared for the Supper.

It seems that these passages are read because they give us a law, a ritual, that we have to observe in order to be pleasing to God. There is no intimation, ever, that there might be any deeper level of significance to the bread and the wine. What is significant, in the minds of those who officiate week in and week out is the performance of the act -- that we have done it on the first day of the week, every first day of the week.

There are so many important theological themes that the Supper addresses -- suffering, sacrifice, community, fellowship, unity, anticipation of heaven, et al. But these are themes that are ignored in favor of emphasizing merely that we do it.

We've made an idol out of the performance of the act itself. Can this sort of self-centered worship be truly acceptable to God?